CH341

CH340
Ryuu
I saw red as he chuckled. “At our home for ease, of course. I’m sure you’ll have a bigger ceremony later.”
Not on his fucking life.
“Is that so?”
I’m going to bathe in her blood.
I almost smiled, letting the sense of bloodlust roll through me. Scales trembled and surfaced on the back of my hands. I agreed with the sentiment, but not the practicality of it. I should’ve known she wouldn’t see reason so easily.
Shame that meant that I was going to have to kill her in front of her father... Maybe I would be merciful and kill her father first. Then I looked at him a little longer and realized that neither one of them deserved mercy.
I stared at him for a long moment, then smiled coldly. “Fine.”
He blinked. “What?”
“If she wants to force my hand that badly, she can have it. Tonight.”
He looked pleased. The fool. He had to know that I had no intention of showing up dressed for vows. I barely intended to show up at all. I turned on my heel and walked out, already pulling my phone from my pocket to have enough men on premises to take care of things, mostly the clean up after I’d slaughtered them both and anyone who got in my way.
I had my driver take me to the noodle shop, but by the time I arrived, there was nothing but a blackened ruin left of it. Police officers were there, a firefighting team, and others. I got out, wrinkling my nose at the scent of ash and blood. I could make out a few human-shaped remains. Tables were all ash, the tree, and every semblance of decoration was gone. I walked into the ruin. Glass glittering like broken stars in the ash, looking around, searching for some sign, a clue, but whoever set the fire had to have known that there would be nothing left.
“How many dead? Injured?”
“Five dead. Twenty-three injuries.”
Ren wasn’t among either number. I closed my eyes, trying to reach out with my other senses. I could feel her—feel that she had been there, but she was getting farther away... or closer. I saw a vision of a gate of fire and opened my eyes; a sense of relief I couldn’t explain washed through me.
I knelt in the ash, gathering a bit in my hand.
“Any thoughts about how it started?”
“Cocktail, fire, and the sake. They set it in the foyer between the sitting area and the front door. Went up quick...” The firefighter sighed. “Sick bastards bolted the back door. The survivors had to break it down... A Lady Haruka?”
“Survivors say that a member of the tigers was leading them.”
I nodded and stood, which confirmed it all. This wasn’t Hotaru. He was probably pissed off, sure, but a fire? Locking the doors? That was too clean. He would have beaten them all to death, locked them inside, and left me to find the carnage come morning. It would have appealed to him to imagine my reaction.
Besides, Hotaru had a deep fear of using fire. He would have taken Ren, yes. But he also would have taken Haruka to hurt me.
No. This was Morgan. All of her vicious, petty jealousy would have created this plot to kill the woman who was as good as my mother and a tie to my past. She would have wanted to wash every connection I had away and cover it up. As for Ren, she likely planned on using her as leverage.
“Keep the attackers alive. Question them. Anything goes.”
Yusuke nodded and moved to carry out the order. I glanced toward the rooftops, where one of our spotters was already scanning camera footage.
“Tell me where Morgan’s been today.”
“You think she’s behind this?”
“Of course.”
Sano pulled out his phone and scrolled.
“She... was here earlier. Briefly. Based on the report, Ms. Black put her out.”
I smirked wryly. “That would explain the damage bill Haruka sent me.”
Sano hissed. "You think she knew it was going to happen?”
“No, but it’s proof enough that this was Morgan’s doing.” I scoffed. “She knows what the shop means to me and my family... She wouldn’t have caused a scene without thinking that no one would inform me of it... Especially not after planning to organize our wedding for tonight.”
“Ryuu...”
I chuckled, closing my eyes. “It’s been a long time since I’ve felt so... utterly happy.”
“What?”
“Keep looking for Ren,” I whispered. Knowing that it was just for show. Ren wasn’t dead. I couldn’t tell exactly where she was, but I felt her still alive. “Check the cameras, and call Ara. Tell her I need her to update the prenuptial agreement.”
“How?”
“Tell her to make it as vicious as possible. Whatever would most amuse her.”

Ren
I landed in a strange, ruined underground cavern. The stone groaned under my footsteps, dust shifting like whispers around my ankles as I moved deeper through the cave. Slowly, I realized that it wasn’t exactly a cave, but some other sort of wreckage of the palace. Like she’d been rebuilding part of it or migrating pieces of it into this new reality. I mean, she already took my face. It would make sense that she would try to take my home, too. The one that Tarofu had built for Pyra. The fact that Pyra seemed less irritated by it and more resigned was telling. Maybe she was tired of Anzo's nonsense as well. She seemed to have no qualms or protests against the fact that I was going to kill Anzo at the first opportunity.
I looked around. Where I was, I had no idea, but I looked up to see a fractured archway overhead. Charred stone, scorched banners, time frozen in ash. But beneath it all… the gate remained, except there was no darkness or fire there, just air. It was just an archway, yet it pulsed faintly as I approached. I thought back to the chamber where Haruka had been kept in our past life while she was in a coma. I smiled, wondering if she would remember that life too. I almost hoped she didn’t, unless Hayato was in this world still. I realized that it was the pillar on which Anzo had created this world, an impression of that chamber and the gates between worlds. I placed my hand on it. The stone trembled. The fire answered, swirling around my palm, burning away the weathered appearance of the pillar in a growing circle of golden light.
I followed it through the slowly changing cave and up polished steps. When I walked through the open doorway, I was standing on pearlescent, opalescent marble. It was polished, pristine, almost unnaturally perfect, glowing with the preternatural elegance and light, glowing brighter as the golden light preceded me.
I was at the Pearl Palace.
But things had changed—or rather, they were changing back. The gold inlay that once depicted phoenixes mid-flight had been replaced by jewel-inlaid images of turtles entwined with stylized dragons. My lip curled as I walked, following the glow that changed the jeweled shells back to golden feathers, from swimming turtles to phoenixes dancing through the air.