But his pleas never made it past his lips. A wave of nausea stormed over him. Crow was in command of Han’s body once more. He staggered past heaps of bones and scraps of cloth—the remnants of past visitors—to the door on the opposite side of the chamber.

Screaming silent protests, Han pulled the door open and half fell through the doorway. Turning, he gripped the latch and banged it shut, catching several birds between the doorframe and the door, sending brilliant feathers spiraling down to land like shards of colored glass on the stone floor.

A pair of birds clung to his clothes, and he swatted them away, stamping on them. Until, at last, they were silent—heaps of blood and feathers. The witchy music was gone.

Blood trickled down his back where the birds had pierced his skin. Like a puppet whose strings had snapped, Han slumped against the wall, gasping for breath, horrified.

“I told you not to wake them up,” Crow said, his voice low and fierce and frightened. “I told you to sing loud. It didn’t have to be good. Can’t you follow the simplest directions?”

Suddenly, Han could speak. “I…forgot the words,” he croaked, feeling just a bit faint. “You didn’t tell me they would rip me to shreds.”

“I forgot about that until I saw the bones.”

“You. Forgot. Right. I can see how that might happen,” Han muttered.

“It’s coming back to me now,” Crow said. “They’re called magic eaters. They’ll eat any kind of flesh, but they are especially fond of the gifted. Magic does no good against them; it’s fuel to them. They can pick a body clean in a matter of minutes. And I’m guessing they are very hungry after a thousand years. Though, based on their leavings, it seems a few other people have found their way in.”

Han shuddered. “Where did you find them? The birds, I mean.”

“Bought them off a pirate from Carthis,” Crow said. “He seemed eager to be rid of them.”

When Han’s heart slowed a bit, he looked around for the first time. They were in another stone chamber, smaller and nearly round. The only way in appeared to be the door they’d come through.

“Is this a dead end?” Han asked, his mouth going dry at the thought of passing through the bird chamber again.

“No,” Crow said. “Use the reveal charm.”

Gripping his amulet, Han obeyed. A wall of magic appeared at the far end, covering another door, this one small and plain.

“Go ahead,” Crow said. “Tear it away.”

“There aren’t more flesh-eating birds behind this door, are there?” Han asked.

“No birds,” Crow said. “I promise.”