CHAPTER 19
Aiko sat up on her bed and set her phone aside, her focus shifting from the picture of her with Esher to her surroundings. She was sure that she had felt him. She looked outside at the moon where it rose above the taller buildings across the park, full but faded in the late afternoon sky, clearer now the sun was sinking lower. It wasn’t possible.
Downstairs, the doorbell rang.
She pushed off the bed, her pulse picking up as she felt Esher again, and exited her small bedroom. Her father was already crossing the hall below when she reached the stairs, heading towards the clinic door.
It couldn’t be him.
She glanced at her phone again, at the last message from him that had sounded strained to her, had made her want to go to him and risk it.
Maybe he had decided to be the one to risk it all instead.
If it was him, she would make him go back to the mansion and call one of his brothers, Daimon perhaps. He seemed to have the most influence over Esher.
She reached the bottom step and tucked her phone into her jeans pocket as she crossed through the clinic to her father where he stood at the door.
Sure enough, Esher stood on the step.
Her father gave her a look that conveyed how unimpressed he was with her boyfriend showing up and then sighed and walked away, leaving her alone with Esher.
“What are you doing here?” She moved to stand in the door.
The moment she was within reach, Esher grabbed her wrist and pulled her out into the street. Warmth curled around her, both from his touch and the fading heat of day.
“Wait.” She twisted free of his grip, went back into the clinic and slipped her shoes on.
She barely had the laces tied before he grabbed her again, pulling her with him.
“What’s wrong?” She looked up at the back of his head as he marched her towards the park, into the shadows beneath the trees. “Is the moon affecting you?”
“No.” He snarled that word, and she tensed, but then he softened as he added, “Yes.”
He rubbed his hand across his brow, causing his blue-grey shirt to tighten across his shoulders as he wiped beads of sweat away. Was he sick?
“You should be back at the mansion.” She reached for her phone. “I should contact Daimon.”
Esher hadn’t been happy when Daimon had given her his details, but she was glad that she had ignored his outburst and had taken Daimon’s number now.
“No.” He turned sharply and reached for her phone, and she held it behind her and frowned at him.
“You need to go home.” She could see it in his blue eyes as they glowed and feel it in the tightness of his grip on her. “I’ll go with you.”
That seemed to please him and his hand loosened around her wrist. She went with him as he started marching again, pulling her along at a rapid pace that she struggled to keep up with as he crossed the road to the shadows of the buildings, and from there towards the centre of the district.
Her eyes lifted to the back of his head again as something felt off to her. “Why aren’t you teleporting me there?”
He glanced at her and a streak of light caught him, turning his skin golden and threading the longer lengths of his black hair with pale highlights. He flinched and sank deeper into the shadows, avoiding the light.
Or maybe her question.
For a moment, he looked as if he wouldn’t answer, as if her question had caught him so off guard that he didn’t have an answer to give her because he wasn’t sure himself, but then he turned to face away from her again and spoke.
“The moon makes it difficult for me,” he bit out, voice a low snarl of agony that she could feel in him.
She moved closer to him and he didn’t back away this time, didn’t flinch from her touch as she stroked his cheek. Her poor Esher. She hadn’t realised the moon would have such a terrible effect on him. He looked sick.
He twisted away from her again and she looked down at his hand on her wrist as they hurried towards the main road, at the way he was holding it tightly, as if he feared her breaking free. She had to call Daimon. Something was wrong with Esher. He shouldn’t be out in the city, not when the moon was clearly affecting him badly.
That sensation that something was off came again when he hailed a cab on the main road.
It wasn’t like him.
He had always avoided people when she had been with him, had made it sound as if he couldn’t bear being around them, but now he was willing to take a taxi somewhere and be in close proximity to a human other than her? The trains were still running, and at this time of day they could have half a carriage to themselves, all the space he needed.
It wasn’t like the Esher she knew at all.
