Steady. Calm. Your wings will bear you easily if you treat them well. Beat them, and they will fail you.
Mom's lessons couldn't help her now. Aji knifed across the sky like a fox with a dog on its tail, determined to outfly her thoughts. She would only stop long enough to get her hands on Kingsmen. Then she could get up and fly away and never come back. She wouldn't have to worry about those other thoughts because she could always outfly them.
Release the song slowly. You will want to scream, you will want to wail every single note, but you must learn control. No daughter of mine will have human blood on their soul, so you must practice as often as you can.
"I tried!" she panted, her arms trembling. "I did!"
No daughter of mine.
"Stop!" she shrieked, angling for the ground. She barely dropped her legs down in time to catch herself running.
Too fast, she hit the ground, rolling four or five times before coming to a stop. Dizzy, she pushed herself up, taking stock of her surroundings.
A cavern maw matching the news clipping pinned to her bedroom mirror. The Mystery Skulls' dumb van parked out front. A single golden feather laid carefully at the cavern mouth.
Kingsmen was never too far from her sister. He'd even said as much.
How the hell had he gotten a siren's voice? There was no mistaking it. No human voice had that round, full tonal quality. Not like that. He'd insinuated something about Kay. Had he hurt her? Had he finally stooped that low?
It would just make his death slower.
No, she couldn't. Something would try to stop her, just like all the other times. It had to be quick. Kingsmen had the devil's luck when it came to survival and getting out of scrapes. Strike hard and fast, then revel in the moment. It would make it all worth it.
Then flee. The police were probably already looking.
Shoving herself off the ground, she pelted into the cave, taking half a second to wrench a small feather free and drop it next to Kay's. Which way did Kingsmen say he went? Up. He went up, and there was a ledge or something. It would be the perfect spot to launch a new flight. She could drop down on him from above. Of course he would see her coming, but she wasn't too worried.
Unless he had a gun.
It didn't matter. Shooting a moving target in the dark? He wouldn't stand a chance.
For that matter, though, how was she supposed to find him in this dark? The only light was an eerie green glow from the walls, hardly enough to see more than a few feet.
"Loooooooooooost."
Aji's knees locked, her eyes wide.
"Loooooooooooooooost."
That was Kay. But her voice was all wrong. It was dull. Pitched all strange. Was it even in any key?
"Loooooooooooooooooooost."
Aji hurtled headlong up the tunnel. Kay was an idiot, but that was her sister out there, and something was wrong with her.
The tunnel opened up to a well of pitch black. She threw herself back, landing hard on her rear to keep from falling over the same ledge Lewis-
"Loooooooooooooost."
It was coming from overhead. Her sister was flying in this? Of course she was, how was she supposed to land safely if she didn't know where it was safe to land?
"Here!" Aji called, waving her arms at the dark. The walls barely lit her skin a dingy green. Maybe Kay could see her. "Here!" The walls threw her voice back at her, mocking her four or five times before waiting for her to try again.
"Loooooooooost."
It was a little closer than last time. Kay was coming in for a landing.
"Come on, Kay! I'm here, follow my voice. Land for me. I'm right here." She would have given anything for a flashlight. Why hadn't she checked the van?
"Looooooooooooooost."
It was practically over her head. She raised her arms, waving harder. "Here! Here! He-"
Something large clipped her left shoulder, sending her sprawling half over the edge. She rolled herself back, breathing hard as she pressed her hands flat to the ground to steady herself. Too close.
"Looooooost," came mournfully a few feet away.
Aji dragged herself toward the voice, feeling around in the dark. She found her sister's wings, her arms shaking. How long had she been flying in the dark? Aji pulled her closer to the wall for the light. Kay's head lolled back, her eyes staring at nothing. "Loooooost," she mourned.
"What's lost? What did he do to you?" Aji peered at her sister's face. Kay didn't meet her eyes, staring through her like she wasn't there. "Say something to me!"
"Looooooost."
"No! Say something to me! To me! Your sister!"
"Loooooooooooost."
Aji slapped Kay, but her head only lolled to the side now, the same blank stare on her face.
She was gone. Whatever Kingsmen did-
"Kay!"
Red. Everything was red. He'd stolen her sister's voice, driven her mad, and yet he dared call her name.
"Kay! I'm coming for you!"
And at the sound of his voice, Kay lifted her head, her eyes flicking to the side before returning to nothing.
She would answer to the murderer, but not to her own sister. Aji stood, the strain from her own flight vanishing before the red that swallowed her vision. She approached the edge of the ledge, flexing every talon at the end of her fingers. The tips of her sneakers hung over the edge for a moment. Down on the floor of the cavern, a little green point of light weaved back and forth.
