CHAPTER FORTY
[40]

song: me and my husband by mitski

DAISY LAID ON HER SIDE AS KAI GENTLY PLAYED WITH HER HAIR. Her back was up against his chest, and he held her close to him as they lay on the thin blanket that separated them from the concrete.

Of course it wasn't ideal, but Daisy wasn't looking for something romantic. Just something to get inside Kai's head. It was easier than she thought, but she had to remember that under all the crazy, Kai was still a teenage boy. He liked sex. Daisy did too. But what they gained from it afterwards were different for the both of them.

Daisy thought about her next move as they lay in silence, her eyes glued on the floor as she felt Kai's breathing on her back. "I think the Valentine's day formal is tonight." Kai says.

She didn't even know it was Valentine's day. Daisy glances up and behind her at Kai, then she turns back to face the other way. "Oh, I didn't know." She shrugged a bit.

Kai thought for a second. Things seemed back to normal with Daisy. And that's what he wanted. He didn't want to keep her here for very long, but it happened too fast, and something didn't feel right.

"Are you going?" Daisy asked.

"Not by myself." He said.

Daisy turned and looked at him, narrowing her eyebrows. "With who, then?" She asked, in a disgusted tone.

Kai chuckled, and tilted his head to the side. "Are you jealous?" He asks sarcastically. Daisy frowned. Kai quickly leaned in and left a peck on her lips. She wasn't at all prepared to kiss him again, and an anxious pit grew in her stomach at his touch.

"No." She said, hiding her disgust with fake annoyance.

"I'm going with you." Kai says, in a reassuring tone.

Daisy felt her heart skip a beat, there was no way she weaseled her way out of this situation this fast. She looked up at him, trying to hide her overjoyed feeling as she felt him trying to deeply read her expression. She inhaled deeply. "Tonight?"

Kai shrugged and nodded a bit, as he started to get up. Daisy shifted with him and sat up, leaning against the wall behind her. "If you want to." He says.

She tried not to sound to eager to be let free. "Sure." She shrugged it off a bit, but Kai still had a lingering suspicious expression in his face.

"Then come on." He responded. "It starts in a few hours."

Daisy hid her relief, questioning how she had come to this freedom so quickly. She stood up, her body felt weak. She walked over to him, trying to act as normal and relaxed as possible.

"Just know if you try and tell anyone about this, I will kill someone you love." He said, looking at Daisy with raised eyebrows, but also pleading eyes. His words came too easy to him, and it was terrifying to hear.

She swallowed, panic once again instilling in her body. She stifled her feelings and lifted her chin a bit to speak. "I won't." She scoffed, trying to laugh it off.

He eyed her, and she could practically see when the last of Kai's suspicion left him. "Good." He nodded. "Let's go."

—

Her neighborhood came into view as Kai turned a corner, and she wanted to burst into tears at the sight of her house. The fear that had kept her up for 36 hours straight melted into nothing, she was home, and that was enough to keep her going until she figured out what to do next.

Kai brought the car to a stop, a few houses before hers. "You'll need to walk the rest of the way. I don't think my family's home, but if someone sees me—" He tried to think of a way to end his sentence, but didn't. "I'll pick you up at 7?" Kai asked.

Daisy nodded, not really listening to him, her eyes just glued on her front door and the relief she would feel as she walked inside. "Mhm." Daisy nodded.

"Daze." Kai said, and she turned to him. "You okay?"

She nodded quickly. "Yeah, sorry." She shook her head. "Just really tired."

He smiled faintly. "Rest up." He said. "I have big plans for tonight."

Daisy nodded, and turned to open the door before really processing what he said. She turned back to him with furrowed brows. "What do you mean?" Daisy asked. He looked proud, before he reached into the back seat of the car and brought back a huge, old looking book and sat it on his lap. Daisy looked at it confusedly. "What is that?"

"It's my Dad's grimoire, he hid it from me." Kai said, opening it and flipping to a certain page. "Look at this." He points to a page and shows it to Daisy.

She leaned forward, and tried to pronounce the words that were definitely not in English. "Multos in manu." She read, then looked up at Kai.

"Death of many, at the hand of one." He said, with an excited expression.

Daisy clenched her jaw, and tried to stifle down the panicked feeling she was so sick of having. "I don't get it." She let out.

"It's a spell." He closed the book. "It triggers aneurysms, and— I didn't even know I could do that." He spoke quickly. Daisy was soon realizing why his father hid the grimoire from Kai.

She shook her head and let out a scoff. "Well you're not— gonna do it? Are you?"

"Sure I am." He shrugged. "That's why we're going to the dance."

Daisy felt her blood run cold, and she felt her heart begin to beat so fast and so hard that she wondered if Kai would notice. "Oh." She let out.

"You sound disappointed." Kai responded.

It took every bone in her body not to smack him across the face. She swallowed. "I just thought we were going to have a nice night."

Kai nodded eagerly, "We will, we will." He said, with soft eyes. "I just— thought we'd kill two birds with one stone." He said.

Holy fuck, this guy was insane. "Why?" Daisy asked.

"My whole life my father's pushed me away and hidden me and forced me to just sit in the corner and watch as all my siblings get to learn magic, and hang out with each other, and it's all because he thinks I'm dangerous." Kai let out, leaning back into his seat. "So the best thing I can do is prove him right, right?"

Yes. Definitely insane. "Right."

"So are you in?" Kai asks, still leaned back in his seat staring forward at the road.

She watched him, her eyes emotionless, but angry and disgusted underneath. "Of course." She responds.

He smiled, and then turned to her. "I'll pick you up at 7?" He raises an eyebrow, and she nods, before opening the car door and stepping out. "Hey—" Kai says, and Daisy leans back into the car through the window. "I love you." He reminds her.

Daisy felt her foot tapping anxiously, and she inhaled sharply. "Love you too." She forced a smile, and sent him a nod.

Kai waited for Daisy to get on the sidewalk before he drove off. She walked up to her house, exhausted, her bones weak, her eyelids heavy. She was hungry, for real food, and craving a hot shower. She wanted to see her mom, so bad. She needed a hug. Badly.

Daisy felt a knot grow in her throat as she approached punched in her garage code, and walked inside. Her mother's car wasn't here, and she realized she was probably still at work.

But she walked inside, the familiar smell, that she had been derived from for only a few days, filled her nose and it was enough to send her into tears.

"Hello?" She said, the house was empty, and all the lights were off, but she still just wanted to see if anyone was home.

She shook it off and swallowed deeply, walking into the front entry, and then upstairs to her room. Daisy let a sigh out as she shut her door behind her, her eyes wandering around her bedroom, then to the shut blinds beside her desk.

Someone once told her she was strong. And sometimes, she really did think that she was. But on days like today, when her feelings overwhelmed her, the word 'strong' becomes insignificant, to the varying waves of emotion that engulf her.

She was only human.

Fortunately, she was not defined by her moments of weakness and fear, but by the day when she mustered the strength to realize her worth. To realize the 'love' she had felt for so long, was only a result of manipulation. Then and only then, did she consider herself to be strong.

Daisy wandered over to her bathroom, craving a shower. She turned on the water, and waited for it to warm up. She met her gaze in the mirror, and brushed her hair out of her face to reveal her tired eyes.

She knew what she had to do tonight.

She had to kill him.