Murasaki's voice was smoke and sugar.

"I'm glad to see you, darling."

She said it like we were lovers meeting in a café instead of a succubus and a guy who should've known better standing in the woods outside a half-haunted onsen.

Her wings still shimmered faintly in the dying light, and she smelled like lemon and ginger and bad decisions.

"I can't tell you how much I've missed you."

She leaned in, her tone dipping into something softer, almost hurt. "

It's been ages. You never come to see me, so I had to come to you. And guess what, darling? I have a wonderful idea. Something I was promised, but you never delivered on."

She brushed a lock of purple-shimmering hair from her face.

"May I come up to your room?"

I felt the temperature in my face suddenly rise.

You could play me something on that guitar of yours."

I barked a laugh to keep from choking.

"Yeah… no. There's no way because… Hibana would never allow that."

Her pout sharpened into a grin as she stepped forward. Her expression changed slightly, into something thoughtful.

"You think you're worried about Hibana?" she purred. "Darling, I don't think that's it at all."

Before I could answer, she stepped closer again, close enough that the breeze from her sundress grazed my skin.

Her violet irises caught mine, and for a moment I felt like I was falling down a well.

It would've been easy to let go, to drown in those eyes, to stop thinking about ghosts and vampires and homework and just let her take me apart one heartbeat at a time.

But I didn't.

Not yet.

I found myself thinking of soft snowfall instead. There was an abundance of comfort in that thought.

"Murasaki…"

She tilted her head, hair slipping over one shoulder like ink poured from a bottle.

Her expression wasn't just teasing now; it was puzzled.

"Why do you resist me?" she asked. "I'm yours, after all. I'm your Purple Shadow Princess. So why won't you accept me?"

Her voice rose as she gestured to herself.

"Aren't I enough for you? Aren't I pretty enough? Buxom enough? I'm throwing myself at you and you're looking at me like I'm a problem to solve!"

I took a step back, palms raised.

"That's not it at all. I'm not…"

I took a deep breath, trying to explain it.

"Murasaki, look, I can't help how I feel."

Her eyes went wide, lashes trembling.

The outrage was real, but so was the hurt.

"Oh… darling it's not you. I've heard of this," she whispered. "You live in a haunted onsen… yes. That's the explanation. It can't be how you feel."

I could almost see jealousy forming on her face like frost on a windowpane.

"So. The ghost on Shin'yume-sou must get around, huh?" she hissed. "You're living at a haunted onsen, and you've let a ghost anchor herself onto you, haven't you, darling?"

She crossed her arms, wings twitching behind her like they wanted to lash out.

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"How could you?! She's… she's dead! I will not be second fiddle to… to… a dead woman!"

I exhaled slowly, fighting the urge to rub my temples.

No matter how badly she was going to take it, Murasaki needed to know the truth.

"Murasaki," I said. "It's not the ghost. I'm actually dating Shion."

Her face soured so fast it was almost comical.

"Shion!" she spat. "The—the—the vampire delinquent?!"

Her eyebrows trembled in anger.

It would have been adorable if she weren't a demonic succubus who could drain my soul through my ribcage.

"Yeah," I said, bracing for the incoming hurricane.

"Ryu-kun!" Her voice went shrill with disbelief. "She's skin and bones, darling! Skin and bones! And besides…" she flicked her hair back, regaining a little of her composure, "you might be dating Shion, but that vampire couldn't stop me from enchanting you. She's strong, but not that strong."

I blinked.

Could Murasaki be right about Yuki anchoring herself to me?

"I'm sure she—"

"But a ghost?" Murasaki interrupted, leaning closer. "A ghost using you as an anchor for this mortal world? Certainly."

Her eyes gleamed.

"And I've heard about the 'Ghost of Shin'yume-sou.'"

She jabbed a finger at my chest.

"Why isn't she enough for you? Why isn't me, the most beautiful girl at Crescent Moon Academy, good enough for you?"

Her voice cracked on the last word, and for a moment she didn't look like a demon at all.

She looked like a lonely girl on the edge of crying.

I opened my mouth, searching for something, anything, that wouldn't make this worse.

But before I could speak, the world exploded as a very pissed off oni suddenly erupted onto the scene.

