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“You claim I will enjoy them, and I am determined to prove you wrong in something.”

He chuckled.

Five minutes into the drive to Ronin’s apartment, Naia had devoured the entire box. The desserts were a devilish size, making it impossible to only eat one or two.

She continued to snack as Ronin drove in the heavy flow of traffic with ease. As he did so, she learned how fond she found his concentrated face to be—eyes squinted and the tip of his tongue poking out between his lips. It was cute, and a new side of him she hadn’t seen.

The tunnel they entered seemed to stretch infinitely. Headlights flickered on through the warm glow. Something about the atmosphere made Naia want to roll her window down and hold her arm out to encompass the feeling.

The sky was dark as they emerged from the tunnel, casting an eerie shadow on this part of the city. Unlike the modern and stylish establishments on the other side of town, the ones here lacked charm. Against the horizon, the skyscrapers jutted out like menacing teeth, casting a dark and ominous presence. They stood tall and smooth, their surfaces reflecting the blinking light on polished obsidian.

Ronin rounded a sharp curve, and the streets narrowed.

He flipped his blinker on and turned left off the road, before coming to a stop in front of an iron gate. He rolled his window down, inviting in a chilly current, and entered a code on a touch screen pad attached to the stone.

The enormous gates yawned apart and Ronin drove through.

In front of the paved curb, he parked by an old oak tree, its gnarled roots visible in the soil.

They both exited the car.

Hanging back her head, Naia took in the towering apartment complex. The building’s design reached for the sky with sweeping height and sharp, symmetrical contours—a midnight pike piercing the slate-gray sky.

“You coming?” Ronin waited a few paces ahead for her, arms full of the groceries he’d purchased.

She started towards him.

When they reached the entrance of the building, Naia saw the blossomed violet dahlias alongside the sidewalk Ronin had told her about. Her father entered her thoughts, and a deep ache spread through her chest like a gaping chasm.

Balancing a box of what was left of her desserts, and a brown paper sack in her arms, she came to a halt, spellbound by the velvety dark flowers standing out against the onyx backdrop of the building, swimming in that chasm of grief.

Naia’s attention shifted to Ronin, holding the door open with the toe of his shoe.

His gaze, soft and knowing, met hers, as if he recognized the deep void she had briefly been trapped in and pulled herself out of. He made her feel understood, and she did not need to apologize or make up an excuse for her sadness.

She breezed past him and glided into the sterile lobby atmosphere. They moved deeper inside its pristine glass walls and polished floors. Ronin led her into a contraption in the wall with automatic doors and several rows of buttons with numbers beside them. Above it read: elevator.

Ronin reached out and pressed a button. As the contraption elevated, Naia felt a slight shift in gravity beneath her feet. Her stomach dropped, and she had the urge to grab onto something.

The doors slid apart and revealed a long hallway. The wall was split between white on one side and a tinted shade of glass on the other, overlooking the city.

Naia stumbled a little on her feet from the view. This side of the city had a sinister feel, with a metallic hue covering the land like a veil.

Magic.

The apartment complex was a stark opposite from the run-down beach cottage his sister and niece lived in.

Ronin entered a passcode beneath the door handle on a keypad.

A click reverberated, and they stepped inside.

Ronin kicked his shoes off at the entrance and slipped into a pair of fuzzy slippers.

Naia respectfully slid her sandals off and lingered at the entrance, greeted by the sweet scent of jasmine and the pungent aroma of sage.

His apartment was a studio floor plan with a minimalist atmosphere. A kitchen on one side of the open room, and a black couch and large glass box that seemed to be another kind of technological device on the other. Near the kitchen, there was a sliding glass door that opened onto a balcony. Hidden behind a large bookshelf was a king-size mattress stacked on a frameless platform. Taking a step further inside, she noticed a nearby door she assumed led to a bathroom.

Ronin placed the bags on the island in the center of the kitchen and then emptied his pockets on a small table near the sliding glass door.