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“You are trapped, little fly.” The chilling voice crept from the cauldron of shadows chasing me.

I gulped air to fill my lungs and increased my pace toward the light. The air turned dry, scorched my face. My tank top felt hot against my breast. I whipped around the corner.

The ground disappeared. I pitched forward, balancing on the ledge of a rift, staring headfirst into a fiery molten river. With the last of my strength, I twisted back and away. My heart labored to catch up.

An eerie sucking noise tiptoed from the cave, as if flesh was sighing apart and melding back together. I found my footing and spun to face it, blades raised before me.

The red glow from the lava river washed over the Drone’s skeletal body as he floated forward. Pus sputtered from the leaking growths that covered his naked torso. His wings appeared harder, more shell-like, as they scraped along the ground behind him.

I inched back until my boots reached the edge. “What did Frida’s blood do to you?”

Madness seeped from the black wells of his gaze. “You adapted.” His eyes roamed over the spots on my shoulders. “Her blood, enhanced with your essence, enabled me to do the same.”

“So, now you’re what? An arachnid ladybug?” Would explain the alteration in his wings. “Can you fly with beetle wings?”

The wings divided into two, one fluttering more awkwardly than the other. “Consuming your unfiltered blood will strengthen me and secure Allah’s chosen race.”

A whisper drifted over my shoulder.

Ladybird, fly away!

My heart beat out of control as I turned my head. Annie rose above the fiery gorge, her hair wisping around her in a blaze of fire, her body swallowed in a wrap of flames. Her golden eyes sparked, seizing mine.

Your house is burning

Mother is crying

Father sits on the threshold

The lapping flames muffled her song.

“Step away from the ledge, Eveline.” The Drone watched me, not once moving his gaze to the burning vapor over my shoulder.

Relief that he couldn’t see her waged with my need to face her and risk revealing her presence.

Her voice wavered through the sweltering heat.

Fly into Heaven from Hell

“You have nowhere to go.” The Drone offered a mutated claw. “Come.”

A wrenching pain stitched behind my eyes. I felt the cancer of his soul crowding my head, like he was gouging his way in. He was trying to control me, and he was stronger.

Soprano warbled.

Ladybird thought, “Some wisdom I’ll show.”

Something moved in the shadows of the tunnel. Then a body lunged and crashed into the Drone. The unbearable pain in my head disintegrated.

The tunnel became alive with the hiss of a sword, the whistle of arrows, and squeal of dying bugs. I catapulted forward with aphid speed, skidding on my knees to Michio’s side as he struggled atop the Drone’s prone body.

A growl rumbled through the Drone. In a flash of movement, he stabbed his incisors into Michio’s shoulder. Hands scratched at the Drone’s face. Mine. Michio’s. His fangs hung on.

“Your ouchie, Mama.” Annie spun in a circle, rotating faster and faster with tornado speed, spraying sparks of embers. “Lure the beast. Send it to hell.”

Her twirling slowed, and she swiped her brow in a deliberate movement, eyes on me. I reached for my own, mimicking her gesture. The gash on my head wet my palm. I was bleeding worse than I realized.

Then she twirled again, arms pointed overhead like a macabre ballerina.

Never again need I hear as I turn,

Your house is on fire! Your children will burn!

Her chant dissolved as she melted into the lava river, fire popping and spurting from her smoldering frame.

The sound of slurping drew my attention away from the agony of my heart ripping at the seams. The Drone’s mouth moved against Michio’s throat, the muscles in his wings flexing and stabbing my ribs as they shuddered.

I held my blood-drenched hand up to the monster’s flaring nostrils. “Bite me.”

Either Michio was too weak to protest my plan or he trusted me. His body lolled motionless in the Drone’s embrace.

A weakness lay beneath the viciousness of the onyx eyes studying me. His arrogance would be his ruination. He retracted his teeth and shoved Michio away. Before I could roll after him, the Drone twisted, his claw shackling my throat.

I landed on my back, hands under my legs. “Do it.”

His jaw stretched, his body arched. Then he lunged. I caught his chest with my knees, my feet in his gut, caging the dagger I thrust into his chest.

He stared down at it, wide-eyed. I twisted the blade and pushed with my feet. He stepped back. A step he didn’t have.

The blazing fissure swallowed his fall. I scrambled to the edge, squinted my eyes against the ribbon of fire, waiting for the tormented scream that never came. I hung there, muscles preparing to battle a roasted skeleton bursting from the flames.