I hum in agreement.
Canto turns to me, I can feel his eyes on me; it's electric. “Tell me how he hunts, Mei.”
I shake my head. “I’ve told you.”
“You haven’t told me enough. Think, how does he know how his prey will behave?”
“He watches them for weeks. Deux studies everything. He sits in spots that are almost invisible to the naked eye, and he hunts.”
“Good omega,” Canto purrs. “Now, what does he watch?”
“How they come and go, what they eat, where they drink and hunt. He tracks their weaknesses and habits. The only way to evade him is to be completely and utterly chaotic so he can never predict you.”
Canto crouches in front of me, his hands wrap around my ankles. “Good. Who does he go after? Which prey are his targets?”
“All of them, he just likes to kill.” I pause, thinking. “But he has special targets that he tracks and hunts down, he becomes obsessed, dangerously so. Almost to the point where he becomes frantic.”
“Who are they?”
“Creatures, all sorts.”
“What do they have in common?”
I struggle to think, but I can’t come up with anything. “Nothing.”
“All right, what does he do to all of them?”
I raise my hand to my eyes. “He takes their eyes and eats their hearts while they are still living.”
Canto’s thumb strokes the inside of my ankle. “You have done really well, Mei. Really well.”
“What do the eyes and heart signify?” Leaf asks.
Reed jumps up and turns to Ronit. “We need that favour.”
“What favour?” Leaf asks.
They don’t answer him; instead, they sing a summons. I can feel the air around us tingle, until Leaf adds a strange warble to it. Spicy smoke spills into the room, stinging my nose, and suddenly, there are three new and strange presences in front of me.
“How. Dare. You!” the Fae snarls.
I don’t recognise him, but I really wish I could see what they look like. I know I will never forget that voice.
“You owe us,” Ronit says calmly.
“You are scum, the worst of our kind, betrayers, deserters, liars, cheats,” his female companion sneers.
“We are Fae.”
“You were never Fae. You were aberrations, mistakes in the fabric of the world, errors. Ha! You are dogs, and we have set you outside our house to guard it,” the third man says in such a deep, dark, vile tone that I stand before them, drawing their attention.
“What is that? You keep company with filth?” the woman shrieks, and she lashes out, her hand opening up Reed’s cheek. The sharp smell of his blood fills the air bringing me to a murderous rage in seconds.
I snarl and lunge at her, shoving her back. When they attack, I whirl and kick out a knee, then sketch a rune into the air.
The Fae screams in agony as my rune burns her face. The smell of burning flesh is revolting, but we all ignore it. The male Fae don’t dare protest.
“They are mine now,” I snarl at them. I don’t know where the words come from or the rage that makes my limbs shake, but I can barely stop from ripping their throats out with my teeth.
