Sliding back down the other side of it, I worked around in a circle that cut deeper and deeper into the ouro. I clung to the snake as it surged upward again. The ouro hit the ceiling with a hard thud. More debris rained down as the ouro made another attempt to break further through the earth overhead, but beneath me its movements had become sluggish as I continued to sliceatit.
Its flesh gave way with a wet tearing sound before its head tipped forward at an unnatural angle. I scrambled to get out of the way before it could pin me against its chest when its head drooped forward, and all the rattles ceased. I hacked my way through the remaining sinew of the ouro’s neck until its head hit the ground with athump.
Still holding onto its headless neck, I felt the body hurl upward once more before becoming rigid against me. The ouro’s neck remained in the air for a second then it went limp. I rode the ouro to the ground where it flopped up once more before going still. Kneeling on the ouro, I strained to hear anything from Wren, but the tunnel had become quietoncemore.
“Wren?” I demanded, my heart thudding as I waited for areply.
My shoulders heaved as I retracted my talons to run a hand through my blood-soaked hair before leaping to my feet. Blood adhered my shirt to my chest and dripped down my flesh as it fell from my hands. I had no idea what I would do if she didn’t respond to me, but I did know anything that got in my way after this wouldregretit.
“Wren!” I whispered. “Whereareyou?”
Silence met myquestion.
* * *
Wren
The small tails beating against my arms stood up straight against my sides. All the rattles went off at once before ceasing abruptly and going limp as the snake sagged. The heavy weight of the ouro pinned me tothewall.
I didn’t know what had happened, but I remained unmoving as I waited for the tails to renew their attackonme.
“Wren!” I heard a note of panic in Corson’s voice from somewhere in thetunnel.
Panicked forme? I refused to acknowledge the little thrill of happiness that came with thequestion.
“Wren, where are you?” hedemanded.
“He…”
I spit away the ouro blood I hadn’t realized was on my lips. Lifting my arm, I ran it across my mouth to wipe the blood away. I only succeeded in smearing more of it over my face as ouro goo also splattered my forearm. Fine, whatever, snake blood in the mouth was not the worst thing to ever happentome.
“Here,” I said and cringed at the acrid taste filling mymouth.
“Are you okay?” His voice was closer than ithadbeen.
“Peachy keen,” I muttered and shoved uselessly against the dead weight holding meprisoner.
My hands stilled on the snake. That phrase had been something my mother used to say to me. Never before had I uttered those words, but they’d just fallen from my lipswithease.
No, my mother hadn’t said that. She’d said something different, or somethingmore. My mind spun as I tried to recall what that more had been. Past and present lurched together disconcertingly. I never delved into the past, never tried to remember, but now I felt memories sliding forth to take over my mind. The scent of baking cookies rose up to replace the stench of ourodeath.
Peachy keen, jellybean!That’s what she’d saidtome!
The words floating across my mind held the faintest hint of her Scottish accent. She’d come to the U.S. as a child, and had lost most of her accent over the years, but occasionally Scottish undertones would slip back into her speech. She’d always been laughing as she’d uttered that saying to me, and I could hear her laughter once more. It had been so long since I’d recalled those words and her laugh, but now they reverberated inmyhead.
My mother hadn’t just laughed; she’dembracedthe laugh. I’d never heard anyone laugh like her. Whenever she laughed, people smiled, and I had smiled too. It used to make me happy just to be in the presence of someone who embraced life with the open abandon mymotherhad.
I tried to shut the door on the memory, but it remained stubbornly open to let more memoriesspillfree.
No!The word blasted angrily across my mind. I didn’t have the time to deal with the past while this snake trapped me! I pushed against the unbudging ouro. I tried to pry my feet from under it, but they remainedstuck.
No matter how I struggled to rid myself of the snake and my mother’s laugh, they both refused to let me go. I’d barely spared my mom more than a second’s thought in years, but now it was as if her death had occurred only yesterday. The scabs on my heart peeled away, leavingmeraw.
It took another minute, but I finally succeeded in tucking my mother right back into the box I kept her in, and I pried my feet out from under the ouroboros. Propping one hand against the wall and the other on the ouro’s supple scales, I lifted myself up. My shaking arms gave way, and I slumped against the wall with my legs sprawled out across thesnake.
I couldn’t stop myself from smiling when I realized I finally had a chancetosit.
A crunch sounded in front of me. I lashed out with my foot and came up against somethingsolid.
