As if sensing the question, she looks at me and simply smiles.
“Because this is the price I pay for this life I am fighting for. Besides, I had to go back and find the mask because I look so pretty in it. I don’t need eyes, Lirin. Not anymore.”
It doesn’t make sense to me, but it doesn’t need to. She’s alive, and she’s here, and we are free.
How many miracles does she want to pull? I’ll gladly stay and witness a few more.
I embrace her, spinning us as we torpedo through the water, feeling her in my arms. Is this real?
All those years of questioning myself, wondering if I was wrong. Hoping I was wrong. Wasted years. But she’s forgiven us, forgiven me. One hundred years beneath the sea to end up with her. Worth it.
I don’t deserve it.
I’ll be her monster, her Siren. I don’t need to be Fae, I just need her.
Ronit stiffens, and I break apart from her, jumping into the lead, focusing on the hunt. He’s around here somewhere. The ocean feels dead with him in it.
I catch sight of movement to my left. I don’t need to signal, the bonds are wide open. Kit and Leaf peel off, disappearing into the depths.
Ronit sends his phosphorescent form streaking around in a dizzying display. The stripes ripple along his skin, pulsing in a hypnotizing blend of colours.
Canto and Reed go ahead, cutting off his exit. Brio and I look at each other. He takes her hand in his, tilts his head back, and sings a command that every creature come forth.
I hum under my breath as I pull a sharp spear with sharpened coral on the point out of the water. Then I start actively flushing out the holes in the sea rock.
I remove his hiding places, one by one. Until there’s just one left.
There’s a bigger cave just ahead of me, and I stare into it. Dark, glittering eyes stare back.
“Got you,” I say in a malevolent voice. “Time to face the music, monster.”
Chapter 42
Reed
Lirin charges into the cave, and Deux shoots out, leaving a black slime trail in the water that I don’t want to touch.
Canto goes one way, confidently watching.
I swallow convulsively, feeling the scarring on my throat. He placed his hands on us and poured fire down our throats. He burnt my song out of me.
I’d been the first up, and I’d screamed, unable to fight his command, unable to free myself.
I learned what it was to really hate in that moment. Now, I’m to show him how much.
Long talons grow out of my fingers, and I let my mind choose a nightmare shape. Something that reflects the rage I feel. I will not be at the mercy of another. Not again. The first time, they made us dogs and gave us songs. Then he stole our songs and turned us into rabid beasts attacking our own bonds.
I don’t want music. I want to sleep in the dark, I want to be the silent hunter.
She darts in, shining and shimmering like light that I don’t think she ever knew she was. She calms the rage in me without trying.
She came for me.
No one has ever…no one has ever tried to save me.
He hurt her. He almost killed her.
Deux turns, his form spreading out, a sickly version of himself. He bares his teeth and pulls out a knife.
