Page 15 of Cherry Moon

The front door crashed open.

My katanas.

“Aki!” he boomed.

I heard footsteps, and felt Bob’s and Rose’s ecstatic affection. I lowered my arms, my flesh fingers aching.

“In…here.”

My katanas.

Every drop of kick-arse energy left my body, the seriousness of the situation crashing down on my head.

My katanas were gone.

That on-the-cusp-of-bad-shit thing was finally here to mess me up.

A target.

I was a target for the mazoku. They’d always seen me as a threat, and now they were here to end me for good.

Silent tears trickled down my cheeks. Not because of those pricks, but because of the man about to join me in here.

It’s all coming apart.

I’m gonna lose him…

I’m gonna lose everything.

“Aki!”

I released a whimper, sorrow a stake in my heart.

G hurried into the bedroom with a gun in his hand. His eyes quickly scanned the room, then he came to me, pulling me into a massive bear hug.

Relief crashed into me, his Christmassy cinnamon-and-orange scent engulfed me. With him being taller than me, at six-four to my five-nine, my face was at the perfect height to rest against his chest.

“I’m here,” he said gently, holding me close.

Sobs tore from me, my hands bunching up his T-shirt. If I could, I’d push myself into him, hiding my scrawny arse inside his bigger, more muscular frame forever.

He kissed the top of my head.

I’d been right to worry about things being tumultuous. This world wasn’t built for happiness, my life nothing more than a holding ground for grief. If I was a target again, then so was he.

I’m gonna lose him…

I’m gonna lose everything.

I screamed into him, legs giving out, unable to withstand the tsunami of grief that slammed into me.

Well, fuck a duck. After all the healing, the emotional work, the moving forward, I still found myself in pain.

I guess time didn’t heal shit.

It only made the wounds wider.

CHAPTER FIVE