“Okay.” I nod, trying to steady my breathing. “What do you need me to do?”
“Get the first-years out. Sam, Elizabeth, Francis, and the others who died near the back of the cave.”
“On it.” I’m already scanning the space, static prickling across my palms.
“Hellhounds!” Logan screams across the cave. “Everyone to the main exit!”
In seconds, people are screaming and running for the exits.
Dozens of red eyes flare in the tunnels, glowing like scattered embers, as if they’re answering Logan’s call.
The first creature bursts from the darkness, and I shove through the crowd, searching for familiar faces.
“Sam!” I spot him near the drink table, frozen with shock, and I grab his arm hard enough to yank him back into focus. “Move! Now!”
He doesn’t question me as I drag him with me.
Elizabeth and Francis are near the edge of the crowd. Francis has his hand on her shoulder in an attempt to guide her to safety—an attempt that I know will result in them ending up in the back of the caves getting slaughtered.
I reach them in seconds.
“This way! Stay with me!”
Fire erupts around us, hellhounds pouring from the tunnels, but we’re ahead of them. We’re actually ahead of them.
A hellhound lunges from the left. Logan’s fire hits it, driving it back. He’s everywhere at once, throwing flames and shouting orders, directing the panicked crowd to the exits.
“Keep moving!” I shove Sam forward when he tries to look back. “Don’t stop!”
We’re almost to the main tunnel. Moonlight glows ahead, fresh air glides across my face, and Sam and Elizabeth and Francis are in front of me, still alive?—
“Help!”
Garrett’s on the ground twenty feet back, his ankle twisted, a hellhound stalking toward him with bared teeth.
I shove Sam toward the tunnel. “Get them out!”
“Jade—”
“Go!”
I run back, electricity building in my palms. I can do this with small, contained bolts, like I used in the caves the first time around. I can be subtle enough that no one will notice in the chaos, or that few enough people will notice that Logan can compel them to forget.
The hellhound lunges at Garrett. I throw a bolt of electricity, precise and controlled, and it catches the creature in the chest.
It goes down convulsing.
I haul Garrett up, draping his arm over my shoulder. I don’t evenlikeGarrett, but he was in my original group of six that fought in the Hydra trial, and I’m not letting him die on my watch. “We have to move!”
“My ankle?—”
“I don’t care. Move!”
We hobble to the exit, but we’re too slow. More hellhounds are closing in, and I can’t carry Garrett and fight at the same time.
Fire erupts around us, and Logan emerges from it, clearing a path.
“Go!” He takes Garrett’s other arm. “I’ve got him!”
