He'd appeared on the third-floor balcony of my mansion’s bedroom in Tokyo, bypassing the armed guards and surveillance and tapping on my glass.
I'd walked out to greet him with a gun to his face.
Rin had put those sad eyes on me and said his father had always told him we were related.
Sixth cousins.
Generations and generations back.
Our great-great-great-great-great-grandfathers were brothers.
I'd heard the same from my mother, but never put much into it.
I lowered my gun, curious as to why a man of royalty—who lived in ancient rooms made of gold and slept on sheets that cost more than my men earned in a year—was sitting on my balcony at three in the morning looking like the world had already ended.
Rin had lowered to his knees and it was probably the first time he’d ever done so in his life.
He held his hands together and looked up at me. “Please take me in.”
I laughed. “Why would I? You’re spoiled, probably can't fight or know the first thing about surviving outside palace walls.”
“I can fight. And I know poison. I can kill without exerting any energy at all.”
Later, I brought him into the yakuza. Hiro didn't trust Rin. My brother circled him for months, watching, testing, and waiting for the betrayal. It never came.
Reo thought the move was good and claimed that a man who could escape a palace undetected was a man worth keeping close.
Rin earned every inch of trust from my Fangs and Claws.
And over time I understood why he'd come to me specifically. Anywhere else, any other clan, any other city, any other powerful man. . .the palace would have dragged him back with no mercy. The emperor's reach was long and his pride was longer.
But even the emperor was afraid of the Dragon.
My world was the only place on earth where Rin could safely exist without being reclaimed.
I never asked him why he ran, but he told me years later, on a drunken night. . .again on my balcony. He’d had nightmares and appeared to confess his sins.
Still looking off in the distance, Rin extended his hand to me and offered the joint.
“I shouldn’t. Hiro already got me pretty high.”
“I heard about the battle in Yoshiwara Depths.” Rin didn’t move his hand. “You need it.”
Sighing, I took it and brought it to my lips. The gold paper crackled with a metallic sound as it burned. The smoke tasted different from Hiro's.
Heavier.
Sweeter.
Warmer in my chest and going down like laced honey.
Blue smoke left my nose.
My head instantly swam and I blinked. “What’s in this? It’s not just marijuana.”
Rin turned his head just enough that I caught his profile—the clean line of his jaw and long sweep of his lashes. "Blue lotus for warm euphoria. Mugwort for circulation and vivid dreams.”
I thought of my dream last night, the black lake and white flowers growing out of my chest. “I don’t want any vivid dreams.”
