Rebel Fire by Ann Sei Lin

Author:Ann Sei Lin [Sei Lin, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781529514995
Publisher: Walker Books
Published: 2023-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

The thing that surprised Kurara the most was waking up. She could not remember what had happened to her, but she remembered the pain. No one should be able to survive anything that hurt that much.

Then again, she was not just “someone”. She was a shikigami, and among all the other inconvenient things her body did, dying from pain did not seem to be one of them.

The world spun around her as she sat up. Someone had dressed her in a simple grey kimono. She lifted up her sleeves to stare at her new clothes. When she put her hand against the ground to steady herself, her fingers brushed against something soft.

What on earth… She stared at the cotton bedding beneath her fingers with startled alarm. It was not the futon that confused her, but what she was doing lying on top of one, inside what appeared to be a simple bedroom, when the last thing she remembered was the ocean and a beach and…

Pain blossomed through her body. She doubled over, clutching her hands to her chest. Her eyelids fluttered as her vision blinked back into focus. She remembered the attack on the Kuroi Kame, washing up ashore, Fujiwa and Ruki’s sudden appearance, and Banri…

She had been dreaming. No, that had not been a dream but a memory. Banri’s memory.

Kurara slapped a hand over her mouth as pain rolled through her stomach. Banri was gone. The bear’s core had split open like an egg, spilling grey powder onto the sand, and inside was… Inside was something horrific.

“Ah, awake at last! I was beginning to worry!” Someone shoved the sliding doors open with such force they slammed against the frame.

A short woman strolled into the room. A dark red cloak, ragged and full of holes, fluttered around her ankles like a tail of fire. Cloth bracers reached up to her elbows. A chipped red oni mask – golden-horned, with thick red eyebrows – hid the top half of her face from view, but Kurara could clearly see her smile.

Both the mask and the woman’s cloak were made of paper – Kurara could feel its presence teasing at the edges of her mind. Electricity prickled at her nerves, sending a lance of white-hot lightning crashing down her spine when the woman was close: the tell-tale signs that she was in the presence of a Crafter.

“Who are you?” She scrambled to her feet.

The woman tipped her head in greeting. “Oda Suzue, at your service.”

Oda. That name sounded familiar, but Kurara could not quite remember where she had heard it before.

“Don’t worry. I haven’t cracked your chest open and put my blood on your core like some Crafters would. Besides, your friend Haru would kill me if I tried,” said the woman.

Kurara looked at her sharply. So Oda knew that she was a shikigami. Apart from Tomoe and Sayo, everyone she met who knew the truth had thought of her as a tool – or as a strange curiosity to be pinned down and studied.

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