Page 343 of Evil Hearts

Harpy

Mae Celeste

Chapter 1

The stories didn’tdo the forest justice. They called it cursed, haunted, a place where the shadows grew teeth and the trees whispered your name. But as I pushed through the underbrush, I realized the truth was worse than any tale I’d heard.

The air was heavier here, thick with the scent of damp earth and decay, and the trees twisted unnaturally, their branches clawing at the sky like skeletal fingers. The further I went, the quieter the world became—no rustling leaves, no chirping crickets. Just silence. And her song.

I stopped and closed my eyes, the melody washing over me. It wasn’t loud, but it didn’t need to be. It curled through the air, soft and mournful, pressing against my chest like it was trying to wring the breath from my lungs. The stories had said the Harpy’s voice could drive a man mad, that it burrowed into your head and stayed there, whispering until you couldn’t tell your own thoughts from hers.

I didn’t believe in bedtime stories, but this? This was something else entirely. It wasn’t just a song—it was a voice. A voice so beautiful that it shouldn’t exist in the natural world. It pulled me forward like a string around my throat.

I hadn’t come this far to turn back now.

The song grew louder as I climbed, no longer a distant echo but something closer, pressing against my ears like the pulse ofa second heartbeat. My boots scraped against the jagged rocks, every step a little less sure than the last. The trees thinned here, giving way to bare stone that gleamed faintly under the moonlight.

And then I saw her.

She perched high above, balanced on the crumbling edge of a stone pillar that jutted out of the rock like the spine of some ancient beast. Her wings stretched wide, their feathers shimmering like molten obsidian, alive with shifting light. Her talons clicked softly against the stone as she shifted, her glowing eyes fixed on me with an intensity that froze the breath in my lungs.

I didn’t move. Hell, I wasn’t sure I could.

Chapter 2

She cocked herhead, her talons clicking against the stone. Her lips parted, and her song shifted, the haunting melody taking shape into words.

“What strange thing wanders here tonight,

into my lair of death and blight?

Do you come to be devoured whole,

or does your flesh hide some sweet soul?”

Her voice filled the air, pressed against my skin, slipped into my ears, and wrapped around my mind. It felt... wrong. Too perfect. Too alien. My grip tightened on the dagger as I forced myself to answer.

“I didn’t come to die,” I said, my voice sharper than I meant it to be. However, if I were given the option to choose my death, it would be from something as beautiful as her. “I’m here for a relic.”

Her wings twitched, and she leaped from the pillar. My body tensed as she landed in front of me, her talons scraping against the stone with a sound that sent a shiver down my spine. She was taller than I’d expected, her presence towering, her feathers shimmering like oil in the moonlight. Blood glistened at the corner of her mouth, and I realized with a sick twist in my gut that she was just eating before I arrived.

“A relic?” she sang, her tone lilting and amused.

“A trinket bright,

a fool’s delight?

So many come with empty hands,

to steal the fruit of cursed lands.”

She took a step closer, and I resisted the urge to back away. I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction. Still, my fingers tightened on the hilt of the dagger at my side. “It’s not for me. My mother—she’s sick. They say there’s something here that could save her.”

She tilted her head again, her glowing eyes narrowing. Her lips curved into something that might’ve been a smile if it didn’t feel so sharp.

“Ah, a heart that beats for one so frail,” she sang.

“To brave the storm, the teeth, the gale.

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