The Dark Between Dreams | ??

Chapter 20 ? Deep, Dark Places

He lacked any extra eyes or limbs, as the other scavengers said. No claws or fangs either. He was just a man, from what I could tell.

I had yet to determine if that made him all the more monstrous.

"How have you survived all this time?" I asked him. "You're blind."

"Oh? Am I?" Crow said, a sarcastic lilt in his tone. "Nothing to see, anyway. Been like this as long as I can remember. How did three little fledglings get this far from Aḫ-ḫur without their brains?"

"We're from After," Vale corrected. She kept her hand on the handle of her machete.

"You know, the big ugly city that's surrounded by a huge-ass wall?" added Webb. "The one you keep attacking?"

"That is what I said. After." Crow mimicked Vale's pronunciation mockingly. "These fledglings," he told the crows perched on his shoulders. "They do not listen. Too much sand in their ears and filling up their empty heads, I think."

Webb shot Vale and me a sidelong glance and spun a finger around his ear in a this guy's freaking nuts motion. He didn't bother being discreet.

I stuck my chin up and marched to confront Crow. "Listen here. My name is Skye, and—"

"I do not care," the man said.

"—and this is Vale and Webb."

"I still do not care."

"And After is in danger and we're here to save it!" I flapped my hands in frustration. "Your shadows are attacking us! They're destroying us like the city you lead Orville and Blackburne to! We're here to stop you!"

The man's smile slowly twisted into a sneer of contempt as I spoke. Crow let out a groan and growled to himself, "What have you done, Crow?" The prince sniffed. To us he said, "I do not know how to stop the shadows."

"Yes, you do! You have to!" Webb butted in. "You're the Prince of Light and Shadows! Those are your monsters!"

"Oh." Crow felt the top of his head, then shrugged. "Strange. Must have misplaced my crown." With a sigh, he leaned against a pipe. "Those people in that city," he growled. "They say a lot of things. Kraak, kraak. They chatter worse than crows."

Over the eerie sound of the wind, something thumped against the sub outside, making my friends and me jump back from the wall. A creature screamed and scratched, trying to tear its way inside to get at us. Crow just frowned at the noise, still stroking the feathers of one of his birds. "The shadows come out in droves during storms. Lots of prey gets buried beneath the sand. They will feast tonight."

"They are already feasting!" I told him. "They're breaking through our wall and tearing us apart. Don't you care? You used to live there with Blackburne and Orville! Your friends! It used to be your home!" I jabbed my spear at him. "After this storm ends, you are going to show us how to find the other city. You are going to tell us the truth about what you did and put an end to the behemoth there, and you are going to stop your monsters!"

Crow spoke quietly, as if he were talking only to himself. "Yes, I used to believe After was my home, too." Then, ignoring my threats, he pointed at the three of us. "You will stay here. In this chamber. Away from me. And after the storm ends, you three will leave my presence and return to your city of After. And I will find some other wreck to roost in." He smiled again, but this time it was...different—menacing. Starving. "I will continue to knock on your city's wall until it falls down, but you will never see me again!" That friendly smile of his had just been a mask. Now it appeared the real Crow revealed himself.

Vale withdrew her machete. "We're not leaving. We're going to stop you, your shadows, and your behemoth!"

Crow let out a scream and slammed his bound hands on the wall, startling us and all the birds. He dragged his nails along the metal, leaving long scratch marks and unleashed an animalistic growl that had us backing against pipes despite our weapons. "You do not understand, you stupid, stupid fledglings!" he screamed. "I am the monster! Is that not what they say? I want that hell you call a city to fall! I want every single soul inside its walls to perish!" His grin—that manic, horrific grin—only grew wider. "And the only regret I will have is that I will not see you all turn to ash!"

My heart was dead in my chest. My body an unmoving statue. I could only watch as Crow ducked his head and slunk through the round bulkhead door leading out of the control room. "I have been kind to you, despite what you think of me," he growled over his shoulder at us. "You will leave when the winds stop. And if I catch you still here, I will kill you all."

He slammed the hatch shut in our faces and locked it from the other side.

Here's a (cropped because of spoilers lol) look at birdlord.

Stare in the darkness
Are you scared?
Are you free?
I can be fair
Or a monster
Tell me now
Which one do you need?
I can feel teeth
Tear into me