Page 20 of Phantom Flower

My mother’s voice droned on about some ridiculous family trip to the Maldives or Aspen or wherever rich people went. She knew Kento would never stick around longer than an hour. He never did. Still, she kept pushing, her tone bright, like if she smiled hard enough the cracks in our family wouldn’t show.

Daniel nodded, occasionally throwing in some useless comment about “strengthening family bonds.”

I pushed my eggs around the plate with my fork, the yellow mush turning cold and congealed.

“Rei?” My mother’s voice made me look up. “You’ve barely touched your food, sweetheart.”

“I’m not hungry,” I muttered.

Kento’s dark eyes were locked on me the entire time. He hadn’t said much since sitting down, but he was watching me - the big brother who’d never really been one suddenly deciding to play protector because a Morozov had touched his family’s property.

I couldn’t take it anymore.

“I have to go,” I said abruptly, pushing my chair back. “I’ll be late.”

Kento stood at the same time. “I’ll drive you.”

“There’s no need,” I replied quickly, already grabbing my bag. “I can walk.”

He snatched my backpack out of my hand before I could react, slinging it over his shoulder. “I wasn’t offering. I was telling you what’s going to happen.”

I sighed, annoyed but too exhausted to fight him. Arguing with Kento was like arguing with a brick wall. I knew I wouldn’t win.

So I followed him out.

We slid into his car, a different one from the last time I’d seen him, of course. Everything about Kento changed constantly.

“Let’s continue where we left off,” he said after a few blocks. “What were you doing with Dimitri Morozov?”

I knew he wouldn’t drop it. But telling him the truth? That Dimitri had hunted me through the woods, fucked my mouth with a loaded gun until I came untouched and then choked me unconscious?

Kento would lose his mind. Not because he loved me - he didn’t love anyone, as far as I could tell - but because of his pride. The Kurosaki name being disrespected by a Morozov would be unacceptable to him.

I lied smoothly. “We have a project together. We needed some references, so we went to the library.”

Kento’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “School has the biggest library in the city. Why would you need to go anywhere else?”

I shrugged, staring out the window at the passing buildings. “It didn’t have what we needed.”

Even I didn’t buy the lie. Bloodburn had everything. And I only had two classes that even overlapped with Dimitri’s schedule. There was no project. Kento wasn’t stupid.

“Stay away from him from now on, Rei. All of them.”

I stayed quiet for the rest of the ride, fingers twisting in my lap.

Kento didn’t push harder, which was unlike him. That meant he didn’t believe a word I said. He was just biding his time, probably already planning to dig into whatever the hell was going on.

When we finally pulled up to Bloodburn Academy, I grabbed my bag and stepped out quickly, eager to escape.

Kento lowered the window, leaning over to look past me.

His entire expression changed, eyes narrowing.

I followed his gaze.

Dimitri Morozov stood near the entrance, but beside him was the blond one - Ilya - and my brother’s gaze was locked on him.

I didn’t dwell on it. I turned and walked inside without a backward glance.