The way Lilian spat out the word family, like it was poison in her mouth, made Kotohime frown.
“You should not speak ill of your family, Lilian-sama.”
“Whatever,” Lilian huffed. “We both know they’re to blame for all of my problems. They hate me, and would like nothing better than to see me stuck in a mating arrangement with that idiot.”
“You should also not speak so ill about Jiāoào-dono, Lilian-sama.”
Lilian gritted her teeth, but said nothing more about her potential suitor, instead changing the subject.
“So, are you going to tell me about how foolish I am for coming here? For hoping that Kevin would remember me? That is why you dragged me out here, isn’t it?”
“Do you regret coming here and discovering that he has no recollection of you?”
“No. Never.”
“Then anything I could say to you won’t really matter now, will it? However, speaking of your burgeoning romance, you do realize that a relationship between you and him will not last forever, correct?” Kotohime gave her ward a look of worry.
Lilian looked away. “I know that.”
“And you still intend to mate with him?”
“I do.”
“Even though he’ll be dead less than a century from now?”
Lilian’s shoulders slumped. “Do you have to make it sound so fatalistic?”
“My dear Lilian-sama, you are talking to someone who speaks from experience. I merely want you to understand what being in a relationship with a human will mean. It may seem wonderful at first, and I do not deny that humans make some of the best mates, but it does not change his mortality. It also does not change the fact that you will live at least nine centuries longer than him.”
Lilian’s hands clenched into fists, her knuckles turning white. “Whatever. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about, or can I go back inside?”
“Ufufufu… so eager to get back to your mate, I see. Very well. I believe our conversation is finished.”
“Good.”
Lilian did not hesitate to leave the balcony. Kotohime watched her young ward walk back inside and disappear down the hallway. Her eyes remained on the spot where Lilian had vanished for a while longer, then shifted back to the sea of stars.
“Oh, Lilian-sama,” she sighed, “you truly do not realize what kind of hardships await those who choose to mate with a human.”
***
When Lilian entered the bedroom it was to find Kevin staring out the window, his brows furrowed deeply, making him look several years older. His sleeping bag was already set up on the floor, and she could see that Kevin had even pulled the bed’s covers back for her.
She smiled softly. He really was a kind and courteous young man. Now if she could just get him to hurry up and fall in love with her, things would be kosher.
“Kevin.”
Kevin’s messy blond hair swayed as he jerked around, his eyes widening. Lilian wondered about what he’d been pondering to be so startled by her presence. Sure, she hadn’t stomped into the room or anything, but she hadn’t made an effort to be silent either.
“Oh, Lilian.” Kevin smiled at her, but it appeared strained. “How was your talk with Kotohime?”
“It went about as well as could be expected, I guess,” Lilian mumbled. She loved that woman like a mother, but Kotohime could be so overbearing sometimes. The depressing topic they’d discussed hadn’t helped. In fact, it had pretty much killed whatever good mood she’d had from earlier that day.
Times like these made Lilian wish that she’d been born human.
“I’m sorry about how she treated you.” Lilian looked at him apologetically. “She means well, and she’s not prejudiced against humans, but whenever clan matters are involved, she holds to the same policies in matters of human/yōkai relationships that most kitsune do.”
“What policies are those?”
“The ones that state humans and yōkai should never become involved with each other. While it’s not forbidden for a kitsune to have a relationship with a human, it is frowned upon. Kotohime doesn’t agree with this policy, but she does believe that humans should stay out of kitsune affairs.”
“Kind of a double standard, isn’t it?” Kevin gave her a wry grin. “I mean, you kitsune pull a lot of pranks on us humans, and your own clan interacts with humans at your resort.”
“The Pnév̱ma clan doesn’t actually have any interaction with humans,” Lilian corrected. “Only vassals of the clan do. Members of the actual clan—those whose lineage comes directly from the matriarch—usually go their entire lives without meeting a single human. I should know,” she added in a bitter half-whisper, “they tried doing the same thing to me.”
“Lilian? Are you all right?” Kevin didn’t like the look on Lilian’s face.
“… Yes.” Dispelling the resentful thoughts fluttering through her mind, Lilian focused her attention back on him. “What about you? Are you okay?”
“Oh, I’m fine, just fine.” Kevin waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “I’ve just got a lot on my mind right now.”
“Like what?”
Kevin scratched the back of his neck with his left hand.
“I guess I’m still trying to figure out what happened back there. I’m a bit confused by those things you said back in the kitchen.”
Lilian was nonplussed. “What were you confused about?”
“That stuff you were saying, about your crest and all that.”
“Oh, that.” Lilian’s eyes shone and her mouth parted in a pretty “o” shape as she snapped her fingers. “I forgot you wouldn’t know about that.”
She paused for a moment, thinking about how best to explain her actions. After a second of silent contemplation, she nodded.
“Right. So, there are many customs within the clan that those words can actually be used for. Usually these customs must be recognized and witnessed by the matriarch of the clan, but because of what I was using them for, a servant such as Kotohime would suffice just fine.”
That didn’t explain anything, and Kevin said as much. “I’m still not sure I understand. What exactly were you hoping to accomplish? What were you trying to do?”
