“How did you get to Nightmare?” Lirin asks.
“I was born there,” I say quietly. “My mother tried to keep me alive, she died when I was…I don’t know. She just died. But I have always been there. I don’t know anything else.”
There’s a collective silence that sits in the room, something that feels heavy like guilt.
“You were born there?” Brio whispers in horror.
“But you can speak English and…” Lirin hesitates, stumbling over his words.
“Yes, my mother was human or part human. I don’t know how she got to Nightmare, only that she had me alone and kept me alive.”
“No more, Lirin!” Ronit snaps. “That’s enough.”
The tension in the room gets thick and violent.
Lirin stalks out of the house, slamming the door behind him.
“Come and sit down. Try the food while it’s still warm, and don’t worry about anything he just said,” Ronit says kindly. When I find the seat, his hand caresses the back of my head, soothing some of the unease.
“I thought you wanted to be Sirens. To be so free and strong. To sing such beautiful songs and have an entire ocean to yourselves. Nothing can kill you, nothing can stop you. I didn’t…I don’t know, I just…I would give anything to have that kind of safety. To be so powerful that you don’t have to fear what hunts you.”
“Strega,” Ronit says, but he says the word differently this time; it's light and amused, affectionate, “eat your food and stop stressing about us and the past. It’s over. Today and here is the now.”
I lean on the table, listening to them move around. The whole time, I can sense Leaf right there, waiting, watching me. I don’t know what he wants, but it’s making it hard to think clearly. His presence is like a hand stroking the air just above my skin.
It turns out, I like chicken rolls, and I eat the whole thing while I contemplate all the information I just found out.
Leaf comes and sits down opposite me. His massive, looming presence a welcome balm. I want to curl up in his lap.
“Do you like your ocean?”
“I love my ocean, I love the chase, the thrill of hunting down whatever invades my territory. I would take you to experience all the wonders, from the currents through the canyons to the warm waters that cycle through the shallows. There are rays youcan swim with and whales that sing the world’s songs. Ancient things that people are too young to understand, even the Sirens. A world that is mine.”
“I would like that,” I murmur softly. “What is your favourite game?”
“Chasing the Sirens was my favourite. I’d do something to irritate them, start a battle, and we’d fight and fight, and it would amuse me and make me feel less alone.”
In a whole lot of ways, Leaf is just like me. He’s alone, too. I know that empty feeling where any company is good company. And then meeting someone who is so perfect, who gives you hope. I listen hard for Lirin, my heart aching all over again as I remember that moment on the beach where I held his dying body in the palms of my hands.
“I would show you Nightmare,” I say abruptly.
Leaf’s tension evaporates. “Together?”
I nod, making a decision not to be alone anymore, to try and be more, to change. “Yes, let’s do it all together.”
Chapter 23
Canto
Iapproach Diablos cautiously. He’s standing at the edge of the cliff, but even this close proximity has me wanting to send him flying off. The night sky is full of stars that I don’t recognise, and the wind is blowing off the ocean, bringing a promise of winter with its icy breath.
“I have a lead on a possible creature for you to hunt down.”
Diablos, the back-up plan. We’re putting all our hope and faith into this plan because the alternative is unthinkable.
I don’t have a lot of faith in this idea, but if anyone might be able to find a way, it’s Diablos. Plus, he has something we don’t.
Contacts.
