Chapter 12
Mei
I’m leaving.
I pace the clearing, furious at my inability to just go already. There are reasons to go. I recite the list, but there’s no real reason to stay. Why am I still here?
The forest is weird without them. My chest aches when I hear them shouting at me again. My shoulders curl.
“They are never going to like me,” I whisper. “Stop caring. Just stop.”
The curse Diablos gifted me with is one reason why I’m not gone. What if I end up needing to come back? That would be worse.
I spin around and scrape my fingers through my hair. I end up catching it up in my fists and yanking, trying to get the pain to help me see sense.
“I’m done. I can’t do this. It won’t work.”
Once I say the words out loud, it feels real. But I’ve lived with them for three months. I’ve been hidden, listening to them, hiding in their aggressive protection. Going out on my own in this world is terrifying.
I wish I could figure out how to open the worlds so I could go home.
But if I could, would I? Back to starving, wounds that don’t get a chance to heal, running, being cold and afraid. How can I stay here and protect others when I can’t even protect myself?
I don’t think I can go back.
If I help him, if I stay…
“Rowanee.”
I go perfectly still, not even daring to breathe. How did he find me? My throat tightens, and my knees get weak. It’s like I’m back in Nightmare again, I can feel the dry sand on my face, the stench of blood in the air.
“Rowanee…witch.”
I shudder and turn in a slow circle, listening for where the call is coming from. The bugs have fallen silent. The birds have vanished. Every sound is amplified in my ears as I strain to hear him.
“I found you. Tried to run away from me, but I found you here.” The whisper is so soft, if I were anyone else, I probably would dismiss it as the wind.
I break out into a sweat and sink into a crouch, ready to spring in whatever direction means safety.
Deux lets out one of those giggles that I hear in my nightmares.
The flashback slams into my head, and I’m suddenly there, screaming in agony as he claws my eyes from my skull.
He laughs and pops one into his mouth. The sick squelch when he explodes it is followed by his groan of delight.
I clutch at my mutilated face, hot blood curtains my skin, running into my screaming mouth, choking me.
I’m abruptly back in my body, sweat coating me as I struggle and fight to stay in the present. For a second, I can still feel the blood pouring down my face.
There is a scrape of claws on a tree. My body tenses, and all those memories disappear.
Deux makes no sound when he hunts, so I know this is a deliberate move to make me afraid. He doesn’t need to try.
I back away from the noise, but another sound comes from behind me.
Deux attacks, I feel the movement in the air, it’s the only indication I have, and I just move out of the way of his long talons, hearing the whoosh as he passes me.
I can still see him in my memory. He’s got a chalky white face with matte black eyes and long hair plaited with leaves and vines and the bones of the creatures he hunts.
But it’s his mouth that stretches too wide, with too many sharp teeth, that really scares me.
He’s an ambush predator who delights in long hunts, and in the history of his entire life, only one person has gotten away from him.
And he has not forgiven me for it.
He doesn’t give me a second to recover but keeps swinging. I move on auto pilot, matching him blow for blow. The faster we move, the more there is a chance I will make a slip that will be fatal, but I don’t dare slow down.
It becomes a dance.
Intricate, horrifying, and violent.
Each blow raining down with such force it brings almost instant bruises. The pain is intense, but I don’t let it factor. His scent wraps around everything, stealing all the good and the life from the world. He is the bringing of dark and foul things.
I sense the arrival of Leaf a fraction of a second before Deux does and anticipate him lunging at my dragon. My heart falls in my chest, violently dropping into my stomach as I stand between the two, a barrier to protect an alpha who is mine.
Leaf’s scent swirls around me, pushing Deux’s away. I know I’ve given myself away. I’ve just handed my enemy a way to ruin me.
But I can’t find it in me to regret saving Leaf’s life.
I cut Deux off again, hissing. He pauses, and then we clash again. I throw him back, narrowly avoiding getting my face ripped open. He spins into me.
I see him in my mind, but it’s the air movements, the sounds, the smell, the sense I don’t even have names for that tell me how to fight him.
Leaf roars behind me and rushes towards us, but I maneuver Deux away, refusing to let the dragon get close to where we battle.
My attention is divided, and Deux takes advantage, pressing harder at me, more violently, and when he’s bored, he lunges for Leaf, forcing me to change my strategy again.
“Have you found a mate, Rowanee?” Deux lets out a dry and sinister chuckle. He turns to Leaf, and I attack in a flurry of violence, refocusing his attention on me.