“I was going to banish myself from the clan.”
Kevin’s eyes looked ready to bulge from his sockets, such was their immense size. “E-excuse me?”
“I was going to banish myself from the clan,” Lilian repeated.
“I heard you the first time.” Kevin stared at the girl, his lips thinning into a tight line. “What I mean is why were you attempting to banish yourself from the clan?”
Lilian was silent.
“Lilian…”
“She wanted to take me away from you.” The words were spoken so quietly that he almost missed them. Lilian looked directly into his eyes, and Kevin felt like he was drowning within the depths of her viridian gaze. Had anyone ever looked at him with so much raw, undiluted emotion before? “Kotohime wanted to take me away from you and I… I don’t want that. I want to stay here with you. I want to experience life with you.”
Kevin’s eyes widened as Lilian’s emotions poured out of her. Frustrated tears welled up in the redhead’s eyes as she stared at him with a cornucopia of conflicted feelings.
“I love you! I love you so much, Kevin! I know you don’t love me back. I realize that, but I… I don’t care!” Lilian shook her head, her hair whipping about her face like flames caught in a breeze. “I don’t want to leave you! I want to stay with you forever and ever.”
While Lilian poured out her heart and soul to him, Kevin could only stare at her in abject shock. He had always known about her feelings for him―the gods knew she’d told him plenty of times already. But, until this moment, he’d not realized the extent and depths of those feelings.
Part of him had always assumed that Lilian was just enamored because he had rescued her when she was in her fox form. It had made sense at the time. He was one of the first humans that she hadn�
��t needed to use her enchantments on, and thus, one of the only humans that she’d truly interacted with.
He knew that wasn’t the case now. No one could fake emotions like that. Kevin doubted anyone, even a kitsune―a master at manipulating the emotions of others―could fake the intensity in her stare, the pure form of unadulterated emotions in her gaze. That the girl in question was one of those very kitsune wasn’t lost on him.
But then, this was also Lilian, a kitsune who was surprisingly honest with her thoughts and feelings. Innocent. That’s the word he was looking for. Everything that she did, from her attempts to seduce him to her love for nerd culture and sheer joy at experiencing new things was overwhelming in its purity.
A strange dichotomy, considering she wanted to screw him into a coma.
“How can you feel so strongly about me?” he asked. It was, in all honesty, the only question he could think to ask in that moment. He had several others, but for whatever reason, they refused to come to him. “We… we hardly even know each other. I know that I helped you when you were injured, but…”
The smile Lilian gave him was soft and gentle, but there was a tinge of sadness to it, like his words were slowly breaking her heart. It made him feel like the biggest prick this side of the multiverse.
“Several years ago—ten, I think it was—I met a young boy,” she said.
Kevin nodded. “I think you told me about him.”
“I did. Anyway, this human boy had gotten lost in the forest that separates our village from the resort. When he found me, I was very distraught. I had just overheard a conversation between the matriarch and a member of theShénshèng Clan. The matriarch was trying to set up mating arrangements between me and a member of that clan. I was crying.”
Kevin was able to conjure an image of Lilian, a little younger than she was now, lost within a forest and shedding tears of sorrow after discovering that her matriarch was trying to use her in a power play. His chest began to ache.
“You can imagine my surprise when this little boy walked up to me,” Lilian continued to weave her tale, her smile soft and her eyes tinged with gentle amusement. “There are barriers put in place around the village to prevent humans from stumbling upon it. They create a very powerful illusion that makes whoever is trapped in them think they’re walking around in circles. This, however, did not happen to the boy. Somehow, he managed to not only breach the barrier, which should have been impossible, but also find me.”
“I suspect this was due to his age,” she added when Kevin opened his mouth, correctly interpreting his question before he could ask it. “He was so young that the barrier probably couldn’t detect him, allowing him to slip inside somehow.”
“So what happened after that?” Kevin asked, enraptured by the story.
“He came up to me and asked why I was crying. I don’t know why, maybe it was because I was so distraught, or maybe I just wasn’t thinking clearly, but I told him everything. I told him about how the matriarch wanted to force me into a mating arrangement, about how I didn’t want to be forced into a relationship with someone I didn’t love, and how I wanted to be with someone for love and not because the matriarch told me to.”
“Do you know what that little boy said to me?” When Kevin shook his head, Lilian’s lips curled beautifully. “He said, ‘you shouldn’t care what other people want. If you don’t want to mate with someone, then don’t mate with them.’” Lilian’s laugh was very lyrical, even if there was a hint of melancholy tinging it. “I remember telling him that I couldn’t defy my matriarch. He just stared at me like I was some kind of idiot, and then asked me why I couldn’t just say no.”
Lilian walked over to the window to stand beside Kevin. He followed her with his eyes as she looked up at the stars. Her smile entranced him.
“And after he asked that question, I couldn’t help but ask it myself. Why? Why should I mate with someone I didn’t even know, much less love? Why should I follow the laws of my matriarch when it was abundantly clear that she didn’t even care about me? And do you know what answer I came up with?”
