“You,” Corinne said.

“Me,” Soon-mi answered with a flourished bow.

“Ambassador Asher,” Yeijiro said with admirable calm.

“A marshal, Corinne? Truly? Why drag them in to this?”

She was still dressed for the party, her hair perfect, her clothes bright and beautiful. It brought a strange, surreal quality to the fact she was standing in blood.

Corinne had no time for whatever game Soon-mi wanted to play. She raised her shield and sent a bolt of pulsing energy from the nima within.

The bolt hit Soon-mi with a crackle and dissipated harmlessly. Soon-mi gave a delighted laugh as Corinne shifted her vision. The angry, twisted nima were still all around. Surrounding Soon-mi, but they flocked to her. Not attacking. Supporting her. Helping her.

Which meant while Corinne was all but cut off, Soon-mi had full access to her power.

“You did this. The cave on Pax. The attack on the Emperor.”

“Guilty, I’m afraid.” Soon-mi spread her hands theatrically. “You caught me.”

But this didn’t make any sense. “But why? Why open another rift here? The Emperor isn’t anywhere close.”

“Yes she is,” Yeijiro said. “She’s very close. Hosting a party right next door.”

Soon-mi clapped her hands together. “Oh, clever boy. Poor Alexia will be so vexed. She’s worked hard to keep her secret, and here you are, figuring her out.”

“You know,” Corinne pointed out.

“I will confess, I had help.”

With Soon-mi’s attention on Corinne, Yeijiro took a step forward. Corinne wasn’t sure what he intended to do, and by the hesitance of his movement, it seemed neither did he. But Soon-mi gave another wave of her hand and he flew across the room, slamming hard against the back wall where he crumpled and fell to the floor and was still.

“Now let us talk,” she said, “Adept to Adept.”

“You aren’t an Adept,” Corinne countered. “You’re a monster.”

“We’re all monsters. Hadn’t you figured that out?”

“I’m not the one standing in the middle of circle made of blood.” As she said the words, she reached for the nima that surrounded Soon-mi. If Corinne could take control, pull them away; if she could even the odds…

But they were bound tight. Whatever else she was, Soon-mi was an exceptional Adept. She had control over the rebellious spirits while Corinne couldn’t even make them twitch.

“I’ll admit the metaphor is a little on the nose.” Soon-mi smiled, like she’d noticed what Corinne was trying to do. “But look at yourself, my dear. Born to every luxury, with a gift of a strength that, even among the Dragon, is a one in a million. The best schools, the Akashic Academy, the Phoenix Guard. And what have you done with your oh-so-charmed life?”

“My charmed life and I killed the last demon you summoned, so that’s something.”

“That was impressive, to be sure. But we both know you want more. We both know very well.” Her voice dropped to a conspiratorial tone. “The way you seethe while your mother talks. The look on your face when you had to sit through Parliament. You’re frustrated. You’re angry. You know the system is wrong.

“My offer still stands, Corinne. Walk away. Go back to the party, where I tried very hard to make sure you’d be safely away when everything went bad.”

“You sent the note from Lady Snow.”

“Again, guilty. But I had your best interest in mind. You really are a talented young woman with a future. Let me show you what that future could be.”

If Corinne could reach beyond the range of the tainted nima, if she could somehow convince the ones outside to come closer. But Corinne recognized that for wishful thinking the moment the idea occurred.

Soon-mi was waiting for her to answer. “You’re going to open another rift. You’re going to summon through another demon.”

Soon-mi gave a humble bow. “My only wish is to make the Empire a better place.”

It was so utterly, impossibly ridiculous. “How is that—what are you even talking about?”

Behind Soon-mi, Yeijiro moved, letting out a low groan. She glanced back at him, yanking his sword away with a twitch of her fingers, then returned her attention to Corinne. “Nothing in this entire Empire is fair. But there are ways to level the field.”

Yeijiro reached out, pulled himself forward to the edge of the circle, then collapsed again.

“Look at your friend. Giftless. Nothing, in the eyes of our clan. Worthless. Just like your father.”

“My father has more than earned his place.”

“Yes. He learned to dance well enough he made them listen. But it’s still the clan that sets the tune. You know it, and you hate it as much as I do.”

Corinne couldn’t argue with that. But still, “There’s a big leap between I hate how the clan is run and I think we should start summoning demons in the heart of the Empire.”

