Free A Fox's Maid by Brandon Varnell

think you have ever made. Lilian-sama, you could have easily been kidnapped, or worse. Had any of those drivers been yōkai, you would have been—”
    “ I know!” Lilian interrupted. Kotohime’s eyes narrowed, causing the beautiful two-tails to look away. “I know it was stupid, but I…” her eyes flickered over to Kevin. It was only for a second, but Kotohime still saw it.
    “ I see.” Kotohime regarded the two silently for a moment. She took another sip of her tea. It wasn’t bad, but it was clearly packaged. These Americans knew nothing about the proper preparation of tea, it seemed. “Regardless of your reasons for traveling all this way, what you did was dangerous, reckless and selfish. Camellia-sama and Iris-sama have been worried sick.”
    Lilian’s gut clenched.
    “ I didn’t mean to worry them,” she said softly, still not looking at Kotohime. “But I had to do this. I wanted…” her eyes flickered to Kevin again. Shaking her head, she looked back at the woman who’d had as much a hand in raising her as her own mother did, if not more. “You always used to tell me stories about the human world; how humans are free to make their own choices, how they aren’t bound by outdated traditions set down several millennia ago. I wanted to experience that for myself. I wanted to see the human world for myself.”
    With a slight frown marring her face, Kotohime sighed.
    “ You have always been rather fascinated with humans and the concept of freedom, but it doesn’t change the fact that what you did was dangerous. Nor does it change the fact that you were never supposed to be exposed to human society. You are an heiress to the Pnév̱ma clan and—”
    “ Don’t you dare go there, Kotohime!” Lilian snarled. For the first time since this highly peculiar meeting had begun, the younger kitsune glared at the swordswoman, her eyes alight with fire. In all the time Kevin had spent with Lilian, he’d never seen her like this, never seen her with that expression of indecipherable rage. That look, it was the most inhuman thing he’d ever seen from her. “I am not some glass figurine that needs to be protected from humanity! And I’m not some commodity that the matriarch can barter favor with! I refuse to let myself be used that way!”
    Several seconds of tense silence passed as Kotohime and Lilian stared at each other. The swordswoman’s gaze remained placid, a sea of calm within a turbulent storm. Lilian’s viciously narrowed eyes contrasted sharply with the other woman’s. It was fierce and unpredictable, out of control and blazing, like a forest fire during the dry season.
    Kevin watched as a strong gust of wind suddenly blew the door open and a tumbleweed flew in to roll across the kitchen floor. It made a trip around the table, then went back out the door, which closed behind it.
    He blinked.
    “ That was weird.”
    Kotohime’s gaze was compassionate, or at least, it seemed to be. Kevin couldn’t tell, as he didn’t know her very well, or at all, really. Even Lilian seemed to be having trouble determining the sincerity in Kotohime’s expression.
    “ I understand how you feel, truly I do. However, you and I both know that you cannot continue to defy Pnév̱ma-denka like this. If you do, then she will surely…”
    “ She will do nothing.” Lilian’s tails were a rictus of wrathful activity, waving about furiously behind her. “You and I both know that she can’t afford to lose me. She won’t do anything to jeopardize her precious little bartering chip.”
    The way she said that, so bitterly, so full of anger and frustration, startled Kevin. He couldn’t help but be surprised by the sheer amount of rage and hurt in her voice. In all the time they’d known one another, he had never once heard her sound so broken up.
    “ You make it sound like Pnév̱ma-denka doesn’t even care for you.” Kotohime’s eyes were filled with sorrow as she spoke, like she couldn’t help but be saddened