Kai laughed when I asked why he was pissed off. “Well, I can’t do fancy illusions to show you, but I can tell you what my life was like. My father was a swordsman. A legendary fighter from the Fourth Domain who just up and quit the pursuit of godhood to raise some kids. And that’s what he did. He sacrificed all of his power and glory to come here to raise kids—but the families never let him.

  “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell Jaylin this, but when we were younger… I think I was about fourteen, I killed that Dante boy. Just up and slashed him down.” He laughed bitterly. “He deserved it. He and his friends were holding some girl down. I think she had slapped him, and so he threw her down, and she started screaming, and they were telling her to keep her mouth shut… who fucking knows what they were doing. It didn’t matter.

  “I didn’t know they were Dantes ‘cause they weren’t on duty, so I kicked one in the ribs, and smashed the ring leader in the jaw. They turned—and I realized I was fucked.

  “These kids were Dantes. And while your average branded Dante wasn’t shit compared to Hadrian, they were all bathed in fire. One of these teens could take down two battle mages—and there were three of them.

  “There was no discussion.

  “There was no reasoning.

  “These three were humiliated by some woman and then got kicked around by a bonafide commoner and they were pissed.

  “They didn’t even care that there were people unloading crates in the alleyway. They hit the area with a wind spell so savage it broke my barrier and sent me flying. I barely managed to unclick Vengeance, though… I suppose it was called Justice back then… whatever. I got up and dodged the next blast of fire that killed those innocent workers and bounded around the corner, and… there were a lot of people there. And I knew what was going to happen. So I unsheathed Vengeance and siphoned its power, and when the teens rounded the corner, I kicked one in the stomach so hard that they flew twenty feet into a waterway. I hit the second hard enough to slow ‘em down, and I clashed swords with their leader.

  “And I’ll say this. I don’t know a lick of magic except barrier magic. But I know swordplay, and Vengeance can combine wind and heat in the blades. Striking blades—I’m still unmatched in Helscope for my age group. They didn’t stand a chance.

  “But I’ll admit—their leader wasn’t half bad. He was one mean son of a bitch, and amongst the best I’ve foughten. We traded swords in a dance of sparks and grating shrills. Wind was blasting everywhere. It was my first true battle, and I wanted to enjoy it, but we were in public. I remember saying, “Stop! There’s people around!”—but they didn’t care.

  “You don’t touch a Dante! the leader yelled.

  “You don’t push down girls! I yelled. You uncharming fuck!

  “They didn’t like that. They obviously didn’t like that. And I didn’t either. I was a commoner and he was, right—you don’t touch a Dante. And if I was going down, I was going down with them.

  “The second guy joined in; we traded swords. I was fighting two of them, and I was winning. I was Vengeance. I was death. In my mind, I was going to humiliate the shit out of these Dante, and the Peacefuls who were stupid enough to watch instead of run saw me do just that. Oh yeah, the Dantes got humiliated alright—and I made it proud and public.

  “I thought it was great—they snapped.

  “Hold ‘em off! the leader snarled.

  “That was a bad sign and it only meant one thing—a serious spell. I fought past the second guy with ease, but the kid I kicked into the waterway finally got back and joined in. So now I’m trading swords with two guys, and that was okay. The problem was the leader—he was charging up a fire spell. Fire… the most exquisite of magic. It’s so effective at killing people that it kills you and your allies when you use it. Fucking idiot. City, forest, battlefield—fire magic is fucking useless…. Unless you’re a psychopath.”

  I shuddered at Kai’s tone.

  “So I parry and use that moment to look behind me,” Kai said. “And I see this group of kids. Most of the crowd saw the fire on the leader’s hands and ran, but there was this group of kids who were jumping up and down like they were watching a stage performance. And in that moment, I realized that maybe… maybe if I drained my mana and my sword’s power, maybe… I could’ve created a barrier that could survive that spell. But… those kids… the whole city block… they would burn. And… something just unlocked in my brain. There’s this ‘no kill’ switch everyone has from birth, but it simply… switched off. And a whole lot of skill I had magically appeared.

