The Tyrant's Tomb

“Well, can you un-create them?” Meg asked.
The ravens didn’t like that idea. One dove at Meg. She tossed it a seed—
which, being a raven, it instinctively snapped out of the air. A pumpkin
exploded to full growth in its beak. The raven, suddenly top-heavy with a
mouth full of Halloween, plummeted toward the ground.
“Okay, I didn’t exactly create them,” I confessed. “I just changed them
into what they are now. And, no, I can’t undo it.”
More angry cries from the birds, though for the moment they stayed
away, wary of the girl with the sword and the other one with the tasty
exploding seeds.
Tarquin had chosen the perfect guards to keep me from his silent god.
Ravens hated me. They probably worked for free, without even a health
plan, just hoping to have the chance to bring me down.
I suspected the only reason we were still alive was that the birds were
trying to decide who got the honor of the kill.
Each angry croak was a claim to my tasty bits: I get his liver!
No, I get his liver!
Well, I get his kidneys, then!
Ravens are as greedy as they are contrary. Alas, we couldn’t count on
them arguing with one another for long. We’d be dead as soon as they
figured out their proper pecking order. (Oh, maybe that’s why they call it a
pecking order!)
Reyna took a swipe at one that was getting too close. She glanced at the
catwalk on the crossbeam above us, perhaps calculating whether she’d have
time to reach it if she sheathed her sword. Judging from her frustrated
expression, her conclusion was no.
“Lester, I need intel,” she said. “Tell me how we defeat these things.”
“I don’t know!” I wailed. “Look, back in the old days, ravens used to be
gentle and white, like doves, okay? But they were terrible gossips. One time
I was dating this girl, Koronis. The ravens found out she was cheating on
me, and they told me about it. I was so angry, I got Artemis to kill Koronis
for me. Then I punished the ravens for being tattletales by turning them
black.”
Reyna stared at me like she was contemplating another kick to my nose.
“That story is messed up on so many levels.”
“Just wrong,” Meg agreed. “You had your sister kill a girl who was
cheating on you?”