Okay, he clearly wasn’t a fan of Kaoru’s. I had to make sure I wasn’t luring Kaoru into a trap. Even though I must be a liability, and there was no more that bound him to me than his word, I agreed with the tengu. Kaoru had promised to keep me safe, and I believed in him.

I paid close attention to where we were flying, hoping that I might be able to find my way back without involving Kaoru, until we broke into the clouds, and I couldn’t see anything else anymore. So much for that plan.

“So, who are you, exactly?” I asked, turning my head slightly to look at him. He might have kidnapped me, but he’d been surprisingly forthcoming with answers to my questions so far. He didn’t seem like the type to do this a lot.

His gaze met mine. “You can call me Toshi.”

I nodded in acknowledgement. “I’m Misaki.”

“It’s a pleasure.”

A snort escaped me, which earned me a puzzled look. I shrugged as far as I could while being carried across his shoulder through the air. “I just didn’t really expect this to be a time for politeness is all.”

Toshi didn’t respond to that, now keeping his gaze straight ahead, but I thought I could make out a little more color in his cheeks than there had been before.

Despite the height, and this bizarre situation, I wasn’t scared anymore. Not when an awkward guy like this was my kidnapper. Maybe I could even talk him into bringing me back.

Then I remembered Luan. He’d be so confused about not finding me back home. And I hadn’t had a chance yet to fill up his food and water bowl. He’d be able to drink from the pond, but I didn’t want him trying to catch one of the koi to eat. But I also didn’t want him to go hungry. Maybe he’d be able to catch a mouse or a small bird in the forest?

While I contemplated my cat’s situation, we arrived. Toshi let me gently onto solid ground, watching me warily as if he were worried I was going to bolt, trying for another escape. I did no such thing. For the moment, I appeared to be safe with him. He didn’t seem to have any intention of hurting me, and my curse wasn’t kicking in for him. Never mind that running away with neither plan nor reason was likely only going to put me in more danger.

Instead, I looked around. We were in a small village—simple huts, made from straw and mud, similar to the housing of Brazil’s indigenous people—at the peak of a mountain. Other mountains stretched even higher around us, but the clouds were well below. Beyond the village, I saw a what I could only call a palace, even more grand and majestic than Kaoru’s house with its golden archways and tori gates as if it was trying to combine the aesthetics of a Shinto temple and a more western country manor. It felt out of place—there was just such a huge difference between the simple huts of the village and that grand structure. To either side of it, sloping down the hill, were large pastures, and the edge of an orchard peeked around the corner of the palace.

“Stay close to me,” Toshi said as he grabbed my wrist again and pulled me with him.

Well. Not like you’re giving me much of a choice here. I yanked my hand back, noticing with satisfaction that it actually came free.

“Don’t worry, I’ll stay close,” I said, when he turned to me, glowering.

I planned to do exactly that. For now. And only because I didn’t want to be devoured by one of the other yokai around here who might not have as much self-control as Toshi. He radiated the same collected certainty as Natsu, Kaoru, and Akihiko. No matter what else his intentions, at least I didn’t have to fear the effects of the curse from him. For now.

We crossed through the village towards the grand building. I looked around as we walked, hoping to find some kind of clue as to what this place was, but I couldn’t even see any yokai. The village was empty, as if it were a ghost settlement. At the same time, it didn’t look like its inhabitant had left in a hurry, or for good. Doors were closed, but some windows had been left open. No chimneys smoked, no dolls had been left scattered on the street, and everything looked to be in as much order as one would expect from a hamlet like this.

What had happened here? Where had the inhabitants gone? I looked at Toshi, the question burning on my tongue, but the expression on his face made me keep it to myself. Stoically facing forward, his lips pressed together, and his brows furrowed, he looked like he had his mind full of more pressing matters than my curiosity. Then again, perhaps I also ought to be dealing with what was to come rather than what was right now.

We walked up the marble steps to the large palace and my impression of it having temple-like qualities were reinforced somewhat when we reached the tori gate at the top. Behind it was a level courtyard, including a pond feature and what appeared to be some cherry and apple trees. In the center of the courtyard, facing a little podium with a large golden gong, a crowd of tengu was gathered, young, old, and all genders, fitted with raven black wings. At a glance, there were somewhere between one or two hundred of them there.

I stepped closer to Toshi. “What is this place?” I whispered.

Toshi kept his gaze straight forward. “My home.”

