Page 51 of When Monsters Fight
We’d bonded, and I’d trust this woman with my life.
“Shall I make us some herbal tea before bed?” Jilyana asked.
“I’ll do it. You cooked.”
I turned to the stove as an awful screech shattered the silence.
Jilyana grabbed my arm. “What is that?”
The screech came again, longer this time.
Gabriel emerged from the back room. “What is that?”
His expression was enraptured, his eyes glazed.
“I need it,” Asbeel said from behind him. “It’s so beautiful.”
“I think I know what this is,” Jilyana said. “We can’t let them onto the deck. Help me get them into the back room.”
We worked together to shove the males into the back room. They resisted a little but didn’t fight us. Jilyana locked the door.
“It won’t hold them for long,” she said. “The louder it gets, the more they’ll want to go to it.”
“What is it?”
“A siren song. Vicious creatures that live in the sea who lure sailors to their death. I learned of the myth a long time ago. I guess in Gehenna the myths are real.”
Another screech. Louder this time.
Thud. Thud.
Gabriel and Asbeel wanted out but… “Kabiel and the others!”
We rushed up the steps and onto the deck, which had been claimed by night. The screeching was so loud out here that it rattled my brain, making it hard to focus on my thoughts.
How the fuck was this a song? And where was the bow?
“The fog!” Jilyana said. “They’re in the fog.”
But if we were headed this way, then it meant the relic was also in the fog. The helm was unmanned.
My heart sank. “Kabiel! Kabiel!”
Matarel crawled out of the fog, moving slowly across the deck toward us. His eyes held wild fire. “Help. Me.”
Shit! We rushed forward and flanked him, guiding him to the door that led below deck. “Get him into the room with the others.”
Jilyana nodded, and I turned back to the fog. “Kabiel!” I hurried forward, pulse pounding in my throat. “Kabiel!”
He staggered out of the fog, dragging Kokabel across the ground by his leg, while Yomiel was slung over his shoulder.
“Help. Me,” he bit out.
I grabbed his arm, noting the tension in his muscles and the stilted movement of his legs, as if he was forcing them to move away from the fog with all his will.
“I. Can’t. It’s too strong,” he growled.
“You can. Kabiel, you can.” We were almost at the steps when he jerked away from us, swinging his body around toward the fog.
