...
"I love him," she said again.
Ahri's voice trembled, but she did not look away. "I really love him so much."
The words should have hit Jinx like a blade.
However, there was no rush of jealousy, no anger, no sharp panic crawling up her throat. Jinx searched for all the things she expected from herself and found none of them in the right shape.
She only felt confused.
Ahri had said it so plainly. Not like she was trying to take something. It had come out of her as if she had been holding it behind her teeth for too long and the pressure had finally broken something.
Jinx looked from Ahri to Logan.
...
"I'm sorry," Ahri said.
Jinx's eyes moved back to her. "You keep saying that."
"Because I am."
"For loving him?"
"For being selfish."
Jinx frowned. "That's stupid."
A faint smile touched Ahri's mouth.
...
"I could not keep it inside anymore."
Jinx stayed quiet.
Ahri finally lowered her gaze. Her eyes were wet, but she held herself straight. "You do not need to worry. I will not try to take him from you. I will not force myself between you. I only want him to live. I only want him to be happy."
"That's what people say before doing something dumb."
"I know."
That answer made Jinx's stomach tighten.
Ahri took one slow step closer. "Promise me something."
Jinx did not like that either. "What?"
"Never tell him this."
The room seemed colder all at once.
Jinx looked at Logan again. She tried to find the part of herself that should have been frightened. Ahri was beautiful. Powerful. Gentle in ways Jinx could not always be.
Jinx should have felt insecure, cornered.
But after seeing what Ahri was capable of doing for Logan, Jinx could not make herself hate her for loving him.
Jinx was not some saint. But she understood love that hurt.
She understood loving someone so much that it made you stupid. She understood standing outside a warmth you wanted and telling yourself it was enough to see it still burning.
And she did not want to make someone like that suffer more than she already had.
Jinx walked closer.
Ahri watched her with quiet surprise.
"I promise," Jinx said. "But only if you promise me something too."
Ahri's brows drew together. "What?"
"You tell him yourself."
The surprise on Ahri's face deepened.
Jinx swallowed. "Not now. Not while he's like this. But someday. When he can look at you and answer. You tell him."
For a moment, Ahri looked almost fragile.
Then she smiled.
It was small and full of pain.
She reached out and touched Jinx's cheek, brushing her thumb over skin that had already been wiped clean too many times. "That will not be possible."
Jinx went still. "What does that mean?"
Ahri did not answer at once.
Instead, one of her tails curled forward. She held it carefully, both hands sinking into the pale fur as if it were something precious and living, not only a part of her body.
"Can you listen to three stories?" Ahri asked. "They are very important to me."
Jinx stared at the tail. "Stories?"
"About my tails. About how I received the last three." Ahri's voice softened. "I have never told anyone. Not Logan. Not even him. Do not worry about time. I can give you the memories directly. It will take only a moment here."
"You want me to see them?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Ahri held the tail tighter. "Because someone should know."
That was all she said.
Jinx looked at her for a long moment. Ahri was not asking because she wanted comfort. This was heavier than that. It felt like being handed something delicate.
Jinx nodded once. "Okay."
Ahri closed her eyes.
The bedroom vanished.
For Jinx, it lasted no time at all.
For Jinx, it lasted too long.
There were no proper images she could keep. No scene she could explain afterward. The memories moved through her too quickly and too deeply, not like watching, more like being drowned in someone else's heartbeat. She felt grief without names. Joy that hurt because it had already ended. Choices made alone. Hands letting go. A loneliness so old it had worn grooves into Ahri's soul.
Three stories.
...
Three endings.
...
Three tails.
...
Then it was over.
...
Jinx staggered as the world settled around her again. She pressed both hands to her face and let out a broken breath.
"Great," she muttered, voice rough. "I really need to stop crying today."
Ahri looked at her with something gentler than gratitude, and sadder too. "Thank you."
Jinx wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand. "Yeah. Don't make a big thing out of it."
"I mean it," Ahri said. "Thank you for letting me share something that intimate."
Jinx could not joke. Not properly.
So she only nodded.
The room faded again.
This time, they stood in empty space. Only pale darkness and a low pink mist drifting around their legs. The air smelled faintly of flowers after rain.
Logan lay in the center of it.
Not the memory Logan. This was Logan as he was outside the dream, broken by what had happened, missing an arm and a leg, his body still carrying the cost of surviving what should have killed him.
Ahri walked to him.
She stopped at his side and looked down.
Her tails moved behind her, slow and heavy. Three of them came forward, the same three from the memories Jinx had just lived. Ahri looked at them, and her composure finally broke.
Tears slipped down her face.
Not quiet tears this time. Not controlled. She cried like someone saying goodbye without permission, without time, without any way to make it fair.
Jinx took one step closer. "Ahri?"
Ahri did not look back.
She touched the first tail. "You for the arm," she whispered.
Jinx's chest tightened.
Ahri touched the second. "You for what is broken inside."
The mist around them stirred.
Ahri touched the third, and her fingers shook.
"And you…" Her voice almost failed. She forced the words out anyway. "Although I know he can recover his leg himself, I want it to be you."
Jinx's fear turned cold and sharp.
"What are you doing?"
Ahri closed her eyes. "What my heart tells me to do."
"No." Jinx moved toward her. "No, don't give me pretty talk. What are you doing?"
Ahri opened her eyes again. They were bright with tears, but calm.
Too calm.
Jinx hated it, she had seen calm like that before.
"Are you about to do something stupid?" Jinx asked, voice rising despite herself. "Because if you are, Logan should know. You should wait until he's awake. You should let him choose."
Ahri let out a soft laugh.
"Logan would never allow me to do this if he were conscious."
Jinx stopped.
Ahri smiled at her then.
And Jinx remembered another smile.
Logan during the chaos of Styraatu. Logan looking at her like he had already decided to leave and wanted her last memory of him to be something gentle. Logan smiling...
Jinx's throat closed.
"Please," she said. "Don't smile like that."
Ahri's smile trembled.
For a second, neither of them moved.
Then Ahri turned back to Logan and knelt beside him. She brushed his hair away from his face with tenderness, like someone touching a dream she knew she would not get to keep.
"Take care of him," Ahri said.
Jinx shook her head. "Ahri."
"Take care of him," Ahri repeated.
Jinx reached for her.
Ahri moved first.
She seized the three tails in both hands.
And tore them free.