The Keeper of Night (The Keeper of Night #1)(60)

“I’m sorry if I’ve caused problems,” he said, his eyes on the ground. “I couldn’t help but hear that last part.”

I shook my head. “You’re not the problem.”

“Somehow I doubt that.” A sad smile curled his lips. “But if you’re going for a walk anyway, would you like to meet someone?”

He had already linked our arms and started pulling me around a back entrance of the station.

“You have friends here?” I said, nearly tripping in surprise as Hiro held me against his side. I melted against his warmth before I could stop myself. No one but Neven had ever touched me so freely, but for some reason I had no desire to push Hiro away.

“Not a friend, an enemy,” he said. “I’m using you as bait.”

I rolled my eyes, pinching my lips together as if it could hide the smile on my face.

“You actually have human friends, then?” I said.

“Some special ones, yes,” Hiro said, “but this friend is a Yokai.”

My heels ground to a stop, forcing Hiro to stop with me.

“Why would you take me to a Yokai?” I said. “Aren’t we killing Yokai?”

“Well, yes, but not all of them,” Hiro said, raising an eyebrow. “You know that not all Yokai are monsters, right?”

I didn’t know that, and it must have shown in my face, because Hiro laughed and adjusted my grip on his arm, somehow pulling me closer.

“That makes this visit even more important, then,” he said. “We’re starting to build your network. You’ll need connections as a working Shinigami.”

“Are you going to bribe them with tuna for me?”

Hiro gasped. “I would never!” he said, pulling me across a carriage road and onto the sandy shore. “This one only eats lobster.”

We hopped down another stone wall, then kicked off our shoes in the sand and walked down a long strip of rocky beach. By night, the sea was a sheet of black glass broken by the sharp silhouettes of rocks and tiny islands. The glow of faraway lighthouses illuminated the ghostly backdrop of snowy mountains on the horizon.

Hiro sat at the edge of the rock formation, dipping his feet over the ledge into the water and gesturing for me to sit beside him.

I couldn’t help glancing down at his foot in the clear water as I sat down cross-legged.

He must have noticed me looking, because he gently kicked water at me. “It’s not polite to stare,” he said, though he smiled as if he wasn’t actually upset.

“Sorry,” I said, tearing my eyes away.

“Don’t be,” he said. “Actually, it has hypnotic powers, so it’s no wonder you can’t look away.”

“Hypnotic powers,” I said, crossing my arms.

Hiro nodded. “Before I was born, my parents prayed that I would have great powers to change the course of the world. The gods granted me the power to hypnotize and seduce any earthly creature I wanted, but at a cost. They broke my foot and vested all of my powers inside of it. Now I have dominion over all beings both on land and at sea.”

He lifted his foot, which now had about ten silver fish attached to it, beaming like he expected a compliment.

“I suspect that has more to do with you being a fishing spirit than your magical hypnotic foot,” I said.

He sighed and set his foot back in the water, the fish instantly fleeing. “You’re ever the skeptic.”

“Do you even know the true story of your foot? Or have you forgotten it among your ten thousand lies?”

“I resent that,” he said. “I have at least a hundred thousand lies in my arsenal.”

A small smile twitched at the corner of my mouth, and this time I couldn’t hide it from Hiro.

“Have I done it?” Hiro said. “Have I finally impressed you with my humor?”

I snorted. “Not yet.”

He sighed, leaning back on his elbows. “Of course it’s hard to impress someone who can stop the whole universe on a whim.”

“I told you, I can’t stop the universe.”

“There’s no need to be humble,” Hiro said. “You’re the first Shinigami who’s met Yuki Onna and lived.”

“I’m just a time turner,” I said, withering under his praise, positive my cheeks had turned a very unsubtle shade of red.

Hiro shook his head. “You were brilliant,” he said. “So many Shinigami are soft and dull. They lead the newly dead down to Yomi with their little lanterns and then act like they’re the most godly creatures in all the land. But you’re worthy of Izanami’s favor because you have to earn it. You’ll do whatever it takes to become a Shinigami.”

“I—”

“Won’t you?”

I swallowed, Hiro watching me searchingly as he waited for my answer. Would I really do anything to become a Shinigami? Was there any place I wouldn’t go, any creature I wouldn’t destroy, if it meant I’d have a home here?

“Yes,” I whispered. “Anything.”

I’d thought that answering his question would lessen the intensity of his gaze, but if anything he only looked deeper, like he was examining all the wheels and pendulums of the clockwork of my mind. A slow smile spread across his lips, his dark eyes still drinking me in as his heartbeat pounded louder and faster in my ears, swallowing up the sound of waves breaking on rocks and trains scraping across tracks in the distance.