Page 6 of Phantom Flower

“Do you have any idea what that family controls?”

My mother shifted in her seat. “Daniel, maybe we can talk about this later—”

“He needs to understand the world he’s living in now,” Daniel cut her off, still staring at me. “Your father’s name might open doors in Tokyo, but here the Morozov name opens vaults and buries bodies. You kneed their heir in the balls like some street thug. That’s not the kind of attention our family needs right now.”

I felt the old anger rise, the same anger that had been burning since the first time he touched my mother’s hand at the funeral.

I didn’t say anything. If I argued, my mother would take his side and I would end up grounded for being “disrespectful.”

Thirty minutes later, I walked out. But I still didn’t take the car to school. The driver he had hired was an old friend of his who needed a job, and he also happened to be a freak who looked at me like I was a meal.

No, thank you. I would rather walk than deal with perverts at seven a.m.

Marco was waiting for me at the corner two blocks from the academy like always. His curls were messy under that little black ribbon he always wore, and the second he saw me his whole face lit up.

“You’re late,” he said, falling into step beside me. “I thought maybe you skipped again. After yesterday…”

“I’m here.” I bumped his shoulder gently. “I’m fine, Marco.”

He glanced around like the walls had ears. “Are you sure? They aren’t the type to forget. Especially Dimitri. What if he comes for you?”

“Then let him come. I’m not scared.”

That was a lie.

Yesterday, when those ice-blue eyes locked on mine across the cafeteria, something inside my chest had twisted into a knot I still hadn’t untied. I was pretty sure it was fear mixed with something I couldn’t name yet.

We reached the main doors and then I saw him.

Dimitri was standing at the far end of the hallway with Alexei and Ilya flanking him like shadows. He was in all black again.

When our eyes met across the corridor, everything else disappeared.

He watched me with that same intense stare from yesterday, like he was peeling back every layer I was trying to keep up. My heart slammed against my ribs. Marco made a tiny scared sound beside me and tugged my sleeve.

“Rei, don’t. Please. Let’s just go to class.”

I forced myself to look away. It cost more than I wanted to admit. Marco basically dragged me down the opposite hallway.

“Why did you glare at him again? Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Marco asked, panicked.

Was I glaring?

I hadn’t even noticed.

***

I turned toward the row of lockers near the east wing, the ones most students avoided because they were closer to the boxing gym in the basement. The school let them train there because the families who actually ran this place had decided long ago that heirs needed a sanctioned outlet for violence.

Better they broke bones in gloves under supervision than carve each other up in the hallways with the grudges they inherited along with their names.

The Morozov family had pushed hardest for it.

Everyone knew that.

Everyone pretended they didn’t.

My locker was at the very end, half-hidden around the corner. I spun the combination and reached for the handle.