The morning came in pale and unhurried, the capital still half-asleep under a sky that hadn't yet decided between grey and gold.
Nathan stepped out of the bath feeling the previous night's and just earlier's sake and exhaustion and everything else rinse away cleanly, leaving behind the particular clearheaded stillness that always followed a night he'd actually slept.
Rena was still in her room, exhausted after Nathan had fucked her the morning as well. He had left her there with her hair spread across the pillow and her yokais already drifting back through the walls to their mistress, the room quiet and warm and carrying the specific quality of somewhere something irreversible had happened.
He had meant what he said to her. He would come back for her.
First there was work to do.
