The sound of slithering came again. It was louder this time, which meant that it was probably closer. I had a real hard time thinking of that as a positive thing.

“I know about Lloyd, Hannah. I know what he’s been doing, and I know you’re protecting him, because he’s your family. I understand how important family is. But do you remember Shelby? The woman who was here with me before? Lloyd hurt her. He stabbed her, and I think he took her, because there’s nowhere else she could have gone. She’s going to die if I don’t find her. Shelby is my family, Hannah. She’s my family, and she didn’t do anything to deserve this.”

Slithering, followed by silence.

“You said my great-grandfather helped you. You said he helped your parents find each other. That means you wouldn’t be here to refuse me without him. Honor his memory. Help me.”

“You would make me choose between you and my son?” Her voice was closer than I’d expected from the slithering; I somehow managed not to jump, but it was a close thing, based more on the fact that I was too terrified to move than on any aspect of my training. “How dare you. I may owe my life to your great-grandfather, but that is all I owe him. I owe the life of my son to no one at all.”

“Your son’s life is his own,” I said. “He’s killing people. You know what that means.”

“You came here to kill us. I knew that as soon as I set eyes on you.”

“I came here for reasons of my own. It was Lloyd who made this a hunt.”

“Yet you have always been a hunter.”

“I’m not here to hunt anyone but Lloyd,” I said. “I just want to stop the deaths and get my girlfriend back.”

“You lie. Humans always lie.”

“Did Jonathan lie to you?”

Silence fell in the cave, broken only by the low, constant sound of hissing. I hadn’t noticed it when she was speaking; either it had just started, or the silence was really that absolute. Finally, she said, “Yes, he did. He told my parents they would be happy here in Ohio. He told them they would be safe here, that they would have good lives here, and that they would never have children. They were happy with their choice and with each other, but were they happy with me?” Her face loomed out of the dark, close enough that this time I did jump, taking an involuntary step back. “He lied when he said I would never be, and when they learned to love the thing I was, he lied again when he said that I would never have children of my own.”

“Biologically speaking—”

“Do not speak to me of science, little mammal,” hissed Hannah, and slithered into the light. Yes, slithered: her legs were gone, replaced by a tail that gripped the rocks like a rock python. Shapeshifting is a trait of the greater gorgon, one they share with the gorgons of legend. She circled me, creating a barrier with her tail when she stopped, her human half raised off the ground in parody of a standing woman. She was naked, having eschewed the trappings of humanity here in her cave, where no one with half a brain would dare to bother her. “Science did not stop my birth, and it did not stop the birth of my son. His father left me when the egg hatched; when he saw what we had done together. Children should be a blessing. Your family took that from me.”

I thought of Sarah, who came from a species the entire world—including Shelby—was ready to write off as beyond redemption, monsters from birth. “Children are a blessing,” I said. “Nature doesn’t define everything that we’re going to be. Love can change us.”

“You think I didn’t love him? I loved him more than any mother has ever loved a hatchling. I cradled him to me and protected him from the world. But the world kept forcing its way in. The world couldn’t let us be.” Hannah scowled, a flash of fang showing through the dimness. “The world deserves whatever it gets.”

“Does Shelby? Do the people you built this community for?” I gestured behind me, trying to indicate the mouth of the cave. “Dee and Frank are outside. They respect your privacy too much to come inside with me.”

“They fear me,” she said.

“They respect you,” I said. “They introduced you to me as their protector, their founder, the reason they’ve stayed safe here while so many gorgon communities have failed. They love you. Whatever may have happened in the past, they love you. But if Lloyd isn’t stopped, if he doesn’t see reason, all of this is going to be lost. Do you get that? You’re not giving the world what it deserves. You’re hurting the people who love you.”

Hannah stared at me, the snakes atop her head hissing. Then, slowly, they began to settle, dropping back into a neutral position. She dipped a little lower, still holding herself off the ground. “You’re here to kill him,” she accused.

“Yes,” I said. “I am. I’m sorry, Hannah. He’s been responsible for the deaths of three people so far—that I know of—and that makes him a danger to all of us.”

“So you will kill him and then what?” Hannah tilted her head, watching me. “Will you walk away? What if your woman is dead?”

“I’ll be honest: I don’t know,” I said. “My first response is that if she’s dead, I’ll burn this place to the ground, but I know that’s not fair to people like Frank and Dee, who didn’t do anything. I’ll do my best to restrain myself. It’s not going to be easy. So really, the best thing would be for me to find her alive, and that means I need to find her soon. Will you please tell me where Lloyd is, Hannah? For Shelby’s sake, and for his?”

She sighed. It was an old, tired sound, like wind blowing over bones. “And what if I kill you right now? Won’t that solve the problem for everyone?”

“I’m getting really tired of playing chicken,” I muttered. “If you kill me, I guess I’ll be dead, and Shelby will probably be dead too, since no one’s going to show up in time to save her. But my grandparents will come looking for me, and when they find out what happened, they’ll call my parents, and my sisters, and a lot more people will die. None of that has to happen. If you tell me where to find Lloyd, we can end this all today.”

“You’ll kill him. You’ll kill my son.”

“Yes.” I looked at her, a strange calm spreading over me. “So I guess this is where you decide. You need to kill me right now, or you need to tell me where to find Lloyd. Otherwise, I’m going to go looking for him, and I’m going to find him, and you’re going to have no say at all in what happens next.”