Page 90 of The Wild Zone

“Keep going!” I shouted to the others. “I have a plan!”

I was painfully aware that Grant had told me pretty much the same thing three nights before. I just hoped my luck would be better than his.

Benny glanced over his shoulder and slowed his steps, but I waved him on. Harper and Zuri faltered too. Then Benny seemed to make a split-second decision: He trusted me. He put his hands on Harper’s and Zuri’s backs and urged them onward. “Go! Go!”

I skidded to a stop on the far side of the pine tree.

Taking a deep breath, I planted my feet firmly and pressed my shoulder against the trunk. I closed my eyes and thought about every horrible thing that had been happening—to me and my loved ones. My muscles tensed.

The creature was close now. I could hear it shriek, the branches rustling as it approached my pine.

“Come on, Dad,” I whispered. “I need a win.”

Clenching my teeth, I pushed with all my might. The ground beneath me trembled. My shoulder ached as the tree bark bit into my skin.

And then I heard the wonderful sound of tree roots snapping—like depth charges in the soil, so powerful they shook my bones. The pressure on my shoulder lightened. I leaped backward as the tree toppled away from me, taking the monster with it.

The pine crashed into the trees behind it, creating an impossible tangle of branches. Somewhere within that leafy cage, the creature shrieked, thrashing furiously to get free. I’d probably bought us a few minutes, but the thing would be out soon. I turned and sprinted after my friends.

They hadn’t gotten far. About twenty yards east, they’d stopped to wait for me, and they were now staring open-mouthed at the chaos I’d caused in the trees.

“GO!” I yelled.

Together, we kept running.

Between gasps of air, Benny asked, “Did you…just knock…that tree…over?”

I didn’t have the lung capacity to answer.

As soon as we crossed the line of mati pendants at the border of the Wild Zone, my body gave out. Zuri and Benny caught me on either side as my knees buckled. Harper draped me over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry—where had he learned that? Then, somehow, he managed to run with me for at least another minute before we all collapsed, just inside the edge of the woods.

When I tried to sit up, my hand pressed against a smooth marble slab like a gravestone. As my vision cleared, I saw it was engraved with the word soteria. I didn’t know why someone had decided to commemorate the goddess of safety here, but I’d take it.

We waited breathlessly, watching the woods to the west. I was sure the monster would swoop down on us at any moment. Surely no blue glass charms could stop a thing that powerful from having its vengeance. It would rip us limb from limb. Then it would probably destroy the whole camp.

Instead, nothing. The forest had fallen silent again. I didn’t understand how, but apparently the creature really could not, or would not, leave the Wild Zone.

I let loose a sob, exhaling all the pent-up terror in my chest. Next to me, Harper was shaking, his face buried in his hands. Benny and Zuri both looked shell-shocked, swaying on their feet, staring at me in disbelief.

“What in Tartarus was that?” Zuri asked. “I looked back and…that entire tree…?”

I managed a weary shrug. “I’m a child of Ares. We’re strong.”

Benny shook his head. “Not like that. I’ve never seen another Ares kid do that.”

“I guess I take better vitamins?”

Harper looked up like he was deeply offended, and then he started to laugh.

The sound was contagious. The rest of us joined him, until we were all sitting in the brambles, helplessly and hysterically giggling.

There was no good reason for humor. We’d almost died. We’d failed to find Grant and Silas. Somewhere along the way, I’d even lost Grant’s shoe, so we had no solid proof he’d disappeared in the woods.

But we were alive. For the moment, that had to be enough.

“You know you saved our lives,” Zuri told me. “Like, for real, for real.”

“Yeah,” Benny said. “That was so reckless”—he pounded the grass with his fist—“but a serious hero move.”