33. Anger
She'd been so angry, felt so betrayed, she'd acted without thinking. Her body moved of its own accord. Now, Rin can never change what has been done.
Seeing him before her, looking just the same, as if his leaving hadn't changed him at all like it had her, had triggered such powerful emotions inside her. He'd broken their promise, broken his word, left her. Her own brother. Her lover.
That traitor.
"Len." His name had come out in a hiss, and he'd turned to see her. His eyes, the ones that had always shown her such love and loyalty, reflected shock at her unexpected appearance.
He didn't have time to defend himself.
Her sword plunged through his chest, and she felt his body go rigid, blood dripping onto her dress and his black cloak, as deep a color as the fully-bloomed roses he loved to bring her.
Then he was embracing her, a sorrowful smile placed on his pale face as he clutched her to him, even though furthering the blade's penetration. His breath came out in rasps, and she heard his final words in her ear, felt his life drain away with them.
"I love you."
Regret unlike any other flooded her, and now she's trying so, so hard to wake him, to fix it. His shallow, uneven breathing has stopped, and even in death he wears that smile. Tears course down her face, the sword long forgotten at her side as Rin desperately tries to heal the fatal wound. All the anger that had fueled her journey to find him, to get revenge, is gone; she is left now with only her own sadness. Because she was angry, Rin killed the only person she cared about.
Rin lets out a desperate wail of mourning for her lost love.
A/N: Based on 'Sword of Drossel'.