Chapter 31
Dimitri Morozov
I drove like a fucking maniac.
I had sent him back there with nothing but a couple of bodyguards standing outside like idiots because he wanted privacy with his family.
Privacy.
What a fucking joke.
I should have known better.
I should never have let him go alone.
The moment the thought entered my head, I wanted to kill myself for it. I had let my fairy walk straight into the lion’s den.
I slammed the car to a stop outside the building and ran. The bodyguards were still standing by the entrance like nothing was wrong. One of them opened his mouth to speak, but I did not give him the chance.
“Move,” I snapped.
They stepped aside immediately. I did not even bother with the handle. I kicked the door with everything I had.
The door did not even shake properly. It was one of those expensive, reinforced modern doors, probably made with some kind of bullet-resistant composite and a steel core.
It was not going to break from a kick.
“Fuck!” I snarled, already reaching for my gun. I was ready to start shooting the lock when I heard footsteps behind me.
I spun around, gun half-drawn, only to see Kento Kurosaki walking toward me. He did not even look surprised to see me.
“How the fuck are you here?” I asked.
Kento pushed past me, pulled out his phone, and started typing something. A second later, he pressed his hand against a hidden panel beside the door. There was a soft beep, then the sound of the lock disengaging.
The door swung open.
The second we stepped inside, I heard Rei’s screaming. I had never heard him scream like that before.
We rushed into the living room, and I saw red.
Daniel was straddling Rei on the floor, knife raised high above his chest, ready to drive it straight into his heart. Rei was covered in blood.
His legs were a fucking mess. Stabbed. Torn open. He was trying to crawl, but he could not. I lost my fucking mind.
At the same time as Kento, I pulled out my gun.
We both fired.
The first shots hit Daniel in the shoulder and arm. He jerked back with a shout, the knife clattering to the floor.
We shot him again and again. Legs. Arms. Hands. We avoided anything immediately fatal. I wanted this motherfucker alive. I wanted him to suffer. I wanted to peel the skin off his body while he begged, and I think Kento wanted the same.
Daniel fell backward, blood pouring from multiple wounds. He was still conscious, gasping, eyes wide with pain.
Kento and I both rushed forward at the same time.
Rei was still on the floor, bleeding everywhere.
Blood soaked through his clothes and spread across the marble like a grotesque painting.
His legs were twitching weakly. I dropped to my knees beside him and gathered him into my arms as carefully as I could.
His body was cold.
“Rei,” I said. “Little Fairy, look at me.”
His eyes fluttered open. He did not seem to recognize me. Then his lips moved.
“…You came…”
His eyes rolled back, and he went limp in my arms.
“He’s losing too much blood,” Kento said, already checking the wounds on his legs. “We need to get him to a hospital right now—”
Before he could finish, Ilya suddenly appeared in the doorway, breathing hard.
“I have the car ready,” he said quickly. “Come on. Now.”
I lifted Rei into my arms as carefully as I could, cradling him against my chest. Kento grabbed the gun off the floor and pointed it at Daniel, who was still groaning on the ground.
“Ilya,” Kento said without looking away from Daniel. “Take them. I’ll handle this piece of shit.”
Ilya nodded once and turned to me. “Let’s go.”
I carried Rei out of the house as fast as I could without jostling him too much.
His blood was dripping onto the floor behind us.
By the time we reached the car, my hands were shaking.
Ilya had the back door already open. I climbed in carefully, keeping Rei in my lap.
Kento stayed behind, but I did not care.
The car tore through the streets while I pressed my hands against the worst of the wounds on Rei’s legs, trying to slow the bleeding. It was not enough. Blood kept seeping between my fingers no matter how hard I pressed.
This was my fault.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered against his hair. “I’m so sorry. I should never have let you go. I should have kept you with me.”
Ilya glanced at me in the rearview mirror but did not say anything. He just drove faster.
When we finally pulled up to the private hospital we used for situations like this, medical staff were already waiting outside with a stretcher. I carried Rei out of the car myself and placed him on it as gently as I could.
They took him in, and I stood in the hallway, covered in his blood, hands still shaking. I felt completely powerless.
Kento arrived one hour later. His clothes were splattered with blood that was not his. He did not say anything when he saw me. He just walked over and stood beside me in silence. We waited.
And for the first time in my life, I prayed. I prayed to a god I did not believe in that my fairy would be okay, that his legs would not be ruined forever, and that he would recover soon.
Hours later I could not sit still. I paced the length of the small room like a caged animal, blood still dried on my hands and shirt. Rei’s blood. Every time I closed my eyes I saw him on that floor.
I could not take this.
I stopped pacing and turned to Kento, who was sitting in one of the stiff chairs with his elbows on his knees, staring at the floor.
“How could you have not noticed?” I asked. “How the fuck could you not have known what that piece of shit was doing to him?”
Kento slowly lifted his head. His gaze was different from the usual.
“I do not live with them,” he said. “I check in when I can, but—”
“But nothing,” I snapped, cutting him off. “You knew what kind of man Daniel was. You warned Rei about people like me, but you left him alone in that house with a fucking monster. How could you do that? How could you just… leave him there?”
