KAIREN POV
The city lights of Tokyo blurred past the tinted windows of the car, neon signs flickering like dying stars. I pressed my forehead against the cool glass, eyes half-closed, exhaustion clinging to me like a second skin.
My body was here, strapped into the backseat of a sleek black Mercedes, but my mind was still trapped in that burning mansion. The screams. The gunfire. Aisha's face as she walked back inside.
She's fine. She has to be fine.
I repeated it like a mantra, but the words felt hollow.
Viktor sat beside me, silent as a grave. He hadn't said a word since we boarded the plane. Just sat there, hands folded in his lap, eyes occasionally flicking to me like he was checking to make sure I was still breathing. I wanted to snap at him, tell him to stop treating me like a bomb about to detonate, but I didn't have the energy.
