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The whole team is in attack mode. As we take down the Raja, more seem to grow up from nowhere. We can’t hold them off forever, and there seems to be no end to them.
I keep checking the sky in between attacking the Raja, and I can see the others doing the same.
“Alright, enough of this,” I hear Parker scream.
“Everybody get behind us,” I hear Ryder yell as he makes his way to Parker.
OH SHIT!!! I think.
He reaches his hand out and interlocks his fingers with his twin’s. I grab Summit and run towards Nix and Dylann, who grabs Milo on the way by. Once we are safely (well, as safe as we can be) behind the twins, they focus on their linked hands.
The twins smile sinister smiles as the ground in front of them begins to shake, violently cracking open. All around us hail and rain beat down the Fire Swans, taking them out twenty at a time. The rest desperately flee as the Raja fall into the cracks.
“What’s happening?” I hear Summit yell, grabbing onto me for dear life.
“It’s the twins, they are using their Heed,” Dylann yells to her sister.
I see Summit look on in confusion, but deciding this isn’t a good time, she lets it go for now.
A Fire Swan falls to the ground, its feathers engulfed in electric shocks, and the sky opens up and lightning begins to strike.
“Guys, over there,” Milo shouts, pointing.
I look where he’s pointing, wondering what else can go wrong.
“The opening,” RJ gasps. “We have to get to it.”
As one, we move into position. Now that the twins took care of the Raja, the entrance is open and clear.
Milo is the first to slip through the gap, followed by Parker, then Ryder. RJ goes through next, and I wave Dylann and Summit ahead.
They go in and I’m momentarily alone in the forest.
It’s as though I’ve been plunged into an icy pool of despair. Every nerve ending in my body cries out in desperation and I am filled with a feeling so hopeless that I’m floored.
I stand, staring into emptiness, the blackness of despair filling my soul.
I feel warm hands on my back, pulling me out of my daze and into the present. A cold shiver runs down my spine, reminding me. We need to find that pendant and get the hell out of here, and fast.
“Thanks, that was intense,” I say, looking into the concerned faces of my team.
I want to explain to the group how I felt, but I don’t have the words to describe such deep sorrow and we don’t have the time.
“What was that back there?” Summit asks, finally able to take a moment.
“That was our Heed,” Ryder says proudly.
“I’m sorry—your what?”
“Our Heed,” Parker answers, going into the scientific explanation.
“Every angel has their own powers, stemming from their parents and or family history. Sometimes angels have a twin Like Ryder and I. In special cases, you find twin angels with a Heed. A Heed is a combined power that activates when the twins touch. Thanks to the school, a special room was built just for studying Heeds. Every Heed is different—some are passive like they can heal each other or pass on energy. But then you have the active powers like Ryder and I. And because of that room, we were able to practice our Heed, starting when we were just toddlers before it became all this. Growing up we learned to control it. Most angels before us didn’t have that.”
She finishes, proud of her scientific explanation.
“That’s badass,” Summit says with a smile.
“The tile,” Ryder says, smiling back.
I push my hand into my pocket and go to bring the tile out when Parker stops me.
“Wait,” she says frantically.
I can hear the panic laced through her voice. Her hand flies up to her throat.
“The locket. It’s gone.”
No! This can’t be happening. We can’t be trapped in this place. I know now after spending a couple of minutes alone in the forest that if we have to trek through it, none of us will ever make it out alive.
“I know where it is,” Parker says. “As we reached the opening, I felt something touch the back of my neck. I thought I was being attacked, but I turned and there was nothing there. It must have been the clasp coming loose.”
Before I can react, Parker is back out of the opening.
“It’s here,” she shouts.
I stick my head back out of the hole. She stands a feet or so away from the opening and puts the locket back on.
She takes a step back towards us, and that’s when the remaining Fire Swans choose to attack. They rain fire all around Parker until she is surrounded by a circle of flames, trapped in the center.
Ryder jumps back out of the opening and runs to her. He blows the flames away.
I step back out of the hole and fire into the air, bringing down another Fire Swan. Hopefully that will be enough to keep the others back until Ryder and Parker make it back.
They are only steps away from me now. I can almost reach out and touch them, when a group of Raja appear, seemingly from nowhere.
