Page 118 of The Games Gods Play
I knew it. The second we pass through the arch, there’s a terrible screech like metal on metal. Not one screech…hundreds coming from all around.
Birds. They’re crawling out of the metal all over the junkyard, sort of the way my tattoos leave my arm, only they are peeling away from the scraps, leaving gaping holes. And not just any birds…
Stymphalian birds.
Not as big as recorded history says—maybe the size of crows. The metal of their snapping beaks catches the sun in a hundred flashes of light, as do their tails and longer wing feathers that they can turn into bronze at will.
As they break loose, they take to the air, then, in unison, dive straight for us.
An extra shot of adrenaline fires my blood. Thank fuck.
“Run,” I scream.
Heart pounding, I sprint down the path between the mountains of scrap until my legs burn and my lungs ache. I almost lose my footing as I look back over my shoulder to see how close the birds are, but I catch myself and come to a stop.
They’ve vanished.
“That was close,” I say to Diego between gasps. Not that I can see him, thanks to his ring. But I realize in the silence now that I can’t hear his footsteps or his breathing like I could before.
“Diego!” I call out softly, and then again when he doesn’t answer.
Maybe he passed me. “Great,” I mutter. I’m on my own now.
Wait a minute. When did I start to need other people to get through shit?
The metal around me screeches as more Stymphalian birds struggle to break away from the scrap.
Not my flags. Not today. Pumping my legs, I sprint between heaps. But a flash of a green uniform and red hair snags my attention as I dash past, and I double back, scanning for the birds, who haven’t caught up with me yet.
I find Neve huddled by a heap of crushed cars.
She’s on the ground, knees drawn up to her chest and rocking, whimpering in pain and babbling the same thing over and over. “Nora dies if I don’t win. She dies. She dies.”
I probably only have a few seconds before the birds track me down. I try to take her by the shoulders, but Neve screams and jerks away. Her Strength flag is gone, which means she’s drowning in pain the way I am in fear. Only she’s not controlling hers. Maybe because she’s also missing her Mind flag…confusion and pain.
At the sound of a bird rending itself from the metal right by us, she screams. “The birds. The birds.” Then she starts to crawl away through a tunnel in the junk. “Have to hide,” she mutters.
I frown as she crawls out of sight. Do I stay? Or abandon her and run, already having lost time?
“Fuck.” I drop to my knees to follow her.
And that’s when one of the birds rips my Strength flag off my arm.
Pain—like someone took a blowtorch to every nerve in my body—scorches through me, and I cry out. But I still have my wits, and, with every move an excruciating torture, I force myself to crawl after Neve.
Fear is telling me to give up. To just lie here and die from the agony ripping me apart.
Drawing deep, I force my hands and legs to move, and I don’t stop until I find her. She’s huddled inside a metal dumpster turned on its side, back to rocking and babbling about whoever Nora is, tears trailing down her face.
I crawl inside and hold very, very still. If I don’t move, the pain isn’t quite as bad. But as the birds continue to shriek outside, the fear builds, swelling within me as questions start to swarm. What if we’re both stuck here in pain and fear and confusion? What if the birds never let us leave? What if I can’t get myself out, let alone both of us?
I might start rocking and muttering myself in a second. I close my eyes and hum, focusing on a single image.
Hades.
As suddenly as it started, the metallic screeching outside stops, and I crack an eye. Are the apocalypse nightmare birds gone?
Every nerve screaming at me to stop, I manage to flip over and start crawling, grunting with every move, but Neve grabs my ankle. I immediately cry out, and it takes all I have not to vomit. She jerks back with a hiss, shaking her hand. Yup. Touching hurts like a son of a bitch for both of us.
