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He was.

Until he wasn’t.

Ananke’s last conversation plays through my mind. She warned me against trusting him. She warned me to keep my feelings in check.

“He was your husband. He was the father of your children. Now, he is neither of those things. He is a shell. A tool. Can you honestly say that you would go back to that life now? After everything?”

“No. I don’t think I could. Those memories, the few that I have, hurt too much to face.”

“Then use them to keep him at arm’s length.”

“Yet I am supposed to sleep with him? Use him?”

“There’s nothing wrong with a little fun, Circe. Context. Compartmentalize. Remember that he was also once your enemy.”

A newer snippet of information that she let slip. What he was when I found him. An assassin for Adil Abas of the Mocro. The organization out of Morocco that helped wipe my family off the map.

But no matter how hard I try, the Ero I see before me, the Ero I share a bed with…

He’s not the villain she made him out to be. At least not now.

The two men exchange strikes, taunting and gibing.

“You have ape arms. Use them,Kyojin.” Haru swiftly parries, never wasting a movement. Economic. Tight.

Ero growls, a little frustration, a little anticipation. What passes for a smile on his face tugs at one corner of his mouth. “You punished me enough for overextending my reach already, Haru-san.”

“Ah, you do learn. But it is still ultimately an advantage over someone smaller like me.”

“Neither of us have found an advantage over you this entire week,Usagi!” I shout, chuckling at the squint Haru flicks my way. He always hated when I called him rabbit.

Our time near Kyoto is nearly done. Another mission awaits.

It’s gone by too quickly.

I could stay here in the hills forever. Live in the little cottage with Ero, eating off the land. Bathing in the river. Sparring and meditating and losing ourselves in one another every night…

“Yet you defeated me yesterday.”

“I cheated.” I shrug, stretching deeper into a split. Haru’s drills definitely made me stronger, faster, more flexible.

“No such thing,” Ero barks, using the brief reprieve to find an opening. Haru darts back on the defensive, right to the edge of the practice ring, under the boughs of a cherry blossom tree.

“I could not agree more—” Haru laughs, lunging from a backpedal into a fully extended thrust forward faster than I can process. There’s no way Ero dodges or blocks a move like that.

Except Ero isn’t there.

He’s a step to the left in the shadows of the tree. His sword taps Haru once.

“How the fuck…” I sit up, gathering my legs under me.

“Finally!” Ero shouts, tossing his head back. He composes himself immediately, bowing to Haru. “Sensei.”

“Han Kage.” Half Shadow. The moniker Haru gives him clicks along with what Ero just did.

“He used the contrast of sun and shade…” I nod, joining them as they head toward the huts and a well-earned dinner.

“And his own shadow to mislead my eyes.” Haru wags his eyebrows.