Hartley and Diablos talk far enough away that even my incredible hearing can’t pick out the words. The human shakes his head, disagreeing, but the demon is insistent. Their song gets louder with their frustrations, then eases before turning into something revoltingly sweet.
“What do you think?” Lirin asks me in a discrete murmur.
Ronit, Canto, and Reed are standing silent, watching the demon and his partner and the Strega and Leviathan. They all have their arms folded over their chests.
“I think we haven’t come close to finding what we need; this world is new and different. Much more difficult than weanticipated. We need help. We’re running out of time,” Reed says harshly, speaking for me while he glares at Leviathan and the witch.
“We have two months, we can-”
Canto makes a harsh noise in his throat, and I snap my jaw closed on any more words that might slip out. The last thing we need is her finding out about that. Any of them finding out.
“Right!” Diablos claps his hands. He looks positively gleeful. “Hmmm, where do we start? I know, let’s start with sleeping arrangements.”
He peers at us, and I get this sinking feeling that this is going to be a terrible couple of days.
“I’ve got a big tent for you all to sleep in.”
It takes a long second for me to put a picture to the word.
“No!” I snarl out. The very idea of sleeping with her that close. Absolutely not. She would cut our throats or do some weird Nightmare stuff.
Ronit puts a hand on my shoulder, wordlessly telling me to rein it in. “When you say all, do you include them?”
Diablos nods cheerfully and flings his arms wide, indicating the thick circle of trees, bushes, and wild grasses that surround this clearing. “Of course, it will be a bonding experience.”
He announces it like we’re all going to be cheerful and happy. No one speaks, but I can feel Reed and Ronit tensing and readying for a massive fight. A low and violent growl comes out of Canto, startling me.
“We don’t bond. We murder,” he says succinctly.
“Oh, you are so cute and killy,” Diablos sings at us in the worst off-key bass I’ve ever heard. My ears feel violated.
“Your death is going to be splashed on the shores of every beach in this world, arrogant one,” Ronit says smoothly, stopping Reed from exploding in a fit of rage.
“Hm, that is not the reaction Becky and her pack gave me,” Diablos says. He glances at his mate, as if he’s unsure.
“I’m not sleeping with that thing. She will probably cut our throats in her sleep,” Reed growls out.
That’s the death I’m least worried about; there is so much worse that the Strega can do. We would know. Sleeping with her? Not a chance in hell, Nightmare, or the Black Death Oceans.
“At least you won’t have to put up with the scent of rotting fish!” she shoots back. “Seaweed, decay, and brine. No one can sleep with that.”
Lirin opens his mouth but changes his mind at the last minute and turns away. She is all bristling fury, defiant and untouchable.
She was living in our house for three months. How? The whole thought of it just sends homicidal thoughts crashing through me, making the song in my head discordant.
“Are you scared?” Reed says with a vicious smile.
She flicks her hair over her shoulder and shifts her weight. “Oh, I’m terrified of you. But I think you all might be a little bit more scared of me.”
“No, we just wonder whether we’ve got lice or mites.”
“I’ve heard fish things can survive if I cut off limbs, anyone want to volunteer for an experiment?” She shoots back, and my eyes bulge. Who is this monster?
Reed growls; she retorts in kind.
“All right, enough!” Hartley says. “We’re going to get another tent. Boys in one, and-” Hartley looks at her and hesitates.
I snicker.
