Chapter one
The Three of Us
Kenji
The elevator opened on three.
Hiro stepped out first.
We followed.
My guards peeled off at their posts and I walked Nyomi down the corridor with my hand at the small of her back.
The corridor was dim and still with low lights and the distant shift of guards changing posts.
When we arrived at the bedroom, the guard gave us a low bow and opened the door. Two other guards exchanged glances.
I held my chuckle in.
They probably think I’m sharing her with Hiro tonight.
They’d seen this happen before. But this time they would be absolutely wrong.
The doors swung open.
The smell of cedar incense was low. The staff knew to keep it that way after midnight.
I took in the space that I'd designed in a single afternoon three years ago. I’d told the architect what I wanted and watched him struggle to keep up. The floors that shifted underfoot as one entered, stone giving way to lacquered wood giving way to tatami so fine it swallowed sound entirely.
The curved glass walls.
Most people assumed they were purely glass.
They weren't.
One panel—the third from the left—was a door. It opened onto the balcony that extended over the outer edge of the building, looking out beyond the grounds, beyond the tree line, to where the island eventually surrendered itself to the sea.
The water was far out from here. A dark suggestion on the horizon.
I'd used the balcony only once. The architect had called it the room's crown jewel. I called it unnecessary. I didn't need a balcony. I needed walls.
But I'd kept it.
Tonight, moonlight came through the glass in long silver panels, laying itself across the tatami, across the black sheets and the deep red coverlets of the bed.
The sheer curtains moved in the ventilation's breath, and beyond the hidden door, the balcony sat empty as always. The night air moved across it undisturbed.
I turned to the cherry blossom in its planter of black stone. I’d chosen it because I wanted something living in here.
Hiro gave Nyomi the sake bottle. "Here."
"Why am I holding this?"
"So I can do my thing."
"What thing?"
Hiro moved past both of us, crossed the room in five long strides, and launched himself into the air in a full arc of absurdity. And when he landed, he did so face down, arms spread, and the mattress bouncing twice.
