Chapter 87
Elijah woke to the pale gray light of early morning filtering through the curtains of his bedroom, and the first thing his mind reached for was the familiar comfort of Lisa's presence beside him before he remembered that she was no longer there and would never be there again.
The realization settled into his chest like a cold stone, heavy and immovable, and he lay there for a long moment staring at the ceiling while the weight of everything that had happened pressed down on him from all sides.
He reached for his phone on the nightstand, his fingers moving automatically to the screen, and he opened the messages that he had been avoiding since the moment he had woken up fully healed the day before.
The conversation with Lisa was still there, frozen in time, her final words staring back at him with a finality that made his throat tighten and his eyes burn with something he refused to let fall.
The last message from her had been sent the previous evening, a simple response to the brief acknowledgement he had managed to type out between the chaos of integrating Jack into the gang and the endless discussions about patrol schedules and territory boundaries and everything else that demanded his attention.
He had written only the word "Okay" in response to her goodbye, because there had been nothing else to say, no argument that would change her mind, no promise that he could make without breaking the vow he had made to himself and to the system and to everyone who had chosen to follow him.
The message showed that she had read it, the small indicator marking the moment her eyes had passed over his single word of acceptance, but she had not replied.
There was nothing left to say between them, no more words that could bridge the gap that had opened up in the space of a single night, and Elijah understood with a clarity that was almost cruel that this was truly the end of whatever they had been building together.
He sighed, a long and tired sound that seemed to come from somewhere deeper than his lungs, and even though the pain in his chest was not physical it hurt in ways that no broken rib or cracked skull ever could.
The system had been right about so many things, about the cost of the path he had chosen and the sacrifices that would be demanded of him, but knowing that did not make the emptiness any easier to bear.
He missed her, missed the sound of her laugh and the warmth of her body beside him and the way she had looked at him like he was someone worth loving despite everything he was becoming.
A screen flashed in the corner of his vision, pulling him back to the present with the familiar pale blue glow that had become as much a part of his life as breathing.
[Day 46 of your Tasks, Little King]
[Use the Gathering breathing technique to prepare for breakthrough]
[Run wearing the upgraded equipment]
[Body training and weight training wearing the upgraded equipment]
[Break through to Advanced Knight Stage]
[Shower]
[Eat dinner with your family]
[Take your sister to school]
[Go to the territory]
Life did not pause to let him mourn what he had lost.
The world kept turning whether he was ready for it or not, and there were people counting on him to be ready, people who had chosen to follow him because they believed in the person he was becoming. He could not let them down simply because his heart was broken.
He pushed himself out of bed and dressed in his training clothes, the familiar fabric worn soft in some places and torn in others from weeks of constant use.
The upgraded equipment came out of his inventory piece by piece, after wearing it he stepped outside into the cold morning air and began to run.
The streets of the 7th District blurred past him as his legs pounded against the pavement, each stride carrying him further from the house where his mother was still sleeping and his sister was probably buried under her blankets with her phone glowing in the darkness.
His body was at its physical limit now, every stat sitting at fifty with nowhere else to go, and the only path forward was breaking through.
Ten kilometers passed beneath his feet, and then he was at the gym, his body screaming but his mind clear in a way that it had not been since before the fight with Jack. The body training and weight training took another two hours.
When the workout was complete, he found a quiet corner of the gym and sat down cross-legged on the cold concrete floor. The Gathering breathing deepened, pulling harder at the Ki that was scattered throughout his body, bringing it toward his heart with a force that made his chest ache and his vision blur.
He needed to be with his people when he made the attempt, so they could witness the process of breaking through, which would help his vice leaders when they attempted to break through in the future.
The shower was quick but thorough, the hot water washing away the sweat and the tension and leaving him feeling clean and ready for whatever came next. He dressed in clean clothes and walked into the kitchen where his mother was already at the stove flipping pancakes in a pan, the familiar smell of butter and syrup filling the small space and making his stomach growl despite everything.
Amy was at the table with her phone in one hand and a fork in the other, her black hair pulled back in a messy bun that made her look younger than her eighteen years. She looked up when Elijah entered, and something in her expression shifted from casual disinterest to careful concern.
"Lisa's ignoring my texts," Amy said, her voice carefully neutral. "Did something happen between you two?"
Elijah sat down across from her and picked up his fork, taking a bite of the pancakes his mother had already set out for him before he answered. "We broke up," he said simply.
Amy's fork stopped halfway to her mouth, and her purple eyes widened with surprise and something that might have been anger.
"Why? What happened? You two were so good together, and she made you happy, and I don't understand why you would let her go when she was obviously the best thing that ever happened to you."
Elijah smiled, a small expression that did not reach his eyes, and he did not answer the question because there was no answer that would make sense to his sister without revealing everything he was hiding from her.
The gang and the territory and the marriage to a woman he barely knew and the path he had chosen to walk were all things that Amy could never know about, not if he wanted to keep her safe from the world he was building.
Amy stared at him for a long moment, waiting for an explanation that was not coming, and then she shook her head and went back to her pancakes with a frustrated sigh. "You're stupid," she muttered.
"I know," Elijah said.