Abomination
TRIVIA
“Do you hear that?”
Trivia blinked sleepily as she curled into Sol’s warm chest. Her eyes were closed, and she wanted to fall back into the beauty of unconsciousness.
But then, she heard it, too.
A distant rumbling, like a volcano.
Her eyes flew open, and she sat up. Gaia’s cloak was still wrapped around her. The early rays of dawn peeked over the horizon, but they were masked by a strange fog that had settled over the ground.
Gaia was nowhere to be found.
Sol was sitting up, too, his brows furrowed as he stared at something in the distance.
“What do you think it is?” Trivia asked.
Sol shook his head, frowning. “There was something… off about the sun as it rose. It didn’t feel natural.” He cast a worried glance at her. “I think someone is meddling with powers they shouldn’t.”
“The Titans?”
Sol’s grim silence was answer enough.
Trivia stood, then pulled on her trousers and fastened Gaia’s cloak around her front. “My mother still hasn’t returned. Something is definitely wrong.” She bit her lip, considering. If something was powerful enough to deter the Goddess of Earth, then what chance did Sol and Trivia have?
A resounding boom shook the earth, making the ground tremble.
Trivia yelped, thrown off balance. Sol caught her before she fell, keeping her steady.
The two of them crouched to the ground, huddling close together.
The quaking intensified. Cracks split the earth, opening wide.
Trivia and Sol staggered backward, narrowly avoiding getting swallowed up by a massive crevice.
It seemed as if the very earth were slicing in two.
Trivia ducked her head, and Sol braced his arms around her, shielding her. She crammed her eyes shut, holding her breath as she waited for death to consume her…
Then, it stopped. The air stilled. Panting, Trivia hesitantly peered around Sol’s arms to find the air thick with dust that mingled with fog. Jagged fissures covered the once smooth ground, some thin and others large enough for Trivia to fall into.
Trivia was clinging to Sol’s tunic, her whole body shaking. “Do—Do you think it’s the same creature that destroyed the witch coven?”
Sol said nothing. A muscle feathered in his jaw, and his nostrils flared as he squinted in the distance. Trivia followed his gaze, noting that the fog seemed the most dense about a mile to the east.
The crevices also seemed to widen in that direction as well.
Sol and Trivia exchanged a significant look. It was clear what direction they needed to go.
“Should we wait for Gaia?” Sol asked quietly.
Trivia shook her head. “She would have been back by now. I’d wager that something took her. And it’s waiting for us down there.” She pointed to the swirling mist that seemed to coil in the air as if it were alive.
Sol helped her to her feet. Hand-in-hand, they strode toward the fog, dodging craters and fissures along their way.
When a high-pitched screech pierced the air, they both stiffened.
Trivia squeezed Sol’s hand. “What do you—” She froze as she heard her mother’s voice echoing.
“Trivia! Daughter, help me. Please!”
“Mother!” Trivia cried, releasing Sol’s hand and sprinting forward. Sol shouted something at her, but she didn’t listen.
Gaia’s voice was full of panic and fear. Trivia had never heard her mother sound like that before.
“You must hurry!” Gaia yelled. “They are getting closer. I don’t have much time!”
“I’m coming!” Trivia called, sidestepping more cracks and holes as she followed the sound of her mother’s voice.
“Trivia!” Sol bellowed, freezing her in her tracks. She turned and looked over her shoulder, but all she could see was fog and dust.
Sol cried out again, the sound laced with pain.
Shit. Trivia glanced back and forth, conflicted as to which direction she should go. Gaia, or Sol? Both of them needed her help…
“Trivia, it’s a trick! It’s not really Gaia!” Sol’s voice was urgent and firm.
Trivia sucked in a sharp breath, looking once more toward the direction where she’d heard her mother’s voice.
“Come back!” Sol pleaded. “Trivia, where are you?”
“I’m here!” Trivia answered, turning back toward Sol’s echoing shouts. “Follow my voice!”
“I think I can see you.” Sol sounded closer now. Trivia squinted as she made out a figure in the fog.
Relief spread through her, and she smiled as she hurried toward him.
But as the fog cleared, the figure before her materialized.
It wasn’t Sol.
With a loud screech, a large creature slammed into her, pinning her to the ground. Trivia screamed and wrestled with the beast, but its talons cut into her flesh, pinning her. Inky black eyes bored into hers, surrounded by a wrinkled female face and a dark beak.
“Oh, shit,” Trivia wheezed, struggling in vain to free herself.
The siren leaned closer, its eyes hungry.