  “Because the thing about swordplay—is that it’s designed to kill people. And if you’re not killing people—you’re only using half of it.

  “Well, I used the full of it. My world slowed down. I could think clearly. I saw an opening and I cut the second man’s leg off, slashed the third on the stomach, and blasted off toward the leader. He shot the fire at me, but my sword has this… negating effect. It negates any magic it touches. Not the whole spell, just the area it touches. And I cut through those flames before they could spread, and cut right through that man’s hands. He started to scream, but I lobbed off his head in the next swing.”

  Kai looked into his teacup.

  “I didn’t feel bad about what I did. But I did regret what happened because of it. My Dad knew I was in trouble, so he sent me off to train with Kalas, knowing full damn well that they were coming for me. Kalas was strong. Dantes didn’t know how strong until Kalas maimed their cores with sealing magic and sent them back unbruised and useless. My mother and sister were with us as well. I just didn’t know it. So they were safe, but my Dad… he was on trial.

  “‘Course the Domain system made him fuckin’ useless. So he had to look at these lowly, worthless, snob-nosed Dantes and their tiny fuckin’ heir and say ‘Sorry.’ Then, he rotted in a cell till they found me. Then they found me, and six of their top people came back functionally useless—and that’s when they realized that Ryker Dairook was kinda a big deal.

  “And that’s when they made ‘em an ultimatum: You can stay here and meet the axe, or you’ll hand over Kalas and train the soldiers up the ladder. If you comply, we’ll make the Dairook family a legitimate family, and that’ll bypass the legal obligation to kill your son.

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  “My father said, No. I won’t leave my family without Kalas.

  “Typhus said: smart man. Well, we will take you. And that was that.

  “That’s the true story behind what happened to my father. It’s also the story behind the Dairook family, and the reason I’m pissed. Though… I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention it to Jaylin. Mom’s spent the last ten years claiming Dad ran off on some quest for glory because she doesn’t want us to know that I was the one who got him… shipped off. And Jaylin’s been a good sport by feigning ignorance. Still, there’s a huge difference between being convinced something happened and knowing something happened. So I’d rather she not get confirmation.”

  I nodded, and then we sat in silence for about a minute before he laughed.

  “If it was just that… I think I’d be able to get over it, you know? But every… fucking… day. There hasn’t been a month that’s gone by that people haven’t tried to steal Vengeance…” He brushed his hands on the sword. “And I’ve killed every single one of them. Every one of them. Not because they were strong, not because I wanted to send a message—I killed them because it was a legal requirement.”

  I looked at him confusedly. “Requirement?”

  “Yeah. Requirement. Not originally. The Dairook were technically a family, and adults knew better than to break the law and invoke Kalas’ wrath, but the kids didn’t. So they’d come to scrap to steal my sword, and I’d scrap back, and then I’d be sitting in a tribunal, reminding people, again, that people were trying to steal my sword. And Kalas would be right there with me. And about the fifth time it happened, it started leaking into the city, and it was ruining the invincible reputation of the great and unstoppable families. So they made a big deal over the strength of the Dairook family, publically, and everyone was watching.

  “Families told their children to stop humiliating themselves, and Trigan worked with legislators to establish the ‘Dairook law.’ It states that trying to steal a sword from a family member is considered lethal provocation, and any family member could kill anyone who did it—including a legacy. But the catch was that the second I failed to kill one of them, the lawyers would put me on trial and claim I started the provocation game over.

  “And so that was what my life was like:

  “I woke up before dawn, laid bricks until after noon, I paid the Dante three fourths of my paycheck to protect my family from revenge seekers, and then I’d train and train and train because if I lost once my mother, my sister, and I would be imprisoned, tortured, and killed… all for protecting women and children. That… That is why I’m pissed.”

