“Hercules, I’d like you to come to Stellaris and help us shoot Draco with a poison arrow,” I said. “This is one of those times when we actually want history to repeat itself.”
Hercules kept his eyes glued on Melanie. “I’d be happy to help, if that’s what Melanie wants.”
“What do you say? You’ll finally get your wish to have Hercules here on Stellaris, and you’ll get rid of your rogue constellation problem at the same time.”
Melanie’s eyes filled with tears, and the corners of her mouth twitched. The idea of bringing Hercules here must have reminded her of how she’d started this whole mess. I got why she wasn’t all gung ho about the idea now.
She closed her eyes, and I guessed she was trying to keep her tears from spilling down her cheeks. “Ella, could you give us a second, please?” Her voice was low and strained.
I nodded and took a few steps toward the door. Melanie and Hercules talked in hushed tones. It was strange watching them interact this way. There he was, stuck in the heavens, and here she was, ruling Stellaris. But he and Melanie clearly cared a lot about each other. How could that happen when they were never really together? They’d never gone to a movie or stayed up all night talking on the phone while watching each other through their windows. They hadn’t lived next door to each other all their lives.
Two thoughts collided in my mind. Slammed into me so hard I thought I’d fall over. First, I was completely head over heals for Avery. Second, Melanie and Hercules were actually a lot like Avery and me. Maybe they did stay up all night talking. Maybe Melanie read to Hercules. And they might not live next door, but having Hercules hovering in the sky at all times, always near Melanie, was a lot like being neighbors.
Melanie reached out to touch Hercules. I couldn’t watch them any longer. I felt like I was intruding. So I headed downstairs to find Avery. The thought of seeing him made my stomach flutter.
He was showing the remaining four recruits how to use the double-sided axes. The guys still looked terrified.
“Don’t worry, boys. You won’t be needing those,” I said, walking up to Avery.
He smiled at me—just a small smile I’m sure no one else saw.
“New plan,” I said. “Melanie and I have decided to bring Hercules to Stellaris. He was the one who shot Draco with a poison dart. He’s part of the reason Draco was placed in the heavens.” I stared at each of the four remaining recruits. “We’re going to help him do it again.”
Bobson, who had been sitting in the corner gnawing on another pen, got up and started taking the bows and arrows off the wall. “Weapons change!” Of course he was willing to go along with the plan. I’d let him think it was Melanie’s idea.
For the first time, I joined the training. Seeing the look on Bobson’s face when I willingly grabbed my weapon was priceless. Other than my one lesson with Gabe, I’d skipped out on formal training. We lined up in front of the targets, and Avery gave me some tips to make my aim more accurate. Up until now, I’d been going off of what I’d learned in gym class, and I’d still been a pretty good shot. But with Avery’s advice, I was better than pretty good. I shot ten arrows and hit the bull’s-eye eight times.
“Not bad,” Avery said.
“Thanks.” I looked around at the other targets. “The guys aren’t too shabby either. They’re improving. Still not the greatest shots, but their arrows are hitting in the general area. Add a little poison and close should be good enough.”
“About that.” Avery sunk another arrow into the bull’s-eye and turned to me. “Where are we getting the poison?” The look on his face told me he already had a good hunch.
“Serpens is tied down tight. We should be able to milk some poison from his fangs. We’ll need enough to dip the arrows in.” My whole body shuddered just talking about it. I wasn’t sure how I was actually going to go through with it.
Avery put his hand on my shoulder. “I think the army can handle that without you. Besides, I’m sure Melanie will need your help bringing Hercules here.”
My shoulders relaxed. Melanie would need my help directing the meteor, but that wasn’t why Avery suggested I help her. We couldn’t bring Hercules to Stellaris until the poison arrows were ready, which meant I had plenty of time to help milk Serpens. But Avery was looking out for me, knowing how much I hated snakes. Especially one that had already tried to eat me and drown me.
“You’re a life saver, Ave.”
“If I remember correctly, you came here to save me.”
