Eighteen
When Alex woke, it was to a pounding headache. But that, she quickly realised, was because she was hanging upside-down, with the pressure of her blood having been pooling in her head for what must have been some time.
Trying to gather her wits about her, she saw that both she and Bear were dangling from vines tied to their ankles, held aloft about ten feet above the ground. They must have looked ridiculous, with their hair on end and their still bound arms hanging uselessly in the air. Aware that their positions rendered them completely helpless, Alex knew they had to remedy that—immediately.
It wouldn’t be a comfortable fall for either of them, but she couldn’t see or hear any Jarnocks, so she summoned A’enara, fully intending to cut them both free. But a strange awareness washed over her, an instinct that caused her to hesitate, and she squinted into the dying afternoon light that barely reached through the trees to the forest floor.
It was only then that she realised they weren’t hanging above mossy, muddied ground, but rather, they were positioned above a stagnant creek. The water was so murky that she hadn’t been able to differentiate it from the other brown and green vegetation.
There was something about the creek that caused pinpricks of warning along Alex’s nerve endings. Focusing her eyes, she looked closer and—there! A shifting motion, like air bubbles pressing through the murky surface. She watched even more intensely and that’s when she saw it—a dorsal fin, much like that of a shark, but instead of being smooth, it was spiked. The colour was the same brownish-green of the water, and the fin rose out only enough for Alex to establish that it belonged to something big. Something neither she nor Bear wanted to end up swimming with.
Banishing A’enara, Alex glanced over to her unconscious friend, then swallowed her pride and called for help.
Niyx? Any chance you can zip over here and lend a hand? She sent a mental picture of her situation.
His response didn’t come instantly, which was unusual, but just when Alex was about to call out again, he answered.
I’m in the middle of something, kitten, he said, sending her a visual as well.
He was seated beside Aven in the Meyarin palace. There was some kind of meeting in session, with the room containing at least a dozen others. Some Alex already knew, like the gifted humans Calista, Signa and Gerald. She also recognised the Claimed council members, Lasa Riza and Lasa Naelin—Kyia’s aunt—as well as Queen Niida. Skraegon, the brute from the tavern brawl with Zain was also there, but Alex didn’t see any other familiar faces.
I won’t be leaving here anytime soon, Niyx told her. You’re just going to have to… hang around for a bit.
This is not funny, Niyx, Alex said. She sent him another picture showing her memory of the fin in the water.
This time his response was instant—and threaded with urgency. Whatever you do, do not enter that creek.
His tone caused goose bumps to rise up on Alex’s skin. Why? What’s wrong?
That’s Kaku, he said. The Jarnocks consider him their jungle deity. They offer him full moon sacrifices and believe doing so blesses their hunting and gathering for the next month.
Alex’s mouth turned dry and she replayed for Niyx the conversation she’d heard between the chiefs.
He swore, loudly. It’s a full moon tonight, Aeylia, and it’s already approaching twilight where you are. You have maybe an hour before those Jarnocks return and cut you loose. You’re going to be Kaku’s next meal ticket if you don’t find a way out of there.
But how—
He cursed again and interrupted in a hurried voice, Aven is asking us questions—I have to pay attention and act like his puppet or I’ll be in just as much trouble as you. I’m sorry, kitten, but I can’t help you right now. You’ll have to save yourself. You can do it—just trust yourself.
His presence vanished and Alex didn’t risk calling out to him again, not while he was in a meeting with Aven. More than just her and Bear’s lives were at risk right now.
“I’ve been in worse situations than this,” Alex said to herself. None immediately sprang to mind, but there were some close contenders. “There has to be a way out.” Again, nothing immediately sprang to mind.
Knowing two heads were better than one, she sought to wake Bear. After calling his name three times with increasing volume, she realised he needed more of a prod. Too far away to reach him with just her hands, she heaved her body back and forth until the vines holding her swung with her motion. Grunting from the strain—as well as her ever-increasing headache—Alex finally collided with Bear and latched onto him with her bound hands.
After giving him a rough shake and calling his name again, he groaned his way into consciousness.
