by Godwin, Pam
“He’ll imbibe her blood, if he hasn’t already. Since it’s treated with yours, it could cure him. Strengthen him. Or maybe it’ll kill him.”
Jesse stiffened beside me. “And if we let him get away, we won’t know. Evie will never be able to take her eyes off the sky.” He scratched a whiskered cheek. “Let’s cut off his wings, Spotted Wing.”
I wanted to respond with a fist pump. Instead, my body buckled with the sickening buzz of hundreds of aphids beating a rhythm inside me. I knew it well. It had crawled under my skin enough to become a part of me. “They’re coming in droves.” I backed into a crevice in the cliff, shaking. “Is this why we haven’t seen aphids since Reykjavik? The Drone gathered them here?”
“Could be the dearth of mammals left on this glacial island.” Michio shrugged out of his coat and shirt. “Maybe the scent of food—our horses, or us—led them here. I have a plan to diminish their numbers.”
Tallis sprinted along the river with Georges at his heels. “Better hurry,” he shouted through heavy breaths. Then his eyes widened and he pointed over my shoulder.
A vibrational draft whipped my back. I spun, instincts jerking me out of a spell of hesitancy. The sharp point of a mandible stabbed the air. I swung my forearm, redirected it. The tiny pupils dilated, brimmed with a knowing. I sunk the blade.
Strong arms encompassed me. Hickory breath warmed my cheek.
I let my forehead fall against the naked ridges of Jesse’s chest and waited for my heart rate to slow. His was a steady beat against me. I held tight to the moment, wishing it was another time, another place, that heartbeat pounding beneath me with the labors of desire. His chin lifted. I followed his gaze.
A sea of green bodies filled my vision.
He dodged the dance of pincers and striking jaws. Where his arrow struck, blood spouted.
Someone grabbed my arm, handed me my recovered dagger. “Take them, Evie.” Michio’s calm voice. “Take them over the falls.” Then he screamed over his shoulder, “Jesse. Roark.”
To free my hands, I dropped the carbine on its sling. My guardians encircled me, bathed me in warm muscle. I didn’t know where one chest ended and the other began. Their hearts thundered with the torrent of water chuting off the icy bluffs.
Rifles boomed around us as Tallis and Georges protected our huddle. Michio pressed us onto a rock ledge. “If they get close, we jump.”
Water rushed by, spraying froth at our boots. Spasms rioted beneath my skin and the army pushed closer in battle ready lines, the sun’s golden reflection at their backs.
The tide crashed off the ledges above. Moss covered cliffs jutted on all sides and guided the crash of melt water over multiple tiers. The Drone watched, Frida hooked under his arm, his body vibrating.
“Anytime now, darlin’.” Jesse’s chin, buried under stubble, sawed side to side.
My waiting energy—my Yin and Yang—uncoiled from my backbone. I exhaled the image, the destination, like an emotional sigh.
The army continued their race toward us. I needed to turn them ninety degrees. Goose pimples cropped along my arms. My body temperature dropped. Roark pressed closer at my back, his whiskers scrubbing my hair.
I tried again, visualizing my breath as it escaped through my nostrils. I cleared my mind of all thoughts except the image I projected. Then I felt, rather than saw, the army turn.
The chill locked up my limbs. Michio rested his cheek against mine in welcome support. The threads battering me, itching my skin, spiked with fear and bristled the hair on my arms. The army reached the water’s edge. The front line wavered.
I focused on the ranks behind. Push, push, push pulsed from my chest.
They fell like dominos over the ledge. A barrage of rifle fire picked off the stragglers escaping my command. The icy wind carried dozens of squeals as the aphids plunged into the rushing falls.
My muscles ached from strain and my hold on the threads slipped. The Drone leaned over his perch and bellowed, “Nooo.”
I pushed harder, reaching through the electrical veins invading my mind. And there, at the center of the intangible web, the Drone fought me. For every link I grasped, he pulled three away. Nausea swished in my stomach. The threads untangled, snapping free from my hold, and the thrum in the air gathered strength.
“What’s happening?” Jesse’s hand in mine clenched to pain.
“The Drone.” My lungs labored. Arms held me vertical. “He’s out-Yanging me.”
