Ezekial: Jasmine, thank you for speaking with Kane today. I’m also glad that Kacey was able to open up to you. She’s never told anyone else about her life before this. That shows she thinks a lot of you. While I have the chance, I’m sorry we didn’t tell you the truth straight away. I regret that decision. We all do.
“Do you regret it?” she finally says, after re-reading the messages a few more times. Her bright gaze flickers up to me, the reds a soft hue, like the embers scattered amongst burning coal. “Not telling me we were… That you’re my…” Her gaze drifts away.
She can’t even say it, and that creates a new, sharp, tearing sensation of its own.
I swallow. “We did what we thought was right. We all realised, accepted it, at different times. We were worried you’d… that you wouldn’t react well.”
Her eyes stay on the screen, fingers still poised over the keyboard, unmoving.
“So you made the choice for me.” Her words are quiet, but they still cut. “You decided I didn’t get to know.”
“I made the choice,” I say. Her gaze swings up to me, brows deeply furrowed. They said tell the truth. And I will. “I was in denial. I was wrong. I’m sorry, Jasmine.”
Her expression softens. Even now, even after everything—I hurt her, lied to her—and she still chooses gentleness.
Jasmine parts her lips, about to say something—
“Amon said it’s time for you guys to go?” Kacey’s voice cuts clean through, her tone forced casualness. A question when it should be a statement.
She’s already halfway into the room, Amon hovering behind her in the doorway. I’ve never wanted to harm Kacey before, but right now, I’m feeling incredibly tested.
I glance at my phone, still in Jasmine’s hand, the time showing we’ve been here five hours. It felt like seconds.
Amon is due to meet with Julien, which means I’ll have no reason to stay here, and now I want to unleash my unwarranted fury onto the dragon. I glance at him, and his eyes widen slightly.
There’s a soft knock as Jasmine places my phone back onto the table, but I can’t look at it. I can only look at her. She gives me a small, sad smile, one I know I’ll see every time I close my eyes.
I don’t want to leave. I want to make up an excuse, a reason. I need to think of something.
But I’m telling the truth. No more lies or omission.
I press my tongue against the inside of my cheek, biting back frustration at the timing, at being forced to leave when I’ve only just started to stay.
“See you tomorrow?” she asks. Like she doesn’t realise what those words do to me. Like it’s not the most important question I’ve ever been asked.
I nod, once, too fast. “Yes.”
That’s all she gets. All I can manage.
Then she smiles. Small, brief, but it knocks me.
Even in this short time together, I can already see the changes in her. Her movements are more fluid, there’s warmth in her skin, light in her eyes.
And she spoke to me. She was near me. Touched me.
Smiled. Laughed. Cried.
It wrecks me.
I stand only because I have to, because not moving would mean begging to stay.
And the only thing that keeps me walking away from that atrium, from her, is the knowledge that I get to do it all again tomorrow.
Not Sai. Not Julien. Not Ezekial.
Me.
Chapter 9: Jasmine
