“DANIEL?” GASPED MEL. “Where have you been? Why didn’t you come for me?”
“Because,” said The Prayer, chuckling, “your so-called soul mate has been too busy running away from me and playing superhero with a pretty thing named Mikaela.”
“That’s not true,” I said, sounding way too defensive.
“”Why didn’t you rescue me, Daniel?” cried Mel, sounding a whole lot needier than she ever had before. Even her brilliant blue eyes looked weak and watery.
I remembered what Xanthos had communicated to me the day I first set eyes on Melody Judge: Her name is Mel, short for Melody, a name that suits her personality quite well, yah? She is like the song you hear in the morning and cannot get out of your head all day. Mel was an incredibly brave girl, normally, but being The Prayer’s prisoner had clearly traumatized her. Seeing her this way made me even angrier.
“Did that thing hurt you?” I asked.
“Not yet,” she choked out. “Help me, Daniel. Save me.”
“Don’t worry,” I said, hoping to crack through her thick veneer of fear. “If this creepazoid even looks at you the wrong way, I’ll braid his stupid dreadlocks together into ponytails so he looks like the Swiss Miss girl on a carton of pudding cups.”
Mel didn’t smile. The Prayer jostled her forward.
“Take your stinking paws off her, you dirty insect!” I yelled. “Leave Mel out of this.”
“With pleasure, Daniel. All you have to do is agree to my previous terms.”
“Daniel?” said Mel, her voice panicky, sounding like the opposite of her spunky self. “What’s Number 1 talking about?”
I tried to play it off. “Nothing.”
“NOTHING?” shrieked The Prayer. “It is EVERYTHING!”
The giant mantis stomped its feet like a long-legged three-year-old throwing a temper tantrum.
“Daniel?” Mel was whimpering, her body trembling.
I moved toward her.
“NO!” roared The Prayer, hopping between us. “You cannot touch her until you agree to my terms. You are Number One on my list, Danny Boy. Make the exchange now or I will withdraw my very generous offer!”
I had to get Mel safely away from this insane insectoid.
That was step one.
Step two would be kicking the big bug’s butt. Because if I didn’t, Melody Judge and every other human being currently inhabiting planet Earth would soon be sucked into a death spiral of oblivion, courtesy of Number 1’s fast-growing black hole.
“Okay,” I said. “You’ve got a deal. No more tricks. No more leaps across time or space. You can kill me, right after you set Mel free.”