Page 9

Deliberately, she faced the road and hoisted the backpack higher on her shoulders. Khalani forced herself to move, determined to outrun the shadows of her past.

Takeshi fell in step alongside her. Though she kept her gaze fixed ahead, she could feel the weight of his lethal energy, a static charge that made the hairs on her arms rise.

“You don’t have to lie, you know.” His deep voice broke the silence

She whipped her head, surprised he was talking to her. By now, he should’ve gone back to blissfully ignoring her.

“About what?”

“About being okay.”

“One, I wasn’t lying. And two, you can stop pretending like you give a shit.”

He went silent for a moment, jaw working as he processed her words. “I’m going to let that one slide because you’re tired. Believing I don’t care would be illogical, even for you.”

Her feet halted. Did he really just—

“You’re joking, right?”

Takeshi also stopped, the sharp lines of his face amplified by the destruction around them. He leveled his irritated gaze at her. “Since when do I joke?”

“You must be! Either that, or we’ve entered some alternate reality where truths and lies are the same.”

“Sounds like the real world to me.”

Khalani gritted her teeth. “Oh, I’m sorry. In your world, does caring mean complete ignorance and pretending I’m invisible?”

“You’re too stubborn to be invisible, Kanes.”

“Wow. I’m justbeyond flattered. Please, tell me how you really feel, Takeshi.”

“I don’t think I should. You have a habit of punching ineptly when you get angry.”

Her glare hardened. She wanted to claw his chiseled face off. No. She wanted to raze her vocal cords and protest to the heavens for having to travel with the most infuriating and complicated man in existence.

“You know what,” she got up in his face, “it doesn’t even matter. It’s clear that we shouldn’t talk because it always ends in a fight. So, this,” Khalani gestured between them, “whatever we had before…it’s over.”

A muscle in his neck pulsed and his Adam’s apple bobbed. The tempest in his eyes was virulent, as if every waking emotion was leeching out.

She hesitated, wanting to erase the last minute and start over, but a mask of indifference abruptly settled over his features.

“I already knew that. Surprised it took you this long.”

Her mouth fell open.

For a moment, everything halted.

Like the Earth stopped spinning to witness their downfall.

His statement came with too much space. Too much weight.

Too much certainty.

Despite her statement, a small part of Khalani hoped that he would say no and fight for her. To showsomethingworth believing in.

She used to believe that one day, somewhere far in the future, they would stare at each other and move a little closer. To a life where the world’s problems didn’t hover over them constantly and they could find a spot to lie back against the pavement. Only thinking about their next intake of breath.

Khalani imagined chasing that dream forever, their footsteps engraining stories across the sand.