“I can take a guess,” Kevin said, “I imagine you decided that you shouldn’t be forced to mate with someone you didn’t know, right? That you wouldn’t allow yourself to be… mated off?” He paused for a second, then shrugged. “Am I right?”
Lilian’s nod told him that he’d hit the nail on the head.
“Yes, you’re right. I decided that I wouldn’t be the matriarch's pawn. That I would live my life the way I wanted to.”
A moment of silence passed between them.
“So what happened to the boy?”
“The boy and I talked a bit longer. I’ll admit, he kind of grew on me. I suppose you could say I felt a kinship with him. He was so adorable and earnest that a part of me wanted to take him back home. A search party the matriarch sent out eventually found us, and the boy was taken back to the resort while I was escorted home. I never saw him again.”
“That’s kind of depressing.”
“It is,” Lilian agreed. “Still, even though I never saw that boy again, I kept what he had told me close to my heart. Whenever the matriarch set me up with someone from theShénshèngclan, I would do everything in my power to sabotage her efforts.”
Memories of dozens of meetings flashed through her mind—and of how those meetings ended with the other party being thoroughly humiliated. Her lips twitched in amusement as she remembered how some of those kitsune had been ranting as they stormed out of the Pnév̱ma compound in shame.
“The matriarch used to set me up with mating candidates every chance she got. I was forced to endure meetings with almost every male member of theShénshèng clan, be they from the main family or a branch member, old or young. I was even forced to meet with a kitsune who was seven-hundred years older than me! Can you imagine? A young kitsune who had just gained her second tail, barely one-hundred and forty-nine years old, sitting in front of stuffy old men who were expressing an unhealthy interest in her. My breasts were still growing at the time!”
“Do you really have to mention your breasts?” Kevin asked dryly.
“I remember doing everything in my power to sabotage those meetings. I would wear the ugliest clothes imaginable. I spoke out of turn. I even did embarrassing and disgusting things in front of my potential suitors, all so they wouldn’t want to mate with me.”
“Embarrassing and disgusting things? Like what?”
“Never mind that,” Lilian said, blushing. She quickly continued before he could question her further. “I would also play pranks. I remember one that I played very clearly. I drugged his tea, stripped him naked, covered his body in tar and feathers, snuck him out of the compound in the middle of the night, and hung him from the top of a flagpole in the middle of the human resort.” Her grin was rueful and showed a side of her that Kevin had never seen before. It was surprisingly appealing. “I remember the fiasco that caused. All of the humans had to have their memories erased, and the suitor I pranked wanted nothing to do with me afterward.”
“I can see why.” Kevin shuddered. “You can be surprisingly vicious when you want to be.”
Lilian thrust out her chest as if he’d just complimented her. “Of course I can. I am a kitsune, you know.”
“I suppose that’s true.” Kevin paused. “So I’m guessing your antics worked?”
“For the most part. Very few of the suitors I met ever wanted to see me again. Out of all them, only one has persisted.”
“Who?”
“The youngest son of ShinkiroShénshèng, Jiāoào.” Lilian scowled. “He’s the heir of theShénshèngClan, next in line to become the Bodhisattva after his father steps down and Inari gives him the ninth tail. He’s one of the most persistent jerks I’ve ever met. Despite everything I’ve done to him, he just keeps coming back.”
Lilian clenched her fists at the thought about that arrogant fool. Oh, how she hated him. She hated him so much that her tails shuddered in revulsion at the mere t
hought of him.
“I’m still not sure I understand.” Kevin’s eyes still blatantly showed his confusion. “Don’t get me wrong, it was a nice story, and I’m glad that you decided to take control of your life. I’m just not sure what it has to do with me.”
The look Lilian gave him was so crestfallen and dejected that his heart lurched. It made Kevin regret ever opening his mouth.
“No,” she said softly, her shoulders slumping and her tails dangling limply, a reflection of her despondency. “I guess you wouldn’t.”
Chapter 4
Meet the Runners
Kevin stepped out of the shower, an exhausted yawn escaping his lips as water dripped onto the tiled floor. With his hair matted against his face, he walked over to the sink with slumped shoulders and a staggering gait.
He hunched over, hands on the marble countertop, and stared into the mirror. His reflection stared back. It had certainly seen better days, his reflection. His eyes were slightly sunken in, with dark bags hanging underneath them. He didn’t look like death warmed over or anything, but it was obvious he hadn’t slept well last night.
After running a hand through his wet hair, he turned away from the mirror and walked out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist.
The hallway was mercifully clear, with no sign of Lilian or his newest guest in sight. Judging from the scent wafting in the air, one or both of them were in the kitchen. He wondered what they were cooking.
The bedroom was empty when he entered, and Kevin wondered if Lilian was the one making breakfast. A headshake dispelled those thoughts as he put on his running clothes—light blue shorts, a white shirt with blue trim and his school’s mascot—a cactus—on the front, and a pair of socks.
Lilian was sitting on the couch in the living room when he entered. The shirt she wore that morning was several sizes too large and did an admirable job of covering her thighs, which he was grateful for. Kevin didn’t know how much longer he would’ve been able to deal with her sexy panties. Her ears and tails were also out, which his eyes were inevitably drawn to.
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