My padded sock feet ran down the hallway to greet Haru in the training hall when I was grabbed roughly by the hair and dragged into the Quiet Room.
A familiar maid stood at the door, keeping watch.
"You little bitch…you're not right…" Akito pulled me closer, caressing my face. "You aren't one of us at all, are you?"
She threw me to the ground where I cut my face on one of the millions of things she broke a day. I pull the shard out of my skin. It was a shallow cut. I used one of Reiko's spells to repair the damage, but it still blood.
"Ha ha…" Akito laughed. "So you have our bond, but none of the fear. Interesting…"
She ripped me up by the hair. "So lovely. I have a feeling that no matter what I do, you will heal your wounds and pretend you are find. Protecting them, are you?"
She ran a ragged nail across my throat. "And what if I hurt him…the one you care so much about…."
"Haru!" I gasped involuntarily.
Akito tossed me against the wall. "Interesting. So go. Go to him wrecked an wounded, but explain it away. Keep explaining it away. If you ever tell him, and he ends up here, I could kill him, you know…"
I got up. "Did you forget? I don't have to do what you say."
I backhanded Akito into the familiar maid. I hadn't meant to hurt the old woman, but she WAS complicit after all.
"Yes…" Akito gripped her cheek. "But Hatsuharu does."