That didn’t tell me much more than I already kind of figured, but hey, I’d take what I was given at this point.

Some of the tengu turned to us when we approached, and several of them murmured to each other. Still, the crowd parted when Toshi strode onward, effectively creating a tunnel to let him through toward the gong. I clutched onto his robe, so I wouldn’t be left behind. With so many tengu, I didn’t want to take any chances. I kept throwing sideways glances at the yokai around me, scanning their faces to see if any of them were drooling or looked like they might be about to leap at the sight of me.

Toshi stopped for a moment, and I, distracted by my surroundings as I was, bumped into his back. Watching me contemplatively for a moment, he then took my hand in his. “Don’t worry, I won’t let any harm come to you.”

Just as similar assurances by Kaoru worked their magic, so did his. Some of the fear dropped away and I stood taller as I gave him a nod.

We walked the remainder of the way to the inner circle shoulder to shoulder. There, five tengu were waiting for us, facing the crowd while standing in front of the gong. Not knowing anything about tengu society, I had to guess that they all held high ranks, but for all I knew, they might have been anything. Four of them were men, all of whom carried their hair long, though two had theirs tied back with ribbons. If they’d been human, I would have supposed three of those male tengu to be in their sixties or seventies, as well as the female tengu, but the remaining one looked younger—perhaps about Toshi’s age.

Having left the crowd in a ring behind us, Toshi now let go of my hand and stepped in front of them, facing the line of waiting tengu coolly, and waited.

Then, one of them spoke. It was the old woman, deep lines in her face betraying her age, though her pinned-up hair was still pitch-black.

“Hitoshi,” she said, her voice soft. “Did you find it?”

Toshi’s eyes seemed to soften when they swiveled to her. “No, mother. I did not.”

A murmur rose in the rows around us and several of the head-tengu looked like they were having serious misgivings.

“But I have found something the kitsune will have to trade it back for.” He looked at me and nodded.

Suddenly I was the center of attention, and I did not like it. I felt like an item at an auction, ogled and appraised; whether or not I was deemed valuable was left in the air as of yet. My only solace was that none of them appeared to be affected by my curse. At least I couldn’t sense any insatiable hunger from any of the tengu looking at me.

“That,” the young head-tengu said, stepping toward me. “Is a human.”

He put a finger under my chin and forced it up so he could get a better look in my face. It was the same gesture Toshi had used back in Kaoru’s house, but it felt different. Even then, Toshi had seen me as a person, but to this guy, I felt like I was worth less than livestock. It was something in his brown eyes that told me. The hint of a sneer, perhaps. Except that apparently, I wasn’t worth following through with the action.

He sniffed at my hair and licked his lips. “A cursed one, at that.”

Scratch that. I was livestock to him. Yay.

I swatted his hand away and glared at him. “So what if I am?” I snapped.

He looked like he was about to lunge at me, but suddenly Toshi was in his way. “Katsuki. The kitsune will come for her. He made an oath.”

The other tengu, Katsuki, snarled, but he stepped back in line with the other four head-tengu.

One of the others spoke next. He was the other one who carried his hair tied back with a ribbon.

“We will trust your judgement, Hitoshi, but remember that there is not a lot of time. You must recover it before your father becomes one with the wind, or your leadership is forfeit.”

Toshi nodded. “You don’t need to remind me. I’ll succeed.”

With that, he swiveled on the spot, unceremoniously picked me up and slung me back over his shoulder and before I even knew what was happening, we were already back in the air.

While it definitely wasn’t the worst way I’d ever travelled, it was still a far cry from the best, his shoulder digging into my stomach and all.

I wriggled to alleviate a little of the discomfort.

“What are you doing?” Toshi asked, a hint of annoyance in his tone. “I’ll drop you if you keep this up!”

I groaned. “Isn’t there a more comfortable way to do this?” I complained.

“Not right now,” he grunted and clamped down on his grasp on me. I gave up. As long as we didn’t fly for too long, I’d probably be able to endure it.

Luckily, we soon landed in a cave at the side of a cliff face where he released me. A quick look around showed me a tunnel that led into the mountain. One peek over the edge made me step straight back in. Yeah. There was no way I was going to try climbing down a basically vertical wall to escape. That would make death about as certain as being stuck alone in a room with that Katsuki guy. 

“This way,” Toshi said, unnecessarily, and headed down the rough tunnel. With a last glance at the outside world, I followed him.