Nine Tailed (Realm of Four Kingdoms, #1)

by Jayci Lee

“Between one breath and the next, I suddenly knew . . . everything. Everything my mother, the Queen of Mountains, knew before she hid me away. She imbued all her knowledge . . . all her memories . . . into the jade and bound my powers to it. Then with the last of her gi, she enchanted the stone to keep me hidden—to keep me safe—until my time came.” His eyes are far away. “I was meant to break the jade disk when I came of age on my twenty-fourth birthday, but Ben died before he could tell me. “But I . . . I think I’ve pieced together what happened after I left the Kingdom of Mountains. My mom . . . she was the queen’s lady-in-waiting and . . . and my dad . . . they didn’t die in a car accident. I think they died saving me. That’s why Ben and I had to move to LA so quickly. Even with my mother’s magic, the people after me . . . they found us somehow.” “Oh, Ethan.” Helpless tears spring to my eyes. “And I think Ben let himself be killed without a fight because of me.” Ethan hunches in on himself. “To keep me hidden until I came into my powers.”