I wait, but it’s hard. I want so badly to go to him and tear him to shreds. Every motion of his bone-wrapped hair has me flinching.
The wind brings us the thick scent of his decay. It brings death on the air.
“You don’t have to do this,” Ronit says to Mei.
“Yes, I do. We do.”
The fog thickens, and when I blink, he’s gone. I tense and scan the area.
“Ronit,” I growl.
“I know,” Ronit barely breathes.
We spread out, forming a circle around her. The air is cold and full of scents that are wild and wrong.
Mei turns in a circle and stops, facing the cliff.
For a second, I see her flying out off the cliff. I scream her name, rushing to get to her, but I can’t get to her in time, and she dies.
I shove the vision out of my mind because I don’t want to be seeing her die. She’s not going to die. I’m not going to let that happen. I am the Ocean’s Teeth, the Great Dragon. I won’t lose my mate.
I catch movement and spring towards it. Deux doesn’t do what he did last time. He doesn’t engage. He disappears and vanishes into the dark, leaving me confused about what game he’s playing.
With an uncertain glance around, I retreat back to the group. Ronit and Lirin attack next, but again, Deux doesn’t engage, and I notice that we’re spreading out a bit, giving each other more room to fight.
Mei turns her head, swiveling it around. The wind lifts her blond hair, and when the moonlight hits it, it looks white.
We’re silent, listening through the howls for something that doesn’t belong.
Reed rushes the dark, and this time, he’s lifted and thrown so hard and far that he almost tumbles right to the edge of the cliff.
“Reed!” Lirin shouts and rushes to him.
I move closer to Mei, but Deux charges us. Brio is tossed in the opposite direction, and Ronit goes after him.
Canto glances at me.We don’t leave her. I nod.
Deux feints in, his hair lifts on its own, rattling like the coils on the ends of rattlesnakes. That is unnerving.
Mei laughs.
“Terrified, Deux?”
“You will be, Rowenee,” he taunts.
“Do you know why we call him Deux?” Mei says to Canto and I.
“No, why?”
“Because he’s second in everything he does. Two. It’s who he is, not strong enough, not scary enough, always in someone’s shadow. He will always be second to Styx. Second to Sorrow. Second to the Grim. Second. Second. Second.” She drives the point home, and with each word she says, Deux’s rage increases, and I realise she’s trying to make him angry.
Deux’s rattling hair gets even louder and then stops completely. For some reason, this makes Mei falter, as if she wasn’t expecting it.
He cocks his head to the side and then fades into the dark.
He doesn’t come at us; he goes and slams into Lirin. Reed attacks him, and they go around for a moment before Deux slams him to the ground. He lifts his foot, but Lirin shoves him before he can break Reed’s ribs.
Mei is tense, waiting, listening. I wonder how much of the fight she can actually understand.
