Chapter 38
Mei
I’ve blocked out the memory of their song, I’ve blocked out everything but him. Deux moves towards me, I can feel the world die around him.
He doesn’t speak, but the world trembles as if he roars. The scent of death and decay fills the air with a sweet and sickly, rotting flesh smell. I slowly unfold my body, stand to my full height, careful not to make any movements that are too large or too aggressive.
Seconds pass.
Then minutes.
I know this game. It’s designed to induce fear, and fear makes you stupid. I’m not making mistakes. I’m not afraid of Deux anymore.
Everything I have ever learned is straining to pinpoint exactly where he is. The scent of pine needles is strong under the scent of his decay. The rustle of movement from the wind masks his furtive stalking.
I know he’s here.
Where is he?
It’s the cold gust of wind against my cheek that sends me launching away. I roll and roll, hearing his claws make that horrible sound as they crash together, just missing impaling me.
“You have to be faster than that,” I snarl.
He hisses in displeasure, but I feel a surge of triumph.
I located him. I kept ahead of him. But now that I’m moving, I have to keep moving.
I rely on everything I’ve learned from this world.
Air currents, the particular scents, the way the world warns everything.
I take it all in and combine it with my knowledge of him, and I keep moving.
And, somehow, I stay in front of him.
He stops about eight feet from me. Clearly, he’s figured out he’s not going to get close or win like this.
“You have grown stronger, Rowanee,” he says in his sibilant voice.
I flick my talons into existence. It’s not enough to stay ahead of him; I need to kill him. Only then can I free my Sirens from his toxic deal.
“I have long enjoyed this hunt. You have been my most elusive prey. But your time is done. I shall enjoy devouring you.”
I grit my teeth, refusing to let him get under my skin.
“Do you want to know what was even more delicious? When those Sirens came to me with so much hatred in their hearts for you. Willing to deal with a stranger, willing to sign away their very lives and be my servants in the oceans forever. All because they hated you.”
I flinch, it hurts, even though I know it’s no longer true. He manages to close the distance. I only just throw myself backwards in time to escape getting my throat slit.
They signed their lives away to Deux? Maybe I can make a deal, too.
“If they fail?” I burst out, knowing I shouldn’t have said anything.
“If they give me you, if they kill their Fae and succeed in their goals, then I would have let them stay.”
“What if I give myself up. What if you have me?”
He goes still, the forest screams, but he’s not moving.
“You would die for them?” Deux whispers.
“I would.” There is no hesitation in me at all.
He’s silent so long I think that he’s going to agree, but then he throws his head back and laughs.
“You can do that if you want, but it won’t free them. They need to give you to me. It’s no fun if you come of your own free will.”
They’re going back. There’s nothing I can do but make sure they are free of this monster.
Except kill him.
“How did you trick them?” I spit out.
“One needs to read the fine print,” Deux murmurs, and his voice echoes all around me. “And always know who you are dealing with. But desperation will make even the smartest predators stupid.”
My heart leaps into a gallop. I’ve lost him.
I don’t move, straining my ears, trying to track him.
His claws slide into my back. I throw my head back, head-butting him as I scream.
Their song, the one I’ve been blocking out, bursts into the world around me. It feels like they are here. It feels like they are with me.
I’m not dying here. Deux can go to hell.
I pull myself off his claws, ignoring the hot flood of liquid that runs down my back. The pain is intense, but I shove that aside, too. Pain is just telling me I’m still alive.
I can hear him lick his claws, consuming my blood, and there’s nothing I can do to stop him.
A rune burns, and I trace my fingers over the shape and then etch it in the air. There’s a sizzle and the smell of my blood burning.
Deux hisses and curses at me, but I ignore it and him, only keeping note of where he is. The blood runs down until it’s soaked my back, but I don’t dare move.
“You are becoming too arrogant. It’s your time to die. This is the way of things,” Deux murmurs. “I want what you have.”
“I don’t want to die. I refuse!”
“Fine, then I’ll make it slow and long for you. You’ll beg by the time I’m done.”
