Page 137 of Psync
He was about to go back to the car when he realized he wasn’t ready yet. As much as he wanted to beplows boldly forward in the face of trouble Eli, he was seriously freaking out.
So, he found a nice tree to freak out under.
His kidnapper was on the loose and probably looking for him. Haruka had gone bananas. And there may or may not be a god who had cursed the both of them to an eternity of being torn apart.
Eli put his head between his knees.
It hadn’t been just a dream. Right?
It had felt so real. Dying over and over again, losing Haruka, being torn away from him countless times—it had been too horrible for it to have just been a dream.
And he was here dealing with it alone instead of having his partner with him to share the burden.
He lifted his head. Had Haruka had the same dream? If he had, that would explain why he’d suddenly gone all alpha male on Eli.
Haruka was probably hurting as much as Eli, and Eli had just ditched him to go sightseeing.
He should have talked to him.
Eli leaned his head against the tree.So, this is what it feels like to be a stupid jerk.
He wasn’t a fan.
In a few minutes, he would pull up his big boy pants and try and fix this mess, but for now he would sit and be still.
He closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of nature. The wind swirling through fallen leaves, a lone bird chirping, a shrine maiden sweeping the pathway.
He reached into his shoulder bag and pulled out a notebook and pen.
Even if our curse
Separates us once again
I will still find you
He wasn’t the best at poetry, but it seemed fitting to write something at the shrine of a kami who presided over words. And because he was Eli, he wrote the workjerkat the end of his haiku.
“You realize that word means jerk, right?” a young, feminine voice asked in English.
Eli looked up to see the shrine maiden looking over his shoulder. “Yes.”
“And that adding it means it isn’t a haiku anymore. You’ve got too many syllables now.”
Eli smiled ruefully. “I know. But even though it doesn’t fit, it’s still fitting.”
The shrine maiden raised an eyebrow. “If you say so.”
Eli stood, bowed to the shrine maiden, and turned to go. He pulled out his phone. The Daibutsu would have to wait for another day.
He dialed Haruka’s number.
A phone buzzed softly behind him.
Eli turned to see Haruka standing in the shadow of a tree several feet away. “How long have you been here?”
“Not long.” Haruka’s face was in default mode. Cold and distant.
“It wasn’t nice to lock me up.”
