The sun hadn't even risen properly, its first, faint fingers of light barely touching the highest spires of the Academy, but I was already awake.
Not because of nightmares. Not because of a blaring system alert or the ingrained habit of pre-dawn combat drills. Not because Rin was breathing down my neck with some newly acquired divine weapon.
No, this time it was different.
I was awake because of her.
Yumi.
The small, white-haired vampire girl was still curled up in her bed in the guest room, her tiny form almost lost in the sea of plush blankets. She was clinging to a fluffy, one-eyed rabbit that Masha had somehow conjured for her overnight. Her breathing was soft, even, and peaceful. And for the first time since I had brought her home from that den of monsters, I could see the faintest, sweetest smile twitching at her lips as she dreamed.
It did something to me.