He leaps across the space, and instead of lunging backwards, I slam into him, shoving my own talons deep into his shoulders. I drive us both across the clearing until he pulls free.
His rage is a living beast, throbbing and pressing at me. Warning me that he’s about to get serious.
I don’t care. I’m angry, too.
All these years of being scared. Of running. Being tired and hungry. Going without water, without sleep, without food. The pain, the wounds, the other creatures who thought they could hunt me and steal his position. Living in the dark. The nightmares.
Not being able to see them.
Not being able to love them freely.
Everything.
Anger burns inside me, and it’s driven by grief.
I sketch out another rune, this time it comes straight out of my mind.
I scream in defiance as it slams into him. He is thrown into a tree trunk. The whole thing explodes. A piece of it hits me in the face, cutting open my cheek, I don’t even care.
He’s up and racing at me, no longer being quiet, throwing stealth to the wind. His palm smacks into me, and I fall backward. I roll, but his foot finds my ribs. Pain explodes, but I’m up in the air, and I crash down heavily on my arm.
He stomps towards me, I roll and lash out, but he bats my hands away furiously, and grabs my hair, bringing his knee up sharply into my face.
I fall back, numb and in pain, scrambling to get my thoughts together, to figure out some way of beating him.
The heat and hunger has made me slow. I made a mistake. I can’t beat him, but I’m going to try.
“You stupid bitch, do you think you can beat me? You think even that worthless Grim or Nightmare King could beat me now? I am too powerful. Nothing can stop me.”
I wipe my nose, mopping up blood with my forearm. “I can stop you.”
He goes still and silent, and then throws his head back in an eerie laugh that makes the hair on my body rise.
“You? You can’t even fight me. Look at you. Broken and bleeding. Suffering from the stench of your heat. It’s made you weak. Omega or alpha. I am above such things.”
“You are below,” I snarl. “You are less. A bottom feeder, a parasite. If I don’t defeat you, someone else will.”
He laughs even louder and longer.
“That’s not how this is going to happen.
I’m not going to allow you to disrespect me any longer.
If I am what you say, then what are you, half-breed?
Human mother who has nightmare blood running through her and a demon sire.
She cried for you at the end, calling your name in the dark.
I ate her eyes, like I ate yours, and she bawled like a baby.
Her eyes were nothing, but yours gave me the magic.
Consuming them made me this.” He stops, and the silence gets brittle. “I want the rest.”
“Go fuck yourself,” I spit at him.
He lunges at me, and I stagger out of the way, hitting him hard in the side of the head, but I’m tired and bleeding. My ribs are broken, and he’s not even injured. He’s just angry.
He comes at me again and again, whirling, darting in.
I’m going to die. Death by a thousand tiny little cuts, but with each one, I get slower and slower, until I’m panting, until my knees are weak, and I don’t think I can do this.
I can’t save them.
I don’t know how.
A rune glows, and I touch it, tracing it with one finger before he can stop me. A rip tears itself through the fabric of the world. Ocean water pours in.
Deux shouts, but I’m washed away, struggling under the water. Drown me. It closes, and the water disperses into the forest, and I’m left lying on my back, my chest heaving, a broken doll.
“Strega,” Reed whispers, his fingers tracing softly over my jaw.
No, what is he doing here? I lift my hand and find his wrist, holding it lightly.
“I’m sorry, I tried.”
Canto pulls his blade free, the metallic sound makes my ears ring. I struggle to get up, but Reed picks me up and moves me so I’m sitting against a tree.
“We’ve got this, Mei,” he says softly. “No more trying to save us.”
I feel them all in the air. My heat intensifies, and I whimper, curling in on myself.
My alpha’s scents get strong, so strong. Then I hear them move. They are silent but deadly, and I hear the collision. Each blow, I listen for what is going on, struggling to see in my head.
Except, then, I can see.
They are glowing faint outlines of teal magic.
Canto moves expertly, moving like he is made of air. Ronit attacks from behind. They dart in and out before I feel Leaf stalking towards the monster.
He must feel it, too, because he hisses, and suddenly, he’s coming for me. I try to roll out of the way, but then Leaf is there, roaring down at this creature, standing between me and him. A giant dragon in the shape of man.
