Chapter 35 #4
“He told me about my mother—how he met her and what she meant to him,” I started there, took a deep breath, and continued. “He told me why he doesn’t want us together, and he also told me... that he’s your father.”
A knowing silence settled over us, and I thought any minute he’d accuse me of letting him talk without warning him that I already knew everything. I decided to just throw it all out there.
“And we made a blood pact.”
“You what?” he roared across the table, leaning forward. A few heads around us turned in our direction.
“Keep your voice down, general. We don’t need an audience.”
He seemed to want to say something but bit his lip and leaned back in his chair.
“What damn pact did you two make?” he asked, jaw still clenched.
“In exchange for the information, he would protect my mind for a month until I could train my mental barrier to block invaders.” I remembered the whole barrier issue—how he’d hidden everything from me.
“And get this! Serguei told me anyone can build mental barriers. Very useful information you could have shared with me, but didn’t. ”
Zion crossed his arms over his chest, giving me a look that would make anyone tremble, but I held my ground.
“I didn’t teach you because there was no need, since I was going to stay away and you wouldn’t know what was happening.
But it seems Serguei decided to drag you into all this shit,” he ranted, raising his voice on the last sentence.
I kicked him under the table when some people clearly turned to see what was going on.
He stared at me in surprise, as if he’d never expected that.
“And didn’t you think that maybe that decision was mine to make? That maybe I wanted to know everything you all do? About my mother and my people. Didn’t it ever cross your mind that maybe I wanted to be part of this?”
He ran his hands over his face. This time, the fury had taken a back seat to exhaustion. It was one of the first times I really saw the weight of life in his eyes.
“Kyller,” he seemed more controlled this time, “Serguei and I agree on very few things in this life. One of them is that keeping you away from this underworld would be the best thing to do. But you figured out most of it on your own, and now it looks like he’s steering you right into this mess.
So I’m going to ask you to stay away from him. I don’t want you to see him again.”
I swallowed hard, feeling desperate. Why couldn’t things just be easier? Why did everything have to be so difficult?
“I think that’s going to be a bit impossible, since the three of us have dinner scheduled for next Saturday.”
Zion sat there frozen, looking at me as if he’d never seen me before, as if I were completely reckless. Or as if life were playing some cruel joke and he was trying to end it so he could get back to serious matters.
“What do you mean, ‘the three of us’?”
“He invited us.”
“And you just accepted? Wait, did you accept for me?”
“I didn’t have a choice, and I’m only passing along the invitation. I didn’t answer for you.”
“Why didn’t you have a choice?” And there was Zion, getting angry again. This loop was making me sick.
“Maybe, just maybe, I have to return a favor. I didn’t know what he would ask for. I’m sorry you got dragged into this.”
He clenched his fist and slammed it on the table, rattling all the china, including the centerpiece.
“Can you tell me why the hell you owe him something else? Something you didn’t even know what it would be?”
“Because I needed his help to properly reconnect Kaori’s brain,” I blurted out.
The next words died on his lips, which remained half-open in surprise.
He hadn’t seemed this surprised at any other point in the conversation, not even about the blood pact.
Before, he’d been furious with my entire account, but now he was utterly shocked.
A deafening silence settled between us, almost palpable.
He looked at me as if seeing me for the first time.
His eyes seemed to hide other emotions, but the main one—the one that never wavered—was shock.
“You owed a favor to the worst possible person—a favor you didn’t even know what it would be—to help a patient?”
I swallowed hard and nodded.
“Do you know what he could have done with that favor?”
I shrugged. That didn’t matter. It was the only way to make the surgery work.
A life was infinitely more important than any favor I could give.
So many emotions ran through my partner’s turbulent eyes that I didn’t even have a chance to decipher any of them.
I was too exhausted to try. He shook his head and waved off the waiter who arrived at the table with the wine.
The rest of the time, while we drank, was spent exchanging half-glances in heavy silence.
After dinner, all plans for a fun evening were set aside. Zion extended his hand to me with all the composure he had left, and I accepted it. This time, the touch didn’t send electricity or flames, and even the shadows in my hair stayed still.