But then she didn’t know what he was like when the moon affected him.
Maybe the need to reach his home quickly again had him bearing being around a single human, maybe it was better than being on a train where there would be more people.
She reached for her pocket again.
Esher grabbed her wrist, stopping her, and pushed her into the black taxi as it pulled up.
“Ginza station,” he said as he slid into the back seat beside her and the door closed.
Aiko looked across at him. “You need to go home.”
He ignored her, and that sensation grew stronger, churning in the pit of her stomach. Something was wrong. Esher wasn’t taking her home, he was taking her somewhere that would be filled with humans at this hour, the popular shopping street a destination for locals and tourists alike.
It was dangerous for him to be around so many people.
The journey to the heart of the Ginza district was short, and Esher pulled her out of the cab before she could stop him and make the driver take them to the mansion instead.
“Come on.” He tugged her with him, close to him, and looked around at the crowded street, his eyes darkening as he watched the people.
What was he looking for?
Why had he brought her here?
“Take me to your home, Esher.” She tried again, but he only glared at her, his eyes narrowing and darkening further.
Something was very wrong.
She focused on him, trying to read his feelings so she could figure out what was wrong with him, but it was as if a wall stood between them and she couldn’t penetrate it.
“Where are we going?” She didn’t move when he started walking, was going to refuse to take another step until he answered her question.
“Keep moving,” he growled and turned on her, and when she shook her head, his grip on her wrist tightened and he forced her, pulling her along the street and tugging at her arm whenever she stumbled.
Hurting her.
Aiko stared at his hand on her and focused on him, trying to read him, because something was more than wrong. Esher had shown her countless times, had told her to her face that he was terrified of hurting her, but now he was squeezing her wrist so hard it felt as if her bones might break.
It wasn’t like him.
She reached for her phone, sensing the power of the protective charm through her jeans, and that feeling grew stronger. He was so desperate to keep her safe from harm that he had made a charm for her, and now he was pulling her through the crowd, not stopping to look at her whenever she stumbled and fell, just dragging her back onto her feet and forcing her to continue.
Maybe he needed her to calm him. There hadn’t been any red in his eyes when he had looked at her, but maybe the power the moon exerted over him was pushing him too hard, had him on the verge of losing control, at a point where she could bring him back with the safe word he had given her and calm him.
Before he did something terrible.
She looked around her at all the people who were watching her being tugged along by him, at the people who were going to suffer if Esher lost control.
She had to protect them.
She opened her mouth, the word on the tip of her tongue, but then the sensation that something wasn’t right struck her again and her heart whispered that this wasn’t Esher. The Esher she loved would never hurt her, would never treat her like this. She focused again, but she still couldn’t read him, and that left her cold.
“Clavius.” The word left her lips, pushed up from her heart as it began to race, and fear trickled through her veins.
Esher stopped and looked over his shoulder at her, his black eyebrows knitted tightly above his dark blue eyes.
“Um… Stadius… Rheita… Copernicus…” It was hard to stop herself from trembling as she said each word, naming the craters she had come across when she had passed a few hours researching the moon to fill her time and make the wait to see Esher again less painful.
His frown hardened. “Why are you mentioning parts of the moon?”
A flicker of relief went through her. “You’re hurting me, and so I thought to calm you by using the word you gave me… only I forgot which crater it is.”
Her pulse doubled again, her nerves rising back up as she faced him, looked him in the eye and prayed that she was mistaken.
“Which crater is it again?” Her voice shook, and she swallowed hard. “Clavius, Rheita, Stadius or Copernicus.”
Tycho. Please say Tycho.
She stood before him, knees weakening as she waited, hoping he would chuckle at her and say it was none of them, and fearing her test would reveal something terrifying.
His handsome face turned pensive.
“Clavius. I didn’t hear you the first time.” He smoothed his hand over her wrist as he loosened his grip. “I’m sorry. I’m calm now.”
That cold in her veins turned to ice.