“Kill him,” I whisper.
But Leaf isn’t killing him. He flings him away and then turns to me, shifting more fully to human.
“Mei? You’re dying. You need to heal yourself.”
Oh. Am I? How strange.
“Mei!” Leaf snaps. “Heal yourself now.”
I reach for him, my body is aching so badly, but it’s so hard to think. My brain is sluggish.
“I know you’re hot right now, Mei, but you need to heal yourself. Come on. One little rune,” he cajoles.
I snarl and flop sideways.
“Ronit!” Leaf shouts, and the panic is something I don’t want to hear in my dragon.
Suddenly, I’m hoisted off the ground, a large hand holding me by my throat.
“Heal yourself, Strega. Right now.”
His voice rips the heat from my brain. The command of our alpha presses against my will.
“Ronit? Just give me to him. End this.”
“Never!” he growls, and his lips crash down on mine.
I’m breathing hard when he pulls back.
“Please, you can be free.”
“I don’t want to be free without you,” he says dismissively.
“No, please. Don’t do this.”
His fingers tighten on my throat, a sharp warning. “Enough. Heal yourself. Do it now,” he snarls.
I unwillingly find the rune and sketch it, gasping as a wave of exhaustion hits me. Ronit presses his lips to mine and then disappears. I crumple to the floor on my knees. He was glowing, I couldn’t see him clearly, but I could see his face, a little bit. Sharp cheekbones, a strong jaw, long hair.
The wonder of it is stolen as Deux sends Lirin flying. He lands hard and rolls.
“Lirin!” I whisper and try to crawl to him. Leaf grabs me, holding me still.
Ronit is next, then Reed.
Canto struggles alone, but then his sword goes, and he’s on his knees.
I struggle, but Leaf holds me still.
“Help them,” I hiss at the dragon.
“I’m too far from the oceans, I have nothing.”
Brio sings then shrieks. I whimper when I realise Deux has hurt him.
“No!”
I shrug free of Leaf and rush into the fray, spinning and attacking Deux.
Our battle is intense and vicious. I ignore my wounds, ignore my exhaustion.
The heat dogs every part of my body, but I ignore that, too.
We spin and fight, faster and faster, exchanging blows that humans couldn’t hope to survive.
“Die!” he roars and shoves me back.
I fall, tripping over a rock I can’t see, and he leaps.
I know I’m going to die.
“NO!” Leaf cries.
Leaf flies over me and intercepts the monster, slamming them both to the ground not far from me. I push up, but something is happening. I can feel it.
The Sirens' song gets loud and haunting. It rips through the fabric of the world, it pulls at me, demanding my surrender, demanding my life.
The world spins, the winds pick up. I can hear screaming, but I don’t know who it is.
“It’s too late!” Deux laughs. “Your Sirens are mine now. If I can’t kill you, I will make your mates suffer for eternity.”
I roll onto all fours, desperately searching for them.
Leaf grunts. “Then we’ll make sure you’re somewhere you can never touch her.”
I snap my head in his direction, but I’m too tired, too depleted. All at once, something inside me rips free. It’s like a part of my soul is shredded. I scream, unable to do anything but howl through the agony.
Leaf…that warmth inside me, the one that had been glowing every time I felt bad, the one that felt like Leaf…it’s gone.
My bonds.
“Leaf? Please,” I sob, rolling onto my knees.
He doesn’t respond.
“Lirin?” my piteous call goes unanswered.
The song gets louder and crashes against me, beating me down.
“Reed?”
I feel them walk past me.
“Canto? Brio?”
Leaf growls as he wrestles himself away from me.
“Ronit? Please?” I don’t know what’s happening, but it hurts.
“Goodbye, Omega,” Leaf whispers. “I’ll make sure he can never hurt you again.”
The world rips open again, and they all fall in.
They are all gone.
Even Deux.
It’s just me.
I’m alone.
There’s no song.
I’m alive.
There’s no SONG.
I’m alone, again.
In the dark, and the song is gone.
I tilt my head back and scream.