Roark cupped my face. “Deep breaths, love. Most of the snarlies are dissolving in the river.”
The soft pads of Michio’s fingertips glided along the strap of my sports bra, followed it over my shoulder, and traced new spots. “Let them go. The rest are scattering—”
A woman’s scream followed the rush of water down the crag. A black flash blotted the sun. Then Frida’s body plunged headlong over the highest fall. “Helllp meeee.”
Her plea sent me barreling from the iron grip of my guardians. The terror in her eyes, as blood spurted from the puncture marks in her throat, arched my body into a dive.
I tensed for the frigid onslaught of water. It never came. The howling river rushed away as I was yanked into the sky in a whir of wings.
Beneath my dangling feet, Frida’s body slammed into the cliff and battered back and forth against boulders, bloody and broken.
Numbness encased my heart. I bucked, pulling up my knees to bring the carbine closer.
It wasn’t there. I scanned the rapids, a useless search, fighting back the scream in my throat as my hands twisted in the Drone’s claws.
He dropped from the sky and my stomach bottomed out. Moments before hitting ground, he rose again, wings pumping, his grasp digging into my arms. He bobbed through the air and righted his flight. With each wrench of my arm, his grew tighter, more painful, until it hurt to breath.
Panicked shouts chased us toward the tip of the sun as it began its six hour repose. Without the carbine, vulnerability fisted my throat. If I could free a hand, I could reach a blade.
The Drone’s talons dug deeper, rending my wrists. The arctic wind enveloped us, carried us up and away from the black sand terrain and the ripple of aphids following by segmented foot.
I strained to see my companions as they fought through the throngs, maintaining their pursuit. They were but tiny dots, growing smaller as my captor followed the slope of the earth. He soared higher over dikes and trails etched into the steep faces of rock, darting into the maw of the volcanic mountain.
Sulfuric gas steamed from fissures, filling my lungs and burning my eyes. The closest ledge waited hundreds of feet below. Why hadn’t he bitten me yet? Was he haughty enough to think he’d made it? That he’d have plenty of time to consume his precious serum?
If I twisted free, if I injured him, I would fall to my death. But as our elevation dipped, I knew my chance was moments away.
We rounded a tabular rock cliff and I rolled in his hold to face him, my arms twisting in an awkward way. Arrogance arched his brows. He knew I had nowhere to go and adjusted his hands to my nape and backside.
I wrapped my legs around his waist and breathed through the queasiness brought on by our intimate position.
The violet bands of dusk sharpened the angles of his face. Unruly black curls whipped around his head. And his eyes, cruel in their complexity, sucked me in, attempting to devour the last of my bravado.
I held my arms still, wrapped around my waist, as to not remind him of their unbound state. “Watch where you’re flying.”
Too much intelligence worked in those eyes, colder than the wind itself and fixed on me. “We’re almost to my plane. Just the other side of the mountain.” A vile curve transformed his mouth, yanking back his lips and revealing a jaw full of inhuman teeth. “Prayer time has come. Once on board, we will exult in Allah together.”
He was panting from exertion when we reached a gorge, where the earth’s crust fractured and wretched apart. Beyond it rose a massive basalt bluff. I su
cked in a breath. “The only prayer I’m reciting is the Hail Mary.”
A vein bulged in his forehead. “Mary?”
The bluff passed below. Plumes of gas billowed, engulfing us in a blinding smog. I gripped my opposing forearms, released the daggers, and drove them into his neck.
Silence. A sulfuric haze of agonizing silence. Then the cloud cleared.
His eyes blazed as my name gargled low in his throat. Dagger hilts protruded from each shoulder. I didn’t have time to curse my aim before I was free from the cage of his arms and falling.
The bluff caught my hip, my shoulder. Pain exploded, threatening to steal my vision. I planted my feet on the slanting pitch, followed the rocks down on my back, feeling every bump like a punch in the spine.
My hand caught hold of a groove in a rock shelf. I shuffled my boots backwards, seeking purchase.
I clung there, fingers straining to hold on. The gray sky deepened the shadows waiting in the gorge below. Overhead, the Drone tumbled through the air, ripping the daggers free, and plummeting on the other side of the bluff.