They seem to have clawed their way out of the earth.
I blast one away and Ryder blows three away into a tornado. That still leaves seven. Three of them break away from the pack and advance on me.
I fire at them as I try to get to Parker and Ryder. It’s no use. The Raja push me back until my back is pressing against a tree trunk. I keep firing at them, but these seem to be stronger than the others.
My fireballs slow them down momentarily, but then they just keep coming with parts of themselves missing. The only way I can take them out for good is to get in headshots, but they seem to understand this too, and they use their arms and tentacles to protect their heads, batting my fireballs away.
I know eventually I’ll be able to remove the arms and tentacles and leave their heads vulnerable, but I don’t know if it’ll be in time.
I keep firing and two of them go down. The last one is almost dead, but it doesn’t stop it from coming.
Ryder’s shout catches my attention and I glance towards them.
“Go!” he urges Parker.
She hesitates and he pushes her away. Summit scrambles through the opening and catches hold of her, pulling her back to safety.
I fire at the Raja that’s still coming at me as its tentacle flies out towards me. Its tentacle makes contact and I feel the agonizing sting again. At the same time, its head explodes.
I am safe, but I will be held in place for the next ten seconds. Ten seconds that could mean Ryder doesn’t make it.
I watch helplessly as three Raja surround Ryder as he pushes Parker to safety. Before he has a chance to react, one of them shoots a tentacle out, catching him in the arm. He is frozen.
The Raja that froze him snaps its teeth together, biting at Ryder’s shoulder.
He doesn’t cry out. He can’t.
I can’t get anyone’s attention. I’m stuck here, unable to move or speak. I just watch on in horror as the Raja pulls its ugly head back and bites Ryder again.
I sense movement coming from my left but I can’t turn my head, can’t even call out a warning. I have an awful feeling I’m about to witness Ryder’s end.
I breathe a sigh of relief when the movement I sense materializes in my field of vision. It’s RJ.
RJ runs to Ryder’s side and puts his hands to his temples. As I watch, the Raja that is feeding on Ryder and its two companions all drop their arms and tentacles and walk calmly away.
Ryder falls to the floor without the Raja holding him upright to feed on him. His paralysis breaks, and RJ reaches down a hand and pulls him to his feet.
My own paralysis breaks and I take a step forward.
I hear a whooshing sound from above. A solitary Fire Swan breathes an orange plume of flames down on us. Ryder blows the flame away from us as I blast the Fire Swan out of the sky.
Nix comes bolting out of the cave and the Fire Swan circles the opening firing at anything that moves towards us.
We slip back through the opening and rejoin the team.
Parker runs to Ryder. I think she might slap him, but instead she pulls him into a fierce embrace.
“Don’t you ever risk your life for me again,” she says, her voice laden with emotion.
Ryder hugs her back, then wriggles loose.
He laughs. “Don’t worry, it wasn’t you I wanted to save, it was the locket.”
That gets us all laughing, and although there is a slight note of hysteria to our laughter, it feels good.
We beat the Raja and the Fire Swans and we all lived to tell the tale. So far.
The laughter dies down and Summit speaks.
“Is anyone hurt?”
We all answer at once and she holds up her hand.
“I mean anything more than scrapes and bruises. Anything that needs healing before we can move on?”
We all compare war wounds. Only Ryder needs healing.
Parker quickly lays her hands on him and fixes up the bites he got on his shoulder and a particularly nasty one I didn’t see him get on his lower back.
We’re standing on a platform that is suspended above a floor of ice. The walls too are all ice, and it’s cold. Damn cold.
The adrenaline from the battle is starting to wear off and we start to shiver in the frosty air.
“There it is,” Dylann says, her voice full of awe.
She points to the wall on the far side of the cavern. Encased in an ice block is something that shines golden amongst the sea of white.
It’s the piece of the Marcon Pendant.
Getting to it seems like a simple task, but I know from experience that nothing is ever as easy as it seems. I speak up.
“As soon as we start across the cavern, all hell is going to break loose. I don’t know what form it will take, but there is no way this cavern is left unguarded. The platform is our last chance to turn around and go back. Of course, we’re not going to do that, but as soon as we step off it, the enchantment that makes us see the place as empty will break. We all need to be prepared for that. Okay?”