  The rage in Kai’s eyes was unquenchable—and I understood it. His story was harrowing, but then again—so was mine. My world was destroyed, and then they sent me to a death trap and brought me into a life of killing.

  Our stories weren’t the same—

  But they sure did rhyme.

  After a few seconds of silence, he said, “I asked to be a swordsman.”

  I blurted out laughter in the silence. “Well, you got your wish.”

  He looked around and back. “Says the botanist.”

  I laughed and looked him in the eye, and we laughed harder.

  “And they called me a freak,” I said playfully.

  “If by they you mean you, then yes, they did,” he said, standing up with faux outrage. “As for me, I always thought…” He slowed down his words as he looked at me.

  “You thought what?” I asked. My heart thudded. My cheeks heated up. I suddenly couldn’t breathe or hear anything around me. I was pissed and frustrated and passionate and now, I was in that state of pressure and anxiety that just makes people lean into each other. I came here to talk about being a freak, but now…

  I’m not sure what I wanted. Because Tyler screamed “Mira!” and barged into my house without knocking. He knew he fucked up when he examined the situation, Kai walking toward me—me looking all vulnerable and shit. Absolute mortification.

  “Oh, fuck, sorry!” He shut the door.

  “Come back!” I yelled.

  The moment was ruined, and it was probably for the best, too. I barely knew Kai, and I wasn’t the type of girl who could go sleeping around with anyone. I was a queen and a general of an army, and someone who could die at any moment while dealing with deadly beasts. I had to think more than just getting carried away in some heated conversation with a handsome man.

  Tyler entered sheepishly.

  Kai was the first to talk. “What do you need?”

  “Need?” Tyler’s face flushed with anger. “A goodbye would be nice! Felio said you were leaving!”

  “Tomorrow,” I said.

  “That’s what you said last time. And you left at midnight!”

  “Well, there’s that..” I paused. “Felio knows?”

  “Yeah, she knows. She figured that Jaylin would have a panic attack if she knew you were leaving. That’s why they’re having girl night. Seriously, Mira. If you want to be sneaky, try harder. You’re treating everyone like they’re blind.”

  I smiled at his brooding attitude. He was twenty now, but he still felt like a child in so many ways.”

  “Come here.” After some wrangling, I gave him a hug. Then, Kai walked past us into the cool winter air.

  “See ya when you get back,” he said.

  “See ya,” I whispered.

  “Seriously?” Tyler said when the door shut. “You’re just going to… let him go? leaving him for three months with a pool of hot chicks. If you don’t lock him ‘em down, he’s leaving.”

  I frowned. “If he won’t wait three months, it was the right choice.”

  “Said every single woman at thirty ever.”

  I sighed and didn’t budge. He’d have to wait, I thought. But maybe that was a prudish justification—or my own fear of rejection. Whatever the case, I let him go. But not without a bang. Later that night, after packing up my gear, I sat on my bed and thought through what had happened. The way my heart pounded. My attraction. My validation. My desire to be around someone who treated me like a human, always, and wanted to stay next to my side. I felt stupid for letting Kai go. I did.

  Romance was not part of my lifestyle. It was the last thing I needed. I needed to focus on training and getting stronger, and creating a literal army to fight a literal war.

  Yet I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and soon, without even knowing what I was doing, I started writing out a note that the old me would never be daring enough to write.

  It read: “If you want that kiss, you better keep up.”

  On it, I placed a third evolution core that was budding toward sunrise, the point by which the blue third evolution core switches into orange for the fourth. I gave him that core, along with a teal and twenty greens. And that wasn’t all. No, that was the start of it. I unloaded a pound of third evolution jerky, Diktyo water, and one last thing.

  I opened up my guide and sent Kai a Gold request as a gift, along with an attached note that said, “For the gold evolution skill. Come into my house for the rest.”

  That night, I’m sure Kai rushed to my treehouse and pounded on the door. But he wouldn’t find me.

  I decided to leave that night, after all.

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