Chapter 1
The sound of all those gods screaming is enough to drive you completely mad.
It knocks every thought out of your head, every memory of who you are, everything you know you should do in an emergency.
It fills up every available space in your brain until there’s nothing else there besides the scream, there never was, and there never will be.
I close my eyes against the sound, pressing my palms against my ears, but there’s no shutting it out. It cuts through every possible defense, and you’re just helpless before it.
Unless you’re my mom, I guess.
I feel a violent pull on my arm, one that I can’t ignore even in the onslaught of sound.
I wince open my eyes, and I see her grabbing me, pulling me up the riverbank.
I see everyone else, including Burly, crumbling under the wave of screaming, but my mom, even though her face is strained and she’s obviously feeling it as much as any of us, is still moving, still acting, not frozen or stopped by anything.
I feel a little spark of pride. Not everyone’s moms are this tough.
She pulls me to the road back into the city, heading up the hill toward our quarters. I stop her, shaking my head.
“I need to get something!” she yells. “Before they destroy it all!”
I make the sign for what? as in what the hell could possibly be that important, but she just pulls on my arm again.
I look back as she drags me away. Tara is watching, her hands over her ears. I gesture for her to follow us. She grabs her mother–which isn’t what I meant–and they do.