Soon-mi shrugged. “You play to your strengths.” She raised her hand and struck through the air at Corinne.

Corinne screamed NO! in her mind to the nima as they whirled around her, sucking air from her lungs and driving her back into the solid mass of the door. Bound to Soon-mi, angry and wrong, they didn’t listen.

But Corinne called forth the few spirits she’d bound to her shield, pulled them inside, used them to drive the invaders out so she could gasp a breath.

Soon-mi was on her again. This time with fire. Oh, but fire—Corinne knew fire. She spun it around herself. Not driving the nima, but deflecting them enough they couldn’t touch her.

“Oh, child,” Soon-mi said. “Such talent. You could have been…well, we could have had such fun. But the time for games is ended. You can stand there, and you can watch.”

Corinne was pinned to the door with invisible force. Soon-mi’s hold on the power was absolute, and Corinne could only struggle, and watch.

“Vivek was a good soldier to the end. He sacrificed himself to give us this chance. All I had to do was wait for the opportunity to use it.”

The air around Soon-mi seemed to tear, and a scream that seemed entirely in Corinne’s mind ripped through the room. Corinne staggered back as the world tilted. The nima were gone—just gone. The air was too hot and too cold, thick and empty all at once. Through the void around Soon-mi, long black tentacles reached through.

Tentacles that looked almost like braids.

Corinne grabbed Yeijiro’s sword from the floor, knew it would be a useless gesture, but she couldn’t just stand and do nothing.

But then the tentacles wrapped around Soon-mi. Grabbed her by her wrists, her ankles, her neck. Pulled her through. The rift snapped closed on Soon-mi’s scream.

Not that Corinne was going to complain, but that made no sense.

She went over to Yeijiro. “Are you all right?” she asked, helping him to his feet while keeping her eyes on the spot where the rift had almost been.

“Well enough. And you?”

“I don’t understand what just happened.”

Yeijiro rubbed at his head, obviously still in some pain. “We’ve been staring at those symbols for days. I’d started making guesses—building a vocabulary. So I made some…assumptions. While you had her distracted, I changed a couple of the things she’d drawn.”

“It seems to have worked.”

Yeijiro stared at the floor, at the place where Soon-mi had disappeared. “I only wanted to stop her from opening anything. I didn’t mean for…that.”

“It was exactly what she deserved. Don’t beat yourself up.”

“It means we can’t question her. We can’t ask what any of this…” he indicated the room, “means. Or how she knew any of it.”

But in following his gesture, Corinne had noticed for the first time the pack in the corner. Stepping carefully—trying to touch as little blood as possible—Corinne went over to examine it.

And wanted to swear again. Inside, there were a number of notes—in the same hand as the burned fragments she’d found before—and a book. By the binding, the book was old. The title was in the same strange language as all the rest of the notes had been. Corinne ran her fingers across it.

She felt a familiar tingle. She reached in, felt the nima lurking within the pages and the jolt they gave at her touch. “Oh fuck.”

Yeijiro looked up sharply. Then around.

“No, it’s okay. There’s nothing…it’s this book. I know where it came from.”

Corinne had felt that jolt before. She’d been much younger, spending a day with her father at the Academy. He’d taken her down to the lowest depths of the pyramid, to a room that he’d said held treasures.

Corinne had been excited, hoping for gold and jewels. Instead, she’d found only books. Books that didn’t like it when she touched them. “These are the ancient secrets of the clan, Corinne,” he’d said to her. “Only the Academy’s High Council know what’s in this room. We guard it and keep it safe, in case some day, the clan ever needs the knowledge that hides in here.”

This book had come from that room, from the Dragon vault of knowledge. It didn’t just hold dangerous secrets. It held Dragon secrets.

“I need to take this. It needs to come with me, and no one else can see it.”

She looked back at Yeijiro, who was watching her carefully. “Can you tell me what it is?”

“It’s the instruction manual. It’s this.” She pointed to the circle. “It’s nothing that anyone else should read.” She gave a bone-deep sigh. “And it belongs to the Dragon.”

“Then you should take it. And go. Before I talk to anyone.”

She heard exactly what he didn’t say. Before they tell me to keep you here.

“Yeijiro, I…thank you.”

“Thank you. Now go. So I can find a way to call for help.”