The door to Shin'yume-sou slammed open with the force of a battering ram.

"YOU!" a voice roared.

Rinko.

She came storming down the steps like a candy-colored thunderstorm, hair ribbons bouncing, eyes blazing gold-pink.

"I told you to stay the hell out of Shin'yume-sou!" the oni snapped, pointing a finger at Murasaki like it was a spear.

"You'd better beat it before I beat you!"

Murasaki's face flickered from shock to something darker, almost amusement.

Then she moved.

In a blur she threw herself around me, her arms snaking over my shoulders as her wings erupted from her back in a rush of leather and wind.

"Sorry, darling," she giggled, pressing herself against me, "but you're coming with me."

I caught the scent of her lemon/ginger perfume she favored as her arms draped over my shoulders.

"Hey!" I yelped as my feet left the ground. "Let me go! You don't have to carry me! I've got my own wings!"

She laughed, the sound bright, wicked, and darkly sexy.

"I know," she said, "but it's so much more fun this way. So… hang on, darling."

And I did, trying very, very hard to ignore how impossibly soft she felt.

The trees dropped away beneath us as she launched skyward, sakura petals swirling like pink snow.

Below, Rinko shouted something I couldn't hear over the beating of wings.

The Shinto shrine's roof gleamed in the sun, and then the onsen, the fence, and the crooked little paths all shrank to toys.

Murasaki's hair whipped across my face, smelling of lemon and ginger and something older, something like warm stone after a thunderstorm.

Her laughter vibrated through her chest into mine, and every part of me screamed at once: desire, fear, guilt.

I forced myself to breathe.

"Where are you taking me?"

My voice cracked embarrassingly.

"Someplace quieter," she murmured. "Someplace where no one will interrupt us. You owe me a song, remember?"

I had to shut my eye against the rush of wind as we soared.

"I don't even have my gui—"

She just laughed again.

"You will," she said sweetly. "You've got a wand, don't you? Just summon it, darling!"

The sky brightened as we rose above the treetops.

From here I could see Shin'yume-sou sprawled below us like a wounded beast, its old pipes steaming.

The forest around it was a patchwork of new green and sakura blossoms, impossibly peaceful for the drama unfolding above.

I risked looking at her face.

She wasn't smirking anymore. She looked… intent. Like she was studying a puzzle. Me.

"You really don't want me, do you?" she asked suddenly.

I swallowed hard.

Because that wasn't true.

"I didn't say that. I-I don't want you to go."

I had to almost shout for her to hear me.

"You… you don't?"

Her wings beat once, twice, holding us aloft.

"I've thrown myself at you and you stand there like I'm a math problem. You're not afraid of me. You're not enchanted. You're not even impressed. Why?"

I hesitated.

The wind tore at my jacket, but her body was warm against mine.

"Because," I said finally, "this isn't about pretty. Or buxom. Or who's supposed to be mine. I just… can't help how I feel. But I know that, despite whatever you are… you're not a bad person."

She stared at me, violet eyes wide. "No one's ever said that to me," she whispered. "Not like that. But… darling…"

Murasaki's jaw clenched.

"But a ghost anchoring to you? Certainly. I've heard about the 'Ghost of Shin'yume-sou.'"

She narrowed her eyes. "Why isn't me enough? Why isn't the most beautiful girl at Crescent Moon Academy good enough for you?"

"I never said you weren't," I said, a little softer, but loud enough for her to hear.

Her grip tightened on me.

For a heartbeat I thought she might drop me just to prove a point.

Then she laughed again, a brittle sound, and banked to the left, wings slicing through a cloud of petals.

"Hold on, darling," she said. "If you're going to reject me, at least you'll do it somewhere private."

I clung to her, trying not to think about how easy it would be to stop resisting, to sink into lemon and ginger and forget everything else.

But down in my gut, in the part of me that still belonged to myself, I knew: if I let go now, I'd never get back.

"I'm not ever going to reject you," I said.

She suddenly stopped, I saw the bus tunnel in the distance, and the school off to our left.

"You're… not?" she asked.

I felt her chest rise as she took a deep breath.

"Oh… darling! That's all you had to say."

I didn't know if I should be relieved or concerned that I'd just sold my soul to a succubus.

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