Page 19 of Whispers of the Dragon
“You’re not from this side of the world, darling. He’s giving you the gift of a root, symbolizing the relationship he hopes to grow with you one day.”
Eira hadn’t thought about that perspective.
“Yeah, think about it.” His tone dripped with smugness, knowing she knew he was right.
She angrily changed the subject when he turned and went back to staring out at the edge of the cliff again. “Yeah, well, half of me is from this side of the world, too, you know.”
“Not the half that was raised here, Eira.” Ryu wanted her to understand the difference. “As a child, you are taught certain things about our culture, and once you reach adulthood, you are just expected to know them.”
“That’s not my fault, Ryu.”
“Didn’t say it was. But next time, when I tell you something about how this side of the world works, maybe you’ll listen to me.”
Wishing she had never changed the subject in the first place, she got back to the issue at hand. “You know, even if Kenji is as smart as you think he is, it still doesn’t excuse what you did.”
The thought of him only set Ryu off again. “He’s lucky I didn’t shove my foot up his—”
“What is your deal?” she cut him off, having heard enough. “If I want to accept more roots from Kenji, I am allowed to do so. I’m not—”
When Ryu suddenly spun back to her, she could feel the sheer heat that bounced off his skin. “You accept anything from him for free ever again, I will fucking kill him. Do you understand me, Eira?”
Eira didn’t know why or how she found the courage to do so, considering she knew Ryu fully meant what he had just said, but she finished what she was going to say before he interrupted her. “I’m notbetrothedto you, Ryu.” She softly emphasized the word he had used earlier. It actually, and oddly, hurt her heart to say it, and she could see her words had struck him to the quick as well.
As she stared up at a fiery Ryu, she could swear she could see fire burning behind his dark, glowing eyes, and the smile that suddenly lifted his lips sinisterly sent a chill up her spine, even though she was burning from the heat of him.
He reached out to her, letting a single finger get dangerously close to the burned side of her face as it hovered only a few centimeters above her scarred skin. “I could touch you, you know …”
She stood there, as still as a statue, as her breath caught in her throat, wanting both to not be touched and, for the first time, to be touched.
I swear not to touch you until you ask it of me.
The words he had said to her at their first meeting were already beginning to come true while her body screamed out for him to finally touch her.
It was nearly impossible not to compare it to Kenji almost touching her and how she had recoiled as she stood in front of Ryu, secretly hoping he would, as she continued listening to him.
“One touch, and you’d think twice about what you just said,” he told her hoarsely as his finger traveled over her skin without contact until he went lower and picked up a strand of her hair to twirl it around his finger.
Eira had to close her eyes, unable to look at him teasing her any longer. It was the anticipation of him doing so that was starting to kill her.
He slightly tugged the strand, causing her to close her eyes even tighter.
“Then this game I’ve been letting you play would be over.”
“What?” she breathed.
When she didn’t get a response after a moment, she finally opened her eyes back up to see he was no longer there. Nothingness stood in front of her, and when he had left, she hadn’t even felt so much as a breeze or her hair fall back to her shoulders.
Mystified, she called out for him, “Ryu?” She spun around in desperation to look for him, tried again louder, her heart already sinking, “Ryu?”
When she still received no response, she carefully went to the edge of the cliff, not knowing why she looked down.
The way the cliff curved down back into the mountain, she could only see waves crashing in the open ocean. She didn’t know what she expected to see, anyway, as she hadn’t even heard so much as a splash.
Trying once more in sheer hopelessness, her heart cried out his name, but this time she already knew she still wasn’t going to receive a response. “Ryu …”
The strange thing was, it already felt like it had all just been a dream.
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