Falling Through Glass Read Online Free PDF Page A

Yet…
    Please, help me.
    The terrified wail was too much to bear, too similar to the pain-filled cries of his father’s mistress that night when he was ten years old and the palace had caught fire, trapping them both and killing her after she’d shoved him out of a window to safety.
    The wisps of smoke coming from beneath the cloth grew thicker while the cries for help grew weaker.
    The fire that long ago night had caught the hem of Yumi’s kimono even as she’d lifted him to the window, to safety. As Kae had tumbled out backward, he’d seen her engulfed in fire, seen her writhe in utter agony, seen her hands reach out, seen her skin bubble and melt…
    No. It would not happen again.
    Help…
    Kaemon plunged himself forward, tore the cloth away, and, with a kiai , a loud battle cry, he thrust his hand through the glass. The mirror did not shatter, and he felt his fingertips at last connect with smoldering silk.
    He stretched his arm until his shoulder collided with the mirror’s frame then let out another kiai while he used all his strength to pull backward on the handful of silk in his grasp.
    The tatami mat scratched Kae’s back when they hit it and slid. It took a moment for him to catch his breath. The smell of singed fabric prickled his nose. Instinctively he rolled out from under the stunned woman and threw a blanket from the futon over her, patting it to smother any hint of fire.
     
    Within seconds, Emmi began coughing. She flailed her arms and legs, swatting a blanket from her face.
    Her brain took its own sweet time processing the Japanese words someone called out. “Calm down. You’re safe now. You’re safe.”
    Coughing, she sat up and scrambled to her knees as much as the cumbersome layers of clothing and the blanket covering her would allow. She bent forward, taking in large, gasping breaths, hacking to expel the smoky air from her lungs.
    “ Daijoubu desu ka? Daijoubu desu ka, oni ?”
    Was she a demon? What the hell kind of question was that?
    Still kneeling, Emmi straightened and swiped her tousled hair from her eyes. She then turned to look over her shoulder. Had her mother sent some distant relative to watch over her and taunt her with the demon epithet in her stead?
    “Are you a demon?” the man kneeling before her asked again.
    Emmi blinked and wiped her eyes, which still stung from the smoke. She glared at her supposed rescuer. “Yes, I’m all right, and I’m not a demon, you idiot.”
    She looked around. This did not look like the soundstage. Where was the storm? Where on earth was she?
    “What?”
    Emmi looked back at the confused man. He was around her age and seemed rather familiar somehow.
    “What?” she asked in answer to the very same question from him.
    “ Nani? Nan desu ka, oni ?” he repeated.
    “Look, I know I should be grateful to you and all, but…”
    She broke off as his look of bewilderment grew. She closed her eyes a moment. She hadn’t carried on any long conversations in Japanese since she’d last seen her grandparents at the funeral. In fact, that hadn’t been quite normal, since a lot of the time they chose to use the old, classical Japanese…
    Which was exactly what this guy was speaking.
    She spoke to him slowly in Japanese, hoping he’d get it straight that she was not a demon and that she was indeed all right.
    “What is i-di-ot?”
    Emmi coughed and wondered if coughing more might distract him from wanting to know what idiot meant. However, when he repeated the question, she knew that wasn’t much of an option. She looked at him and translated ‘idiot’ as best she could.
    She gave a start when the look of bewilderment, which she thought might be his natural expression, turned to one of fury. He jumped to his feet and grabbed the katana lying on the floor a few feet away, and Emmi knew without a doubt that he was not holding any movie prop.
    It didn’t look like any unsharpened practice or prop sword she’d ever seen, but it did look exactly