"This is for Lewis," she whispered to the dark, then spread her arms and leaped.
…..
Wrong was a feeble word that hardly covered half of what it felt like to stretch back into his own body. Foreign. Detachable. That came a touch closer to it.
A mournful call snapped Arthur to attention. He lay in some kind of aisle-the stables. He was in the stables, that's where the Shiker had brought them. He fumbled in his pocket, feeling the pulse of the two incubating curses the Shiker had jammed there. He had to get rid of them, fast.
The Shiker was gone, but he wasn't gone. Arthur could feel his presence overlaying every movement, his memories settled over every thought. No longer fragments, the entirety of Meynung Shiker's existence had crammed its way into his skull, curled like a trapped animal, clawing the inside of his head. He moved an arm to get a good push-off. The stables tilted and his stomach flipped. Oh yeah. Something was definitely wrong.
No time to figure through things. How long had he been out cold? Kay. Kay called him, but he couldn't make out the words. He lurched up, barely catching himself on a nearby stable door. It was unlatched and swung inward, dumping him on his back under a great, white muzzle.
The horse-no, the unicorn-didn't so much as twitch, its teeth grinding away at a mouthful of moss that trailed out between its lips. Arthur rolled over, trying to get himself back up again.
The second one lay side by side with the first on a set of massive, plush pillows. This one looked to be asleep, its head slumped to the side against its stablemate's flank, mouth open. Duet had wedged himself between its forelegs, wrapping his arms around the neck and hiding his face.
Too still. The sides did not rise and fall. This one had died.
He could barely hear Kay. There was no time to question Duet. No time. It was becoming a refrain. Fighting tilt-a-whirl senses, he marched one foot in front of the other, retracing steps back to the cavern.
Out of the stables. Past the empty Paddock. Down the side of the ravine. No wonder nobody found this place, who wanted to go through a cavern like that? The property was hedged by trees grown close together, woven in between with brambles so thick he couldn't see the other side. The cave was the only viable entrance and exit, unless you could fly. He reached out his metal arm to grab the unlit torch in passing, the one the children left there for themselves.
I don't want to know. It's not my information.
The vines still clung to his arms. He didn't dare look to see how much they'd grown now that he had taken part in two curse fulfillments. But he could see them. "Why now?" he muttered. "Not having an out of body this time. Wish I was."
Just through the cave entrance, the scent of copper, vomit, and waste hung on the air. Some was old, stale even. But a fresh reek of foulness presented itself. Someone had brought recent death to the cave.
I don't want to know this!
He tried to shut away this new sense, even as he waved the green-burning torch to light his way. How had he come to light it? Why was the flame green?
I don't want to know anything anymore! No more questions, I swear! Never again!
"Looooooooooost." Her voice was clearer now, mournful, and definitely on the far side.
He eased along the cavern floor, weaving between jagged spires of rock. He grabbed them at every opportunity, steadying and supporting himself. The tilt-a-whirl had eased, but everything still rocked like a ship's deck. If it didn't stop soon, he'd be adding his own vomit to the smell on the air.
"Looooooost."
"Kay!" He called. He had to get to the far side of the cavern. To the tunnel, and then curve back around. "Kay! I'm coming for you!"
The sense he did not want jammed up in his guts, halting him in his tracks. The foul smell filled his nostrils. Blood and sickness, the last evacuations of the human body before death. And the lovely, intoxicating fragrance of rage.
"I'm Arthur!" he hissed at himself. "I'm Arthur, not the Shiker, and I can't smell rage! That's not possible!"
Wait. Who hated him? Kay had lost her mind and Vivi had run for the hills with Lewis.
The air pressure above him shifted, and he pulled his arm back, launching the torch as far away from himself as possible. Wingbeats followed the light into the distance, and he crouched low to the ground, groping in the dark.
With my luck? Probably Aji.
Once she figured his trick out, Aji would be listening for him. If she stilled herself enough, she might be able to track him. Unless he moved fast. But he'd just thrown away his only light source, which he could still see as a faint flicker several feet off.
The flicker lifted into the air as someone waved the brand, shouting, "Kingsmeeeeeen!"
Definitely Aji, and now she had a light source. Crouching close to the ground, he slipped his phone out and held it underneath himself, tapping out a text to Vivi.
i kno u can4t trust me but he;lp ajis here /send
No time. No time. No time for more. He slipped it back in his pocket.
I could just kill her.
"I am not the Shiker!" he snapped. Eyes wide, he dove to the right, ramming his shoulder into a rock formation. He followed it around to the other side as the light dropped down where he'd been seconds before.
