“Prue!” Cyrus called out. He grunted, then barked out a curse.
Prue’s eyes snapped open as she focused on her husband. He was nursing a deep gash in his shoulder, gritting his teeth as he tried to stifle the flow of blood.
In an instant, everything came into focus. She hadn’t realized until that moment how foggy her senses had become. Sight and sound had been blocked out, drowned by the soothing call of her mother’s voice.
“Damn sirens,” Prue hissed, reaching for Cyrus to inspect his wound. The blood was already starting to clot, the flow of liquid slowing. Thankfully, it didn’t look too severe.
The sirens screeched louder, diving for them. Prue tugged Cyrus out of the way, narrowly avoiding getting skewered. But the sirens were relentless, pecking at them, talons extended. It seemed that once they knew their calls were being ignored, they attempted a different tactic.
And it was working.
Prue cried out as another talon gouged her cheek, drawing blood.
Cyrus made a noise of frustration. “I can’t strike them if I can’t see them!” A faint bolt of lightning blazed to life behind the fog, but it was fleeting, and the sirens dodged it easily.
Prue gritted her teeth, then crouched to the ground, pressing her fingers into the dirt. She closed her eyes, drawing power from deep within her. The ground trembled, and roots sprang from the cracks in the earth. Shesummoned more, pulling energy, soaring higher and higher. The roots gathered around her, Mona, and Cyrus, growing in height until a web of branches and vines surrounded them like a protective wall. Sweat poured down her face and neck, and she was panting, the power draining her.
Mona took her free hand, lacing their fingers together and chanting words Prue couldn’t understand. The ground hummed, and a burst of energy filled Prue’s body—Mona’s magic had joined her own.
The branches thickened, forming a dome around them to shield them from the sirens’ attacks. Light filtered through the gaps, and the branches creaked when the beasts collided with it.
It wouldn’t hold forever.
“Mona,” Prue said urgently. “Tell me you have a plan. How can we stop them?”
Mona shook her head, her face pale. “Resisting their song is supposed to kill them. These are nothing like the sirens I’ve read about. They’re… different.”
“Because they’re fueled by Titan magic,” Cyrus growled.
From outside the dome, the sirens screeched and shrieked. A creature slammed into the branches, making them quiver. Leaves fell from the impact.
Prue frowned and shook her head. “That doesn’t make any sense. Romanos described aCyclops.Why would the Titans send sirens after us?”
Cyrus’s eyes grew wide. “It’s a diversion. They don’t want to kill us, they want todelayus.”
“Delay us from what?” Prue asked.
“From reaching the Thanassian Empire?” Mona suggested. “Perhaps to keep us preoccupied while the Cyclops does their bidding.”
Cyrus’s expression turned dark. “I don’t know what plans they have for the Thanassian Empire, but it can’t be good.”
A branch cracked and split away from the dome, falling between Prue and Cyrus. She flinched as chunks of tree bark fell around them, then drew more of her magic to fill the gap. “It doesn’t matterwhatthey’re doing in the Thanassian Empire if we can’t get out of here. With the fog in the air, we can’t do anything!”
Mona lifted a finger, her eyes sparking with realization. “Hold on. Sirens travel in packs. They are bonded to one another. What if we can use that bond against them andlurethem to us? Use their own powers against them. Then, we can kill them.”
“How do we do that?” Prue asked.
“We have to catch one. We have to let them come close enough to be captured.”
“They keep flying away too quickly,” Cyrus said.
“If we can injure their wings, we can keep them grounded.” Mona met Prue’s gaze. “I think it’s time for that fire rune again.”
With Prue’s arm already bleeding from when a siren’s beak gouged her, it was easy to pour droplets into Mona’s empty canteen. With her eyes closed and her expression tight with concentration, Mona whispered the incantation.
“Accendoeduro.”
Flames appeared in her palm, but instead of a singlestrike in the sky like in the cabin, it lingered in her hand like a forever-burning fire.
