But he looked at me then, eyes dark and cold, stripping me of all my powers. And just like that, I lost the fight before I even wielded a sword.
I had been waiting for 30 minutes.
“Your stupid ass mother is back,” Kenzo’s voice returned to me, and when his news settled into my ears, my pulse spiked.
Mother was back?
“The bitch has been blowing up my phone,” he added, irritated. “I blocked her, right? How did she find me again?”
My heart was racing. I didn’t know if it was because of the information Kenzo just shared or because Zaghan was suddenly moving forward now, towards me.
“I’ll head home in a minute,” I murmured, my eyes not shifting from my palm, as if I could read it just like a story, the jagged lines that ran across the pale skin.
My body became aware of his presence with every languid step he took closer to me. It felt like the room was narrowing down on me.
“This is the highest number of calls I’ve received from a woman in years, and that includes Mrs. Takahashi,” Kenzo murmured bitterly, the echo of his voice the only thing keeping me grounded in my suddenly dizzying world.
I could hear the sound of my heart, a vicious drumbeat when Zaghan stood in front of me, clouding my mind, suffocating me with the darkness that curled around him.
“Hey, let me–”
Before I could finish, he had plucked the phone from my grasp, the brush of his fingers leaving behind a familiar, wicked burn.
“Hello?” Kenzo’s voice rang.
“It’s my friend.” I felt the need to confess. But he didn’t even spare me a glance as he scanned the content of the screen, fire burning behind his iridescent eyes, while his jaw remained set in a hard line.
“Beth?” Kenzo called out, almost nervously. “What’s going on over there?”
My fingers clenched the hem of my skirt tighter, my teeth digging into the wall of my cheek until I could swear it bled.
I watched his slender fingers click around the phone still, wandering to places I didn’t know.
Then, some seconds later, I saw the rigid muscles of his face slowly begin to relax, the storm in his eyes clearing. He worked his jaw, ran a hand through his damp hair, then placed the phone back in my hand.
I looked down at the screen immediately. It was displaying Kenzo and I’s chat. He had scrolled all the way up to the conversations of three months ago.
He was searching for something, of course. He had come out of nowhere and staked a claim on me all of a sudden, forcing me to declare that I belonged to him every little chance he got. He wanted to know if this thing with Kenzo was platonic indeed or there was a hidden secret. A secret he wouldn’t have appreciated at all.
“We’ll leave in 15,” he announced in a monotone voice. Then he turned without another word, walking away, hips dipping with every step he took.
“Um…what was that?” Kenzo’s voice echoed from the other end of the line again. But my gaze followed the man hell had placed in my life now, watching the taut muscles of his back flex.
I traced the dark ink sprawling across his back—a double-edged circle that had its borders lined with intricate temys symbols. Between the twin edges of the circle and at the very heart of the design, the markings intertwined like an ancient script. A sword was driven straight through the circle’s centre as if piercing the insignia itself.
The tattoo had been there all along, probably as long as the one of a snarling python crawling from his shoulder blade to his neck. I had caught a fleeting sight of it, and my nails had probably dug into it once, left a mark perhaps, drawn blood right across it. But this was the first time I was actually taking my time to really look at it. I wondered what it meant. Both of them; the snake and the symbol on his back. They seemed detailed and intentional…cruel, when looked at intently.
“Beth?” Suspicion sharpened Kenzo’s tone now. “What did he want? Is everything okay?”
“Uh, nothing.” I shook my head. “It’s nothing. Everything is fine.”
I always told Kenzo everything. I had never left any stone unturned, especially when it involved any relationship I was in. But for some reason, the thought of him knowing the kind of entanglement I had been in lately terrified me. I didn’t know why. My heart would start racing the second the thought of telling him crossed my mind. But it wasn’t Kenzo I was afraid of, that, I knew. It wasn’t his possible reaction to this that terrified me. It was something else. I wasn’t sure what it was. All I knew was, this thing…this rotten thing I couldn’t explain yet was my secret. I didn’t want anyone else to know. It felt like everything would crumble the moment the truth came out.
“Sure?” Kenzo asked again as I failed to convince him enough. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “Everything is fine, Takahashi. I promise.”
“Very well then,” he sighed in defeat. “Call me when you get home. That woman seemed pretty pissed that you weren’t home. I told her we were doing homework and you slept off. So go with that.”
