Chapter Six

Mistakes, we make in plenty, and atonement is something of which we cannot have enough. In that one evening, through one dinner, unspeakingly, he horribly insulted Hevn, and once he tried to make his amends, it was Ran that he hurt next of all.

When she did not want to be found, perhaps even the shadows would not discover her. An unimportant lab technician she may have been, but Hevn had that rare gift of concealment that few people possess.

It took Eji the quarter of an hour to find her leaning against a wall, blocked from sight by a tall, potted green fern. The others diners filed in and eased out of the restaurant on the twelfth floor, but he had little intention of leaving. He didn't know what he'd done, but he was determined to fix what he'd broken.

She cried. Hevn cried with hot tears of anger, embarrassment, and unsaid apology when he told her the truth.

He loved Ran like he loved his life. She was still his little sister. And she could not speak.

After that, there descended a kind of carefulness between them. A delicate balance of unhidden secrets. They were, at last, finally learning to be open...

But there were some things Eji could not say. He was doing well at his job, and he was creeping closer and closer to his goal: to infiltrate and to bring to their knees, these people. He was a spy; that's whose mettle he was always fashioned out of, and this was who he was.

It wasn't the only secret he kept. Because he never needed to tell her. Tell her how his heart pounded in his chest when she came closer. He never needed to tell her because she could always hear it in the wind each time she listened.

He was in love with Hevn. He didn't know if she felt the same way too.

Author's Note: The end's coming soon; two more chapters left, I should say.