Teeth | Agatha All Along

10

The air between them was thick with tension, laced with something old, something painful, something that had never quite been put to rest. The dirt around Rio's feet swirled lazily, moving to the will of her fingers, her dark eyes flicking between the two women standing before her. A smirk curled at the corner of her lips, but there was something hollow in it, something forced.

"Your coven is shrinking," Rio mused, her voice smooth as silk but sharp as a blade, "First Alice, now Lilia. It's nice she took the Salem Seven with her. The bodies are really piling up. Just like you promised."

Dahlia tilted her head, crossing her arms over her chest, her stance deceptively relaxed.

"Must be nice," She drawled, "having a front-row seat to all the carnage while doing absolutely nothing about it."

Rio turned to her, that smirk deepening, "Oh, flor, I do plenty. You just don't like what I do."

Agatha stepped forward, her body instinctively positioning itself between Dahlia and Rio. It was a gesture Dahlia didn't miss, and it made her chest tighten. Agatha... protecting her against Death itself. As if she was something fragile.

She wasn't.

Dahlia took a step around Agatha, leveling her gaze at Rio.

"Did you doubt her?" She asked, her tone eerily calm.

"I did," Rio admitted, feigning a thoughtful expression, "Yeah. Thought there'd be a trick in there somewhere." She let the words settle before adding, "And there was. You were distracting me from him."

Agatha's jaw clenched, but her voice remained steady, "You're a big girl. I knew you'd figure it out eventually."

Rio let out a short, humorless laugh, shaking her head.

"Oh, Agatha," She sighed, her gaze flicking between the two of them, "He is an abomination. He is disrupting the sacred balance. And I know how you feel about him."

Agatha scoffed, arms folding tightly across her chest, "Oh, please. I've known that kid for two minutes."

"You're a lot of things," Rio mused, stepping forward, closer, "but a liar? Never to me." Her gaze darkened, "I watch you, Agatha. Just as closely as you watch everyone else. This walk with another woman's son on a road that doesn't—"

"Stop!" Agatha snapped, her voice cutting through the air like a blade.

Dahlia's brows furrowed. Another woman's son? The words echoed in her mind, wrapping around her ribs like vines. Something was clawing at the edge of her consciousness, something that didn't quite fit together yet. But the way Agatha stiffened, the way her breath hitched—there was something here she wasn't seeing.

Rio tilted her head, amused.

"No one in history has had special treatment like you," She murmured, eyes narrowing.

"You call what you did special treatment?" Agatha bit back, "You gave me nothing. You took."

"And that's usually your move, isn't it?" Rio countered, stepping closer, her voice dangerously soft, "Why do you let them believe those things about you, hmm? About Nicky?"

Dahlia blinked, confusion flashing across her face.

"Nicky?" She echoed, looking between them.

Agatha flinched, but she didn't look at her.

Dahlia turned to Rio, her patience thinning, "Who the hell is Nicky?"

Rio's smirk faltered—just barely. And in that moment, Dahlia saw something she rarely ever saw in Death's gaze.