Silk Song

Chapter Four

Let me come in, won't you? Won't you?

Hosei strains against my grip, his neck craning for the window. I wrestle him towards the couch, but it's not the most coordinated take-down. He's got a few inches on me and what he lacks in strength he makes up for in sheer wiriness.

"Peter! Help me." Sweat licks my skin as I try to force Hosei away from the light. Maybe if he can't see that weird blue glow, he'll go back to normal. Or normal for Hosei.

It's not Peter, but Tori who rushes to my side. At first I try to block her. It must look like I'm manhandling her brother, which, granted, I guess I am. Tears run down her cheeks, but when she tugs at my arm, it isn't in a way that feels like she's fighting me. "His ears!" she says. "C-cover his ears..."

"What?"

"Let me." Tori throws herself onto Hosei's legs, finally unseating him so he falls to the couch. She slams a pillow over his face and squishes the rest of him against the sofa. "HOSEI!" she screams. "CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

For a moment, this is the most psychotic thing I've ever seen. But whatever Tori's doing, it works. Hosei's eyes roll backwards and he sucks in a huge gasp of air, like he's surfaced above water.

"Son of a – all right, I'm fine! Get off me, Tori." He pushes her away and slaps his hands tight to his ears. "Good call. It's a siren."

"I – I thought so. You looked so weird walking towards..." Tori rubs her eyes to flick away the last of the tears.

"Sirens?" I repeat. Is that all the blue light is? A squad car?  "You think it's the cops?"

"No! Sirens." Hosei has to shout everything. He jams his hands so hard against his ears that red edges form along his cheeks. "Best known from Greek mythology. You know? Bird women who lure sailors to their doom?"

"We don't have time for your weird theories!" We're all shouting now. So much for not drawing attention to our position.

"We'll be fine if no one opens the door," says Hosei. "Sirens can't do anything unless you listen to them and since you and Tori are both girls, you're safe."

"Are you kidding me?" This is the most useless conversation of my life. I look around for a weapon and settle on one of the spare two-by-fours we never used for the float. Maybe I'm paranoid about the shadow outside the house, but I'll be paranoid and prepared, damn it.

"No, he's right. The sea was a very sexist place for many generations," says Tori sagely. "The Fey never learned to enchant female sailors."

This is insane. This is every crazy thing about Hosei I've tried to ignore over the years, slapping me full force. And worse, Tori's absorbed more of his battiness than I realized.

Let me come in, won't you? Won't you?

The shadow by the window falls backward, the silvery voice fading. For a second, I think it's given up on us. My grip around the two-by-four relaxes. But then I see it. Blue light, peaking beneath the front door. And standing with his hand on the door knob is my slack-jawed little brother. Hosei and Tori lunge towards the door, but like me, they've noticed too late.

The latch clicks as Peter heeds the call of the creatures outside the house. But it's not some glorious siren that waits on the other side. A demon hovers in the air, haloed in unearthly blue light. But as my senses adjust to the shock, I see it walking towards us, propelled not by its human legs, but by an extra, spidery pair that protrude from its body. Tori and Hosei throw their weight against the open door, but the spider's legs snake through before they can shut it. One of the legs snaps closed over Peter's wrist. We both return to our senses. Peter screaming, me rushing to his side.