Chapter 5
Chapter five
The Ultimate Test
Nyomi
Alright. Last one.
My heart was a drumline in my throat.
Kenji’s face wore a neutral expression. “Next.”
I told myself to breathe.
Two for two. One more man, one more lie to catch.
Kenji had been adamant: all three, or I failed.
That rule sat like a blade at my throat. It made my fingers tremble, just a little, so I curled them into the silk at my sides until the shaking belonged to the robe and not to me.
The Dragon watched me which didn’t ease my nerves at all.
I squared my shoulders and lifted my chin, practicing confidence even if I couldn’t fully feel it.
The third man stepped forward.
He was the one in white with the long braid falling down his back like a dark rope. His hair was so smooth it looked wetted by moonlight.
He stopped at the same distance Satoshi had earlier.
He didn’t try to charm me like Kaoru or appear professional like Satoshi. He simply met my eyes and held them, as if the game bored him but he would play because duty said so.
Reo gestured to him. “Go ahead, Rin.”
Aww. That’s his name. Interesting. I’m logging that.
When Rin spoke, his voice was cool water poured into a glass and left on an altar to be offered to Gods. “I eat a human heart once a month for strength and vitality.”
Jesus Christ! What did he say? A human heart?
My skin prickled.
Well. . .I hope that is a lie. Cause. . .I’m not trying to be in a room with a cannibal.
Utterly bored, Rin continued, same smooth voice and tone, “When I have sex, the woman must have a bag over her face the entire time.”
I blinked.
What the fuck? I hope both of those are lies? No kink shaming but. . .what kind of kink is that? A bag over her head? The whole time?
Shock surged through me.
“Last,” Rin finished, “I am Japanese royalty and am third in line to the throne.”
The first impulse was to laugh that last claim out of the room. But the way he said it made my spine go still. Liars usually dragged their feet. His didn’t. They glided. And the braid, the beads, the white—he wore wealth like he’d been born inside it.
That last one I can believe. He looks like he got bored and left a throne. But if he is royalty. . .how would he end up as Kenji’s Fang? What’s his story?
Reo clicked his pen. “Two minutes.”
Okay. Think.
I let my gaze study Rin the way I would a photograph I had to write truth about. Nails clean, cuticles oiled to a gentle sheen, masculine but manicured hands. The mouth—no smoker’s stain, no tea-darkness, teeth polished, the kind of hygiene that meant wealth or vanity or both.
When he breathed, his shoulders barely moved: deep belly control. A dancer’s economy or a fighter’s. Or a prince’s.
Yeah. He’s royalty. Damn. Third in line? That’s damned close to be hanging with us in this room. I have so many questions! Or. . .maybe he isn’t third in line. Perhaps. . .he’s like tenth in line and that is the lie, but then that would mean. . .the other stuff is true. Ick!
Still, I went back to the first two statements.
My mouth went dry.
A human heart for dinner once a month. A bag over a woman’s head in bed.
Both were insane in their own ways, and I couldn’t even decide which one made my skin crawl the most.
On one hand—eating a heart?
That was horror-movie grotesque.
Where was he getting the hearts?
Did he eat them with something? Rice? Noodles? More human organs?
Yuck!
Was he keeping the human heart in a freezer next to bags of edamame?
On the other hand. . .the bag over the woman’s head.
It was quieter madness. The kind that slipped under your door while you were sleeping. Not messy blood and bone, but psychologically fucked up.
Why would he do that?
Did he keep the bag over her face so he couldn’t look in her eyes?
And if yes. . .what the fuck had happened to him in his childhood?
Sounded like lots of abuse that may have ventured on sexual.
Shame.
Odd erotic torture dealing with purity and degradation.
Yikes.
The more I thought about it, the more twisted it became.
One was barbaric.
The other was deliriously psychologically clinical.
One screamed ritual sacrifice.
The other whispered psychotic fetish in the dark.
And the worst part?
He delivered both statements in the same calm voice. Like either option—snacking on human flesh or suffocating women with fabric—wasn’t insane at all.
I know what the problem is. He’s really good at lying. They saved the best for last.
I frowned at Kenji.
Rin was the true test.
Kenji smiled, probably knowing exactly what I was thinking.
Whatever, Dragon. I’ll still beat you. I hope. . .
I considered the statement and returned my gaze to Rin. “Alright. Statement one.”
My stomach twisted in disgust, but I made sure to not let it show on my face. “You eat a human heart once a month. Question: what’s your preparation for the heart when you eat it? Raw, boiled, or grilled?”
He stalled. It was so small most people would’ve missed it. The first flicker of confusion I’d seen on his face.