Strength seeped from my fingers. One by one, they lost their hold. I slid down the bank, picking up speed, and landed in a heap in the pitch black gullet, my entire body throbbing from the impact.
I rummaged through my pockets and holsters, knowing what I’d find. Two daggers. No flashlight. No guns. Joel would have my ass if he were there. If only—
A gust of dank air smacked my face. “Eveeeline.” The Arabic bawl bounced along the canyon walls.
My heart propelled to a furious roar in my ears. I wobbled to my feet, felt along the rocky crag. My palms explored the rough edges, my footfalls echoing along on the slick floor. The moist atmosphere laded my nostrils with the stench of rotten eggs.
I followed the wall around endless bends, a maze of stone tunnels. Where the darkness seemed blacker, thicker, I slowed, blood freezing in my veins. Skittering sounds rustled around me, above me. What sort of creatures dwelled in volcanic caves? I strained my eyes for the tell-tale glow of aphids and focused on the biological alarm inside me.
The deeper I hiked, the more disoriented I became. How many forks had I unknowingly taken? Were Michio and the others still following me or were they halted by the remnants of the army?
A tapping noise trickled from the depths of the cavern ahead. The shadows there writhed, clustered together. Sweat slicked my palms and my throat dried up.
Something tickled my fingers. I raised my hand to my face. Tiny orbs peered back, as many eyes as legs. Its fangs grazed my knuckles. I flicked the furry body, felt more tickling on my other hand and both of my arms. I shook my limbs free of spiders, dread knotting my gut.
A shape emerged from the dark, filling the narrow space, expanding until wings brushed the walls. A rustle of fabric. Then a green glow exploded around me, blinding me.
I pressed against an overhang, dropped my last two daggers to the tips of my fingers, and waited for my eyes to adjust.
Mother, have mercy. The brilliant flicker of the Drone’s naked body pulsated beneath the caul of thousands of squirming spots. Eight-legged spots, falling over one another, rippling down his torso, his legs, over his feet.
The fire in his eyes sparkled across the wet walls. “Little fly, you cannot escape my web.”
Translucent abscesses bubbled over his abdomen, shimmering with a gray oil, festering, gasping. Then they blew. Gossamer strings erupted, spitting through the tunnel, stretching for me.
I ran. Back from where I came and into the black ink. Sticky threads clutched my shoulders, jerked me backwards. I slashed the blades through the air, cutting them away, and flung myself forward.
Volcanic dust kicked up, thickened in my mouth. I bumped against the grimy walls, groping through the dark, and slammed my brow against a jutting protrusion. My head swam. I blinked through the wet warmth slathering one eye and choked on the scream clawing in my throat.
It wasn’t footsteps that followed me. It was the drag of wings along the cavern walls and the pullulation of a thousand tiny legs moving over the rocky surface, below my feet, above my head.
My lungs wheezed and my feet moved faster. Fire enveloped my banged up muscles and dirt caked my nostrils. Would my blind run send me falling into a fissure? Or crashing into a sharp ledge, decapitating myself?
Something scratched my shoulder. Oh Jesus. Oh fuck. Don’t look back. I picked up my pace. Sharp mantels and outcrops snagged my hair and tore at my arms.
Another turn. Another tunnel. More darkness. The icy breeze warmed, clotted with steam. A bronze glow illuminated ahead. My legs pumped harder even as unease harried my focus.
Why wasn’t the Drone gaining? He should’ve caught up. Something was wrong. Then I felt it. A handful of insectile pulses branched through me. In the next breath, they doubled, strengthened with their proximity. I waved the daggers through the dark, fumbling for an outlet. Where were the aphids? Would they pour out of hidden burrows? Would my guardians be close behind?
The reddish light danced on the curved wall, growing brighter. Then, as if the glow inhaled with a great heave, the wind leapt past me and all the oxygen seemed to be sucked with it.
“You are trapped, little fly.” The chilling voice crept from the caldron of shadows chasing me.
I gulped air to fill my lungs and increased my pace toward the light. The air turned dry, scorched my face. My tank top felt hot against my breast. I whipped around the corner.
