“Mother!” Trivia cried, releasing Sol’s hand and sprinting forward. Sol shouted something at her, but she didn’t listen.
Gaia’s voice was full of panic and fear. Trivia had never heard her mother sound like that before.
“You must hurry!” Gaia yelled. “They are getting closer. I don’t have much time!”
“I’m coming!” Trivia called, sidestepping more cracks and holes as she followed the sound of her mother’s voice.
“Trivia!” Sol bellowed, freezing her in her tracks. She turned and looked over her shoulder, but all she could see was fog and dust.
Sol cried out again, the sound laced with pain.
Shit.Trivia glanced back and forth, conflicted as to which direction she should go. Gaia, or Sol? Both of them needed her help…
“Trivia, it’s atrick! It’s not really Gaia!” Sol’s voice was urgent and firm.
Trivia sucked in a sharp breath, looking once more toward the direction where she’d heard her mother’s voice.
“Come back!” Sol pleaded. “Trivia, where are you?”
“I’m here!” Trivia answered, turning back toward Sol’s echoing shouts. “Follow my voice!”
“I think I can see you.” Sol sounded closer now. Trivia squinted as she made out a figure in the fog.
Relief spread through her, and she smiled as she hurried toward him.
But as the fog cleared, the figure before her materialized.
It wasn’t Sol.
With a loud screech, a large creature slammed into her, pinning her to the ground. Trivia screamed and wrestled with the beast, but its talons cut into her flesh, pinning her. Inky black eyes bored into hers, surrounded by a wrinkled female face and a dark beak.
“Oh, shit,” Trivia wheezed, struggling in vain to free herself.
The siren leaned closer, its eyes hungry.
Hungry forher.
Its beak opened wide.
Trivia pressed her fingers into the dirt beside her and summoned her power. Roots sprang forth, and vines wrapped around the siren’s wings. It cawed loudly, batting awing at the vines. Its talons loosened their hold on Trivia for a brief moment. But it was all she needed.
She shoved at the siren, then rolled away from it, her arms bleeding from the sharp cut of its talons. The siren screeched and flew toward her. Trivia conjured a branch, then used it as a club to whack at the creature.
The siren screamed. Wings beat nearby, and several other figures appeared.
More sirens.
“Oh gods,” Trivia whispered, backing away as the sirens surrounded her. They cawed and screeched angrily, flitting closer, their wings outstretched.
One of them spoke to her with Sol’s voice. “I told you it was a trick, darling.”
Trivia shuddered at the sound of her lover’s voice pouring from that wretched beak. She gripped the branch in her hands tightly, prepared to beat as many of those damned birds as she needed to in order to survive.
As one, the mass of sirens rushed toward her. She roared in fury, striking one siren, then another. A third sliced her with its beak. She went down, then dug her free hand into the earth and conjured more vines. They wrapped around three sirens, pinning them to the ground.
But there were too many of them. Six more flapped toward her, beaks cutting, talons scraping. Blood poured from her wounds. The pain seared through her, white-hot and all-consuming. She swung blindly, trying to free herself. But gods, her body was throbbing. Her skin was on fire.
She couldn’t fight. Shecouldn’t?—
