She made no sound. My hackles go up, and I step sideways, blocking her view of Mei.
“Go the fuck away!” I growl in my most threatening voice.
She tilts her head back, opens her mouth, still smiling, and then clacks her teeth.
I shudder.
“Ronit!”
“Ronit,” she repeats in my voice.
My eyes widen.
“What did you say?”
“What did you say?” she echoes.
“Oh, fuck, this is creepy,” Lirin whispers. “Um, what do we do?”
“Kill it!” I shout.
“Kill it!”
I pull my trident again and, to my utter disbelief and consternation, the creature does the same.
“Well, that’s not good,” Ronit murmurs.
I step towards it, holding the trident horizontal with my body. She does the same all the time, smiling and clacking those fucking teeth.
“Do something!”
“Do something.”
I shudder and feint to the left, but she does the same thing, and our tridents glance off each other. I had expected it to be a mirage or something, but our solid tridents clang against each other. Real weapons. She is real, whatever the fuck she is.
“Fuck!” Brio whispers.
Mei clamps her hand over Brio’s mouth.
“No one sings. No more words,” Mei murmurs.
We spread out and encircle this creature, and when Canto lunges, I lunge, but it imitates Canto, knocks his blade back, and then still manages to attack me.
Nope, I am a Siren. I’m not doing this.
We whirl as one, moving faster and faster. We’re a damn blur, and the creature has to use everything it’s got to keep up.
Faster and faster.
Our endurance is unrivaled.
I will not allow this thing to live.
It suddenly snarls and drops to a crouch before jumping up as an identical image of Mei.
Within moments, it’s swirled her, and they are hopelessly mixed up. I can see their faces intently, trying to spot anything that will give us an indication of who the real Healer is.
Both of them have runes that float up and vanish. Neither is smiling.
