Page 65 of The Tainted and the Tamed
“Goodbye, Ms. Mukai. I wish you safe travels.”
Before she could form another sentence in protest, Haruki was at the Setouchi’s private entrance—the one he had brought her to that night when the former maid had nearly killed her. The night he’d saved her from the danger he’d created.
She couldn’t look past that. Murasaki wanted only a simple life. To work, to send money to her mother.
Her heart twisted at the thought. She didn’t wish for her mother and brother to have to bury her. But if this was the alternative—
No. Leaving is the right thing to do. I don’t belong here in this upside-down world of vampires and chairmen.
Murasaki reached for her teacup, finding it already cold.
Chapter 28
Murasaki
“Are you sure I can’t accompany you?” Eri asked.
Once again, Murasaki shook her head. A rueful smile touched her lips. “You have so much work to do in the mornings. Learning to fill Ms. Tanabe’s shoes will be trouble enough.”
“I wish you were staying.”
With a smile, Murasaki bid her goodbye, unwilling to admit that a part of her wished that, too.
Was she angry enough to throw everything away? Did she hate what he was that much?
But it wasn’t the vampire she was angry with. It was his all-too-human choice to conceal the truth from her. Dr. Setouchi’s medicine rattled in her case. Though Murasaki had already ceased to take the pills, she’d packed them in a moment of weakness. She would decide what to do with them later.
Expecting a cough when the cold air met her lungs, Murasaki set out into the cold with only the crows for company. Behind the eastern range, the sky was lightening into a deep indigo shade. She would miss the beauty of this place, of its rugged mountains and endless gardens.
She wouldn’t miss that bridge, though.
As she crossed the sulfur chasm for the last time, Murasaki held her breath as long as she could, finally coughing as she released it.
She had hoped the effects of Haruki’s blood would take longer to wear off than this.So be it,she thought. She had made her peace with what was to come. She’d throw away those pills the first chance she got.
No one could live forever.
Except the vampires. And who knows whatever else lay out there.
She didn’t want to know. She didn’t need these complications. Her fear of heights gripped her as she faced the bridge, but she tried to push it aside, striding across the red arch of wood confidently. Her chest ached as she reached the other side.
It was fortunate she’d left so early. With her lungs acting up again, it would take her even longer than she’d estimated to reach the station. She didn’t want to miss the train.
A sound, like the flutter of cloth—one she never would’ve heard before the vampire blood—made her turn. She nearly gasped.
What is he thinking?
With no mask, no gloves, and no umbrella to shield him from the dawn, Haruki stood on the other side of the bridge, the sunlight creeping over the mountains and illuminating his back. It showed, too, that his bare hands were curled into loose fists.
Was he angry? Ather? He had no right to be. She was the one furious withhim!
A small voice nagged at her.You wouldn’t feel that way if you didn’t care.
She should’ve kept walking. Instead, Murasaki stood there, watching the landscape shift into a lighter blue, wondering what he had come here, risking everything, to say.
“Don’t go,” Haruki said, not begging as promised, but not commanding her, either. There was such sadness in his voice, it nearly broke Murasaki’s resolve.
“You have a long future ahead of you,” she said with a soft smile. “I wish you well—no, I wish you to do some good with it.” Her gloves tightened around the handle of her case.
