The Siren at the Museum (The Girl Who Sang #1)

Chapter 17

She limped along, clutching her numb, twisted arm to her side, her head swimming with every unsteady step. The ground vibrated and lurched beneath her feet; a sudden, sharp upward thrust of the land sent her tumbling to the ground. She raised her arm to protect her face from the shifting piles of brick and glass as she rolled down a collapsed wall, sliding the last few feet and hitting the ground below with a thud and a hiss. She pushed herself back up to her knees carefully, great chunks of masonry wobbling underfoot as she shifted her weight. A great crack sounded in the far distance, the ground shivering a moment later. The world was muffled by a thick cloud of dust and black smoke, hanging heavy over the broken, ruined castle. Fires flickered in every direction, setting the swirling dust to glow a dull red, the occasional crackling yellow as a beam of wood popped with a hungry flame. She covered her mouth with a dirty hand and coughed, her tongue thick and dry with the dust in the air. The world tasted like ash. She sat back on her heels and looked up at the dimmed sky. Why is it... so hard... to think? Her head was spinning, either from the smoke in the air, or... Did she fall? She had a handful of vague images of the ground racing up toward her: blue sky, then green trees, then sharp gray stone, then brown dirt. She placed her dirty, blood-streaked hands on her knees and hung her head, resting her chin on her chest. She watched a thin trickle of blood run down the bridge of her nose and drip, drip, drip on the back of her wrist. Her thoughts were wrapped in cotton. What was she... she was looking for... who—

A roar in the distance, behind her, caught her ears and she looked over her shoulder. More flame, and dust, and smoke. More shattered walls and cracked stone. What was that? She wondered as she turned, rolling off her knees to sit on the rubble, stretching one leg out straight, leaving the other propped up. She wobbled slightly and leaned forward to rest her chin on her knee. Her head hurt so much, she just wanted to close her eyes and rest. Something... some... scrap of a thought, someone had told her something, once... She couldn't remember the specifics, but she felt like going to sleep now would be a bad idea. Someone must have told her that. She blinked her blurry eyes and looked around at the dusty, cracked rubble beneath her. That doesn't... look comfortable, anyway.

A glint of light in the air caught her eye. It looked like... a bird? A metal bird? She leaned back as she put her hand up above her eyes to watch the strange animal in the smoky sky above, and she gradually tipped backward to lay on the broken stone. The rubble at her back buzzed with the faint thump-thud of the world's angry heartbeat. Luz coughed as dust billowed up around her, more drifting down to settle on her skin and clothes, slowly covering her in a layer of dirty gray.

~

"I'm gonna enjoy beating on you while you're under."

Emira and Edric glanced at each other when they heard their mother's bodyguard utter those words. Emira's heart sank. She knew what kind of men her mother's money bought. They both knew about this man in particular; Odalia kept him around because their hobbies aligned. He loved to torture people, and she loved to watch people suffer. They made a point of avoiding him at all costs. The kind security guard they met the day before needed help.

Edric was out the door first, leaping down the front steps of the Museum, vaulting from landing to landing. Emira was close behind, but slower in her dress suit and heels. She pressed the transmit button in her ear and called out, "We're on our way, hold on!" as Edric reached the street, his long legs pounding across the pavement to the backstage door. She didn't expect him to wait for her, and she was glad when he didn't; she'd catch up when she could. The green-haired girl swiftly mounted the stairs and pulled the door open, slipping through to the quiet hallway. She hurried down the corridor as quickly and as quietly as she could, and after making two right turns and a left at the T, she slowed at the sight of the tall gray-haired woman lurking there in the shadows. Emira slipped beside Edric peering through the last doorway before the stage-side bay.