When Apollo arrived at the abandoned palace, he couldn't smell a single siren.

He unwraps his robe, walking up the small stairs, away from the throne.

As he walked up the stairs, his unwrapped robe flowing behind him. He runs a hand over his stomach, his stops when he touches something hard running up it. He stares down but he's not surprised to find black veins protrude out of him. He's hungry but he's not starving so he continues walking.

"My Prince you're home." A small siren popping her head out of a door to see Apollo.

"Where's everyone?" Apollo asked and the siren opens the room.

"They went to feed... with the Queen."

The siren said opening the door to the girl who was sat on the floor. Her long black tail slipping away to allow the door to open.

On top of her bed was a man, at least what was left of him. Saggy pale skin on a skeleton, Deflated. She'd eaten him whole.

"I see they brought you home a meal." Apollo said and watches as the girl crawls away, elbows to the floor back to the bed.

She was a siren that had been injured in a fight against pirates. They chopped off her legs and she made the mistake of attempting to turn into her snake form before she could heal, out of pure horror.

Now she's stuck in an in between. Half girl half snake. Because of her disability, she couldn't go hunting like the rest. Despite her beauty and charm humans usually can't look away from the long scaly black tail.

"Oh no you haven't eaten? When was the last time you fed?" The girl asked as her eyes made contact with the black veins on Apollo's stomach.

"I'm fine besides I've got much more to worry about than catching a meal."

"Apollo, you must fed."

"Serene, I'm fine. I've got bigger problems. for example, I have servants that don't have any kind of discipline at all. I believe that before I "eft I made sure to tell everyone to wait a couple more moon phases to eat."

"You did." Serena said with her head low avoiding eye contact with Apollo.

"No matter, my mother created them, I supposed it's her responsibility to destroy them as well."Apollo said before attempting to walk away. He stops and stands a little away from the door in silence before he turns back to the girl.

"Do you know anything about Cyrenaica's Stone" Apollo asked and the girl lifts up her head at the mention of the item.

"Did you find it by any chance?" The girl asked her eyes widen and her voice high pitched.

"No, I just heard someone talking about it." Apollo said and watches as the excitement fades from the girl's eyes.

"Cyrenaica's Stone was reported missing almost 35years ago. They used to keep it on a mountain in the moon's kingdom surrounded by a large lake with hungry vicious monsters and the unrested souls of those that have gone searching for it."

"I heard the stones holds the power to subdue to sun and moon, bend them both to whoever who possesses it's will." Apollo said, his tone becoming dark as he thinks about the bright red stone he had only seen in paintings.

"If i were to possess this stone what would happen?" Apollo asked the girl whose face brightens up with a smile.

"Anything, everything would happen. Sirens won't have to hide in the dark anymore, we'll be Gods amongst monsters and men."

"Nothing more to fear?" Apollo asked and the girl chuckles.

"No more drownings" the girl confirms.

"Ah," Apollo says but doesn't finish the thought before walking away.

Serena sits in silence, humming songs she had heard the villages sing to herself in the deafening silence of the dark and quiet palace.

She lets her imagination flow, imagines being free to walk the streets, imagines being able to catch a feeding herself, imagines being powerful.

Younger sirens like her weren't as powerful, they didn't have venom in their bites and certainly didn't possess the amount of beauty that older ones like Apollo and his mother possessed.

Life for them was practically just feeding.

They lived from meal to meal, to experiencing anything but intercourse in a feeding.

Serene hated that she wanted the chance to be like the human girls she saw work in the village. Hated that she wanted to throw off her silk robes and exchange them with pretty dress, she wanted to get married and have children and a husband. She wanted to be human.

Siting here looking at her tail began to disgust her a little knowing how truly far away from her goal she was.

She cries, black ink falling down her face.

Apollo listens to her cries as he stares out his window, raindrops landed and slid down the glass. They seemed almost as helpless as him.

He knows what he has to do.

-

April's carriages halts to a stop. She wakes up seeing the giant wall separating the darkness and the light.

Something was different though this time than when she arrived in search of her father.

There weren't any guards surrounding the gate, waiting for visitors or anything of the sort instead there were loud shouts and cries coming from different sides of the gigantic wall.

April and the other prisoners are led outside of the carriage and she stops to fully take in her surrounds as the guard that. Led them there begins telling them how the ground They were standing on was also going to be the ground that would be used to bury them in less than a week.

April looks up and sees something she never thought she'd see in her life. She sees a girl flying over her with the wings of a bat for arms and the mouth of a bird taking over for her nose and mouth. April's mouth gaps open and she's almost too stun to move.

"WATCH OUT!" Someone shouts loud as the creature that April was staring out, suddenly started charging towards her At a blinding speed.

April turns and begins sprinting as quick as she could. The creature was charging behind her. Not letting up as April increased her speed. 'A woman's virtue is important' April remembers her mother saying but when you're running for your life virtue can be sacrificed. April slows down, she lets her hand travel to the fabric of her dress and she rips the material apart before dashing behind a tree. The bird woman traveling so fast couldn't stop to make the same turn she did even though she saw her turn ands hide.

April pulls out her knife and cuts her dress once more, tearing it all the way around until her thighs were exposed completely.

She hears an inhuman nose from behind her, some kind of ungodly squeak and she turns fast enough to slash the creature a cross the cheek. This didn't seemed to frighten or pain the creature at all. Instead the creature charges forward. April begins running at full speed, deeper into the woods.

Her heart was thumping in her chest as she heard the flapping of the wings consistently behind her as she ran.

Her chest felt as if it was going to fall out at any given moment.

Her legs were beginning to slow down, something she knew was inevitable.

She starts praying, praying that the sun goddess take pity on her.

Begs the sun goddess. Tells her she'll be a proper lady if she lives from this experience and in the moments she's not fully focused she trips over a branch on the ground and falls face first into the ground.

pain surges through her body, but she ignores it, her knife is once again in her hand. She aims it at the flying beast.

The beast squeaks and prepares itself for an attack.

April pleads with the goddess, says she'll marry instantly if she lives.

The beast charges towards her, beak open to a long tongue.

All of a sudden a cry is heard,

April opens eyes she didn't even realize she was closing.

She sees a wolf biting into the girl tearing her limp from limp.

sharp teeth gnawing at the the wings and ripping them out of where they were on the girl's back.

She starts to back away, afraid the wolf won't be filled by its meal. She gets up, and turns getting ready to run.

"A-April-" a familiar voice calls from behind her.

April turns again, unsure of what to expect.

There in front of her, stands Donovan completely naked and covered in blood.

She's temporarily in shock, so her brain doesn't add together the events that just took place.

She runs into his arms, despite the blood running down his stomach from his mouth. April hugs him, mindlessly.