The Radiants Chronicons : Vol. I & II Of The Radiants Duology Series

Radiant (Vol I) - Chapter twenty six

Chapter 26

"Unload your mannequin. I want to get to see how good your targets are". I stared at him for a while and curled up a small smile. This was going to be a piece of cake.

I teased. "Not to brag, but I'm excellent at it."

He only smirked and I set up my mannequin at the farthest end. I pulled out my favorite gun. A deep charcoal colored revolver.

Wearing my gears, I handed him an earmuff. "You'd need this."

If there was one thing that seemed natural to me, it was shooting. Images of the book pages on guns that Kóre gave me floated through my head. In that moment, instinct kicked in and I made my first shot.

The earsplitting shot roared around the room. The bullet flew to the ground after it made the perfect hit. Right through the forehead of the mannequin. Bullseye. I turned my head to smirk at him.

"Nice shot. Let me give it a try." He stretched his arm and picked out a 9mm. He steadied his arm and fired. It gave a lower resonance than the revolver, but was just as effective, as it tore right through the eyeball.

My smirk turned sardonic. "You missed."

"My target was the eyeball."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, right."

His sensual pink lips parted into a soft chuckle. His amber eyes crinkled and his thick eyebrows drew together, underneath his curly chestnut hair. "I admit I'm a little out of practice, but you did good."

I threw my head to his direction and put on a small grin. His face softened, and darted his gaze away. "How was it like having Aliyah as an interim leader? Did people like having her around?"

"She's okay at it. Nothing special. Though she's been acting pretty smug about it and it's so annoying. All in all, she's decent at it."

He nodded. I looked closely at him. I could see the tension rolling down his body and when he began to pace around, I certainly knew he was tensed. "Relax. No one's going to revolt and replace you, just because she was the interim for one time."

"She's led a few occasions when I've been away."

"Did anyone revolt against you?"

"No."

"Then don't worry." His expression was hard to decipher and he looked deep in thought. "What's deal with you and Aliyah? I get that you two dated, but why is there so much bad blood? Even Zuri despises her."

His head whipped swiftly. Eyes widening immediately "You heard about that?"

"Info flies around this Clandestine faster than any other place."

"For the record, Aliyah and I never dated. It was just physical. We only slept together a couple of times.There's no feelings between us. Leading this district was just as important to me, as it was to her. Aliyah's not the easiest person, but she means well. I knew how much it meant to her, but when Vikram Caden threatens to pull away his donations from here, if I wasn't made the leader, I knew I no longer had a choice."

I inquired quietly. "Did you ever tell her why?"

"No one from the Clandestine knows. Not even her. It was decided by the Global Council, after my dad's threat."

"I see why you always feel so pressured. You should tell Aliyah the truth. She deserves to know."

"And give her more reasons to hate my family? I'd rather not. It isn't like it's a random person that made the threats. It's still my dad, so there's no point trying to make matters worse."

I said nothing back. I understood his point, but a part of me felt bad for Aliyah. If I had something I wanted badly taken away from me unfairly, of course I'd be furious. She's just angry and I knew how that felt like.

Sitting on the bare floor, he looked up at me. "I can't believe Zuri's here. It's going to be more stressful and I don't know what dad was thinking."

"He wanted to bruise her ego. It worked."

"She likes to have things her way. So does dad. That's why they clash and also why she's sick of me. She thinks I'm too loyal to dad. That I obey everything."

I crouched to the bare floor and sat next to him. My voice gave a low hum. "But you do obey everything."

Vexation dripped in his words and his eyes blazed with irritation. He must have been sick of hearing people say that to him every time. "It's different for Zuri. She already knew what it was like to have a real family. Her family were wealthy friends of my dad, so when her parents died in a ghastly accident with nine year old Zuri as the only survivor, dad adopted her as his. Vikram Caden raised me to live like him since I was a baby. It was a life I was used to. Zuri was pushed into a life  she knew nothing about, so there's no way she'd be good at adapting. My dad is the only real form of adult role model I was exposed to. I owe him everything. He had no reason to take me in, but he did. The least I can do is to obey his damn orders. Why can't people understand why I do it?"

"I understand you." My voice came out a little more quiet than I wanted it to be.

"I know you do." He said deeply, trailing his gaze over my face slowly, before finally capturing my lips with his.

......
Twenty six chapters later, and they finally smooched. It's so exciting. Let's see what happens next.
Xoxo
Jasmine