Chapter 30
Valentine’s Date (Again)
HARPER
I spend Valentine’s Day like all dopey, silly people in love do: held hostage by a yaoguai, and really late for my press conference.
‘She’s coming, you know,’ I say dryly. ‘What do you even want?’
The yaoguai sniffs as he paces, his gaze condescending. Something about the way he walks unnerves me, but I straighten and hold my chin high – it’s how you intimidate someone, Tia had said. Her lips twitched. Especially if you’re short.
It doesn’t seem to work now – I miss my daggers sorely, but no one knows I’m Raven, and that’s how things will stay.
On the other hand, Tia and I have been plagued by dating rumours for the last three months, and this is the third time I’ve been used for ransom in the last two weeks.
Clearly, as the only non-magical partner of Singapore’s Sentinels, Harper Leong is supposedly the weakest link.
I’ve been tempted to blow my identity multiple times in this week alone, but Raven is barely a Sentinel, and I’d much rather not be hounded by paparazzi like Tia is.
‘You have five minutes to speak or forever hold your peace,’ I drawl.
The yaoguai doesn’t speak.
Maybe he’s mute. There’s no telling what he traded for his powers of teleportation, which he’s been conveniently showing off as he teleports from corner to corner.
We’re in a decrepit warehouse that I can’t identify immediately, but Tia made me carry a tracker with my medallion after the first kidnapping attempt, and I feel it buzzing against my chest now.
Before I have time to shift with unease, the wall beside us explodes.
The yaoguai disappears immediately as Lune busts through the window. She hooks an arm round my waist and we zip through the shards of glass before we’re soaring into the sky.
I twist round to survey the warehouse. ‘You didn’t catch the guy.’
‘We can go after him later. Raven’s late for her press conference.’ Through her blue visor, Lune glares. ‘I leave you alone for three hours to get ready and suddenly ALFRED’s telling me someone kidnapped you. You promised me you’d be on time.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry for being kidnapped. I’ll schedule a meeting with all my kidnappers tonight so we can draw up a schedule that’ll never bother you,’ I snap as I tighten my arms round Lune’s neck.
She rolls her eyes and we fly in silence as I sulk into the evening sky.
‘Happy Valentine’s, by the way.’ Lune doesn’t look at me as she says it, but she’s flushed all the way to her ears. ‘I know we said no gifts, but I got Niko’s projector so we can watch a movie on the rooftop later.’
Warmth fuzzes in my chest. ‘I did a grocery run and there’s like five recipes in my phone that we can cook together, plus I got that really good apple juice from the gala last year.’
Lune frowns as we descend to the mass of reporters in front of Lain. ‘The one you stole a whole bunch of crates of? I thought you said you were returning that.’
‘I might have kept a few.’ I grin. Below, camera flashes go off like lightning, and it pulls me out of our personal bubble. I glance down.
Lune notices. ‘Nervous about the conference? Ever since you put Maria away, the public already considers Raven part of the Sentinels anyway. Just turn on your charm – you’ll be fine.’
Let’s hope. To be honest, it should be fine.
We’ve been working over the past months to acclimatize Raven to the public.
Just last week, a little kid approached me while I was masked because they lost their doll.
Two weeks ago, I broke up a fight at a food court because someone cut a queue.
People listen to me, whether out of fear or trust is still debatable, but the point is that it’s working.
I’m not a Sentinel yet – I’m still somewhere in-between, and we’re workshopping introducing me as a consultant to the team, rather than part of the team itself. It’s supposed to help ease me into the public, or something.
I don’t know how I feel about it yet, but it’s nice to look to my side and remember I’m standing beside, not against, my girlfriend.
Lune touches down amongst the reporters, and they make way for her. The shouting begins immediately, a thunderstorm of camera flashes. She ignores it all, and shields me as we make our way to the Lain entrance.
As we reach the door, someone shouts, ‘Are you really dating?’
Lune whips around, but I tug her forward. ‘Don’t,’ I murmur.
Her footsteps slow. Her hand around mine tightens. ‘Why not?’
‘Because some things aren’t worth it.’ The crashing waves of publicity, the busy night ahead. ‘We’re announcing big things tonight. We shouldn’t do this today.’
The hurt in Lune’s eyes shines clear as we step through the doors of Lain. Reporters aren’t allowed past this point, and the world settles into blissful silence.
We advance a bit further into the lobby, until I’m sure we’re out of sight of the reporters.
‘Why not?’ Lune says again. ‘I just thought – I don’t know, I thought we were there. It’s been months.’
I turn around and take all of her in. Cheeks high with flush, gentle slant of her nose, the way her sadness still leaves a glint in her eyes, a light in her that cannot be extinguished.
I slip both my hands in hers. ‘Because I want so, so badly for people to know that you’re mine and I’m yours, but we’re already not sure how they’re going to take the whole Raven-as-Sentinel thing.
We shouldn’t give them any more reason to talk.
’ I tiptoe to kiss her on the forehead. ‘Because I’ve been kidnapped too many times this week even when our dating status is just a rumour, and if we came out as a couple, I think it’d be worse. ’
Lune laughs a little, even if it’s a wet chuckle. ‘Sorry about that.’
‘Don’t be.’ I kiss the bridge of her nose, and her eyes flutter shut.
‘I’m literally Raven, I can kick ass. But that leads me to my next point, which is that if we tell people that Harper and Lune-slash-Tia are dating, then someone’s going to look at the undeniably intense sexual energy between Raven and Lune, and next thing we know, we’re going to have sapphic cheating rumours in mainstream Singapore media. ’
Lune laughs, more real this time. She tugs me into a hug and rests her chin on the crown of my head. ‘Sorry I got so weird about it. I’ve always felt like I need to hide the fact I liked girls, but it’s different with you.’
I’m thrown back to a moment ages ago, in the dim lighting of some closet room, the taste of Tia’s confession still lingering on my lips as she asked if we could keep this a secret, please.
I love you, I almost say, but apparently I’ve already stared too long, because Lune’s lips curve slowly into a smirk.
She pulls away from me and turns to the lifts. ‘Come on, Raven. We have an event to get to.’
As Lune slings an arm around my shoulders, she presses a kiss to my ear. ‘I love you too,’ she whispers.
TIA
When I was young, barely old enough to know multiplication tables, barely adept enough to write 冰 without confusing it with 水, the moon had kneeled outside my windowsill and whispered into my ear.
You’ll be someone important.
Then I’d become a Sentinel, and I thought that was it.
But in the quiet of the night, the moonlight spills across my bed, silhouetting Harper’s bare shoulders and illuminating the gentle rise and fall of her chest as she sleeps.
As if she can sense I’m awake, she shifts and turns around.
A half-open eye regards me groggily. ‘Why are you awake, bunny?’ Harper slurs, her voice low and hoarse with sleep.
I swallow. ‘Nightmares.’ This has become common in the last few months. I have had to wrestle out of too many deaths in the last year to yield so easily to darkness.
Harper slides a hand against my chest, over my heart. ‘Wanna talk about it?’
I shake my head.
She hums. Like it’s muscle memory, she slides an arm under me and pulls me in close, nestling herself against my front.
‘Safe now,’ she murmurs, her lips pressed hot against my collarbone.
The moon cradles us in a milky swathe of the moonlight, and I catch its whisper as I drift back to sleep.
You’ll be someone loved.