“Make me.”
Poppy took a step toward him.
“Don’t,” Bella said. “He’s not worth it. Besides, we got five wood weaver hearts, so he can suck a dick.”
Tyler’s smug smile faltered. “What? Bullshit!”
We ignored him and kept walking.
“Show me,” he demanded.
“No,” Poppy said.
“Because you’re lying.”
I was so fed up with the little shit. “Do you think any of us care what you think?”
He lunged at me, and I punched him in the mouth, hard enough to make him bleed.
“You bitch!” He charged, and I hit him again, blow after blow, one to the gut, one to the jaw, and one to the temple.
He hit the ground on his knees, wheezing hard, and I crouched down to his level. “Listen to me, you disgusting, arrogant, piece of shit. Your family name might get you special treatment outside of Nightsbridge, but here, within the wards, you’re just like the rest of us. A fucking conscripted grunt who has no choice but to put his worthless life on the line. So get over yourself. All of you.” I looked up at his cronies. “If you don’t, then you’re not going to make it here.”
“This is perfect for you, isn’t it?” Tyler snarled. “You get to matter here. To have a purpose when out there, you were nothing. No one. You think you can change that? You think we’re going to forget what your murderous family did? And what you did…” His eyes narrowed to slits. “I bet your mother was glad to die—so she could stop pretending to love you after what you took from her.” Blood rushed in my ears, heat flooding my veins as his words nudged every doubt, every insecurity, and every horrific fear inside me. “You ruined her life, and look at you now, playing hero.”
My pulse thrummed in my throat and thudded in my head, something wild and untamed blooming inside me. I pressed my palms to the ground, bracing against the strange feeling rippling through me.
“Stop it!” Poppy said to Tyler. “Just back off.”
“You have no idea what she is,” Tyler said. “What she did.”
Annabeth’s blackened body filled my mind, followed by my father kneeling in the dark. The blade slicing. The thud of his head as it hit the ground. The blood and the screams. Mine and my mother’s. Her tears, so many tears, and the silence for days, so many days.
My fault.
Mine.
The ground trembled.
“What—what is that?” Bella cried.
“Anamaya! Anamaya, we have to go!” Poppy yanked at my arm.
I snapped out of my daze, allowing Poppy to pull me up as the ground shook.
The ravens spoke in Walter’s voice. “This is not us. Get to the main wards! Run!”
We ran while the world shook and groaned. The ground cracked and splintered, a mound of earth pushing up to our left and running alongside us.
There was something underneath.
Something huge.
“It’s coming this way!” Tyler yelled. He shoulder-shoved me toward the rapidly approaching furrow of earth.
The ground heaved, splitting apart with a scream that filled the air with the stench of sulphur and rotting flesh. And then, out of the aperture rose an impossibility. A creature so large it blocked out the moon with its massive body, all glistening dark scales and jagged ridges, maw large enough to swallow the stars.
The monstrous worm arched its armored body toward me, mouth yawning wide, ready to swallow me and the world. Its black eyes gleamed as they locked onto me. A shudder coursed through me, my mind screamed to run, even as my limbs locked in place. Move. Dammit, move! My muscles strained with effort, but my feet remained rooted to the spot.
