With them.
For them.
I wake up suddenly and drag myself free of their bodies, horrified at the dream. I didn’t survive this long to let them kill me.
There is something wrong with me.
I disappear silently into the back of the house. I need a moment or seven because something has changed.
And I don’t think it’s going to help me at all.
It’s only when I’m running through the forest that I realise I have no intention of going back.
Chapter 21
Leaf
She’s gone.
There’s no sign, no trail, it’s like she just disappeared into thin air. Something inside tugs and pulls, twisting painfully, driving me to the edge of sanity.
I grip my hair and yank. Kit rubs his cheek on mine, his claws slipping deep into my shoulder to keep balance, but it doesn’t distract me like it normally does.
“We have to find her,” I snarl at the Sirens.
“Yes, I agree with you. It's just…how?” Lirin says with quiet exasperation. “I have no idea how to track her, what to even look for, and she has years of remaining on the run and not getting caught. How do we find her when she doesn’t want to be caught, Leaf?”
Ronit growls and rubs his hand across his face. “She’s a target for Deux, so whatever we do, we need to do it fast, and get her back to safety.”
“Is she really safe with us?” I ask spitefully. “Brio got hurt, and she almost died trying to save him. I wonder if we are the reasons why she is running.” Just saying those words makes mefeel all kinds of panic; those are dark ocean thoughts. We don’t voice them out loud.
“We fight him better together. We need to figure it out. But that can be sorted out later, all that matters right now is finding her,” Reed snarls, and to my quiet pleasure, he looks the most distressed with her absence. Does Reed care more than he pretends?
Canto is quiet. “I’m going to look.”
“I’ll come with you,” I say immediately.
“No, I’m going alone.”
I growl, and everything in me wants to body slam him into the wall and start a fight that will collapse this building.
“Fine, go.” Ronit waves his hand and stands up, walking to the front of the house.
It’s got polished floorboards with really comfortable furniture. It’s not a house for show, this one is for comfort, and the view of the ocean feels like it goes on forever. The house is on a cliff, but there’s a staircase down to a small beach. A private beach.
“Why would she leave?” I ask, and my skin prickles, then spikes painfully. “Ow! What is this?” I growl.
“The curse kicking in. She’s been gone for about nine hours. But it’s decided that’s enough time,” Brio says, sitting up. “She was dreaming, did anyone else see her dreams?”
I choke. “I’m sorry, what? You can see her dreams now?” The more I learn about the Sirens, the more interested I am in them, but sometimes, the things that they can do surprise me.
Sometimes I miss the simpler world of us fighting endlessly.
But then I remember Mei.
Brio swallows hard. “In her dreams, she was dreaming about me as a child and dancing with me while I sang to her, and then it changed, and we were drowning her, and she was letting us.”
There’s a heavy silence where Ronit folds his arms over his chest, refusing to look at us. “Do you think she believes that?” He asks with no inflection in his voice.
