Free Demon Singer II by Benjamin Nichols

smile. He clapped a heavy hand on Lyric's shoulder.
                  "Relax son, you'll be fine.  Now say goodbye to your mother, you won't be speaking again until you've completed your first measure."
                  Lyric had hugged Emma and told her he loved her. Then he walked into the Guild and did not speak again for a year and a half.
                  Resurfacing from his memories, the Singer parked a block away and headed to the crater where the Guild used to be. Once again he approached at sunset. That always seemed to be the way of it. This time his shadow didn't fall on a plain gray facade, though. This time it stretched across an enormous hole in the ground. That part of him that tended toward morbid thoughts was uncomfortably fascinated by the sight of his shadow being swallowed by the darker shadows in the crater.
                  Stop being such a dramatic little bitch. Acheron's thoughts touched his across their tie. He sighed, supposing he should be grateful she had held her peace as long as she had. Damn right, she thought at him.  
                  He listened to the Score, trying to find some clue to what happened.  He recognized the theme he heard, he had heard it before in the goblin mines the day he burned them.
                  Creation was weeping.
                  "How did this happen?" Lyric's voice seemed harsh in this place. The loud silence that followed gave way to quiet footsteps.
                  "No one knows, my friend."  The familiar voice of Lyric's friend, Amnia Nit Too, the chief researcher for the Guild, came from behind them. "All of my sources are at a loss. The Guild called all Singers home during the attack on Markhato. No one has heard from any Singers since. From what I've gathered, you were the only Singer absent when this happened.  No one else has appeared since. I can't help but fear the worst."
                  Lyric stared bleakly at the rubble below.
                  "This is insane, Nit. I prayed so hard that you were wrong. This shouldn't be possible."
                  "Not possible?" Acheron scoffed. Her disdain was muted by exhaustion. "Why not? Because it makes you sad? Because it doesn’t mesh with that arrogant esteem you hold for this place? Not that long ago a pack of hellhounds invaded another one of your warded singer sanctuaries and tried to kill you. That shouldn't have been possible either, my foolish lover, and yet we were attacked on that stupid mountain you loved so much."
                  Lyric and Acheron had recently spent a night on Da Capo, a mountain protected by powerful wards the Founder of the Soul Singer's Guild himself had set up.  No hellion was even able to find the mountain, let alone set foot on it. Lyric had assumed Acheron could be there because of their soul tie. Yet they had been attacked by a huge pack of hellhounds, Trytohn's favorite weapon for terrorizing and destroying cities. They had even received a message from the architect of the attack in Markhato, psychotic Melody's mistress and Acheron's sister, Lisian. The demoness had carved it into a stone near the foot of the mountain: You're not safe on Dacapo. You're not safe anywhere.
                  "Normvy let them onto the mountain."  He reminded her. That pain was still fresh. One of the masters of the Soul Singer's Guild, the admittedly volatile Keith Normvy, had betrayed them. He could not have done this though. He was currently busy being very dead. Acheron had pulled his head off just three days ago.
                  "Exactly." Acheron replied. "You were betrayed from inside your precious Guild. Plus, don't forget, that idiot Melody was masquerading as one of your Guild instructors too. You, my gullible lover, were blindsided by both of them."
                  "Now it would seem you have yet another traitor