Page 68 of Us Dark Few

“Tell me what you’re feeling right now,” he demanded, studying her face.

She took a small breath. There was only one word that completely encompassed that position.

“Powerless.”

Takeshi’s jaw tightened. “Yes. You feel out of control, weak.But that isn’t you. You need to take back that control and prove that you are not to be thrown around and discarded. You, Kanes, are strong.”

Her face contorted at the sincerity, depth, and earnestness of his words.

Throughout their sessions, he humiliated, punished, and dragged her to the ground. Frail. Defenseless. Incapable. She thought it was his mission to prove her weakness. But she realized the truth was far more complex than that.

He was proving toherthat she was strong enough.

Proving that it didn’t matter how many times Khalani collapsed to the ground or failed over and over. She never gave up on herself, despite those failures.

And that was worth more than every waking opinion in the world.

“If you’re put in this position, you drive your knee into your opponent’s groin. Even if it’s a girl, it will hurt like hell and give you the upper hand. Do you understand?” Takeshi didn’t break eye contact.

“I do,” Khalani said, grappling with a surge of emotions as if scaling a steep rock face littered with jagged edges. At the peak, the power and fortitude to break every chain, physical and perceived, bound around her body.

Takeshi nodded, releasing his grip on her throat.

As his fingers slid away, Khalani’s pulse quickened. He stepped back, and they stared at each other in silence.

She wanted to say everything and nothing at the same time.

Takeshi was distant and ruthless, but every time he looked at her, their bodies froze in suspension, waiting for the other person to attack their walls or reveal the fabrics of their soul.

Takeshi’s fists tightened at his side, and he opened his mouth to say something, but the alarm rang, blaring across the walls.

Their time was up.

They continued to stand still, unsure of what to do next.

He was the first to break the spell. “We should go, Kanes.”

She frowned and nodded slowly, realizing she wasn’t quite ready to return to her cell. Khalani wanted to stay and train—or maybe she was looking for an excuse to talk to Takeshi more.

And she was too bewildered and disheveled to fully understand the strange sentiment.

They didn’t speak all the way to her cell. When he began to shut the bars—not making eye contact with her—she wrapped her hands around them and whispered,

“Takeshi?”

He breathed a heavy sigh and lifted his head to meet her gaze. His dark eyes pierced her differently. They were more subdued, as if to conceal something potent. Lethal.

“What is it, Kanes?”

“Thank you,” she whispered. “For training me and believing that I could do it. You didn’t want to help, but you showed up anyway. I just wanted to… I’m sorry, I—” Her hands tightened on the bars as she lost the right words.

The unspoken truth swallowed deep inside, unwilling to loosen from her tongue. Takeshi’s brows pinched together, and he shook his head, staring at the ground. A few moments passed, and he finally lifted his chin.

“Kanes, you better not die tomorrow. I’ll only allow it when you can beat me in a fight.” The intensity in his expression stole her breath.

“I doubt that would happen anytime soon,” she joked. “Possibly never.”

“Exactly.”

---