A Magical Imperative (The Unseen Book 1) by Edith Pawlicki

Author:Edith Pawlicki [Pawlicki, Edith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-03-12T16:00:00+00:00

14. WELCOMED

和希

KAZUKI slid the shoji shut behind him and stared a few beats at the golden noren that hung in front of it. He was annoyed that Emiko had been allowed to stay, while he had been pushed out.

Ever since meeting Aurelie, he had fancied himself in a blockbuster—a movie that parents showed their kids twenty years later. East meeting west, the discovery of other Unseen, a fate that stretched around the world. Up until now, he had felt like the lead of the script.

But he had been wrong. Aurelie was the lead, and he wasn’t even the love interest. At best, he was the second lead, whose purpose was to show how desirable the heroine was by having a handsome, devoted man chasing her even though his wooing went unacknowledged.

He was tempted to linger, to listen to whatever Obā-chama, Emiko, and Aurelie discussed, but he definitely didn’t want anyone to walk by and catch him eavesdropping.

Besides, didn’t he know what they were going to talk about anyway? Obā-chama was going to try to convince Aurelie that she wanted to have little Hayashi babies. Kazuki didn’t like abandoning Aurelie to that pressure, but she was an adult.

And had been one fourteen years longer than he.

He turned away from the door and started down the hall, checking the time on his phone. Dinner would be soon; he should go to the kitchen and see what he could do to help.

He could hear chatter as he approached, but everyone fell silent when he stepped through the door.

His great-aunt and uncle gave him sympathetic looks, and Kazuki hunched his shoulders awkwardly. He hated how coming home could make his poise and confidence in the wider world disappear.

Haruko, his fifth-cousin twice removed or something like that, stepped forward and directed him to stacks of dishes sitting on the kitchen table. Haruko had been held up as a warning to uncalled Unseen like Kazuki. Ever since her indiscretion with a human, she had been responsible for managing the estate, where no humans were allowed.

“Help me set the table,” she said briskly.

“Placemats?” asked Kazuki.

“Already out,” said Haruko. She picked up a stack of small brown plates, each painted with a cream-colored rabbit and the moon, and Kazuki took the blue bowls with pale dots that sat next to them.

“What is she like?” Haruko asked as she set her first plate down on the low dining table.

No need to ask who she was: Aurelie.

Gorgeous. Brilliant, independent, and insecure. Kazuki placed a bowl in the upper left corner of a placemat.

“Palest hair I’ve ever seen. Like moonlight.” Kuso. Like moonlight? He’d been trying to sound nonchalant. He cleared his throat, hoping Haruko would forget he said that. “She speaks conversational Japanese pretty well. Don’t talk to her in English unless you want to realize how not proficient you are—she’s a history professor, and she uses big words.”

Haruko chuckled. “Too bad she doesn’t speak French. I'm better at that than English."

Kazuki looked at Haruko in surprise. “She does speak French.

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