Her smile lights up. “Aren’t we already?”
“We are, I was just making sure.”
“Oh, great!” She says, clapping her hands together like it’s the best news.
“Do you know if there’s any way I could remember my past?” Sakura starts walking toward a large cabinet, rifling through the armour, gathering flowers and herbs with eager energy. Her pink hair floats behind her as she prepares a basket.
“There are plenty of herbs that help with memory and dreams. I’ll look more into it for you, but here’s where we can start.” Her enthusiasm lifts a weight off my shoulders as she continues her explanation about infusion and water temperature.
“That’d be awesome, thank you, Saku.”
32
Kai
I PROMISE
The urgeto strangle Caleb is barely held in check. As much as I love those fuckers, they can be a real pain in my ass. But that’s family for you. They forget about boundaries like it’s their unwritten job.
“You really need to learn how to read a room, dude.”
“Sorry, Corporal,” Caleb says, cringing.
Shaking my head, I head inside to get ready for the hell of a day that awaits me. General Brackwell is back,lucky me.
Arriving at the Institute, I figure it’s better to rip off the band-aid right away. I cross paths with my father as he finishes discussing with Isolde and some diplomats. One of them being Nalaka’s father, the king of Elveron. Tall, dark, and carved out of obsidian, with those gold-flecked eyes that look like they’ve seen too many centuries and still aren’t impressed. His armour gleams as if it’s never seen a scratch. King Jelani has the kind of presence that makes everyone else feel overmatched.
My gut tells me things aren’t great if on his first day back, the General’s already meeting with royalty. Giving a quick nod, the kind of salute that says, I’m being a good soldier. Then, I head into the office, I don’t sit or slouch; I just stand there, waiting.
He walks in a minute later. “Son.”
“General.” His jaw tightens at that.
Yeah, well, he stopped beingDada long time ago, and I’m not about to pretend otherwise. Shoulders pulled back, I stand straight, waiting for him to get on with business. I learned early on that showing weakness is exactly what he feeds off. Reaching his desk, the General doesn’t waste a minute before debriefing me on my next task.
“The Grianstad Eve Ball is one and a half months away. Need me to remind youwhoyou’re taking?” His voice is like nails on a damn chalkboard. My jaw locks so hard I’m surprised my teeth don’t crack.
“You can screw whatever trash you want behind closed doors, but when it comes to official appearances, you show up with who you’re assigned to. Am I clear, soldier?”
“Clear,” I spit back, barely holding it together, except that for some reason I don’t stop there.“You’re so desperate for power, you need me to play dress-up whore for your political circus.”
The General steps slowly into my space, trying that whole puffed-chest routine like he's the alpha in this cage. The only reason he gets away with it is that I let him, and some days I hate myself for it.
“That image, boy,” he growls, “is the only reason thecircuslistens to us. That power is what’ll save our people and finally got us the damn respect we’ve bled for, we’ve died for.”
I chuckle, but there’s no humour in it, just bitterness. “Sounds likeyourproblem, General.”
His face twists. Going red like a boiled lobster, and I see it, the glow in his eyes, the same as mine. That flicker of power that reminds me we’re cut from the same cursed stone. And I let my lycan come alive too.
“You’ll do what I say.” He growls, voice low, deadly. “You wouldn’t want something to happen to your new favourite toy, accidents are so quick to happen.” And that’s it.
That’s the match. My bloodexplodes, and I step forward so fast he stumbles back.
Good.
“You so much asbreathenear her wrong, I swear to Kvirr?—”
“You’ll what?” He cuts me off. “We both know what happens when you try to play hero.”
