She did not flinch. "If the Claws keep their pain buried. . .it doesn't disappear. It rots. And one day it comes out in a way that evenyoucan't control."
"These aremyClaws. They're killers. Soldiers—"
"Look. I know that I haven't been in your world long enough—"
"You haven't—"
"But I know this." Her voice sharpened. "We’re in a war against your father.Youwant soldiers who can shoot and kill on command.Iwant men who remember why they're pulling the triggers."
The sentence sat in the air between us like a slap I could not return.
I hissed. "Don't ever overstep like this again."
Yet, she did not back down. "Don't call me your queen, then not expect me to do queen things."
I opened my mouth and then closed it.
The violin answered for me in sorrowful, trembling notes that rose in the air. The bow drew them out and then stretched them thin before cruelly breaking them.
Hiro’s sobbing lessened as the monks whispered prayers around him and even Kaede hugged my brother hard and gave him a sad smile.
Nyomi extended her hand to me. "Come with me."
I stiffened. “What?”
"Come on.”
“No.”
“Let's light candles for your mother. Your brother. And Hiroko."
I did not move.
"Kenji." She looked over at the pictures. "Your dragon is already over there.”
My teeth pressed together until I could feel my rapid pulse vibrating in my gums.
“He’s currently floating in front of the picture of your mother and his eyes are sad. At least go there forhim."
I stared and believed her because even though I couldn’t see my dragon-shadow, I could feel my soul was already over there in front of those three pictures.
And for some reason. . .I looked at the twins’ mother. Her altar remained cold and dark. Her frame grinned back at me, cigarette between her fingers like a woman who had never once stopped to count the damage.
An ache moved through me, but it was not for her. It was for the boys who had built a mirror between them because she had not been safe to reflect.
Not all of the dead deserved a flame.
I put my view back on Hiroko, my mother, and my brother. A long sigh left me. My legs moved without asking me, and Nyomi led me across the room.
When we got to their altar, my legs gave and my knees hit the polished marble. It must have hurt, but I didn’t feel it.
Nyomi went down beside me.
My vision was blurring. My chest was doing things that I could not control. There was emotion and pressure there that I had not felt since I was a child.
She looked at me. “Do you want me to light the candles?”
“Yes.”