As she stared into his eyes, his words hollow in her ears, she felt a glimmer of something from him, the barest flicker of sensation but one that confirmed her worst fears.
This wasn’t her Esher.
It was someone else.
She was in danger.
Her first instinct was to run, but she forced herself to nod and smile, and focused on her breathing, trying to get her heartbeat to level out so he wouldn’t notice. Whoever he was. He looked like Esher, acted like him, must have been studying him, learning about him so he could mimic him.
Now Esher was locked away because of the moon, and this man had seen it as the perfect opportunity to grab her.
Because he wanted to use her to get to Esher.
That had her blood turning colder, but she held it together, maintaining her smile despite the fear building inside her. She needed to get away from him, or somehow contact her Esher.
“We should head home.” She managed to keep her voice calm, hiding the way she shook inside, her heart threatening to race again as adrenaline rushed through her, and her instincts screamed at her to run.
Because this person before her was a daemon.
One of Esher’s enemies.
She felt sure of it as she looked at him as he wiped a hand across his brow again, clearing the sweat. Esher had told her that daemons couldn’t stand the sunlight, that it hurt them and weakened them. Now the fake-Esher sticking to all the shadows and choosing to ride in the taxi cab where the tinted windows would offer respite made a sickening sort of sense.
Fake-Esher was a daemon, dangerous to her, more powerful than she was but also weak right now, vulnerable in a way she might be able to exploit in order to escape.
“Let’s go home.” She placed her hand into his.
He looked down at it, and then up into her eyes. “No. I can’t. The… gate needs me.”
Was fake-Esher going to target the gate?
Esher’s enemies wanted to destroy them to merge the Underworld with this one, creating a single realm. She couldn’t let this person attack the gate. She had to do something.
She just wasn’t sure what she could do.
Fake-Esher pulled her along, and she went with him, wracking her brain and trying to think of a plan, something that would stop him from attempting to reach the gate.
She kept her eyes on him and struggled to keep up so the people passing her by wouldn’t think she needed their assistance, even when she wanted to scream for help. If someone tried to aid her, the daemon would kill them, she was sure of it.
She wouldn’t place people in danger like that. She would find a way to escape him by herself, once they were away from the crowd.
He led her into one of the skyscrapers, and into an elevator, the look he gave those waiting for it too enough to have them all reconsidering and moving aside to take the next one instead.
Her nerves threatened to get the better of her as he pulled her close, slinging his arm around her shoulder, and her stomach turned as she played along, sliding her hand across his lower back above his black jeans.
She slipped her other hand into her pocket.
His eyes darted down to it, and he smiled as he turned towards her, took hold of her arm and pulled her hand out again. “I just want a moment alone with you. I’ve missed you. Once I’ve dealt with the gate, we can go home.”
She relaxed and nodded, and he glared at her phone that poked out of her pocket, looking as if he was going to demand she hand it over.
“I won’t call anyone, don’t worry.” She pushed it back into her pocket and held her smile in place. “I was only going to have it ready to take another picture. I love the last one we took together and thought maybe we could take one with the gate. I haven’t seen it yet.”
His eyebrows dipped low, but he nodded. “Sure.”
The elevator pinged, and the doors opened, and she didn’t resist fake-Esher as he pulled her along the corridor to a door at the far end. He pushed it open and ascended the steps, and she flinched as she hit the roof and wind buffeted her, blowing her hair in her face and whipping her cream blouse around her waist.
Fake-Esher was too intent on searching the roof to notice the wind that made the longer lengths of his black hair on top of his head dance around. His blue eyes scanned everything, irritation flaring in them when he turned on the spot and looked at the other side of the roof.
“Where’s the gate?” she said, and his eyes leaped to her and then away, and he glared at the horizon where the sun still lingered above it.
“It will open soon.” He looked confident about that as he stalked towards the centre of the roof.
