“We can’t fulfill the original deal with the creature that gave us twelve months. It’s not possible. So, we will go back to the Black Death Oceans and guard the places between the worlds,” Canto says tonelessly. “Diablos was a back-up plan. One that was supposed to save us.”
“So, you’re going or I am?” I ask flatly, my heart thudding hard, trying to understand how my world has just shifted so violently.
My heart is hammering, and I can feel the food I ate coming back. I want to scream at them; I want to rail and roar. But he was right. We did hate each other. I hated them.
I would like to think I would have done the same thing.
“But you can come back, right? You can just change and have legs. I can open the door?” I suggest hopefully.
“No, Strega,” Lirin whispers. “We can only walk as men on one island. We are stuck in that world.”
“But-”
I frown, thinking about it. One island.
“You can’t ever leave? And when I set the air on fire? I trapped you under the waves? Is that…I did that?” I whisper in horror, suddenly realising why they have hated me for so long.
“We know you didn’t mean it, Mei. You are our scent match. We didn’t realise that it was you we were smelling,” Brio murmurs.
My legs give way, and I fall back, only to be caught by Reed, who pulls me into his arms, hugging me hard.
“You are ours. No matter where you are or we are. You will always be ours.”
“If Deux was dead, I would be in Nightmare right now,” I murmur. “I’m not yours,” I say hysterically. “There’s no way for us to be together. We are trapped.”
“We’ll find a way,” he says confidently.
I shake my head. “There is no way.”
“Leaf will stay with you,” Ronit announces.
Leaf roars, wordless, pained. A protest.
“He loves you,” I say, “you can’t ask that of him.”
“And he’s bonded to you. He can survive a separation from us. You need him. I know you will be amazing in whatever world you find a home in,” Ronit says and cups my cheeks. “You are a survivor, and you have people here who will help you.”
“How long?” I ask, feeling weak. How long until my life ends? How long before this all is gone?
“Five days,” Ronit whispers. “Just five days.”
“And then you’ll be gone? Forever?”
“Yes. Then we will go home, and you will become everything you were meant to be,” he whispers and cups my face, I can feel him staring down at me. “You will be amazing, Mei, and I will be glad to have known you.”
How can I be everything I was meant to be without them?
I don’t know when the others leave, but we sit together on the couch, none of us talking.
Five days.
Five days to figure out how to say goodbye.
Chapter 35
Canto
“What do you fear the most?” she asks as she approaches me.
