Taggart gave her a questioning glance. He clearly was wondering when she wanted to break the news.
Geoffrey misunderstood the look. “We survived! Now, we cook!”
Taggart grinned. “I like this tradition.”
While her brothers started dinner, Jane covertly scanned the laws concerning marriage and immigration. The proof of identification didn’t fall on Taggart but on her. She had to provide a Pittsburgh birth certificate and proof of continued residency. Otherwise it was fairly simple. File for license. A blood test for God-knows-what. Pick out a date. Tell her family.
Alton had fresh milk from Grandma Gertie’s Dairy. The process of transforming it into fresh mozzarella fascinated Joey. Geoffrey worked on turning tomatoes from Jane’s garden into sauce. Marc made dough.
Guy scoured her pantry and refrigerator for possible toppings. “How do you live this way? There’s barely anything in here! What do you eat?”
Jane smacked him instead of answering. She enjoyed cooking but it felt like too much effort to cook just for herself. She ate with family on Sundays, and on Fridays with her friends. The rest of the week was hit or miss. She crossed the kitchen to help him locate suitable toppings. “Kalamata olives. Anchovies. Chorizo. Done. Go pick some spinach and fresh basil.”
Chesty stood up with a deep growl, looking toward the front door. A moment later the doorbell rang.
“Hyeholde has a doorbell?” Guy asked in surprise. No one ever used it.
“I didn’t hear a car,” Marc stated.
The doorbell rang again.
Jane pointed at her brothers. “Stay.” She motioned Chesty to follow her out into the foyer. Who the hell was at her front door? She put her right hand back so she could quickly pull her pistol and cautiously cracked the door open.
Yumiko stood on the doorstep. She wore a loose, black tank top and capris. Her crow feet were bare. There was no sign of her massive wings. “We need to talk.”
“Yes, we do.” Jane agreed without opening the door wider.
“You have Joey Shoji.”
“Yes. I consider him family. I won’t allow him to be harmed in any way; that includes being used as a figurehead by a religious fanatic.”
Yumiko snorted. The edges of her lips might have twitched with a smile. “He seems happy here.”
“You’ve been watching.”
“We couldn’t risk Joey being hurt.”
We? As in Yumiko wasn’t alone? The truth or a bluff?
“Joey doesn’t know what happened to his family after he was taken,” Jane said.
Yumiko’s eyes narrowed. “And?”
Was she being clueless or cautious? Jane realized that if the oni hadn’t succeeded in capturing all of Joey’s family, then Yumiko wouldn’t want to leak their location.
“I don’t know who survived.” Jane caught herself from adding that she didn’t care. “My father died when I was twelve. I can’t imagine losing your entire family. Joey’s a little boy. He needs people, lots of people that care about him, to help him over this. If it’s just you here to pick him up—then—no, you can’t have him.”
Yumiko studied her in silence for several minutes. Jane really hoped that they weren’t going to start shooting at each other. Yumiko stepped back and waved at the treetops. There was a rustling and then two small figures winged down out of the trees.
It was a tengu girl, probably only fourteen years old, and a boy around ten.
The girl hid behind war paint and a fierce glare. The boy hid behind Yumiko.
“We’re here for Joey,” the girl announced. “You better give him to us.”
“This is Keiko Shoji.” Yumiko nudged the boy and gave him a comforting smile. “And Mickey.”
Joey’s cousins. Not what Jane expected but they certainly looked like Joey.
“We’re making pizza. Do you want to join us? It would be easier on Joey.”
“Pizza!” Mickey cried, full of eagerness.
Keiko gave Jane a teenage look of disgust that said she couldn’t believe that Jane had stooped so low. Yumiko obviously was looking for a trap.
There was a slight noise behind Jane. Yumiko reacted instantly, pulling Keiko behind her and reaching for her pistol.
“Stop it!” Boo shouted.
Yumiko went unnaturally still. It was as if Boo’s words had turned her to stone. Then slowly the tengu woman cocked her head in puzzlement. “Who are you? You’re one of the Chosen.”
“This is my baby sister,” Jane said. “We have lots to talk about.”
Joey’s reunion with his cousins was at first joyous and then heartbreaking as they explained to the little boy that his aunt and uncle had been killed. He cried uncontrollably until he took refuge in Boo’s arms. Boo rocked him, hugging him close and singing “Skyfall” just like their mother would have. “Let the sky fall, when it crumbles, we will stand tall, face it all, together, at skyfall.”
“Any of the Chosen bloodline can command an individual tengu. The Chosen One—Jin Wong—can command the entire Flock. For centuries, we’ve kept the existence of the Chosen One and the yamabushi secret from the oni. We’d thought that the raid on the Shoji house had been nothing more than the oni rounding up tengu that had slipped from their grasp. They’d staged similar attacks on other houses. That they changed your sister means that we were wrong. Riki had been cooperating with them while I searched for Joey.” She dropped her voice to a whisper. “He’s had to do some horrible things to keep up the impression that he’s cooperating with them.”
Like kidnapping the viceroy’s bride and brother?
Riki was the cousin that nightly read the Harry Potter books to Joey. Jane had assumed that he’d been killed. She understood being willing to do anything and everything to get a family member back. Hopefully now that Joey was safe, the tengu would listen to reason. “I want to free Tinker and Windwolf’s blade brother.”
“Riki doesn’t think that’s wise. He’s learned that Pure Radiance foretold Tinker being the lynchpin to stopping the oni. The greater bloods think they understand dreaming; they believe this means they can use her to do the opposite. Kajo’s Eyes are strong but they’re young, untrained and overly confident. They think they have outmaneuvered Pure Radiance. What they don’t realize is that Pure Radiance rarely makes her prophecies known nor has she ever left court since she ended the Clan Wars. She obviously wanted the Eyes to act on her prophecy.”
“Pure Radiance set Tinker up?”
“Yes. She’s played to the Eyes’ weakness; they have human lifespans. They are very good at the short game; they can easily keep one step ahead of someone who thinks day to day. Pure Radiance is Vision’s daughter, the oldest of the intanyei seyosa. A decade is a child’s game to her. She can plot out a century, guiding full civilizations toward an outcome that she wants. I think she’s giving the Eyes enough rope to hang themselves.”
“And Tinker is just an expendable tool?”
“Possibly to Pure Radiance. Not to us. We are attempting to keep her safe.”
It was a politically safe, wise thing for Yumiko to claim but not necessarily the truth. “Attempting” indicated that the tengu were far from in control of the outcome. If they were, half the Shoji family wouldn’t have been butchered.
“The oni will come looking for Boo.” Yumiko detoured the conversation to something closer to home.
“I am not leaving my family.” There was a tremble of fear in Boo’s voice.
“We can keep her hidden.” Alton said.
Unless we have a big-ass Kryskill wedding.
“If you come with us, we’ll be able to give you wings,” Keiko said.
Boo gave her a look of utter want and glanced to each of her siblings. “I’ve lived without wings for fourteen years. I can live another year or two without them.”