I shake my head; it makes sense, but it no longer matters.
“We can keep you safe now,” Wilder implores.
I bark a laugh. “Your success rate so far has been less than,” I hiss.
My form shivers, my legs lengthen just a little, my body heats like fire, my horns tear through my scalp, and my face changes to the shape I chose long ago. Something monstrous, something terrifying. Something that survives evil.
“You’re one of us,” Diablos says in shock. “Your eyes, your eyes were black once, weren’t they?”
Obsidian black, Mother used to call them. Solid black with no white. No colour.
None of it matters.
“Stop!” Ronit commands.
I ignore him.
“Strega, wait!” Brio shouts.
Reed rushes towards me, but I move faster, stepping to the side.
“You thought I was an animal,” I sneer. “Maybe I am.”
“We were wrong,” Canto says, and there’s a tremble in his voice.
I cock my head, listening intently.
“Stay, please.”
I want to. I want to take back all these words I don’t mean. But if I do that, we all die.
I curl my lip. “Why would I stay for you? Liars. Deceivers.”
“Mei!” Leaf shouts, and he rushes to me, I turn, and I feel him go straight past me. Too close. I swear, his lips skim mine, but, no, that’s just a memory.
“We are enemies. And we always will be. You want to make deals to send me back to Nightmare? Fine…catch me first,” I snarl.
“No, wait, you don’t understand-” Lirin shouts, but I’m sketching a rune.
It’s too late.
I’m gone.
I stand in the silence, the cold, frigid silence. There are no Siren songs around me. I can’t feel the shadows moving and pulling towards the nightmares. The dragon isn’t a roar of ocean. There’s nothing.
If I could cry, I think I would.
Instead, I tip my head back again and let out an undulating cry of pure agony.
I kneel in the dirt, clasping my stomach, feeling the hated burn of my heat.
It’s here. Another heat. All these years of suppressing it have come back to bite me in the ass. This is where I should be with my alphas, but I can’t, I won’t make us that vulnerable.
But I can trap this asshole.
I can use my heat against him.
I can kill him.
