Not ever.
Diablos pats me on the shoulder. “The offer stands and…” he hesitates. “Be careful.”
Then he and Hartley are gone, and it’s me and the sirens and their dragon.
And we’re supposed to be not killing each other. I’m not sure what we’re meant to be doing, but it all feels strange. I reach out and bump into the kitchen table, but it’s clearly been fixed or replaced.
“Do you want to eat?” Canto says awkwardly.
I hesitate. It feels strange to accept this offer of them feeding me again.
“Yes.”
He leads me into the house with his almost silent footsteps and pulls something from the cold box they call a fridge.
A moment later, I’m hoisted up onto the bench, where someone looks at my feet and gently cleans them, and Canto shoves a spoonful of something frozen and sweet into my mouth.
I moan, more by the action and the memories than the taste.
The spoon clatters to the floor, but nothing else happens, so I relax again.
Canto feeds me again, spoonful by spoonful, until I’m yawning and struggling to stay awake.
Leaf picks me up and goes to the couch, sitting with me on his lap. I struggle to get free, but he refuses to let go, but then I’m falling into nightmares, anyway.
Dreams of mates who hate me and monsters who hunt me.
Chapter 13
Ronit
The next few days are quiet. Strange.
She is there, a constant presence, her scent in the air; it is both soothing and deeply aggravating. I can’t say for certain why it is, but it’s definitely her presence that is causing my mood to swing wildly from barely contained frustration to deeply pensive turmoil. The Strega is almost silent, rarely speaking. I get the impression that if she could see, she would be watching us intently, learning us inside and out. Working out our weaknesses, readying to destroy us.
Yet, seeing her fight for her life against that creature is something I dream about. I wake when he catches her, my body ready to fight, her name on my lips, desperate to save her. Because in that startling moment when we pursued them and I thought he had her, it felt like the worst moment of my life, worse even than my sentence.
Which makes no sense.
I’m still not sure if our truce was the right move or not. It took a couple of minutes to talk Reed and Brio around, but Canto and Lirin saw the merit of the plan straight away. Lull her into a falsesense of security, buy the time we need to complete the mission, and then we can get rid of her for good.
Except, that’s not what I dream about. In the dreams where I do manage to save her, I hold her in my arms like she’s precious and press my lips to her throat. It is disturbing.
It’s just…she’s so aggravating. Sitting there smugly, eating almost constantly as if there’s nothing wrong, and I want to hate her, but the truth is I don’t even understand her.
Finding that thing trying to kill her was bad enough, but the stark terror written all over her body language was something new. She fought it, and she fought it with a skill that made me realise we can learn a lot from her and about her just by training.
Know your enemy. I underestimated her; I have done it over and over again. Not this time.
Leaf is the calmest of the seven of us, he’s not bothered by the tension or by her snappy commands for him not to touch her. He is just happy. Which is annoying as hell.
He keeps offering me food. It’s weird and getting on my nerves. I turn away from the window and the dark squall that is creeping towards shore.
There’s a squabble between Brio and Lirin that is getting louder. I head towards the kitchen, trying to get away from it.
“You ate the last one.”
“Srslly?” Lirin shouts, his mouth clearly full of food.