Aiko looked out across the incredible panorama, taking in the city that stretched around her, pockets of taller buildings creating an undulating skyline. She spotted Sugamo just off to her right, and further to her right and closer to her was the sprawling green that surrounded the Imperial Palace. To her left, Tokyo Tower speared the sky, bright orange and almost glowing in the sunshine.
It would have been beautiful if she had been standing here with her Esher.
She glanced down over the edge of the roof, at the stomach-turning drop to the busy street below, and then followed fake-Esher when his eyes landed on her and she felt his impatience. As she neared the other end of the roof, the air began to hum with power. It vibrated through her, lit up her body and had her gravitating towards it.
Fake-Esher’s gaze tracked her as she drifted forwards, towards the source of the power.
There was nothing there, just an expanse of grey roof, but at the same time there was something. She could feel it. Dark. Powerful. Like nothing she had ever felt before.
“I feel it, but I can’t see it.” She paced the area, and then lifted her head and pinned her gaze on fake-Esher. “Should I be able to see it?”
“Humans can’t.” He turned and scowled at the city, and the sun, and then moved closer to her. “But you’ll be able to see it when it opens.”
So he knew she wasn’t wholly human, that she had a power of her own.
“You can get your phone out now.” Fake-Esher’s cold tone had her looking his way again, pulling her gaze away from the patch of roof where the air hummed strongest.
She pointed to it. “There’s no gate. I wanted to take a picture of us with the gate, not with a roof.”
His blue eyes narrowed and he took a hard step towards her. “I need you to get your phone out and message my brother. I’m not feeling so good.”
No. He wanted her to message one of his brothers because he wanted word to reach Esher, because he knew Esher would come for her, and then the daemon would force him to open the gate.
She shook her head and backed off a step. “If you’re not feeling well, we should just go.”
His jaw tensed and he held his hand out to her. “Give me your phone.”
“Use your own one,” she countered.
He was quick to respond. “I forgot it.”
He was even quicker to close the gap between them. She gasped as he appeared before her and turned to run, but he grabbed her arm in a bruising grip and yanked her to face him.
She shoved her hands against his chest. “You’re hurting me.”
He growled, twisted her arm, and she cried out as pain blazed up it. “Just give me the fucking phone.”
Tears filled her eyes as her arm throbbed, the pain so intense it stole her breath, and she wanted to shake her head, but the look in his eyes warned her that he would hurt her worse if she didn’t do as he wanted.
Her fingers shook as she reached her free hand into her pocket and fumbled with her phone. Before she could try to send a blind call for help to someone, fake-Esher grabbed her wrist and pulled her arm up, forcing her to pull her phone from her pocket.
He smiled coldly.
Reached for the phone.
Bellowed in agony as he went flying across the roof to land hard against an air-conditioning outlet.
Aiko looked down at the glowing ginger cat charm dangling from her phone.
Her phone vibrated, the small display on the cover revealing Daimon’s name.
Fake-Esher lumbered onto his feet and shook his head, snarling dark words in a tongue she didn’t know. Before she could open her phone and warn Daimon that a daemon had her and tell him not to let Esher know and to come for her, the daemon appeared before her again and knocked her hand, sending the phone tumbling across the flat grey roof.
Only when she looked up, her heart lodged in her throat, it wasn’t fake-Esher standing before her.
It was a beautiful tall woman with long deep violet hair that shimmered black in the light and eyes like quicksilver, silvery pools that constantly shifted and changed, swirling as Aiko stared into them.
Her black-painted lips twisted in a cold smile.
Aiko gasped as the woman grabbed her by her throat, hauled her off her feet and marched her towards the edge of the roof. She frantically shook her head, her pulse rocketing as she looked down and the edge of the roof appeared below her feet, and then there was nothing but a terrifying drop to her death.
“Please.” She grappled with the woman’s arm, holding it tightly as fear swamped her and she tried to reach for the edge of the roof with her toes. The woman pulled her back, and she breathed a little easier as her feet touched the raised wall. “What do you want with me?”
