I folded my arms over my chest, ignoring the little thrill his words gave me. There was no denying it—Shota definitely wanted me. “I don’t understand why you’re trying so hard to ‘resist’ me,” I said, using my fingers to make air quotes as I spoke. “Just a few days ago, you were trying to get me to have dinner withyou.”
“That was before you met Raiden,” Shota saidquietly.
I stared. “Raiden? What’s he got to do withthis?”
Shota raised an eyebrow. “You have feelings for him, Aika. I’ve seen the way you two look at each other. It’s obvious you belongtogether.”
I scoffed. “That’s ridiculous,” I said. “Raiden and I barely know each other. Just because we may or may not havefeelingsfor each other doesn’t automatically make him my soulmate.” I paused when Shota’s gaze shuttered again on the word ‘soulmate’. “Wait a damn second. You actuallythinkhe’s mysoulmate?”
“What I think is irrelevant,” Shota said. His eyes were filled with sadness, making my confused heart ache even more. “The gods clearly have a plan for you, Aika, and I can’t let my feelings interfere with it. There’s too much atstake.”
“And what aboutmyfeelings?” I cried, thoroughly fed up. “Who cares what the gods think! And what do the gods have to do with thisanyway?”
Shota shook his head. “You only have feelings for me because of our history,” he said. “They’ll go away soon enough. The important thing is that we have to keep our distance from eachother.”
“This is ridiculous,” I sputtered as he got to his feet, wrapping the towel around his waist. “How do you even know that the gods want me to end up with Raiden? You’re just makingassumptions!”
Shota gave me an odd look. “It’s strange,” he said as I stood up. “I thought once I explained this that you’d understand, but you’re acting like your feelings for Raiden don’t matter. Are you really saying that you prefer me overhim?”
His words tugged on my heart, and an image of Raiden popped into my head, his face smiling down at me as we whirled across the dance floor together. The thought of severing my connection with him, of pushing him away, was physically painful, and my chest throbbed at the veryidea.
“I…I don’t know,” I said heavily. “But I do know that I want the chance to findout.”
Shota sighed, his eyes dimming. “I’m going to go put some clothes on,” he said, turning away. “When I come back, be ready totrain.”
My heart sank as I watched him retreat to the bathroom. Clearly that had been the wrong thing to say, and yet how could I be anything less than honest? I cared about both RaidenandShota, and I wanted the opportunity to explore those feelings. And yet the two of them seemed to have jointly decided that I belonged withRaiden.
“As if I didn’t have a choice,” I muttered, sitting back down on the chaise. Anger simmered in my veins. Who were these two men to make decisions like that for me, and without even coming clean on their reasoning behind it? If we weren’t under such a time crunch, I would have brought them both in here and forced them to tell me what wasreallygoingon.
That’s exactly why you shouldn’t be letting your feelings get involved,I scolded myself. All this love life drama had no place in my world right now, not when my mother’s life hung in the balance. I’d told myself that multiple times. Maybe now I should startlistening.
When Shota came back out again, I’d regained my composure. Turning, I looked him up and down coolly as he approached. He wore a white button-up shirt and black jeans, those lean, gorgeous muscles all covered up now. Desire flickered inside me briefly before I snuffed it out. I was going to stick to my guns this time. I wouldnotlet my emotions takeover.
“You ready to train?” he asked, pulling a black box from one of thedrawers.
“Yep.” I joined him at the small breakfast table, trying not to think about all theotherblack boxes he’d brought me, filled with yummy, handmade sushi. My stomach whined a little, and I made a mental note to grab one of the sandwiches we’d bought later. “This is where all our suppliesare?”
“That’s right.” Shota flipped open the lid to reveal stacks of long, rectangular white paper, as well as several bottles of ink and brushes. “There are two things a shaman needs to know when it comes to makingofuda. The first part is how to actually craft theofuda, and the second is how to useit.”
“That makes sense.” I glanced down at the supplies. “So how do webegin?”
Shota picked up one of the stacks of papers from the box. Unlike the others, these hadkanjidrawn on them in black ink. They were folded up, so I couldn’t make out precisely what they said. “I prepared these earlier,” he said, holding them out to me. “It’s all the same spell, so you can see progressively how you getbetter.”
“Okay.” I took one of theofudasfrom him. It was a small piece of paper about the size of a playing card, folded up so I couldn’t read it in its entirety. I was a little disappointed that we were skipping the part where I actually got to make these, but on the other hand, I knew we didn’t have a lot of time. “Whatnow?”
“Shut your eyes, and try to feel the spell. Even if you don’t know what it is, you should feel the magic inside like one of those Jack-in-the-Boxes. All you have to do is wind it up and let it out,” he said, reaching out and putting his hand over the top ofmine.
“Okay,” I said, swallowing. The warmth from his hand seeped into my skin, settling my nerves a little. Unfortunately, it was also very distracting, and I had to make an effort to focus on theofuda. As I did, I felt a spark of power within it. It reminded me of a present held together by a single ribbon, and as I had that thought, I found the mental ends of the ribbon fluttering in my mind’seye.
“Good,” he said, his breath hot on my cheek as he spoke. Had he moved closer to me? “I can sense that you’ve found the spark. Now just tug itfree.”
Nodding, I redoubled my focus on theofudaand mentally reached out to it. I grabbed hold of the ends of the ribbon holding the power at bay and tugged firmly. The binding on the spell came away surprisingly easily with a loud pop. My heart leapt in my chest, and I snapped my eyes open, excited to see what I’dcreated.
“Whoa.” My jaw dropped at the sight of a colorful bouquet of flowers in my hand. “This wasn’t what Iexpected.”
“They come in handy on dates,” Shota said with a smirk. “Care to trade?” he asked, holding it out to me. “Because we’re gonna do this a couple dozen more times, until you can summon flowers in yoursleep.”
20
