“One needs to read the fine print,” Deux murmurs, and his voice echoes all around me. “And always know who you are dealing with. But desperation will make even the smartest predators stupid.”
My heart leaps into a gallop. I’ve lost him.
I don’t move, straining my ears, trying to track him.
His claws slide into my back. I throw my head back, head-butting him as I scream.
Their song, the one I’ve been blocking out, bursts into the world around me. It feels like they are here. It feels like they are with me.
I’m not dying here. Deux can go to hell.
I pull myself off his claws, ignoring the hot flood of liquid that runs down my back. The pain is intense, but I shove that aside, too. Pain is just telling me I’m still alive.
I can hear him lick his claws, consuming my blood, and there’s nothing I can do to stop him.
A rune burns, and I trace my fingers over the shape and then etch it in the air. There’s a sizzle and the smell of my blood burning.
Deux hisses and curses at me, but I ignore it and him, only keeping note of where he is. The blood runs down until it’s soaked my back, but I don’t dare move.
“You are becoming too arrogant. It’s your time to die. This is the way of things,” Deux murmurs. “I want what you have.”
“I don’t want to die. I refuse!”
“Fine, then I’ll make it slow and long for you. You’ll beg by the time I’m done.”
He leaps across the space, and instead of lunging backwards, I slam into him, shoving my own talons deep into his shoulders. I drive us both across the clearing until he pulls free.
His rage is a living beast, throbbing and pressing at me. Warning me that he’s about to get serious.
I don’t care. I’m angry, too.
All these years of being scared. Of running. Being tired and hungry. Going without water, without sleep, without food. The pain, the wounds, the other creatures who thought they could hunt me and steal his position. Living in the dark. The nightmares.
Not being able to see them.
Not being able to love them freely.
Everything.
Anger burns inside me, and it’s driven by grief.
I sketch out another rune, this time it comes straight out of my mind.
I scream in defiance as it slams into him. He is thrown into a tree trunk. The whole thing explodes. A piece of it hits me in the face, cutting open my cheek, I don’t even care.
He’s up and racing at me, no longer being quiet, throwing stealth to the wind. His palm smacks into me, and I fallbackward. I roll, but his foot finds my ribs. Pain explodes, but I’m up in the air, and I crash down heavily on my arm.
He stomps towards me, I roll and lash out, but he bats my hands away furiously, and grabs my hair, bringing his knee up sharply into my face.
I fall back, numb and in pain, scrambling to get my thoughts together, to figure out some way of beating him.
The heat and hunger has made me slow. I made a mistake. I can’t beat him, but I’m going to try.
“You stupid bitch, do you think you can beat me? You think even that worthless Grim or Nightmare King could beat me now? I am too powerful. Nothing can stop me.”
I wipe my nose, mopping up blood with my forearm. “I can stop you.”
He goes still and silent, and then throws his head back in an eerie laugh that makes the hair on my body rise.
