He takes a step back. “Where did that come from?”
“I’m sorry,” I say, unabashedly staring at his chest but not for the obvious reasons. There’s something different. “It’s just the black ink on your tattoos look like they move.”
He laughs and starts to close the space between us. He stretches his arms behind his head and looks off to the side. “If you want to check me out, you only have to say so.”
I groan and walk around him. “Why do I talk to you? Let’s just find the stupid cave opening before I throw you in the river.”
“Empty threats will get you nowhere,” he says, but he takes out the map again. He looks from the parchment to the wall of stone. He runs a hand across his close-cropped hair. I wonder what it feels like to touch. I bet it feels fuzzy.
“According to this map, we passed it. It was supposed to be directly across from the golden pier.”
“Don’t forget we got dragged downriver for a while. How can we have passed it when all of it looks the same? We are literally between a river of souls and a hard place.”
A loose rock falls at my feet. Above us, the bird I fed before is back, and it’s brought company. A dozen decrepit birds fly in circles above us. Feathers fall from their molting bodies, and my skin crawls when I think of the parakeet back home.
“That’s why you don’t feed the strays,” Nova says.
I ignore him and focus on our rocky problem. In desperation, I start pushing my hands against the wall, hoping to find a secret passageway. When nothing gives, I slump down to the black sand.
“Maybe we could try to climb up and over?” I suggest.
Nova takes his T-shirt from his back pocket and uses it to mop the sweat from his face.
“It’s too smooth and vertical,” he says. “There isn’t much to grab on to. Besides, we don’t have any rope. I don’t know about you, Ladybird, but there are only so many times I can fall from great heights without breaking my beautiful face.”
“Helpful,” I say.
More and more birds start to land around us, their wrinkled, sagging necks cocking their heads to the side.
“I don’t think that’s a good sign,” Nova says, now focusing on the birds.
I focus on the shadow that passes over us. My heart leaps when I think it’s the eclipse. I look at the gloomy, dark sky. The moon and sun are on opposite ends of the sky.
I tilt my head back farther still. Creatures climb down the wall, gracefully defying gravity. Black claws dig into stone and tails wag like whips. A low growl, followed by the yowl of a predatory feline. Lips pull back to reveal foot-long canines. Green eyes glow against the gray sky.
“What is that?” I ask him, taking careful steps backward until I collide with Nova. I swear I can hear his heart racing right through his chest. He holds his knife with a white-knuckled fist.
“I’m going out on a limb and say it’s what you get if a saber-toothed tiger and a snake demon had a baby.”
The giant feline advances on us. I gasp and hold out my hand to summon a soft pulse of energy. It’s a weak, thin ripple of magic that vanishes as quickly as it appears. I’m still recovering from my last use of magic.
“Alex, get down!” Nova shouts.
I throw myself back on the ground. Nova’s knife hits the saber-toothed thing straight through its forehead, burying in it down to the blue hilt. The beast writhes, falling straight down the wall and onto the black sand. Then, it pushes itself up. It shakes its head and flings the blade from the gash. The blade tumbles in the sand, warped into nothing but a piece of scrap.
I scramble back and pull my dagger from my ankle. I’ve never used a knife for anything other than butterflying a chicken cutlet and then during my Deathday. It feels foreign in my hand.
Nova raises his mace, and we stand shoulder to shoulder. We can’t keep backing up because that’ll take us into the river. But we can’t walk forward because there is nothing but wall and the flock of molting birds all around us.
“I count three more cats,” Nova says.
“Cats is an understatement.”
Nova grins. “There could be more. I’ll distract them with my light, and then you run.”
“Don’t be stupid. I’m not going anywhere without you.”
Wings flap and birds caw and the sky churns. The rock wall begins to tremble.
Nova looks at me, and I reach for him. I can try to channel my magic into him. We are better together, stronger. But he does it without me. His light is a brilliant thing that erupts around us. It’s like a flare, and it dies just as quickly.
Then, a new kind of pain rips through me. Sharp talons dig into my shoulders. I’m pulled into the air in a hard jerk. I can hear the rattling sound of stones tumbling against each other, and I realize, the wall is opening up.
I scream for Nova. Veins of light swirl around his forearms, leaving behind black burned marks. They’re not tattoos but marks from his magic…
Nova falls face forward on the sand. The birds around us take flight, squawking and zooming around in a wide, protective circle. Maybe the pain is making me delirious or maybe I’m just not built for this land, but it looks like one of them shifts in midair. Her wings elongate to a massive wingspan, and hands with claws form at the tips. A long neck gives form to a human head with a black beak and black eyes. It isn’t until she’s looking at me that I realize I’m six feet in the air.
The bird woman flies to Nova and grabs him by his shoulders. She opens her beak and a terrible cry sends a ripple across the river. It’s so powerful that the beasts tumble against each other. It takes them seconds to get back up. They get low to the ground, ready to pounce. The biggest one opens its mouths to reveal a long, red tongue.
More and more of the fowls shift into half-bird, half-women form. They fight and slash their talons at the saber-toothed demons.
Somewhere in the back of my head, I know these bird women are avianas. Lula used to tell me if I didn’t give her my dessert, she’d feed me to them. As they drag us into the open mouth of a cave—the Caves of Night—I can’t help but think that, unwittingly, my sister kept her promise.
17
When mortals defy the Deos,
heads roll from sunset to dawn.
—from the journal of Fernandio Neruda
The aviana’s claws dig deep into my shoulders. My screams echo in the sparkling caves. The caves! Nova wasn’t wrong. There was an opening. It was just hidden. The walls tremble as the entrance shuts, leaving us to fly in the dark. There is only the flap of wings, the rush of water, and the scent of burning cedar.
When I stop struggling against the creature and let myself be carried, it’s just like what I imagine the free fall of a skydive to feel like. My eyes adjust to the hazy, yellow glow coming up ahead. The insides of the caves are dazzling, like someone chipped away pieces of rock to reveal the glittering bits of gold and crystals that pulse with light.
The ground gets closer and closer, and we aren’t slowing down. The aviana releases me, and I fall to the ground with a hard thud.