He blinked, once, like he’d glanced at a word in a foreign language and needed the dictionary to show up on its own. Then he looked at me the way you look at a stranger who has asked for a secret. “Raw.”
My skin hummed. The word wasn’t wrong. It just didn’t fit him. His nails were too clean, his teeth too unstained, his posture too serene to have swallowed that kind of iron.
Naw. You’re not a raw sort of guy. I could see Satoshi eating a heart raw, but you. . .no way.
Additionally, his answer showed that he didn’t even cook for himself which made sense since I was sure he was royalty.
So. . .he really couldn’t figure out a proper answer to say. You probably should have said, “I don’t know. My cook prepares it.”
Still, I wasn’t completely sure just yet. “Statement two, a bag over a woman’s face while you have sex. What kind of bag?”
“Silk,” he replied instantly.
A slice of disdain cut through the air, like he was annoyed I’d asked a question with such an obvious answer.
I could see Rin yelling at me now. “Of course it would be silk! What am I? A peasant! Only the best bags when I cover a woman’s face while I fuck her.”
My heart thumped twice, hard.
Wow.
The speed of the answer sold it.
People lied slower than they told the truth.
Lies needed manufacturing.
Truth arrived with itself intact.
Dude really is putting silk bags over women’s head while he fucks them? I now have even MORE questions. . .I could write a book on him.
I had to blink a few times just to keep my focus on the test and not go into journalist mode. “Umm. . .statement three.”
I tilted my head. “Royalty. Third in line. Then who is the Emperor to you? What is your relationship?”
If he were bluffing, a web would spring in his eyes. He would reach for a branch and grab air. He would—
“My uncle.” he said, immediate and flat. No pause. No flicker. He did not over-explain, which liars loved to do. He simply had the answer ready.
Reo closed his notebook. “Time.”
Kenji’s gaze had never left me. “What’s your answer?”
Alright. . .Let’s get this right for the culture. Show them how bad sistas can be.
I put my hands behind my back and pulled up the last bit of confidence I could from my gut.
“Raw heart once a month. That’s a ritual that would mark you.
There’s a smell to a person that eats human meat.
I interviewed a serial killer who did. The stench radiated from him.
Plus, eating human flesh faintly stains the nails and lips like.
. .God is punishing the person for doing that. It even sits on the breath.”
Rin’s expression didn’t change, but Kaoru smiled as he watched me.
“You’re too pristine to eat a raw heart once a month. You should have said your chef prepares it. I think that is something I would have believed.”
Rin made no motion or indication that I was right or wrong.
Wow. He’s really good at shielding his emotions. I wonder if he learned that from being royal. Have to keep on a public mask to hide away the horror on the inside.
“The bag,” I went on, “You didn’t hesitate; you weren’t ashamed. The way you said ‘silk’ sounded like a preference, not a dare. Men who lie about their kinks smirk. Men who own them. . .don’t.”
Satoshi turned his face to Rin and quirked his brows.
“Yeah. . .you definitely put silk bags over women’s heads.
” I nodded. “And the throne statement. I think that if you were lying, you might have added a detail you didn’t need, like a title or a grandmother’s connection.
But you didn’t. You gave the kinship and left it alone like it was such a.
. .basic fact about you. That’s how people with real lineages talk.
And the bracelet. . .that screams of a craft that doesn’t even exist anymore.
Perhaps, it was passed down from your mother, who got it from your grandmother, and so on. ”
Finally, Rin blinked which told me that I was probably right and he really cared about that bracelet and his mother who must have given it to him.
Kenji studied me. “Final answer?”
“The lie is the human heart. You’ve never eaten one. In fact, for some reason. . .I don’t even think you eat meat.”
Kenji stepped closer. “Why do you think that?”
“I don’t know why.” I shrugged. “I just. . .feel like he’s a vegetarian. Or you know what? Pescatarian. He probably eats fish. Sometimes. But. . .I don’t think he ever eats meat.”
Kaoru snorted and I didn’t know if he was laughing at me for being way off or impressed that I had guessed it right.
So I shut up just in case I was sounding stupid.
Meanwhile, Rin’s mouth never twitched. His expression didn’t harden. He simply looked at me the way a very patient god might look at a mortal who wanted a meeting.
Reo lifted his pen like a conductor. “What was the lie?”
Rin inclined his head a fraction “I have not eaten a heart and I hate meat. It disgusts me.”
Fuck yeah!
Reo clapped. “Good job, Nyomi. You passed.”
A tiny, involuntary tremor ran through my hands.
Oh shit!! I did it!