“What the—”
“Bear, it’s okay,” Alex soothed, knowing the rapidly dying light offered his human eyes even less of a view than her increasingly limited vision. “Try not to panic, but we’re dangling above a creek that has some kind of creature swimming it. The Jarnocks plan to offer us up as its dinner, so we need to get out of here before they return.”
Bear remained silent from the shock of her hurried explanation, but then he exploded. “‘It’s okay’?” he repeated in a yell. “How is any of this ‘okay’, Alex?”
“Shhhh!” she hushed him. “Let’s not invite them back early, yeah?”
She watched as Bear took three visibly large breaths to get himself together.
“Right,” he said, much calmer now. “What are our options?”
That was the Bear she needed, and she sent him a smile of gratitude.
“From what I can tell, we don’t have many,” Alex said.
“Well, the obvious one is the one we want to avoid,” Bear said.
“Being consumed by a jungle deity is not on my bucket list,” Alex agreed wholeheartedly. “What’s next?”
“I take it you can’t use A’enara to cut us down without us falling into the water?”
Shaking her head, then regretting the motion from the additional spike of blood pressure it prompted, she said, “Already thought of that. The creek is narrow, but even if we swing first, we still won’t land on the bank.”
“What are we even hanging from?” Bear asked, trying to get a good look up at their feet. “What are these vines attached to?”
“We’re strung between some branches, but they’re way, way high up,” Alex said, squinting up into the trees and not seeing an end to the vines. “Are you thinking—should we try climbing?”
“If it’s our only chance to get out of here, then—”
A new voice cut in, one that caused Alex to jerk with shock, both because it was unexpected, and because it was familiar.
“You don’t have enough time to climb. The Jarnocks are already on their way to prepare you for the sacrifice.”
“Hunter?” Bear’s disbelief was clear in his voice as the SAS teacher stepped out onto the bank.
“We have less than five minutes before they arrive, so listen carefully,” Hunter said, his tone urgent. “Alex, when I tell you, cut Bear free first then follow him straight down into the water. I’ll offer a distraction to Kaku, but you’ll only have seconds to swim your way to the bank before he’ll realise there’s something better on offer. Once you’re back on land, be prepared to run, because the Jarnocks will be relentless in their pursuit.”
Without waiting for Alex or Bear to agree, Hunter continued, “It’ll be hard enough swimming with your feet still bound, so do something about your hands before you enter the water. I’ll be back in a minute, and you’ll need to be ready.”
He vanished into the jungle, prompting Alex to release her grip on Bear, swinging wildly back and forth as a result. It was necessary, though, in order to free her hands, so that when she was semi-stationary again she was able to summon A’enara without skewering him. Even with her reaching towards Bear and him reaching towards her, she could barely get the blade between his bound wrists, but she just managed, freeing him and ignoring the stab of guilt she felt when he hissed as the flames brushed his flesh. A few burns were easy enough to fix up later. Them dying, not so much.
Without being able to reach far enough over to hand the hilt of A’enara to Bear—since there was no way he’d be able to grip the flaming edge of the blade—Alex’s only option was to place the weapon in her mouth and saw her own hands along it. While the flames didn’t burn her, the blade was still sharp, and in releasing herself, she added a few more cuts to her collection. She didn’t waste time sending an apology to Niyx—she just hoped he had the presence of mind to hide his mirrored wounds before Aven or anyone else noticed.
“What do you suppose Hunter meant about offering Kaku a distraction?” Bear asked, rubbing his wrists and attempting to look around from his limited upside-down viewpoint.
Before Alex could say she had no idea, there was a rustling sound further along the creek bank and Hunter reappeared, dragging something behind him. It was some kind of animal, larger than a dog but smaller than a horse. And it was also very dead.
“Are you two ready?” Hunter called.
Realising he intended to draw Kaku’s attention with another food source, Alex felt slightly sick to her stomach. But better the already dead beast than her and Bear.
“One second,” she called back, and she swung her way over to latch onto Bear again. Once she was gripping him, she said, “This will be awkward, but it’s the only way I can reach your feet. Sorry in advance.” She then proceeded to climb her way up his body, turning right-way up as she did so, and feeling her head spin when the blood instantly drained back downwards.
When she was in position with A’enara at the ready, she called back to Hunter that she was ready.
