Maybe it’ll work. Maybe she actually?—
One of the creatures leaps over the barrier.
Deidre’s eyes go wide as her barrier flickers and the creature lands on top of her. Her mouth opens in surprise, like she didn’t expect this, like she genuinely thought she could handle everything because she got an A in Applied Flamecraft.
Its jaws close around her throat.
Her body jerks once, then twice, and then stops moving entirely.
The creature raises its blood-soaked muzzle and howls, and Lauren’s screaming her sister’s name, running to the body, getting dragged back by people trying to save her life.
Then Logan’s in front of me, his face locked down tight. He reaches for me, and I move out of his grasp before he can teleport me across the island again while my friends are in mortal danger.
“People are trapped.” I point at the far wall, my hand shaking. “Sam and Elizabeth are surrounded.”
“I know.” He scrubs a hand over his face, and when it drops, whatever he was feeling is gone. “Let’s go.”
The distance to my friends feels like miles. A creature lunges at me, and I duck too slow, pain ripping down my shoulder as its claws rake my skin. I stab blindly and hit something, and I don’t know if I killed it, because I don’t have time to check.
A boy with dark hair goes down on my right. His fire sputters out, and the creatures are on him, his screams cut shorter and shorter until there’s nothing.
“Leo!” someone wails.
Oliver’s friend,my brain supplies.The one they made fun of at the Halloween Ball.
We keep moving, reaching Elizabeth right as a hellhound lunges at her. Francis Willingham throws himself in front of her, and the creature’s claws catch the torchlight as they tear through his chest like he’s made of paper.
Blood sprays across the obsidian. Francis crumples to the ground. Elizabeth screams, an animalistic sound that doesn’t seem like it could come from a human, and then she’s throwing herself at the creature with her tiny flames and bare hands.
It catches her by the throat.
Her flames sputter out. Her body jerks, then goes limp, and she crumples next to Francis with her eyes staring at nothing at all.
Her too-big sweater is soaked with blood. One of her braids is undone.
I was ten feet away, and I held back because I’ve been training to repress my electricity to stop myself from being noticed by the Council, and it’s become muscle memory by now.
Sam’s scream cuts through the chaos. He’s pressed against a wall, three creatures stalking toward him. His dagger shakes in his grip, tears streaming down his face as he tries and fails to call on his flames.
The creature bats the dagger aside like it’s nothing.
“Sam!”
Its jaws close around his shoulder, an awful wet tearing sound echoing through the space as it drags him down. His strangled scream cuts off, followed by the thud of his body hitting the stone.
Sam Reeves, who memorized every text on mythological creatures. Who helped me during the Hydra trial. Who rambled useful facts when he was scared.
He’s dead because I froze instead of unleashing my magic.
Silver electricity tears from my hands, arcing across the cave and slamming into the hellhound that killed Sam. It convulses, and then it’s on the ground, smoke spiraling up from the seared fur on its dead body.
The remaining creatures freeze. Their red eyes fix on the electricity crackling around my fingers, and for the first time, they look uncertain.
Theyshouldbe afraid. Ofme.
Rage, grief, and guilt tangle together, burning hotter than any fire, and I raise my hands.
Electricity answers.
