Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 154368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 617(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 617(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
I swallowed.
"This morning, you made a demand of me. Asked for something specific. Power."
"Kenji—"
"I never answered you."
"I know, but—"
"Let me answer now." His thumb stroked my cheek. "I need to give you an answer, Tora. And it's going to be a hard one."
The words landed in my chest like stones.
What is he going to say?
"Okay," I whispered. "I'm listening."
Chapter sixteen
A Hard Discussion
Nyomi
Kenji's hands stayed on my waist. The miniature Tokyo glowed beside us, the red cord from the performance still draped across some rooftops like rivers of silk blood.
He spoke, "First. . .you have to understand me."
I held his gaze.
"I never chose this life, Tora. It was handed to me after my mother and brother were killed. After my father was destroyed by grief. By rage. By revenge."
My chest ached. I'd known pieces of this story from headlines I'd researched late at night. But hearing it from his mouth. . .
"I was a football star." His lips curved, just barely. "I was known. I had my own path. My own future." The curve disappeared. "And then my father put me on the throne."
"Because he needed you?"
"Because he needed a puppet." His jaw tightened. "He was battered from the bomb attack and he knew his men would only take orders from a strong leader. I was younger. Healthy. The perfect figurehead."
His eyes darkened. "But I was only supposed to follow his commands. Speak his words. Rule as his shadow."
"What happened?"
"I refused to take the throne."
I tensed.
"We fought about it for weeks. But when I finally agreed to take the throne, I had one condition." Kenji leaned closer. "My brother Hiro would stand at my left. Reo at my right. His men could not surround me. Only mine could."
"And he agreed?"
"He had no choice. I told him I wouldn't do it otherwise. So, he accepted." Kenji sighed. "And from that moment, every day has been a war. Against our enemies. Against him. Against his way of ruling."
For the first time since we’d reunited, the dragon-shadow rose behind him.
I parted my lips.
It rose slowly.
Dark and wispy.
It didn't look mean or menacing like this morning. It actually appeared thoughtful as if the dragon-shadow wondered if I would really understand.
"I've done things, Tora. Things that devastated my soul. Things that made it hard to look in the mirror." Kenji paused.
I placed my hand on his lap.
“Sometimes I think my mother's ghost is with me. Watching. Sometimes. . .I think her ghost is disappointed." His eyes drifted while he spoke.
Down from my eyes to my throat.
To the marks he'd left along my neck and shoulder.
He stared at them for a beat too long. Like they grounded him. Like seeing his claim on my skin reminded him that whatever ghosts haunted him, I was real.
I was here.
I was his.
Then his gaze lifted back to mine, and he kept talking.
But the bites pulsed warm where his eyes had been.
My hand left his, moved up to his chest, and pressed against his heart. “Your mother is not disappointed. She knew your father and this world. She understands the sacrifices you’ve had to make to survive.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I am.”
"Yet. . ." The dragon-shadow coiled off to the side and watched me with this searing intensity. "Regardless of if she is disappointed or not. . .I will kill tomorrow. And the day after. I will do whatever it takes to protect this throne I never wanted. Because now?"
I widened my eyes.
He raised his hand and placed his fingers over my hand that was over his heart. "Now this throne, this power, and the death that comes with it. . .it's all within me.”
The dragon-shadow sneered.
I shivered.
"And due to that. . .I rule my way. I will win this war my way. And now. . ." He cupped my face with his free hand. "Now I am guaranteed victory with you at my side. Along with my brother and Reo."
His thumb gently traced my cheekbone, yet his next words were steel. "But you must understand, Tora. I cannot ask for permission."
And then his grip on my hand covering his heart, tightened. "I never asked permission from my father. Not from Hiro. Not from Reo." His eyes burned into mine. "And it won’t be from you either, even though you are my heart."
The words should have stung.
They didn't.
They landed hot. Right at the base of my spine. Because there was something in the way he said it—the absolute certainty, the zero hesitation—that my body read as the same alpha energy he always brought to bed when he wrecked my body.
The Dragon didn't ask for permission there either.
And I'd never once wanted him to.
Meanwhile, the dragon-shadow’s sneer relaxed.
Kenji leaned his head to the side. "Do you understand?"
I looked at him. This man who had confessed his sins and his sorrows in the same breath. Who had shown me his wounds and his walls. Who was telling me, in terms as clear as glass, that I would never have veto power over the Dragon.