She stiffens and shrugs. I’m almost offended on her behalf. She is, despite everything else, very beautiful and clearly female. “I don’t need this tent.”
And to my astonishment, she walks to a massive tree and scales it as easily as if she were walking upstairs. She slouches inthe branches, making herself completely comfortable while Leaf circles the base, trying to work out how to get up there.
I scratch my head and look at the ground, trying to hide my conflicted feelings. She’s killed us; she might not know it yet, but she has. But the innocence, the strangeness of her…I don’t think she knew what she was doing.
And where is her damn song!
Diablos grins broadly as if it were his idea. “Perfect, perfect. See, I told you we only need one tent.”
Hartley grumbles and walks away to sit on a fallen log, with his chin on his fist. He’s the one who is watching. For some reason, he finds her less threatening than us.
I am dangerous, I will admit, but far less so than my shiver. It is right the human should fear us. But I’m not sure that’s the feel leaching from him, instead, I think he feels almost contemptuous. Like he finds that we are the bad guys in this story.
“Mei, won’t you come down and do bonding activities?” Diablos says with a fake smile, his hands clasped under his chin.
She looks down and sneers.
“No.”
Diablos’ smile drops. “You agreed.”
“I can watch from my tree. Please proceed with the instruction, O great and wise mentor.”
Diablos mutters under his breath, and black smoke pours out of his nostrils as his eyes flash red and black.
“Fascinating,” I murmur, listening to the crashing, chaotic song of this demon. “He’s got colour-shifting eyes.” It would be wise to discover as much information about the other species inhabiting this planet as is possible. Also, it does look pretty, I will give him that.
Canto sits down and covers his face with his hands as if it’s all too much.
“Hurry, Demon, time is precious,” Canto murmurs. “You have thirty minutes until sunset. If I’m still listening to your futile efforts to coax us into sharing a tent, I’m going to start hunting anything that moves.”
It’s a bluff. Kind of. Canto won’t hurt the animals; he will just hunt down demons or Nightmares and kill indiscriminately.
He sounds completely and utterly calm and bored, but through the bonds, I can feel the dark rage that is Canto slowly fixing his unwavering focus on our newest companions. Like the rest of us, the lion’s share is set aside for the Strega.
Ronit walks over to the tree and stares up at the witch.
“I thought you said that your curse would keep us together. How did she leave?”
“It will bring you back together over time,” Diablos says dismissively, “but you can separate for, oh, I’d say four hours or so. The more you hate each other, the shorter the time apart. It would slowly worsen until uncomfortable becomes downright painful. Eventually, it would kill you. That’s all.”
The demon is disgustingly flippant.
The witch looks like she’s asleep, lazily hanging in the branches like she’s got not a care in the world, but as Ronit turns and walks away, her head turns just so, as if she’s listening to him. Without making a sound, she leaps to another tree and disappears into the foliage.
I make notes in my head about her skill at disappearing and almost silent movements.
Diablos turns around. “Now, Mei- Where did she go?” he snaps.
No one noticed her leave. Even Canto, who is normally on top of our enemy, has been caught unawares.
Reed stomps around, being his unbearable self. There is something about this place that has stolen the peace and happiness from him. I can’t understand it, but I don’t care to.Reed’s wrath and bitterness is something that has been with him since we met.
Lirin lies down on his side, sitting up on his elbow and watching Hartley.
“Tell me about these people.”
“Humans,” Hartley says.