He pressed his back to the rock, trying to still his breathing. Feathers rustled high overhead while sneakers hit stone behind him.
"Looooooooost," wailed from the ceiling.
"Go back, Kay!" Aji snapped. "You can't land here!"
You did. But I guess you have the light.
A shoe splashed into a puddle far too close for comfort, and he slid around the spire the other way, peering around from behind. Green flame threw shadows slithering along every stalagmite, and Aji thrust the brand after every shadow to determine it clear, her long red feathers trailing every move. Pale yellow blossoms with blood red tips had opened up all along the vines that wound around her throat, though the buds tangled along her talons remained shut. The freshest scents of death hung around her.
She's already killed. So she'd still murder me even if the curse is already fulfilled. Good to know. Who could she have-He caught his breath. She'd been locked up in Juvenile Hall. She wouldn't have…
To get to me, of course she would. His eyes stung. How many more deaths would he have to shoulder?
She jerked around and he yanked his face back.
A second too late. She swung around the spire as he took to his heels. The light from her torch cast a glow of a few feet, but he couldn't stay that close. He kept his hands stretched out, hitting obstacles palms-first and swinging around them as he ran. His feet kept catching on the ragged, upthrust floor
"Looooooooooost."
"Kay!" he shouted. "Tell her! Tell her it wasn't me!"
"Don't you talk to my sister!" Talons sank deep into his right shoulder, jerking him from his run. He hit the ground. Aji flipped him like he weighed nothing, shoving her knee into his gut and pulling her arm back, talons outstretched. He blocked with his robotic arm, the talons glancing off with a spark.
I'm going to die. And it's going to hurt.
Set her on fire. Overload her mind, leave her a vegetable.
"I'm not the Shiker!" he shouted, grabbing her by the hair and dragging her off to the side. He was barely to his feet before she tackled him to the ground again. His robotic arm was pinned below him. He tensed for the blow.
Wingbeats. A crushing weight to his ribcage. Aji smashed up against him as feathers, red and gold, dropped all around him.
"No!" The weight lifted as Aji reared off him, and he twisted around. She had Kay by the throat and slammed her to the ground. "Why? Why are you still defending him? You're not even here! You're all gone upstairs! Why? Stop getting in my way!"
Arthur went cold. "Aji let go!" he screamed. "Talons!"
Aji fell silent. Arthur could hear Kay's breath whistling in ways it wasn't supposed to.
"Get off her! I can get her help! There's a healer here! Move!" Arthur scrambled over to Kay as Aji pulled her talons free of her sister's neck, still staring down. Arthur jammed his hands under Kay, losing a layer of skin on the rocks. Blood ran down her neck and sprayed as she coughed. He had to get her to Chloe before Kay drowned in her own blood. Chloe could heal her.
"Stay with me, Kay. Come on. Aji! Light!" He paused. He didn't know where the back of the cave was anymore, or the front even. Which way had he come? "Get a light up high, show me where the back of the cave is!"
As he spoke, a hunched figure hung with rags glided out of the shadows ahead of him. Another stepped from his right, and a third from his left.
"I don't have time for you, whoever you are!" Arthur shouted. "Aji, get that light up!" He glanced over his shoulder, but Aji had not taken her eyes off her hands, now dripping with blood. "Aji!"
"It was not meant to be," one of the figures mumbled, circling Arthur. "Was his thread to be snipped, not hers."
"Can her thread be snipped?" a second demanded. "We have dulled our scissors on hers."
"And yet there she lies, dead," observed the third. "The life is gone."
"Stop it!" Arthur clutched her closer. "You're lying! She's not!"
"She breathes no more."
"She'll breathe if you get out of my way!" he insisted, storming ahead. They followed, weaving between the spires to circle him still.
"Their threads are tangled too close together," the second complained. "She muddled it all when she bound him, and now he's bound her back. Immortals should not have children with mortals, nothing is clear as it should be."
"Then take it all." The first waved a hand. "We bring her, body and soul. It is her time, even if her thread cannot be snipped."
"Over my dead body!" Arthur snarled, his teeth scraping oddly against his cheeks.
"Not yet, thanks to her. Stand back, mortal. You may be tainted, but you are weak." The first produced a length of cloth from a wide-mouthed sleeve, plucking at a strand with bent and knobby fingers. Arthur tumbled to the ground, his body nerveless. Nothing worked, and as the third figure bent to lift Kay from his arms, he cried, "Kay! Don't go! Kay, wake up! Tell them you're not dead!"
"Stop trying to weave, mortal," the first sighed, tucking the cloth back into its sleeve. "There's nothing left to weave with."
A breath, and they were gone. No flash of light, no ominous thunder. Gone.