The ground disappeared. I pitched forward, balancing on the ledge of a rift, staring headfirst into a fiery molten river. With the last of my strength, I twisted back and away. My heart labored to catch up.
An eerie sucking noise tiptoed from the cave, as if flesh was sighing apart and melding back together. I found my footing and spun to face it, blades raised before me.
The red glow from the lava river washed over the Drone’s skeletal body as he floated forward. Pus sputtered from the leaking growths that covered his naked torso. His wings appeared harder, more shell-like, as they scraped along the ground behind him.
I inched back until my boots reached the edge. “What did Frida’s blood do to you?”
Madness seeped from the black wells of his gaze. “You adapted.” His eyes roamed over the spots on my shoulders. “Her blood, enhanced with your essence, enabled me to do the same.”
“So, now you’re what? An arachnid ladybug?” Would explain the alteration in his wings. “Can you fly with beetle wings?”
The wings divided into two, one fluttering more awkwardly than the other. “Consuming your unfiltered blood will strengthen me and secure Allah’s chosen race.”
A whisper drifted over my shoulder.
Ladybird, fly away!
My heart beat out of control as I turned my head. Annie rose above the fiery gorge, her hair wisping around her in a blaze of fire, her body swallowed in a wrap of flames. Her golden eyes sparked, seizing mine.
Your house is burning
Mother is crying
Father sits on the threshold
The lapping flames muffled her song.
“Step away from the ledge, Eveline.” The Drone watched me, not once moving his gaze to the burning vapor over my shoulder.
Relief that he couldn’t see her waged with my need to face her and risk revealing her presence.
Her voice wavered through the sweltering heat.
Fly into Heaven from Hell
“You have nowhere to go.” The Drone offered a mutated claw. “Come.”
A wrenching pain stitched behind my eyes. I felt the cancer of his soul crowding my head, like he was gouging his way in. He was trying to control me, and he was stronger.
Soprano warbled.
Ladybird thought, “Some wisdom I’ll show.”
Something moved in the shadows of the tunnel. Then a body lunged and crashed into the Drone. The unbearable pain in my head disintegrated.
The tunnel became alive with the hiss of a sword, the whistle of arrows, a
nd squeal of dying bugs. I catapulted forward with aphid speed, skidding on my knees to Michio’s side as he struggled atop the Drone’s prone body.
A growl rumbled through the Drone. In a flash of movement, he stabbed his incisors into Michio’s shoulder. Hands scratched at the Drone’s face. Mine. Michio’s. His fangs hung on.
“Your ouchie, Mama.” Annie spun in a circle, rotating faster and faster with tornado speed, spraying sparks of embers. “Lure the beast. Send it to hell.”
Her twirling slowed and she swiped her brow in a deliberate movement, eyes on me. I reached for my own, mimicking her gesture. The gash on my head wet my palm. I was bleeding worse than I realized.
Then she twirled again, arms pointed overhead like a macabre ballerina.
Never again need I hear as I turn,
Your house is on fire! Your children will burn!
Her chant dissolved as she melted into the lava river, fire popping and spurting from her smoldering frame.
The sound of slurping drew my attention away from the agony of my heart ripping at the seams. The Drone’s mouth moved against Michio’s throat, the muscles in his wings flexing and stabbing my ribs as they shuddered.
I held my blood-drenched hand up to the monster’s flaring nostrils. “Bite me.”
Either Michio was too weak to protest my plan or he trusted me. His body lolled motionless in the Drone’s embrace.
A weakness lay beneath the viciousness of the onyx eyes studying me. His arrogance would be his ruination. He retracted his teeth and shoved Michio away. Before I could roll after him, the Drone twisted, his claw shackling my throat.
I landed on my back, hands under my legs. “Do it.”
His jaw stretched, his body arched. Then he lunged. I caught his chest with my knees, my feet in his gut, caging the dagger I thrust into his chest.
He stared down at it, wide-eyed. I twisted the blade and pushed with my feet. He stepped back. A step he didn’t have.
The blazing fissure swallowed his fall. I scrambled to the edge, squinted my eyes against the ribbon of fire, waiting for the tormented scream that never came. I hung there, muscles preparing to battle a roasted skeleton bursting from the flames.