“First, I want you to message that bastard of yours.” The woman glared at the phone on the roof off to Aiko’s left.
Aiko breathed through her fear, calming herself enough that she could focus again, and turned that focus on the woman. It was hard, but it wasn’t as difficult as when she had tried to read Keras.
“And then what?” She had to keep the woman talking, keep her distracted, so she had time to go deeper, to penetrate the layers of fog that clouded her thoughts.
The woman’s smile widened. “And then you become Esher’s collar. With you in my possession, he will do anything I demand… even turn on his own brothers.”
No.
Her focus faltered as cold swept through her.
She couldn’t let that happen. Hurting his own brothers would kill him, but she was sure he would do it for her. He would bear the pain, because he loved her. She wasn’t going to let this woman put him through that hell. She had to get away, somehow.
Aiko focused on the woman again and pushed harder this time, forcing herself to keep going even when her head ached and her nose stung as if she was going to get a nosebleed.
A hazy feeling came to her.
Fear.
Not her own.
The woman was afraid. Of Esher? His brothers?
She focused harder, and managed to penetrate the woman’s mind, enough to catch a few words.
It wasn’t Esher or his brothers the woman feared. It was another woman, someone powerful, someone who would kill her if she failed in her task. Esher was vital. A key. Key to what?
Them winning or something else?
“Get your phone and make the call.” The woman pulled her towards her and Aiko shook her head.
“No.” She wouldn’t alert Esher to her plight, because he would fall right into the woman’s hands, and she couldn’t let that happen.
The moment her footing felt sure enough, she pushed forwards, barrelling into the woman. When she knocked the woman backwards, surprise rang through her. She had expected a daemon to be stronger, able to withstand her slight weight.
Maybe she wasn’t strong.
Maybe the reason she hadn’t held Aiko over the drop for longer than a few seconds was because she had been weakening and had feared dropping her.
Aiko kicked her hard in her shin, broke free of her grip and ran for her phone. If she could just get hold of it, she could use the power of the charm to repel the daemon.
The daemon snatched her wrist before she could reach it and twisted with her, spinning her back towards the edge of the roof.
She hit it, screamed as she toppled forwards and lost balance, tumbling over the edge.
The woman snagged her arm and Aiko screamed again as she slipped through the daemon’s grip. The woman grunted and lurched forwards with her, her stomach hitting the raised edge of the roof, but she managed to keep her hand locked around her as it hit Aiko’s wrist.
Aiko looked down, heart hammering and on the verge of stopping as the street below zoomed in and out.
“Give me your other hand!” The woman lowered her free one.
Aiko scrambled, trying to grab it, swinging wildly as the woman grunted with each attempt that pulled her closer to falling too.
Part of her said to pull the woman over the edge with her, that she could spare Esher if she sacrificed herself, because she was sure the fall would kill the daemon too.
Esher.
The thought of never seeing him again brought tears to her eyes.
She couldn’t do it, not even to save him. She wasn’t strong enough.
She redoubled her effort, desperately trying to get hold of the daemon’s other hand as the woman stretched it towards her, her legs flailing beneath her.
Her phone vibrated again and the woman looked towards it, and Aiko was glad that she couldn’t answer it and lure Esher to her, that the charm would protect it from the daemon.
She knew that it was him calling now, because rain came out of nowhere, hammering her and getting in her eyes as she fought to reach the daemon’s other hand.
He knew she was in trouble.
He was coming for her.
If she could just hold on, just claw herself back up onto the roof, she could attack the woman again and maybe this time get the upper hand. She could reach her phone and make a run for it, telling Esher where she was so he could save her.
Her heart lodged in her throat as her wet arm slipped through the woman’s grip.
She suddenly felt empty—no emotion, no sensation, nothing.
But one thought.
She didn’t want to die.