Hungry for her.
Its beak opened wide.
Trivia pressed her fingers into the dirt beside her and summoned her power. Roots sprang forth, and vines wrapped around the siren’s wings. It cawed loudly, batting a wing at the vines. Its talons loosened their hold on Trivia for a brief moment. But it was all she needed.
She shoved at the siren, then rolled away from it, her arms bleeding from the sharp cut of its talons. The siren screeched and flew toward her. Trivia conjured a branch, then used it as a club to whack at the creature.
The siren screamed. Wings beat nearby, and several other figures appeared.
More sirens.
“Oh gods,” Trivia whispered, backing away as the sirens surrounded her. They cawed and screeched angrily, flitting closer, their wings outstretched.
One of them spoke to her with Sol’s voice. “I told you it was a trick, darling.”
Trivia shuddered at the sound of her lover’s voice pouring from that wretched beak. She gripped the branch in her hands tightly, prepared to beat as many of those damned birds as she needed to in order to survive.
As one, the mass of sirens rushed toward her. She roared in fury, striking one siren, then another. A third sliced her with its beak. She went down, then dug her free hand into the earth and conjured more vines. They wrapped around three sirens, pinning them to the ground.
But there were too many of them. Six more flapped toward her, beaks cutting, talons scraping. Blood poured from her wounds. The pain seared through her, white-hot and all-consuming. She swung blindly, trying to free herself. But gods, her body was throbbing. Her skin was on fire.
She couldn’t fight. She couldn’t—
A flash of brilliant white light burst in the air, burning against her eyes. She turned away from it, hissing. The sirens let out several shrill cries, using their wings to shield their eyes. The light only intensified, more brilliant than the sun itself.
“Sol,” Trivia breathed, recognizing his magic. She shut her eyes, barely strong enough to summon a canopy of leaves to cover her face before Sol’s magic scorched her.
The smell of burning flesh reached her nose. The sirens shrieked and screamed, then took to the skies. The beating of wings grew more and more distant before vanishing entirely.
After a moment, the light slowly faded. Trivia’s protective leaves disappeared, and Sol’s worried face appeared before her.
“Gods above, Trivia,” he murmured, tearing off strips of fabric from his tunic to bind the worst of her wounds. “I can’t leave you alone for a moment, can I?”
Trivia managed a hoarse laugh, her body still wracked with pain.
“Seems you didn’t escape completely unscathed, either.
” She gestured to a bleeding cut on his cheek, then another on his leg.
She groaned when Sol tied the cloth around a particularly deep gash on her forearm.
“How are we supposed to move forward with Gaia missing and sirens surrounding us?”
Sol flashed her a grin. “The sirens have always loathed sun magic. That’s how Apollo banished them the first time. Just stay with me, and you’ll be fine. Don’t go wandering off again.” He winked, as if she had merely made a clumsy misstep, not gotten herself nearly pecked to death.
“Are you powerful enough to send them back?” Trivia asked quietly.
Sol’s expression sobered. Doubt clouded his expression, and Trivia knew his answer.
Only Apollo was strong enough to eliminate the sirens.
And he was dead.
Trivia took a deep breath. “Help me up.”
Sol extended his hand and hoisted her to her feet. She wobbled slightly, and his arms came around her.
“Don’t you dare carry me,” she barked.
Sol snorted. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Trivia took a few moments to inhale and exhale, long and slow, trying to steady herself. After a moment, her legs felt strong enough, and she nodded wordlessly at Sol. He kept one arm wrapped around her waist and the other outstretched, a beam of sunlight pouring from his palm.
Their trek was slow at first. One of the sirens had torn into Trivia’s thigh, and each step sent needles of pain shooting through her.
After several paces, she paused, then channeled her magic toward that specific wound.
She closed her eyes, envisioning the healing earth magic sweeping through her, mending her, knitting her body back together…
She was gasping by the time her magic responded. But after testing her leg, she realized the wound was healed.
Sol raised his eyebrows. “Impressive.”
“Don’t ask me to do it again,” she panted, wiping sweat from her brow. “That took a lot out of me.”
“You’re still adjusting to your strengthened powers. It takes time.”
“Time we don’t have,” Trivia said bitterly.
Sol said nothing as they continued onward, their pace quicker with Trivia’s leg healed. It cost her, though—exhaustion pulled at every muscle and limb, threatening to drag her down into the crevices waiting for her.
But she pushed herself. She had to keep moving. For Gaia. For Prue. For Mona.
For Sol.
And for herself.