Everyone nods solemnly except Nix, who grins.
“Bring it on,” he says.
With everyone watching, I pull the tile from my pocket. I hold it flat on my palms and wait for it to do something. It doesn’t.
It just sits there, taunting us.
I jiggle it around a little, and still nothing.
Frustrated, I sigh.
“Any ideas?”
“Use your power on it,” Parker says.
“Huh?” I say, turning in her direction. “It could destroy it.”
“It could,” she says, “but it won’t. The Face gave me the locket because she said only a healer’s touch can unlock its power. There must be a reason she gave you the tile. Maybe it’s because only a Para’s power can unlock it.”
Her theory is just that. A theory. But I would trust Parker’s theories over anyone’s. If she thinks it will work, I’d be willing to bet my soul she’s right.
I realize that by using my power on the tile, that’s exactly what I am doing.
I hold the tile out on the palm of one hand and fire a small white fireball into it with the other.
There’s a blinding flash of light that causes us all to cover our eyes. As it dies down, I dare to peek out from behind my arm.
“Well damn,” I say, shocked.
The tile is gone, and before us, a path of glistening white stepping stones leads directly to the back of the cavern, where another platform like the one we stand on sits. I quickly work out that if we can get to the platform, we can reach the piece of pendant.
Parker and I high-five.
“Who wants to go first?” Dylann asks in a small voice.
“I will,” I say. “If it’s my power that activates the steps, then maybe they need to recognize me to stay afloat.”
“I should go last,” Milo announces. He laughs self-consciously and pats his stomach. “I’m still carrying a little extra holiday weight, and who knows if those tiny things will hold me.”
We all know that Milo’s “holiday weight” is a year-round thing, but no one is cruel enough to point it out.
“They’ll hold,” I say confidently.
The truth is, I have no idea if that’s the case or not, but I’m sure if there was a weight limit any of us exceeded, The Face would have mentioned it.
How else could we all be there to take our exams?
I walk through the group. Summit puts her hand on my arm.
“Be careful,” she says softly.
“Promise,” I say, giving her hand a quick squeeze.
Tentatively, I step onto the first tile. It’s small, just large enough for my two feet, but it feels solid. It doesn’t shift at all and I relax a little.
I go to step onto the next one, and the enchantment breaks as I predicted it would.
Below me, a large pack of Sapphire Lynxes appears. Their sleek black bodies pace below me, looking up and snarling. Their jaws snap together, mimicking what they would do if they managed to catch me.
Their piercing red eyes look all the more menacing surrounded by the whiteness of the ice cavern.
Okay, I tell myself. That’s not so bad. Just ignore them.
It’s easier said than done, but I don’t dare fire on them. If I miss and my powers hit the ice, it will crack, and the last thing we need is an appearance from the Winter Queen. I shudder even thinking her name.
I force myself to look straight ahead, concentrating on the next tile.
I step onto it. The Sapphire Lynxes below match my step, pacing around below me, waiting for me to fall to my death.
I turn back to the team. They are all peering over the edge of the platform, watching the Sapphire Lynxes warily.
“Okay, guys,” I say. “The tiles are sturdy. Just step onto them and you’ll be fine. Take it slow and don’t be tempted to fire on the Lynxes.”
I don’t need to explain why. They all know why.
Nix steps forward and steps onto the first tile. I hold my breath, hoping against hope that they will hold someone who isn’t a Para.
I turn back to the front and begin picking my way across the tiles, conscious of the Sapphire Lynxes below me, but trying to ignore them as much as I can.
They jump up, snarling and snapping their jaws, but they don’t even come close to reaching us.
When I’ve gone about a quarter of the way across I turn back to check on the team.
“Everyone on?” I ask.
They all shout their agreement and I turn back and keep moving forwards.
I take another step and glance down. One of the Sapphire Lynxes crouches back on its haunches and leaps at me. It comes up much further than any of the others have. It snaps its jaws.
It’s too close for comfort, and without thinking about where I am, instinct takes over and I sidestep.