“Wait for my mark,” the instructor said, and he moved behind the animal, shoving it off the bank and down into the creek.
Alex shuddered when the murky water shifted and the spiky fin swept out again as Kaku, having been waiting motionless directly beneath her and Bear, took off towards his free meal.
When he reached the dead beast, Alex had to bite her tongue to keep from shrieking as his upper body lunged out of the water, revealing a prehistoric crocodilian nightmare with a mouth full of giant, jagged teeth. At the sight, Alex understood why the Jarnocks considered Kaku worthy of their worship. Or at least scary enough to prioritise appeasing him.
“Go!” Hunter cried. “Now!”
Despite her abject fear, Alex didn’t hesitate. She sliced A’enara through Bear’s vine and he dropped like a rock into the water. Alex fell partway with him until her own bindings caught, jarring her spine and causing her to swing violently.
Grateful for the ab crunches Niyx frequently tortured her with, Alex pushed her torso upwards and cut the vine holding her aloft, banishing A’enara as she plunged into the murky creek.
Kicking her way to the surface, Alex felt a stab of alarm when she drew in a lungful of air and could no longer see Kaku tearing into the dead beast. The water was once again still and silent.
“HURRY!” Hunter bellowed, running along the bank towards them. “HE’S COMING!”
Heart pounding, Alex mermaid-kicked through the tangles of grassy reeds that pulled at her body, forcing them aside with her free hands as she wrestled her way through the deep water. Bear was barely keeping ahead of her, but he finally reached the bank where Hunter was waiting to haul him up to safety.
Two strokes behind, Alex arrived only a second later, but just as she threw an arm up for Hunter to draw her out, she was jerked back, hard, and submerged underwater again.
With the murkiness of the creek making it nearly impossible to see anything, Alex could only just make out the figure of the massive Kaku tugging her down to the creek bed and continuing to drag her upstream. Like a dog with a bone, his ferocious teeth were attached to the vine she’d cut herself free from, the one keeping her feet bound. It was a miracle he’d gone for the trailing vegetation and not latched onto her flesh—a miracle Alex was certain wouldn’t last for much longer.
Her adrenaline spiking, she pushed past her all-consuming terror and her screaming lungs to summon A’enara. When Kaku gave another vicious tug, she used the momentum to her advantage and swung her body around to slice through the trailing vine.
Now free, she released her blade and moved desperately upwards, her legs kicking wildly and her arms frantically stroking through the dense water. She managed to get her head above the surface and gasp in a lungful of air right before she felt the telltale current of movement beneath her heralding Kaku’s approach.
Knowing she was about to give the fight of her life, Alex called A’enara back just as the beast breached the surface with his teeth bared, ready to snap her in half. But she didn’t get a chance to do anything before a shadow launched off the bank and landed on the creature’s neck—a shadow that turned out to be Hunter, who plunged a dagger straight into Kaku’s eye socket.
“GO!” Hunter shouted, hanging from atop the now roaring beast, struggling like a cowboy riding an enraged bull. “Go, go, go!”
Alex didn’t need to be told twice. And she also didn’t need to swim far, because Bear threw a vine from his position on the bank and when she grabbed hold, he used it to swiftly tow her to his side and up out of the water.
As she lay there panting from shock, exertion and oxygen deprivation, Bear threw the vine again and yelled, “Hunter!”
Another roar was followed by a splashing sound, and then Bear was pulling Hunter out as well.
The teacher moved straight to Alex’s side, dripping water down onto her as he slid his dagger through the vines binding her feet. With concerned eyes, he looked her over from head to toe and asked, “Are you hurt?”
Still lightly panting, Alex shook her head and said, “I’m okay.”
“When he took you down and you didn’t come back up, we thought…” Bear couldn’t finish his sentence, his face pale even in the darkness of the now dusky light.
“I’m okay,” she repeated, quieter, using a shaking hand to swipe wet hair from her face.
“You won’t be if we don’t move,” Hunter said, hauling her up with him, water flying from them both. “The Jarnocks will be here any second, and they won’t be happy that their god is missing an eye. Can you run?”
“I’m fine—just go!” Alex said, wanting a repeat of her encounter with the Jarnocks only slightly less than a second round with Kaku.
