Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Greer raise his hand, his eyes narrowed as he zapped at Og’s hand with a flash of light, but it did nothing.It didn’t even penetrate his elephant-like skin.
Stepping up behind Dom, he whispered raggedly, “It’s magic I can’t identify, Dom.I can’t damn well pierce it!It’s not the magic you feared, but they’re close to finding it.I can feel it!”
Crap.If they found the magic that could take MC away from her, they were doomed.
But Greer kept trying anyway, grunting as he shot fireball after fireball, wave after wave of glimmering spikes of magic at Og’s legs.
Yet, to no avail.Nothing was helping.
MC vibrated in her hand, as though he were trying to convey something to her, but she didn’t know what.“Wanna chime in here with some advice, buddy?”she whisper-yelled.But he remained silent.
“Drop the hammer, Dominique, or I drop your grandfather!”Og threatened, his anger seething, his voice resonating in her ears with all the terrifying possibilities.
Licking dry lips covered in sprinkles of sand, Dom raced to find a solution.What did she do?Howdid she stop him?She couldn’t give MC up.The world was at stake.But not in a million years would she let him pitch her grandfather over the edge of that cliff.She’d jump after him first.
Dom resorted to the only thing she could think would sway this gruesome specimen of walking, talking rocks.
She begged.
“Please!”she croaked, her voice cracked and forced from gulping sand, her words tripping and stumbling from her mouth.“Please, don’t do this!I’m sorry I made fun of your name.I take it back.You don’t want to hurt a helpless old man, do you?Do you have a father?”Did stacks of rocks have fathers?“Would you allow him to be treated this way?”
Harvey stepped in front of her, likely attempting to protect her as he placed his large hand behind his back.“Let him go, Og!He’s done nothing to you!Where’s your honor?Your dignity in battle?”
Dom felt like she was on the movie set ofThe Gladiatoror something, with all this talk of honor and battle.
Stavros quite suddenly stopped struggling.Between the distance, her papa looked directly in her eyes as he dangled helplessly, his legs and arms limp.“Don’t give in Shish kabob.Don’t let the bully win!Remember eighth grade?Do the right thing.”
He’d said that once to her when she’d come home crying about a boy named Richard Lincoln, who’d bullied her so much over a seat on the bus, she’d finally let him have it.
But when her papa found out why she was crying, unlike the gentler parenting of today, he’d told her to let him have it right in the kisser.
“Do it, Big Guy!You goon!Let me go!”her papa bellowed, his order ringing out through the dusty air.
Dom’s heart fought its way out of her chest.“No, Papa!”
As sweat poured down her face, as her breathing became ragged and harder to control, MC vibrated in her hand.“Do it, Dominque.Drop me at this lug’s feet.Do it!”he ordered.
Tears fell from her eyes, plopping in wet patches down her chest.“I… I can’t!”How could she risk the safety of the world?The safety of her grandfather?
Harvey held fast, standing in front of her, sheltering her from Og’s simmering rage as MC urgently pressed once more.“Drop me, Dominique!Do it this instant!Trust me!”he whisper-yelled.
“Give me the hammer or watch your grandfather perish right before your very eyes!”Og hollered, loud and booming, intensifying the pressure in her chest until she thought she might explode.
When she hesitated, afraid to make a move, make thewrongmove, two things happened at once then.
As if in slow motion, Og began to let the fingers that held her grandfather loosen, one devious threat at a time.
When that registered in Dom’s brain, she screamed, pushing Harvey out of the way and racing toward the edge of the cliff.
Unfortunately, she tripped and fell, adding to the hundred or so scratches and bruises she’d accumulated on this trip to hell.
Her chin scraped the rocky surface, drawing blood that spurt up into her mouth, leaving a coppery taste to linger, but she didn’t have time to dwell on the pain.Hauling herself upward, Dom brushed her sweat-soaked hair from her face to see her grandfather dangling recklessly by Og’s one last finger.
The second she found herself at the edge of the cliff, Og gave her grandfather a hard shake, resulting in him losing his grip.
As if in slow motion, her grandfather began to fall, and Dom thought of nothing but going after him, pitching herself right over the cliff.As nuts as that sounded, that was her instinct.
She couldn’t have stopped the momentum she’d gained when she ran toward the edge of the cliff even if she’d wanted.She couldn’t catch herself before actually following through on her crazy instinct anyway.
