Chapter 595: The Secret Garden
Chapter 595: The Secret Garden
The question hung between us. Forty-seven stories above the world. Wind pushing through wild ivy. A three-hundred-year-old cat investigating a rosebush with the seriousness of a federal agent.
I could have given her a tactical answer. Something about the alliance with Olympus Rising. Something about keeping options open. Something Kaelen Leone would have said, smooth and calculated and completely empty.
But Reyna had asked for honesty yesterday. Said she’d never kissed someone because she wanted to. Said she’d spent her whole life being a product.
She deserved better than a lie.
"Because you invited me."
"That’s not an answer."
"It’s the truest one I’ve got." I leaned back on my palms and looked up at the sky. New Vein’s light pollution washed out most of the stars, but a few stubborn ones burned through the haze. "I have five women back home who would set this building on fire if they knew I was sitting on a rooftop alone with you."
"Five." Reyna’s eyebrows went up. "I knew about Kuzmina and Vance. And I suspected the blue-haired healer. But five?"
"I’m aware of how it sounds."
"It sounds like you need therapy."
"Probably."
"Or a bodyguard."
"I have one. She’s currently three hundred miles away stress-baking muffins."
Reyna snorted. An actual snort. Undignified and completely unfiltered. She covered her mouth immediately and looked horrified, which only made it funnier.
"That was adorable."
"Call me adorable again and I’ll throw you off this roof."
"You’d miss me too much."
"Dios mio." She pressed her hands against her face. "You are the worst."
"I’ve been told."
We sat in silence for a while. The city hummed below us. Maki had found a warm patch of concrete near a ventilation grate and curled into a loaf, her twin tails wrapped around her body like a living blanket.
Reyna pulled her jacket tighter around herself. Not from cold. The temperature was comfortable. She pulled it tighter because she was about to say something that scared her.
"Nobody comes up here."
"You said."
"I found this place my first week at Olympus. Veronica had just signed me to the guild. Everything was new and loud and everyone wanted something from me. My face for their ads. My Aspect for their recruitment numbers. My personality reduced to whatever market research said would sell the most merchandise." She picked at a loose thread on her knee. "I came up here and sat exactly where we’re sitting and screamed until my throat bled."
"Reyna."
"Don’t." Her voice was sharp enough to draw blood. "Don’t look at me like that. I’m not telling you this so you’ll feel sorry for me. I’m telling you because you asked why I brought you here and the answer is that I’ve never shown anyone this place."
The weight of that statement settled across my shoulders.
Reyna Cabana, the Crimson Comet, La Sirena, the girl whose face appeared on merchandise in twelve countries, had a secret garden on a corporate rooftop where she went to scream. And she’d invited me into it.
"I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with that," I said.
"Neither do I." She dropped her leg and turned to face me. The city lights caught the green of her eyes and turned them luminous. "I’ve never done this before. Any of this. The flirting, the dinner, the sitting on rooftops talking about feelings like we’re in some stupid telenovela. Veronica has been trying to set me up since I was sixteen and every single time I’d rather fight monsters than sit across from some boy who stares at my tits and talks about his father’s guild connections."
"For the record, I was looking at your face."
"You looked at my ass for three seconds when I was walking to the training mat this morning."
"Two seconds. Maximum."
"I counted."
My face went hot. Actually hot. Not the pendant. Not the Dragon Witch’s Ring. Regular human embarrassment, the kind that came from getting caught by someone who noticed everything.
Reyna’s mouth curved into something between a smirk and a genuine smile. The combination shouldn’t have worked. On anyone else it would have looked smug. On her it looked like sunrise.
"I like that you looked."
"You’re going to get me killed."
"By Kuzmina?"
"By at least three of them."
Reyna leaned closer. Not touching. Just reducing the distance between us until I could smell leather and something floral that her tank top had absorbed from whoever manufactured the fabric softener at Olympus Rising headquarters.
"Tell me about them."
"What?"
"The five. Tell me about them."
"That seems like a terrible idea."
"Maybe. Tell me anyway."
I exhaled. Rubbed the back of my neck. Touched the pendant reflexively. It was warm. Natalia was asleep. The bond carried the particular quiet of someone dreaming.
"Natalia is first. Will always be first. She’s the reason I survived the Academy. The reason I survived myself. She’s possessive and brilliant and fights like something out of a myth and she’d murder me in my sleep if I ever forgot she was queen."
"Romantic."
"Emi is light. The kind of person who heals your body and accidentally heals everything else just by being in the room. She cried when she learned I’d been hurt. Not once. Every time. Like each injury was new and unacceptable."
Reyna’s expression softened. Just the edges.
"Skylar is a knife that learned to talk. She sees through every lie I tell and most of the truths. She kissed me on a balcony because a goddess told me I had to kiss someone before midnight and she was the only person I respected enough not to manipulate into it."
"That’s either the worst pickup line or the best one."
"Cel is impossible. The President’s sister. A political weapon disguised as a girl who’s never eaten street food or ridden a bus. We got trapped in a death dimension together for weeks and she punched me when I almost died and I realized I’d do anything to see her smile."
Reyna watched me talk about Cel with an intensity that made the air between us feel pressurized.
"And Akari?"
"Chaos incarnate with a betting addiction and a chain Aspect that could restrain an S-Rank. She decided she wanted in and the universe decided arguing was pointless."
Reyna was quiet for a long time.
The city breathed below us. A patrol vessel crossed the harbor, its searchlight sweeping across dark water. Maki’s purring carried on the wind like a miniature motor.
"You love them."
"Yes."
"All of them."
"Yes."
"And you’re sitting here with me."
"Yes."
"Because I’m the first interesting thing you’ve found."
"Because you’re the first person who fought me like I was real."