I don’t answer him out loud. Speaking will only encourage him, but my actions give myself away. It’s necessary.
Deux lunges for Leaf, but I cut him off, again and again.
When Leaf tries to interfere, I cut him off, too, sending him back through a tear in the world that I open.
He lands back in the town where we were with a heavy thump.
I can hear the humans shrieking, and the Sirens' song blares into stereo sound.
He’s safe.
The hole in the world snaps shut, leaving me alone with the Nightmare, and he truly is my nightmare. I shift shape, growing taller, thinner, my horns punching out of my skull.
“That’s more like it,” Deux says. “Now, you are so perfectly ugly no one will even miss you when you are gone.”
I can move faster in this form, I know the body better.
We whirl around and around, clashing again and again. Talon to talon, violence to violence, blow for blow.
I can’t keep this up.
I rack my brain for an idea because I know I can’t beat him. I’m using everything I have, but he’s barely touched his potential.
I need to lead him away.
Away from Diablos, from Hartley. From my mates.
I leap forward and take off, racing through the trees, but there’s a huge disadvantage running through the forest here and that’s I can’t quite be certain where everything is. Even so, I have to try.
I’ve barely begun when I hear pursuit that’s not coming from Deux. They have returned. Too soon. Far too soon.
“Damn them,” I hiss.
I’m so startled I barely manage to stay on my feet. I leap up into the trees and jump, flying from one to the other, knowing Deux will have trouble tracking me up here. He’s never liked the canopy; I’ve often speculated that he’s afraid of heights.
I land heavily on the ground and throw myself forward as Deux slashes at me with claws that could open me up completely.
“Close, Rowanee.”
I fling myself away again but come to a massive cliff wall. I won’t be able to climb it. There’s nowhere else to go.
I’ve finally done it. Walked myself into a trap. This is it.
With my chest heavy from pure terror, I wait for the signal that he’s attacking. Something, just give me some sign. One tiny crack, and I will be gone. But it’s completely silent, and then I hear rushing water.
No!
I strain, trying to hear, but I can’t, the water gets louder and louder and turns to a song.
Deux laughs, throws his head back and laughs.
“What’s this? Water? What, are you going to drown me?”
I step back and bump into the cold rock. Water pools off it and gathers in front of me like a shield.
It’s not mine. I didn’t do it.
I smell him before I hear him. Coconut slams into the air, and there’s a sudden swish of a sword. The water gets thicker, solid, and Canto is there, fighting to keep my monster from me with that terrifying black blade of his.
Then they’re all there. Dancing around him, driving him back. Leaf arrives and growls, letting out a sonorous roar that makes my ears ache.
Deux backs away, and then he just vanishes. I always know when he’s gone because the scent of decay disappears from the air.
Lirin walks right up to me and grips the back of my neck. He’s never touched me like this. My stomach flutters wildly, and I don’t know if it’s adrenaline or him.
“Mei, are you okay?”
Um, what?
“Yes, I’m…why are you here?”
“We’re a team, aren’t we?” Canto says gruffly. “We have each other’s back.”
My mouth hangs open; I wish I could see his face because, surely, he is joking. He must be. Maybe I’m dead.
“What are you saying?” I spit defensively. If this is a test or a trap, I’m not falling for it.
“We’re saying we’re sorry for what happened at the village. We want to be a team with you. Five of these bad guys, and we’re all free. We all get what we want. This is just logistics, a temporary thing,” Canto says gruffly. “Also, no one gets to kill you but us.”
I think Canto might choke on the words, but they come out sincere and honest, if awkward.
“What changed?” I say in a low voice.
“You were right about the child. It wasn’t human, and we missed that. We were wrong,” Canto says, and I hear a deep well of regret in his voice. He doesn’t like to be wrong.
Leaf slams into me, picking me up and cuddling me close.
“Don’t ever do that again,” his furious growl slams into me.
It’s almost like he cares. I blink several times because, surely, I’ve gone insane. This must be a dream.
“You want to work with me?” I ask hesitantly. “Honestly?” I hesitate a beat. “I don’t believe you.”
“Well, we’ll just prove it to you, then,” Brio says evenly. “We don’t have to like each other to defeat our enemies. This is mutually beneficial, it’s logical. There are no emotions in it. Nothing complicated. We can be enemies again when we are done.”
I consider Brio’s words and decide that perhaps he’s got a point. It is, after all, only five.