I didn’t waste another second. Turning in the direction she indicated, I took off at full pace—racing through the lonely, desiccated forest.
Hang on, Dora.I ran faster still.
I’m coming for you.
All Caught Up
“HELLHOUNDSSSS,” MYsnake companion bellowed from below my collar. “Get up the fucking cliff, human! Now!”
She didn’t need to tell me twice.
Racing past a guffawing Erlik, I launched at the cliff face—desperately scrabbling for purchase, and opening seams on my palms in a dozen little places. I had nothing— No, less than nothing left in my tank.
I knew from the first ten minutes into my forest run that Lucifer had done something to my body. I should’ve been winded and gasping for water, but instead, I felt great. My body thrived on the exercise like I was an athlete. My muscles were relaxed in the movement. My lungs were primed to pump at full efficiency.
I was positively flying through the desolate place... until I hit mile eight.
Maybe if I’d been running through my neighborhood park on a nice day with a bottle of water strapped to my arm, I’d have been fine.
But this was hell.
The burning, smoke-filled air irritated and ravaged my throat and lungs. The oppressive heat drained my body of moisture, and there wasn’t a single water source in sight to do anything about it. By the time the gates of Abaddon Academy loomed before me, I was in trouble.
My lungs burned. My legs ached. I was beyond dehydrated... and Erlik wasn’t hearing any of that. Thus, began the trials.
He made us walk a tightrope over open flames. That killed twenty-five percent of applicants right off the bat. Next was the footrace.
We had to sprint five miles while dodging magical attacks from Erlik, and the other applicants. Being that I was already wiped from my forced ten-mile sprint, I was dead fricking last. Surprisingly, that’s likely what saved me.
Erlik was too busy torturing the runners at the front and picking them off one by one to even see me in last place. Ditto for the gut of runners bringing up the middle. They were too busy attacking each other to hang back and worry about me.
But none of that would help me get up this cliff.
“Come on,” I bellowed at myself, climbing a foot from the ground, and then two. “Come on!”
“Ahhh!”
Someone fell past me, nearly knocking me off smashing into my shoulder before crashing to the ground.
The hellhounds were on him in a blink. Terrifying, blood-chilling horror rocketed through my body as five of them pounced on him. He was still screaming when one ripped open his stomach and started eating.
Everything went white. I think I was screaming. I think the snake in my shirt was shouting too, but that might have been to tell me to shut up and stop acting like prey. I couldn’t comprehend of any of that as I climbed—climbed, climbed, and climbed with no more thought in my head but to get away from those horrifying monsters.
“No! No, no, no!” My bloody hands slipped on the rock. “You’re not dying here! Dora needs you! Keep going!” Tears cut tracks down my cheeks as someone else fell from the cliff, and their dying screams pummeled my eardrums. “Keep going! She needs—”
A tight grip closed on my wrist, snapping my head up. Blinking, swimming eyes latched on to a wide, gleeful grin, and just above it, the pinnacle.
I’m almost to the top.My eyes saw it was true, but my heart could scarcely believe it.Only a few more feet and I’m there. Oh my gosh, I’m going to do it. I’m going to get into the academy! Dora, I’m coming!“Th-thank you,” I rasped, tugging on my wrist. “But I think I can climb the rest of the way on my own. I don’t need hel—"
“Sorry, worm.” Impossibly, the smirk grew wider—curling in on itself like the Cheshire Cat. “This is as far as you go.”
“Wha—”
Yanking sharply on me, he broke my hold on the rocks... and let go.
Screams echoing through the valley, I plummeted through the air... into the eager, waiting maws of the hellhounds below.
A roar ripped through the valley. Bounding over the heads of his brothers, a foamy-mouthed, hackles-high hellhound bore straight for me.
