I suggested treatment knowing full well she wouldn’t go with it. To be fair, anything I’d said to her was going to be brushed off regardless. Later that night, I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. Unanswered questions and worries about Naomi nudged me. The image of the blood on her collar just wouldn’t fade. As much as I tried to shake it off, it kept resurfacing….

The fact that she wasn’t in bed didn’t help with all of my worrying either. So I pulled out my phone and started searching for random stuff: telekinetic power symptoms, extension exhaustion, and stamina burn out side effects…. I wasn’t getting anything relevant to what Naomi was experiencing right now.

So I walked over to my desk and pulled out my notebook, starting to jot down everything I knew about telekinesis. I was desperate, trying to make sense of it all. But then I turned over my shoulder and saw something on her nightstand—her little black book.

What the hell was it doing out in the open like that?

Naomi rarely left without it….

The temptation to go over there and pick it up crossed my mind, and I hated that it did. Unlike Reina, I didn’t think that Naomi was a mole, putting our hunter secrets in a book that only she could magically read. Like she said, she’d been carrying that book since Acadia. Naturally, I wondered what made it so important, and what was such a secret that needed to be hidden?

It wouldn’t be the first secret she’d kept from me though, this condition of hers now being one of them.

“She deserves her privacy, just like anyone else,” I reminded myself in a low whisper. Yet, that book… something about it tonight was calling to me….

I turned my head back toward my desk and let out a sigh. “Maybe I’m aching for answers because I’m stressing out from not being able to help her.” She was always looking out for me, and I felt it was my job to look out for her, too. And right now, she was making it extremely difficult.

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I hated seeing her so helpless….

The sound of the door opening up made my head turn to the figure in the dark, Naomi turning around to see me at my desk. “You’re still up?”

“Couldn’t sleep again,” I admitted.

She looked over to the nightstand, and then back to me again and asked, “What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” I said as I tucked my notebook back in my desk drawer, that simple gesture changing Naomi’s temperament instantly. She rushed over to her book and then stopped herself short. I got off my seat as I saw her hesitate there, contemplating something.

“Naomi?” I called out to her, but she didn’t answer.

Instead, she looked over to me for a second before walking toward me. “I don’t need to ask, do I?”

“I didn’t touch it, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

She was not hiding the fact that she was worried I might have.

“I wouldn’t lie to you,” I reassured her, and gave her a weak smile. “Check out the ears.” I pointed at them, noting the fact that they weren’t a telling shade of red.

Suddenly, she jumped on me, burrowing her face in my chest and holding me gently.

“Naomi?”

“One day, I will tell you everything…” she whispered. “I promise.”

I cradled her head softly to relax her. I could feel her heart thumping hard against my body.

“I was worried about your well-being is all,” I insisted. “Are you afraid that I’d back out of the tournament?”

“I know you would if you knew I was feeling ill….”

I smiled. “I’m glad you didn’t think I’d force you to fight out there. So then tell me, is that why you’re being secretive about this?”

“Please, forget about it, Nero. You weren’t supposed to see it….”

I wasn’t supposed to see it?

“Promise me you’ll forget it….”

“Only if you promise you’ll get checked out. And soon. In the next 8 hours, soon. That means right after the tournament, Naomi.”

“…Okay.”

I had to compromise with her. It was obvious that she didn’t want us missing our final round for her sake. So right after the tournament, we were going to get her checked out. But when she lifted her head from my chest, my stomach dropped. I thought that Naomi was a pro at the stone face, yet her puppy face was even more convincing. I doubt she even knew she was doing it. She was getting more comfortable with dropping her guard around me, and the normality of it only meant one thing—she was warming up to me.

She trusted me with her feelings in bursts and bouts. Tonight, she needed reassurance, so I cradled her face, and looked deeply in those lavender eyes before leaning in for a peck on her forehead.

It was harmless, but not meaningless. When I reeled my lips back, her eyes were huge and glassy, Naomi staring at me completely lost.

“A kiss, to seal the deal. Now, you can’t back out of your word.”