Page 42 of The Last Tiger

My body throbs; my legs give out. I slide down the wall, groaning. Nari bends downs and grabs me by the arm, lifting me up. “Come on, Eunji, I taught you better than that! Always take the higher ground—or you’ll leave yourself vulnerable to attack.”

She effortlessly flings me. I soar upward, flailing my arms as my feet leave the earth.

Then the wind crushes out of my lungs as I crash back to the ground.

Nari walks up to me and kneels down beside me.

I’m dimly aware of the crowded street around us, the tiger roaring somewhere in protest. My head spins.

She’s got me cornered. But Nari doesn’t raise her fists to knock me out, doesn’t deliver the fatal blow. Instead, she lowers her voice to a curious, urgent whisper as she gently pulls the tiger’s chain from my hand and takes it into her own.

“What do you want with the tiger, Eunji? What’s it to you?”

“I—I want…” I cough out weakly.

She raises an eyebrow. “You’re gonna have to be a little more specific.”

I think about it. I could tell her about Isao’s threat to kill me and every last member of my family. I could tell her about the reward, the favor I’ll ask, to end the obligation I have to marry Kenzo.

I could tell her a lot of things. But instead, I open my mouth and say—

“I want what you have. I…want to be free.”

“You think the tiger’s gonna help you with that?”

I shrug and immediately regret it— ow . “Look what you got. You’re a respected Adachi instructor. Leader of an elite team of Tiger Slayers.”

“And look what I lost,” Nari says pointedly, releasing me from her grip and sitting up. I glance down at her prosthetic leg.

“Doesn’t seem to hold you back too much.”

“That’s not what I’m referring to. Capturing that tiger took a lot more from me than my leg, Eunji. Everything comes at a price,” Nari says.

“I…don’t understand.”

“It’s not just a thing. It’s alive. You capture that tiger, and that’s a life on your hands,” she says.

A life on my hands. Moonhee’s face appears in my mind.

My head pounds. I spit, turning to the left and coughing again.

“Isn’t that your job? Haven’t you killed so many tigers since then?”

“And that’s why I’m telling you, Eunji, to be careful. You don’t have any idea where this path takes you, once you start walking down it. You don’t have a clue.”

“I need Isao’s favor.” A few specks of blood hit the dirt as I spit again.

“When your ‘freedom’ is based on someone else’s favor, they own you.

You do this for them now, fine. But next time, they’re going to ask something more from you.

And the next. And then where do you stop?

” She brushes a stray hair away from her forehead.

“I’m gonna tell you something I wish I’d known when I was your age, Eunji.

Something I learned the hard way. True power, true freedom, those things don’t come from pleasing someone else. ”

“I just want the power to make my own choices,” I whisper.

Nari sighs, clicking her tongue. “You’ve got it mixed up, Eunji,” she says. “True power comes from making your own choices.”

“Uh, hello?” Kenzo’s voice suddenly rings out to the left. I turn to see two familiar dirt-coated shoes standing on the street beside us.

“Terribly sorry to break up this wonderful teaching moment, but…in case you haven’t noticed, the tiger’s gone.”

Nari and I both curse as she reels in the loose chain—it’s broken, the final link snapped clean in half. Over my shoulder, I just barely catch a glimpse of a tail disappearing into the crowd. I hear distant shrieks as citizens dive left and right to avoid the roaring beast.

Nari leaps off me and helps me to my feet.

“Go,” she says quickly, turning me around and shoving me forward.

“You’re not gonna…?”

“I’m not a Slayer first, Eunji; I’m a teacher first. Seems that you need this more than I do,” she says. “But promise me to think about what you’re doing. If this is really what you want.”

“I…” I don’t know what to say.

Tears rush to my eyes. Nari is the first person who has ever supported me unabashedly.

It would be so easy for her to turn me in to the authorities for trying to steal her catch today.

It would be easy for her to beat me, collect the last tiger and the lifetime reward that comes with it. But instead…

“I have to stay here and make sure my team is okay,” Nari adds cheerfully. “My fiancée will totally kill me if she hears that I left my team in the dust here.”

Fiancée? It suddenly strikes me that Captain Nari—so stoic and poised and accomplished—has a life beyond teaching at Adachi, beyond the renowned role as a leader in the Dragon Army she’s so famous for.

A personal life. And her own opinions, her own beliefs.

Ones that might be contrary to what people think.

But I don’t have time to stop and chat further. The tiger is quickly disappearing around the corner, and it’s only a matter of time before someone else nails it down.

“Gotta run.” Through the pain of my broken ribs, I exhale, setting the healing process in motion. The cracks in my bones seal themselves.

I steal a glance at Kenzo. He steps toward me, scanning my face as he reaches his hand up and curls the hair behind my ear.

“Go get ’em,” he says soberly. “Be careful.”

He leans forward—

Brushing his lips against mine.

It happens so quickly that I almost think I’ve imagined it. My mind goes blank.

Then Kenzo steps back.

“Well? What are you waiting for?”

I nod shakily at him. Then I turn—and run as fast as I can.