Miya"s heart stopped beating completely."Where"s mom?"
Those were Zaila"s last words?
She couldn"t even imagine what Jim would have felt like, hearing those words come out of his sister"s mouth even during her last moments. Miya"s heart clenched, and her own eyes brimmed with tears. Who would have thought, that Jimmy Hunter had such a dark memory too? And one that was capable of haunting him for ages?
Miya looked at her husband, as his eyes stayed rooted on the wall in front. The tears remained in them, but his face quickly turned black. The inner struggle he was going through showed in his expressions. Forcibly, and with an aura that was ready to kill, he willed the tears away till the only emotion his face expressed was anger. His lips curled in a snarl, and for a moment he didn"t say a word.
Then, his voice turned to a cold, vicious hiss.
"I need a drink."
Miya bit her lip, and watched him carefully, not knowing what to say. She wanted to go out and comfort him. But the young master wasn"t looking for consolation. He was looking for peace. Or war, maybe. Anything that could free him of the guilt that Zaila had left with him. His face, his demeanour, his eyes… they said it all.
The secret of the Hunters… Miya would never have thought that this strong, childish man could hold onto such a past… a memory that showed his vulnerability through and through. To the extent that it had made him cry.
Almost.
Shrugging, and with a heart that felt heavy enough to make her shiver, she got down from the bed. Then very quietly, she said to him,
"I need one too."
Jim didn"t respond, but got down from the bed as well. He didn"t spare a single glance at her, as he quietly unlocked the door, and walked out. Miya followed suit.
There was no way she could leave him alone now.
It took the young master exactly thirty minutes to gobble down seven gla.s.ses of absinthe. She wanted to ask him to stop, but his cold expression and the darkened atmosphere around him made her stay quiet. With each pa.s.sing second, Jimmy seemed to be building a fort around himself, his entire demeanour quickly turning hostile and threatening. He looked the image of a War G.o.d in those few minutes, his eyes full of hatred and self reproach.
Miya had followed the young master out of a guest bedroom, and was now sitting at the poolside with him. The guest bedroom was vacant, as was the poolside, which only had a few green potted plants kept some feet away. There had been a table and two chairs set up already. Jim had simply had to grab two bottles of the drink while making his way to the place. Before she had stepped in here, Miya didn"t even know that Palace Jade had a pool.
The scenery was gorgeous, the night freezing yet beautiful. She had been mesmerised in one look, and somehow been reminded of the time that she had spent with Jimmy on the beach. The sound of the rippling water had lightened her mood to some extent.
But another glance at Jimmy had made her forget the beauty of the background. While she had been astounded for a minute, Jim had roughly pulled back a chair, poured out a gla.s.s of absinthe and gulped it down neat in one go.
Then he had taken three more.
She had wanted to say something, but for the first time, she saw the young master get lost in a world of his own – one that seemed to hold no recognition of anyone else. She knew what it was, to suffer, and to do so silently. And she knew what barricading your heart looked like. Jimmy was doing exactly that right now.
She knew that expression, that fierce, lost look. One that wanted the world out while desperately looking for escape.
She had done it to herself so many times before, she knew what shutting oneself was, like the back of her own hand.
He might have told her of what had happened, but he wasn"t ready to share the pain with anyone at all.
Just like her.
Miya saw the cut on his lip from when she had bitten him during the kiss. At that time, it had been enough for her to know that it wasn"t pity that his eyes had held. It had been enough to let go of the words that she couldn"t have uttered to anyone else.
But sharing their pain?
To that, they both couldn"t relate.
Not yet.
The bright side, though, was that at least they knew about each other. And they could understand what made them who they were, why they behaved the way they did.
That had to be enough for now.
More would have damaged them both. Simply because their circ.u.mstances – their marriage, this bond – it was the collision of two dissimilar worlds, that were somehow trying to coexist now.
Miya didn"t dare to breathe even a word, as she watched Jim fall into a frenzy of emotions – each one spread across his face like an open book. He drank one gla.s.s after another, and she was afraid only when he put the seventh gla.s.s to his lips. He added two cubes of sugar to the drink before gobbling it down.
He didn"t seem wasted yet, and that scared her more. This, and the sound of his voice when he called out her name.
"You said you needed to drink too."
Jim"s eyes were bloodshot, but his gaze was direct. It fixed her to the spot where she stood. He poured out the drink in another gla.s.s and held it up for her.
Miya took a step towards him, strangely afraid.
"Let"s drink it up for my sister, Miya," he said hoa.r.s.ely, his gaze still static on her, "and to your saviour. Here, come."
She took the gla.s.s from him with both hands, watching Jim with hawk eyes, as he got up and clinked their gla.s.ses together. Then with a mock smile, he said bitterly,
"To Zaila, and to the woman who saved my wife."
He wolfed down the entire gla.s.s.
Miya swallowed, and drank the shot herself.
"I"m not a water person," Jim then began to slur, "But this place is reserved, Miya. For whoever wants to get wasted. Drown the sorrows away. In this water. What a foolish idea, don"t you think?"
Miya looked at the green coloured drink, that somehow reminded her of the ocean. She was kind of surprised that Jim had chosen to get drunk on absinthe… it was illegal in Country I, after all. But when she saw him chuckle at another gla.s.s, she let go of all resistance and poured out another one for herself too.
Why not?
If they couldn"t feel each other"s pain or relate to it, they could get drunk on them at the very least. Miya too swallowed a second gla.s.s and shrugged.
"It is," she whispered.
Jimmy watched her with interest.
"I knew your past sucked," he told her honestly, "Did you know mine sucked too?"
Miya shook her head. She had had no idea.
Jim had begun to lose his focus. Smirking, he asked, "Why?"
Miya shrugged again.
"Because you"re C.E.O."
"Hm… so I can"t have a horrible past?"
"You can… it"s less likely though."
"Hm…"
Jim agreed. And then, he poured out another gla.s.s for them both.
"I"ve never talked about Zaila to anyone before."
"I – I haven"t talked about Tao."
"Why are we talking to each other then, Miya?"
"I don"t know."
With that, she swallowed down her gla.s.s again. Slowly, the moon seemed more dominating to Miya and she thought that Jim"s face resembled it a lot.
Beautiful, silent, peaceful…
But dark.
She liked him.