I feel my stomach roll as my foot meets thin air and I fall. I reach out blindly and manage to catch the edge of the tile.
I pull my other hand up and grasp the tile tightly with both hands.
I hear the collective gasp of the team as I swing back and forth. I pull my knees up so I’m in a tight ball. The Sapphire Lynxes gather below me, snarling and jumping.
I can feel my fingers slipping.
Nix kneels down on his tile and reaches across the gap.
“Grab my hand,” he says.
“I’ll pull you down,” I pant.
“You won’t. Just do it. If you fall, the Winter Queen wakes up. Just grab my hand!”
I do as he says, certain we’re both going to fall and become Lynx food.
I dangle in the air, swinging wildly as Nix grips my hands.
“Grab my left arm with both of your hands,” he says.
I do as he says and find myself dangling down, swinging from one of his arms. The Sapphire Lynxes jump up and I can feel the heat of their breath on my ankles.
Nix reaches down and grabs a handful of my shirt with his free hand. He heaves and I feel myself coming up.
I manage to get my forearm firmly back on the tile.
“Ready?” he asks.
I grunt and he heaves again. I find myself laid on my stomach, my arms and legs dangling over the side of the tile.
I have a bird’s eye view of the end I almost met. I shudder and push myself back to my feet.
I turn to Nix.
“Thank you,” I say.
He shrugs my thanks off.
“I didn’t know you were that strong,” I tease him.
“Honestly? Neither did I.” He laughs.
I turn and set back off again. I’m afraid if I wait too long, I won’t be able to keep going. That was too close for comfort, and my insides are still rolling and my legs still a bit shaky.
I’ve barely gone two steps when I hear a fluttering sound. I look up in horror to see a swarm of Goji Bats coming at us from the side.
Goji Bats aren’t dangerous in normal circumstances. They are pretty friendly creatures, but they have a habit of being curious and they tend to swarm the unknown. And they are coming straight for us.
I shout out a hasty warning.
“Goji Bats! They won’t hurt us. Sit down until their curiosity is satisfied and then they can’t distract us.”
My warning comes too late. As I get down on my knees, I see the others following suit except Parker. She is already surrounded by the tiny creatures.
Her hands flail as she tries to shoo them away from her, a series of whimpers coming from her.
It hits me that she’s scared of bats. It always struck me as comical that someone as brave as Parker, who will take on any monster, fears bats. It doesn’t seem so funny now.
“It’s okay, Parker. They can’t hurt you,” Ryder is shouting.
It has no effect. Parker keeps swiping at the bats. They don’t hang around. They leave her and move on down the line, surrounding Summit.
Summit is already in a crouch and she lets the Goji Bats swarm around her.
The relief I feel as Parker starts to kneel down is short lived. One of the Goji Bats has its feet tangled in her hair. She notices at the same moment as I do and she reaches up with a scream, twisting her body in her panic to free it.
It happens in slow motion. Parker’s knee misses the tile and she tumbles sideways. Summit grabs for her and steadies her, but she’s leaned out too far.
Summit falls, her body rolling through the air, her hair trailing out behind her. I hold my breath as she crashes to the icy floor.
All of the Sapphire Lynxes turn in her direction, and within a second she is surrounded by them.
I watch, unable to tear my eyes away as the ice beside Summit starts to crack. The cavern shakes, chunks of ice coming loose from the walls and cascading to the ground. The crack widens, dragging the nearest Sapphire Lynxes into it. The rest flee in all directions as water begins to flow from the crack, sweeping them up.
They are dragged under the water, their paws finding no substance, nothing to hold onto.
The Goji Bats squeak in alarm and flutter back to where they came from.
Summit gets to her knees, keeping her head above the water as the crack widens again. The walls of the ice cave start to break down, large cracks spreading through them.
The crack in the floor reaches its apex, and from it emerges the Winter Queen.
I don’t know what I was expecting the Winter Queen to look like, but it wasn’t this. The Winter Queen is giant white Hydra.
Its three heads emerge from the crack, screeching in anger at being awakened.
The body soon follows, and the crack reseals itself as quickly as it opened. The Hydra stands on the ice before Summit. It throws back its three heads and they issue a simultaneous roar of anger.