Kento’s jaw tightened. He stood up, meeting my eyes.
“How about you, hm?” he shot back. “Weren’t you the one who had him all this time? You had him locked away in that house of yours for weeks. He was safe with you. Why the hell did you let him go back?”
It was true.
It was my fault too.
I had been the one who agreed to let him go. I had told the bodyguards to stay outside and now he was in surgery with his legs carved up like meat because of it.
Ilya spoke from where he was leaning against the wall near the window.
“Enough,” he said. “Both of you. Stop pointing fingers at each other. It is not going to help him.”
He pushed off the wall and walked closer, arms crossed over his chest.
“He is going to survive. That is what matters right now.”
I nearly screamed.
“But will his legs be okay?” I did not recognize my own voice. “You do not understand. You do not fucking know what that means to him.”
I ran a hand through my hair, pacing again because if I stood still I was going to lose it.
“He told me once that when he was a kid, his dad used to take him to these gardens in Tokyo and let him run between the rows. He said it made him feel free. Like nothing could touch him.”
I turned away for a second, trying to breathe, but the words kept coming.
“He will not survive if his legs do not work,” I said. “He will smile and pretend he is fine because that is what he does, but something in him will die. And I…” My throat closed up. I had to force the next words out. “I do not know if I can watch that happen to him.”
Ilya sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. This time he did not have anything sarcastic or manic to say. He just looked tired.
“They do not know anything yet,” he said gently. “The doctors are still working on him. We just have to wait.”
Kento did not say anything. He sat back down, elbows on his knees again, staring at his hands. His shoulders were tense, but he did not argue anymore.
I stopped pacing and leaned against the wall, sliding down until I was sitting on the cold floor. My hands were still stained with Rei’s blood.
I stared at them.
When the doctor finally walked into the waiting room, I was on my feet before he could even open his mouth.
He looked tired, but his expression was calm. He did not look like he came to deliver bad news.
“He is stable. The surgery went well. We were able to repair the major damage to both thighs. The knife missed the femoral arteries, which was fortunate. He lost a lot of blood, but we have transfused him and he is responding well. He will need extensive physical therapy and recovery time. But with proper care, he should regain full mobility. His legs will be okay eventually.”
I exhaled a shaky breath I did not realize I had been holding.
“Can I see him?” I asked immediately, already moving toward the door.
The doctor raised a hand. “Not yet. He is still unconscious and in recovery. It is best to let him rest—”
I stopped, turning slowly to face him.
“Is me going to see him going to jeopardize his health?”
The doctor hesitated. “No, but—”
“Then move out of the fucking way.”
The doctor’s eyes widened slightly. He glanced at the two security guards standing near the hallway, then back at me.
After a long second, he stepped aside.
“Room 412,” he said quietly. “Just… try not to disturb him too much.”
Rei was there.
Lying in the hospital bed with tubes and monitors connected to him.
His legs were heavily bandaged, elevated slightly.
The flower he had been wearing earlier was gone, lost somewhere in that blood-soaked living room.
His silver hair was messy against the pillow, and his face looked so small, so fragile.
I closed the door softly behind me and walked over to the bed. My hands were still shaking as I pulled the chair closer and sat down beside him.
I just looked at him.
My little fairy.
Broken again because I had not protected him well enough.
I reached out, almost afraid to touch him, and gently brushed a strand of hair away from his forehead.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry, Rei.”
My thumb stroked gently over his cheek.
“I should have never let you go back there. I should have kept you with me. Locked in my arms where nothing could touch you. Where I could keep you safe.”
I swallowed hard, my hand moving down to gently hold his. His fingers were limp in mine, but I laced them together anyway, pressing his hand against my chest so he could feel my heartbeat.
“You scared me today,” I continued softly. “When I saw you on that floor… covered in blood… screaming like that… I thought I was going to lose you.”
I kissed his knuckles.
“You’re mine, little fairy. You have been mine since the moment I saw you.
I do not care how fucked up that sounds.
I do not care if I am too possessive, too violent, too much.
I need you. I need you breathing. I need you smiling at me when I bring you flowers in the morning.
I need you rolling your eyes when I cook you something too sweet. I need you safe.”
I did not care that he could not hear me. I just kept going.
“I know you are scared of me sometimes. I know I have hurt you. I know I dragged you into my world and broke pieces of you I can never put back the way they were. But I swear to you… I will spend the rest of my life making sure no one else ever hurts you again. I swear that if this world is not gentle with you from now on, I will destroy it and build you a new one.”
I leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to his forehead, then another to the corner of his mouth, careful not to wake him.
“When you wake up,” I murmured against his lips, “I am going to be right here. I am not leaving this room until you open your eyes and tell me you are okay. And then I am going to bring you so many flowers you will not know what to do with them. Red ones. Yellow ones. Blue ones. Every color you want.”
I stayed like that for a long time, forehead resting gently against his, holding his hand in both of mine.
“You are going to be okay, baby,” I whispered. “Your legs are going to heal. You are going to run through fields of flowers again. You are going to wear every color you want in your hair. And I am going to be right there beside you, bringing you new ones every single morning. I promise.”