Relic and Ruin

CHAPTER TEN

PIGMENTUMPHOBIA – FEAR OF PAINT

There had been a raven in Nyx's room a night ago. Not outside the window, but in the bedroom. One eye crimson, the other milky white and scarred. It was an ugly thing with old, festering skin around its eyes and beak. The same one she'd seen after the amusement park.

She and Bjørn had walked in to find it rummaging through her schoolbag. Bjørn had lunged for it, and the bird made a horrible screeching sound as it flapped into the air, its talons just missing Nyx's face as it shot past her and out the bedroom door.

Bjørn bounded after it, growling. There were shrieks from downstairs as the bird tried to find an exit. Eventually, someone opened the back door, and the bird took off. Nyx watched from the window as Bjørn chased it to the edge of the trees.

She had gone to close the door. Swinging around again, she saw the main compartment of her bag overflowing with ripped, loose pieces of paper. But nestled there, at the bottom, was the locket.

***

Bjørn had chased the raven from the house, but it was here now. In her dreams, watching from the branches of a scraggly, dead tree. Nyx could feel its eyes on her back.

She was surrounded by tall, dead trees. They towered over her, their branches like long, bony fingers silhouetted by the full moon. A thick layer of fog covered the dead pine needles on the ground. The fog swirled and thickened as a bird dropped from the sky. It twisted and grew before landing as a man, his feathers folding into a long, black trench coat. He was an apparition, but she knew him.

Before her stood the spirit of Erebus Salem. His eyes burned bright, the skin around them darkening. His dark russet hair shimmered with gold. A ghostly crown of blood-red flowers sat curled within his hair. They bloomed and unbloomed as he breathed. Faint bronze lines appeared over his face in the pattern of a skull.

"What are you doing here?" Nyx asked.

He looked at her as the flowers in his hair bloomed, their golden centers glowing. He said nothing and turned, walking away.

In the background, Nyx became aware of Eris calling her, telling her to get her ass out of bed.

"Hey!" she yelled as the fog began to thicken.

Erebus glanced over his shoulder, jaw set. He faded away.

"Time to wake up, Nyx."