The roar is so loud it hurts my ears. The cavern rattles again, and the tile I am kneeling on shakes violently.
I try to hold on, but I can’t. I’m falling to the floor. I land in the water. It’s so cold, my body goes into momentary shock, and I can’t move. The intense coldness paralyzes me as surely as the tentacles of the Raja.
I feel myself being swept underneath a wave. I just manage to catch a glimpse of the team before I am yanked under.
I am spinning. I don’t know which way is up or which way is down. I kick frantically as my body gets accustomed to the cold and my muscles unfreeze.
I can only hope I’m heading for the surface.
My legs burn. My arms flailing, I fight as hard as I can, but it’s no use. The cold has overtaken my whole body.
I somehow manage to keep kicking and my head breaks the surface. I cough and choke, spilling icy cold salty water from my mouth.
I look around, trying to locate the others. I don’t see them. All I can see is the huge body of the Hydra and the endless water.
I fire a shot into the body of the Hydra. It bounces off, doing nothing except make the Hydra scream in rage. Its three heads turn to face me. I keep firing at it, but my shots all bounce of it harmlessly.
I need to fire at the heads. It’s the only way to take it out. I throw a fireball at head closest to me. It makes contact and a chunk of flesh comes off. Blood pours from the gaping aperture, staining the white feathers red as it pours down its body.
The Hydra throws back its injured head, roaring in pain. The other two heads swoop for me. I duck underneath the water and narrowly miss being swallowed whole.
I break the surface again.
The Hydra has turned away from me. I don’t know why, but I know that if I stay in this water much longer, the Hydra won’t need to kill me. I can feel the cold infiltrating my bones.
I grab a large chunk of ice as it floats by and climb on top of it, using it as a raft.
Suddenly, a large chunk of ice flies through the air, crashes into the Hydra’s injured head, and severs it. It falls to the water with a loud splash, and my raft flails madly from side to side.
I hang on tight, and it slows back to the gentle sideways sway.
Milo punches the air in joy as he sees that he’s removed one of the Hydra’s heads.
As the current moves me along, I see the others. We all bob on pieces of ice except RJ, who has yet to find one. Milo notices his predicament and sends a large piece of ice towards him. RJ climbs on and gives Milo a thumbs-up.
“Aim for its heads,” I shout. “Our powers don’t hurt its body.”
The Hydra has regained its composure after losing a head, and it turns to us. One of the heads pulls back and it fires a stream of black liquid that looks like oil at Parker. She throws herself off her ice raft, splashing down into the water.
The black stream hits her raft and it evaporates in a hiss of steam that looks out of place in amongst the ice.
Dylann fishes Parker back out of the water and pulls her up onto her raft.
“No!” I hear Summit scream, and like a flash she’s off her raft and swimming. I look to see what caught her attention. Is someone hurt?
I see it. The Marcon Pendant piece, encased in a small chunk of ice, floats away from us.
Summit’s cry has attracted the Hydra’s attention, and it turns towards her, gearing up for another blast of oil.
This time, its other head takes the lead, spewing forth a javelin of plasma. It catches Summit in her leg, and she screams in agony and goes under.
I know I have to act.
“Distract it,” I yell and dive into the icy water.
I’m expecting the coldness this time, but it still comes as a shock. A million dagger points of ice assault me. I break the surface and swim to the place where I last saw Summit.
From behind me, I hear the team taunting the Hydra, forcing its attention on to them. I duck under the surface again, and I spot Summit, kicking weakly in a pool of silver blood.
She clutches the chunk of ice in one hand.
I reach her and grab her by her hand. She flails out wildly, pushing me further down.
Her eyes are squeezed tightly closed and I don’t know how to let her know it’s me. I grab her arm tightly, refusing to let go. I fight her as she struggles to free herself.
I have to find a way to make her see it’s me or we’re both going to be dead.
I reach up with my other hand and caress her cheek. It has no effect at first, but as I keep going, she stops fighting me. She opens her eyes and I see the recognition in them. I pull my hand back and kick for the surface, dragging her with me.
My head breaks the surface and I pull Summit’s head above the water. She coughs and splutters and starts to go down again. I drag her back up.
