Aesira took a step closer but recoiled when the odor hit her.
Tangy and pungent.
Blood.
It dripped from the ceiling, pooling on the edges of the broken glass. Aesira covered her mouth with her sleeve.
Movement in the corner caught her eye, too far back for the flame to reach. She pulled her sword again and took a stepforward. Stone’s free hand clenched around her arm. “What are you doing?”
She shrugged him off. Another shift in movement, another crunching sound from the glass beneath her feet. She took a tentative step, the heat from the torch touched her cheeks as Stone followed closely behind.
“Is someone there?” Her grip tightened around the pommel of her sword, the shadowy movement from the back corner froze.
“Aesira,” Stone warned but she raised a hand to silence him. She could appreciate his caution, she understood it. But this was more her element than tending a ship or overlooking a wall. She knew what she was doing and when she looked at him over her shoulder, the quick dip of his chin told her he knew as well.
There was another sound. Not the bite of glass under their boots. Not the crackling of the flame from the torch. She craned her ear and held her breath, honing in on the instincts she’d sharpened since she was twelve.
Singing.
From the farthest room, a woman’s voice faintly drifted through the open doorway. “Do you hear that?” Aesira kept her voice low but with how close Stone was pressed to her body, she knew he heard her. His fingers gripped her arm like a vice.
The singing continued, high pitches and coos. Bird-like. Soft. Sweet.
“Who’s there? Do you need help?” Anticipation churned in Aesira’s stomach as she thought of the blood coating the ceiling and floor, the destruction of the building itself. The singing grew louder, a chirping melody that rang in her ears. She took a step forward. “We’re coming in.”
Another step and a high pitched note rang through the building.“What if we all fell down, down, down.”
Despite the cold, sweat pooled in Aesira’s palms and on her brow, clinging to the thick dark hairs around her nape.“What if we all fell down,”the voice sang again and then all at once, nothing. A wave of silence settled into each nook and crevice of the vacant building, like calm skies before a sand storm. The odor of the room was strong enough to spring tears from her eyes, burning her nostrils.
Aesira thought of herself as a brave woman. A noble knight and fearless on the battlefront. But when Stone raised the torch and lit up the room, a fear so deep cut through her, her sword trembled in her hand.
A woman’s face was illuminated in the flame. She threw her head back, hissing at the light. A pale face with large, yellow eyes, a chin stained crimson with blood dripping from her needle-like teeth. Dark, stringy hair clung to her scalp, falling well below–
Aesira reared back, bumping into Stone’s chest. He dropped the torch and pulled her so tightly into him she could feel the erratic beating of his heart.
From the neck down, the woman morphed into feathers and rippling muscle, all held up by powerful legs and sharp talons. Aesira’s pulse hammered in her chest. Her sword slipping, slipping from her grip until it clattered against the glass on the floor.
The woman rose, tilting her head to the side at an unnatural angle, her yellow eyes narrowing to slits. The light from the torch on the ground flickered once, twice, the flame dwindling to almost nothing. There was a scrape of talons against the floor. Then another.
Aesira’s breaths were short, her hands empty and useless without her sword. Another scrape. A flutter of feathered wings. “Stone…”
“Strix,” Stone said in her ear, his hands clutched around her shoulders.
Strix.
The word evoked a memory in Aesira’s brain, but it was muddled and locked away.
Strix.
Strix.
How did she know that word?
Stone scrambled to pick up the torch, blowing softly until the fire roared again. The Strix screeched, hiding her face behind massive wings. Aesira and Stone took a step backward, on their way she picked up her sword, the weight giving her a false semblance of strength.
“Move slowly,” Stone said, his lips pressed to the shell of her ear. “It doesn’t like the light. As long as we keep calm. Keep the torch lit…” Something bumped into the back of her calf. Aesira looked down. Dozens of limbs scattered throughout the room. Veins sucked dry, sinew stretched and discarded. Bodies left to rot and decay. Bile rose in her throat.
“Stone—” A flap of wings sounded behind them, then a shriek so loud she was sure her ears would bleed.