Her teacher didn’t need further encouragement before he tore off into the jungle. His pace was swift, but when Alex’s ears picked up the furious cries of the Jarnocks discovering their missing quarry—and seeing their maimed deity—she feared they weren’t running fast enough.
Hunter’s thoughts apparently mirrored hers since he picked up speed until they were full on sprinting through the vegetation. He may have been human, but his awareness gift coupled with all the other stealthy tricks he had up his sleeve allowed him to move with almost as much ease as a Meyarin, if not as swiftly.
Alex was able to keep up thanks to her immortal blood and relentless training, but Bear wasn’t gifted in a way that would help him in their current environment, nor did he have any experience as a student in SAS. It soon became clear that he was finding it harder and harder to make his way through the dense shrubbery. But he didn’t lag behind and he didn’t complain. He just put his head down and remained right on their heels.
As dusk turned to night and darkness fell over the jungle, their escape became even more challenging. Alex could barely see a thing, and that was with the advantage of her enhanced vision. Just as she was about to point out that they needed to slow down, the inevitable happened.
Alex actually heard the crack of Bear’s bone snapping when he yanked his leg free from being wedged between two boulders. An almighty scream ripped from his vocal chords before he was able to muffle the sound out of sheer willpower.
“Hunter!” Alex cried as she ran and kneeled beside her friend, but her instructor was already doubling back before the call left her mouth.
Uttering a very un-teacherly word, Hunter dropped down beside them and rolled Bear’s jeans up to his knee. Running his hands carefully along the bone, he repeated his curse word and said, “Feels like you’ve fractured your fibula. But it hasn’t breached the skin, which is good news.”
Alex could hear from the strain in Hunter’s voice that the ‘good news’ was still extremely bad news since they were in the middle of enemy territory with Bear now handicapped.
“Can you hear anything, Alex?” Hunter asked.
Knowing he wasn’t referring to the normal jungle noises, she listened intently, but she couldn’t hear any approaching Jarnocks. “Nothing.”
“We’ve made good ground. I don’t know if we’ve lost them completely, but I think we’re safe for the moment,” Hunter said. “Let’s rest up for a few minutes, strap this leg and decide our next move.”
Alex nodded her agreement, placing a comforting hand on Bear’s chest.
“You’re doing great,” she told him when Hunter tore a strip off his own clothing and bandaged Bear’s leg between two sturdy branches in a makeshift splint.
“I’m sorry,” Bear hissed between his teeth, his voice filled with agony so acute that Alex could almost taste his pain. “I’m slowing us down.”
“Don’t be silly,” Alex said, wishing she had some water or something she could offer him. “We all needed a break. You just gave us a good excuse.”
Somehow he managed a huff of laughter. “Maybe my lucky jeans aren’t as lucky as I thought.”
She was able to muster a smile, but it disappeared when Hunter tightened the splint and Bear released an anguished moan. Stomach roiling, Alex watched as his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he blacked out from the pain.
With a shuddering exhale, she turned her accusing gaze to Hunter. “Was it necessary to make it that tight?”
“You’ve had enough first aid experience to know the answer to that.”
What he said was true, but Alex hated seeing her friend suffer. Because of that, she lashed out at the only person currently close enough to receive her wrath. Releasing the last few hours of fear, frustration, tension, stress, pain and absolute terror onto his shoulders, Alex didn’t hold back—she just launched straight into a verbal attack.
“They’re freaking cannibals, Hunter! Did no one think to mention that to us before we left?”
“Alex—”
“Was it too much to ask for a little warning? For one of you to offer a quick, ‘Hey, by the way, they might want to cook you into a stew or sacrifice you to their underwater dinosaur, but don’t worry—we’re sure you’ll be fine’?”
“We—”
“You all claimed to be worried about our safety—what a load of rubbish!” Alex cried, interrupting him again. “If you were really worried, you would have said something!”
“Would you have listened?”
“And even then—What?”
Fully into her rant, Hunter’s words only processed for Alex when he repeated them.
“Would you have listened to us? If we’d told you about the Jarnocks, would you have decided not to come?”