The wound in her leg won’t let her kick, and she’s going to keep going down.
I wrap my arm around her middle, keeping her afloat while kicking desperately with my legs and using my free arm to try to steer us towards a piece of ice.
I can feel my legs tiring, and I don’t know how long I can keep us both above the surface. My strength is failing fast, the coldness sucking the life out of me, and I have nothing left to react when a burst of black oil comes spilling towards us.
Ryder blows it aside and it just misses us.
“Hey, Ugly, over here,” Ryder shouts, standing up on his raft and waving his arms.
The Hydra turns back to him, fixing him in its sights with the eyes on its one remaining head.
I feel myself slip under the surface, the water closing over my face. I hear Summit call my name, and it gives me the strength to kick back to the surface again. I manage to grab a chunk of ice with my free arm and I hang there for a moment, trying to get feeling back in my body.
I can feel Summit shivering against me. I push with the bit of strength I have left, and she lands on the ice.
She lies flat on her stomach and reaches down for me.
I shake my head weakly, scared I’ll pull her back off. I have nothing left to get her out again if that happens.
“Don’t you dare give up on me,” she says, grabbing my hands in hers and pulling.
Somehow, between us, we get me out of the water and onto the ice raft with her.
I lie on my back, and Summit sits beside me, her face screwed up in pain. She presses one hand to the gaping wound on her leg and with the other, she clutches mine.
I force myself into a sitting position. The team is still fighting the Hydra. Two of its heads are gone and the third hangs at an odd angle, but it’s not giving up the fight. It continues to fire jets of hot black oil at the team.
I notice we’ve floated quite a distance away.
“We have to get closer. We have to help them,” I say to Summit.
I see the steely resolve in her eyes as she lets go of my hand and her wound. She pulls herself onto her knees and places the piece of pendant firmly between them. She leans forward so that her hands are in the water. She begins paddling us forward.
I pull myself up beside her and copy her motion. We move at a reasonable pace towards the others.
As we reach them, Summit gets to her feet and fires a blast of light from her hands. It strikes the Hydra’s remaining head. The Hydra’s roar of pain is cut short as it dies. It falls down into the water with a giant splash that rocks our rafts and sends us all plunging back into the water.
This time, all I can think is we’ve done it.
The team gathers together, and we begin to link hands.
I reach back for Summit’s hand, but I feel only water. I look back and she’s back on our raft, searching frantically.
“It’s gone,” she shouts.
The pendant piece. It fell.
She doesn’t wait for an answer. She dives down into the water.
We break hands and swim towards where she went under.
A lone Sapphire Lynx who has somehow survived the battle and the water rushes towards us on its platform of ice. It bares its teeth in an angry snarl.
I don’t know what to do. The Lynx is bearing down on Nix, and Summit is still underneath the water.
It’s all happening too fast. Who do I save?
It’s always been Summit, but Nix is my brother.
My indecision could end up getting them both killed.
Summit’s head breaks the surface just as the Lynx crouches back on its haunches, ready to strike.
She shows us the pendant piece and reaches for my hand. I take it, and grab Dylann’s on my other side. We link hands and Parker takes a hold of the locket. I feel the dizzying sensation again just as the Lynx leaps for Nix.
I feel myself land hard.
I jump to my feet. I’m surrounded by the team. Everywhere I look there’s blood.
I wonder briefly how attached Emmy was to this particular carpet.
I can’t spot Nix.
I feel a rush of anger. We don’t leave anyone behind!
I hear a noise behind me and I turn to see Nix pulling himself into a sitting position, and I belt out a sigh of relief.
“Well, that was close,” he says as he gets to his feet.
I laugh and pull him into an embrace, clapping him on the back.
We turn back to the group as the others get to their feet. We’re battered and bloody and in a lot of pain, but we’re all here. All alive.
Summit catches my eye and holds up the piece of the pendant.
“We did it,” she says, her voice breaking with laughter. “We actually did it.” The Face will be pleased we don’t affect her exam, I can’t help but think. The door opens and Emmy bursts into happy tears when she sees us. She throws herself on us. We move as one, holding each other in a tight circle, laughing.
We did it! Holy crap, we actually did it!