AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He had said that, but I’d ignored him, feeling that our combined weight would be too heavy to shimmy down a drainpipe. I hadn’t realized he’d be just fine jumping that far.
I scowl at him, and lift my middle finger in a universal sign of ‘fuck off,’ which makes him laugh as we point our feet toward town.
It’s the middle of the night and the dark is pressing in on me, but I don’t let it scare me, not with Kohaku at my side. He’s darkness incarnate, a shadow demon. I know he won’t let anything happen to me.
I pause on a street corner, just before we lose sight of Cohen’s modern house, and glance back, my heart tugging painfully. But this is what I need.
To leave them.
They’re always going to fight about me. Always going to say I need one side more than the other, never going to listen to what I have to say on the matter. I warned them this would happen. I warned them if they tried to make me choose, it would be none of them.
It doesn’t mean that my stupid heart isn’t breaking over this. That it isn’t telling me to go back and work this out with them.
Maybe I will after I’ve talked to my father, after I’ve gotten the answers I need. I’ll come back and we can all have a sit down chat about what I need from them. If they don’t listen, that’s on them.
One last chance.
That’s what I’ll give them.
I nod resolutely to myself and then lace my fingers with Kohaku’s. His thumb smooths back and forth over my knuckles.
Ready?
I smile up at him and nod again. “Yeah,” I breathe. “I’m ready.”
We walk to the nearest bus station. Kohaku came earlier, slipping through shadows like he can do, to buy us tickets on a midnight bus heading east.
I hadn’t really cared all that much where exactly east we’re going, so long as it’s in that direction. We’d briefly discussed flying, but decided that would be too easy for Fielder to track using whatever means he uses to dig into people’s past.
Our bus doesn’t leave for forty minutes, so we slump into the hard blue plastic chairs and Kohaku tugs me into his side, my head resting on his chest. The man behind the ticket desk watches us, and I have the brief thought that I should have thrown an illusion around us, just in case the guys come here to find out where we went.
But the city on our tickets—to Raleigh, North Carolina, if you’re curious—isn’t our final destination, so I’m not terribly concerned if they do that. We’re planning on hopping off the bus midway and finishing the journey by train, anyway.
“Are you certain this is a good idea, little warrior?” Kohaku’s rumbly voice moves through me, making me tip my head back to meet his orange eyes, the only indication that he isn’t totally human.
“I don’t really see any other option.”
He arches a brow that absolutely calls me on my bullshit, and I huff out a breath. “Okay, yes, I could stick around and let them keep dictating all aspects of my life, including who I spend time with. And I could just sit around while Ezra figures out what spell was being done on me, but I don’t want to be an observer in my life, Kohaku. The easiest way to do that is to find answers on my own.”
He hums and slides his hand up to press my head back against his chest, long fingers stroking through my hair in a way that has me nearly purring with how good it feels. “Are you nervous about seeing your father?”
I resist the urge to look at him again and let out a humorless laugh. “God, yes.”
His hand smooths up and down my spine, soothing, even as I can tell he’s keeping an eye on our surroundings. “I haven’t spoken to him in ten years, Kohaku. He hasn’t tried to call us or asked us to come see him. He hasn’t… He hasn’t apologized for what he tried to do, for the man he killed. For years, I thought he’d cut into my chest to help me, to force the doctor’s hand, to make them give me heart surgery. I romanticized what he did in my mind and what if… What if what he was really trying to do wasuseme? Hurt me? What if the runes on my chest mean he was trying to sacrifice me? How do I reconcile that with the man who always played with me when I asked, no matter how tired he was from work? Who took me out to ice cream after every dentist and doctor’s appointment? Who read me book after book until I fell asleep?”
Kohaku doesn’t try to make me feel better by offering empty promises, like ‘it’ll be okay’ or ‘he wasn’t trying to hurt you.’ No, he just keeps running his hands up and down my spine until he finally murmurs against the top of my head, “whatever we find out, whatever your father was trying to do, you will survive it, the ache and the pain, because you are strong. You are a warrior, Rosalind. I mean that when I say it.”
Without acknowledging his words, I snuggle farther into his arms. He’s right. I am strong. I will survive whatever my father has to tell me. This will not break me. The same way my first six months at Septem Stellae didn’t break me. The same way what happened when I was eleven didn’t break me.
We stay like that until the bus arrives; me leaning into him, with his arms curled around my body, holding me. When the sound of air compressed breaks reaches our ears we stand up, Kohaku shoulders both our bags, laces our fingers together and guides me onto the vehicle. I don’t miss that he glares at every other person already on the bus, keeping me close to his body as he finds two seats next to each other.
He urges me to take the window seat while he sticks our bags in the overhead compartment and then sits next to me. I wince at the way he has to fold up his long legs. Though I suppose when everyone settles, he’ll be able to stretch them into the aisle. Kohaku doesn’t complain, just lifts the armrest between us, pulls me into his chest again and murmurs into the top of my head, “get some sleep, sweet warrior. I will watch over you.”
I think about telling him I’m not sure that is entirely necessary. We’ll be on a moving vehicle and I haven’t had any attempts on my life since the coven accepted my request to join them. But I let him do what he needs to do, and cuddle as close as I can to him.
My eyes drift close and I let the rocking of the vehicle lull me to sleep.
I jerk awake to the early morning light. Kohaku’s arms tighten around me, as he mumbles something unintelligible and nuzzles his nose into my hair. He must have fallen asleep, too. I spend a moment blinking against the light, disoriented by being on a bus, and trying to figure out what woke me.