Alex opened her mouth to say of course she would have listened, but then she snapped it shut again, realising he was right. She’d been so determined to carry out her plan that nothing would have stopped her from at least trying to make them see reason. And that was exactly what she’d done—just without the heads-up first.
“You still could have warned us,” she said, deflating slightly but not quite ready to acknowledge his point aloud.
“We could have,” Hunter agreed, wrapping a second strip of torn cloth around Bear’s splint for extra support. “But you were so resolute with your course of action that we figured it best to let you do what you needed to do without interference and just keep an eye on you in case you needed help.”
“I’m guessing that explains your presence here?”
Ripping one final strip from his shirt, Hunter said, “I chartered a vessel from the mainland and picked up your trail when I arrived.” He knotted the material around Bear’s leg and added, “I didn’t anticipate you finding the Jarnocks and getting into trouble so quickly, or I would have left much earlier.”
“To be fair, they found us,” Alex replied. “It all went downhill from there. Even if you’d been around, you wouldn’t have been able to do anything except get trussed up beside us as part of Kaku’s dinner.”
The volatile surge of emotion left her in a rush until all that was left was the memory of being dragged along the bottom of the creek bed by the monstrous creature. She began trembling as delayed shock set in, and she lifted her eyes through the darkness until she met Hunter’s. “You saved my life.”
“To be fair,” he said, repeating her words with a hint of a smile, “you were managing all right on your own.”
Alex shook her head firmly, knowing that if Hunter hadn’t intervened when he had, she would currently be in a state of digestion somewhere deep within Kaku’s small intestine.
“Thank you, Hunter,” she told him quietly. “I’m sorry for what I said before. Just—Just thank you. For coming after us, and for saving me.” She gestured to Bear and amended, “For saving both of us.”
He seemed to realise it was important to her that he accept her gratitude, so he didn’t brush her thanks aside and claim that he was just doing his job as her teacher. Instead, he said, “You’re welcome, Alex.”
She smiled at him, and then turned her eyes to Bear when he let out a low groan and regained consciousness.
“So it wasn’t a nightmare, then?” he said, the pain still clear in his tone.
“The sooner we get back to my vessel, the sooner we can leave the island’s anti-Bubbledoor wards and return to the academy, leaving your nightmare as nothing but a memory,” Hunter said in an attempt to be comforting.
“How far is your vessel?” Alex asked.
“About an hour from here,” he answered.
Alex’s gaze flicked back down just in time to see Bear blanch at the idea of having to walk for another hour on his injured leg. He was quick to school his expression, but she hadn’t imagined the dread flashing across his features.
“Isn’t there another way?” she asked quietly.
“Not without leaving him here,” Hunter replied, just as quietly.
They both ignored Bear when he grumbled, “There’s no point whispering. I broke my leg, not my ears.”
“We can’t leave him here,” Alex said to Hunter, not even considering it as an option.
“I know that,” Hunter agreed. “Which is why I said we have an hour to go. Normally it would only take half that time, but I’m accounting for the slower pace.”
“Good of you,” Bear grumbled again, his normally cheerful humour tempered by his pain. “But how ’bout an alternative?”
Both Alex and Hunter looked at him, a sliver of moonlight streaming through the canopy and splashing across his face.
“If I’m right,” Bear said, “we’d only have to walk five minutes in that direction”—he indicated to his left—“before we’d be back at the Library doorway.”
Alex gaped at him. “How can you possibly know that?”
“I told you, I spent a lot of time in survival VRs as a kid,” Bear answered. “And when I say a lot, I mean a lot.”
“But we’ve been unconscious for most of our time here!”
“I can’t explain it,” Bear said with a shrug that turned into a moan as it jostled his leg. “Either trust me or don’t.”
Hunter studied Bear closely. “How confident are you?”
“’Bout seventy-five percent.”
Before Hunter could agree or disagree to the new plan, Alex heard something that caused her to speak up first.
“We’re going to have to take those odds,” she said, bending lower to pry her way under Bear’s upper torso and wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
Sensing her newfound haste and repeating the move on Bear’s other side, Hunter helped haul her friend painfully up to his feet and said, “What is it?”
“The Jarnocks,” Alex said. “They’re coming.”