Chapter 35
Canto
“What do you fear the most?” she asks as she approaches me.
I don’t turn around, instead I give myself a moment to find composure.
If I turned, I would give away all that I want to keep hidden.
What do I fear? Losing her? What are we doing?
What will happen? The dark of the endless oceans, alone and never seeing anyone but those we must kill.
Slavery. A life of penance for crimes we did not commit.
“I fear a life of emptiness,” I say quietly. “I fear living in the oceans so long that my body degrades, and I become nothing but sea foam, forgotten to all who love me.”
Her touch on my back is tentative, hesitant. We did that to her. Put that hesitance and caution in her.
She was so fearless.
Her breath huffs out, light and uncertain, bringing that blackberry scent to cloud around and impede my senses. Unlike how she used to be. She relaxes, becoming comfortable around me when she shouldn’t. She should hate me, rail at me, hurt me.
Her hand drops to my leg and gets firmer, more confident, and she moves into my space.
“You would never become nothing, Canto. You’d become a song that people hear in that moment before a storm is born. In the intensity just before something amazing happens. The world wouldn’t forget you. You are the place between worlds now.”
I huff and pull her between my legs and rest my forehead on her shoulder.
“I don’t deserve your generosity,” I admit harshly.
Her arms come up to encircle my neck.
“I don’t want to grieve you again.”
My throat thickens, and a tear rolls down my cheek. I never cry. I didn’t when they imprisoned me. Even when we were in the ocean, nor when we watched the world burn.
But saying goodbye to this omega…it’s breaking my heart. Something I wasn’t sure I had.
“So, don’t grieve us. Remember every good memory. Celebrate it and pretend we are with you. Make it so that we are together. Always.”
She clings to me tighter.
“Mei, please, I’m trying.”
“I can’t cry, Canto,” she says at last.
She can’t cry tears, but I can hear her song, and it’s the most intense and sad sound I’ve ever heard. Her scent is barely there.
I stroke my hand down her hair, over and over.
“You are brave and good and kind. An omega who can achieve anything she wants. A healer who does amazing feats. You have changed me, and for the better. I will think of you all the time. I will remember these moments, and I will wish I was with you.”
Her arms tighten.
I open my eyes and see Ronit standing in the door frame. Lirin is crouched on the ground, tears pouring down his cheeks. Brio swallows hard, but his eyes are shiny, while Reed looks ready to fight us all.
“No,” he hisses.
I raise an eyebrow.
“You don’t give up on us, because we won’t give up on you. I promise, if it takes me all of my life, I’m going to find a way back to you, Mei,” Reed snarls defiantly.
“Reed,” Ronit admonishes.
“No, you shouldn’t give up. We should not give up. This will not be goodbye. I won’t allow it!” Reed roars.
Mei has pulled free and is facing him.
He stalks to her and pulls her roughly against him, catching her chin and tilting her face up.
“Listen to me, Mei. I am coming for you. Nothing is going to stop me. We belong together, and you are my omega, and I am your alpha. No deal, no world, no ocean will keep me from finding my way back to you.”
Mei’s hand splays against his chest. “You promise?”
“I promise on every drop of water in the Black Death Oceans, I will find you. This isn’t the end.”
She stands on her tiptoes, fusing their lips together. Reed picks her up and carries her into the house while I stay outside, staring up at the blue, blue sky. I almost wish it would rain.
Ronit, Lirin, and Brio move towards me. Leaf is watching from just inside. His eyes dark and full of some kind of determined pain.
Why is leaving him as hard as leaving her?
“Reed’s wrong to promise that,” Lirin whispers.
“Is he, though? Will we ever stop fighting?” I stand up and walk towards Leaf, but before I can make it three steps, he whirls and disappears.
“He’s angry with us,” Brio murmurs. “He doesn’t like that we’re going back there.”
“It’s his ocean,” I murmur.
Kit appears with a pop of displaced air and lets out a meow.
“Hello, Kit. Perhaps you can pass messages back and forth. Though I hope you don’t come after us.”
Leaf surges into the space, shoving me up against a wall. “What does that mean?”
I grab his wrist, staring up at him, but I don’t fear him. I did once, when he seemed more animal than man, but this is Leaf. This is the monster who chose to be human for Mei.
“It means I hope you look after Mei and have a good life. That you don’t come looking for us. That you make her happy. I wish you happiness,” I murmur. “Because I love you, and I want you to stop fighting and have fun.”
Leaf snarls, but I yank his head down and kiss him. I claim him in a way I should have done years ago.
“Leviathan,” I murmur. “The oceans are yours. Protect our omega.”
He snarls, but it’s lost its bite. Instead, he looks wounded, and I remember a time long ago when I saw him and thought how lonely he was, stuck in the space between worlds, roaming an endless ocean with none of his kind.
I don’t want him to be alone anymore.
“You stay with her. Make sure she’s safe, Leaf. She’s going to need you.”
The inky marking on my skin burns, and I rip my hand from the dragon lest he be infected by it.
I glance down at it, seeing the skull has turned chalk white. I exhale roughly.
“Almost time. It’s almost gone.”
Lirin drops to a crouch and puts his head in his hands.
“Come on,” I murmur, and I lead the way into the house.
I turn on the coffee machine, then pull out a frying pan and some eggs.
I smile one of those non-humorous smiles because there is so little to be happy about.
Twelve months. We had twelve months, and we failed.
I can’t cook much, but I was learning. I wanted to make her breakfast. Such a small thing.
I just wanted to take care of her.
Reed stalks out and lets out a frustrated and mournful sound. “She’ll be out in a minute. What are we going to do about these?” He holds up his wrist, displaying the black and white tattoo.
“We can’t do much.”
“We should have found out who it was. We should never have made the deal. In five days, we’ll be slaves. Again.”
I exhale roughly, trying not to let the ache in my chest take over. Compartmentalize. Shove it away.
“We shouldn’t have made the deal, no, but we did. We thought it was an honourable deal. It wasn’t. Time is almost up. But Reed's right, we’re not going to give up.”
Ronit gets up and stalks around, pacing.
Puppy crawls down the wall like a dark stain of evil.
I watch him, but I don’t make a move to attack.
Stix steps out of the shadows so quickly that I’m sure most humans would have written him off as their imaginations.
Wilder walks in from the back door, his green hair blowing in an invisible wind.
Diablos appears in the middle of the room and stares at us, his chest heaving, hair flying, rage in every line of his body. “Kit just told me about the other deal. Explain everything. Now.”
“Fucking cats,” I grumble, but I don’t mean it.
Diablos snarls, and the growl echoes through the house. None of us are intimidated, but it does make us pay attention to him.
“In five days, our deal with the witch ends. We will either stay here with legs or go back to the Black Death Oceans forever.”
Diablos blinks slowly. “You idiots. What have you done?”