How long ago had that been? Night and day meant nothing to me anymore. I was a little tired, but with all the near-death experiences I’d had, the adrenaline coursing through my body was keeping me going. Still, time was important. Avery was fading, and the first batch of boys had almost completely faded in only a matter of days. How long had he been in Stellaris. How long had I been here? Two days? Three?
“Are you okay?” Avery placed both hands on my shoulders and bowed his head so he could stare straight into my eyes.
I looked at his fading hand. “How bad are you? Has any other part of you started to fade? You haven’t taken your armor off in a long time. Are you making sure the rest of you is still…whole? Maybe you should—”
“Ell.” He shook my shoulders, but I could only feel the warmth of his left hand. The right one felt no different than air. He yanked his right arm down to his side. “I’m fine. I’ll be fine. We’re going to take down Draco, and then we’re on our way home. No problem. I can make it until then.”
“But—”
“I promise. Trust me.”
I’d never had trouble trusting him before, but now it was as difficult as if he’d asked me to move the moon. “I can’t lose you.”
He stared into my eyes, and it seemed like the rest of the world fell away. No training room. No constellations. No Stellaris. Just Avery and me. Nothing else. He raised his hand to the side of my face, and his touch made me lightheaded, like I couldn’t breathe.
“You won’t lose me.” His face was only inches from mine. “It’s always been you and me. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
What did that mean? That we were supposed to be friends like we’d always been? Was he rejecting me? Rejecting the feelings I hadn’t even had the courage to say out loud?
But then he leaned closer and pressed his lips lightly against mine. I thought I’d collapse in his arms. It was otherworldly, and not just because we were in another world. He was my best friend. The person I ran to for everything. The one I depended on the most. I was crazy about him, and he felt the same way about me.
My lips parted, and I kissed him back like it was the most natural thing in the world, because it was. I didn’t want the kiss to end, but I heard feet shuffling across the floor, and I remembered we weren’t alone. We were in the training room with Bobson, Ophi, and the army. And they were most likely staring at Avery and me.
I pulled away first, my cheeks burning when I saw all eyes were on us. Avery squeezed my hand, getting my attention back on him and off our audience. “Go tell Melanie that we’ll need ten minutes to get the poison. She should wait until we’re positioned on the beach before she brings Hercules here. We don’t want him to get ambushed like Ophi did. Draco won’t be happy to see Hercules, and if he sees him land, he’ll probably attack before Hercules has a chance to get his bearings.”
“About that.” I pulled him toward the door. I couldn’t let anyone overhear my plan. “I need you to do me a favor.”
“What are you up to?” He knew me too well.
“Hercules is sort of the bait in my plan.” I kept my voice low, knowing Bobson would rat me out in a second if he overheard.
“What?” He cocked his head to one side, and I could practically see the wheels turning in his mind. He sighed, figuring out what I was up to. “We’ll already have the poison arrows. We can shoot Draco without Hercules’s help. You want him to lure Draco out into the open so we can get a clear shot.”
“Yeah.”
>
“So what do you need me to do?”
“Stall. Take a little longer getting the poison. I’ll give Melanie the ten-minute heads-up like you asked me to in front of the others. You just need to make sure you take longer than that. Hercules has to land before you guys get to the beach. Draco has to see him without seeing all of you.”
Avery nodded. “I don’t want Hercules getting hurt though. We’ll take a little longer than ten minutes, but I want to make sure we’re there to save Hercules. We can’t let him die.”
“Believe me, I don’t want Hercules to get hurt either.” Although I had a feeling when Melanie saw Hercules in danger, she was going to understand how much she hurt me by putting Avery’s life on the line.
“Okay. I’ve got it. You should go before anyone suspects anything.”
“Wait, how are Andrew and,” I paused before settling on, “the other boy?”
“His name is Kevin, and don’t beat yourself up for not knowing that. It’s not like we had a welcome meeting where everyone took turns introducing themselves.”
I lowered my head. He could read me so easily. “Still, I should’ve known. Is he going to be okay?”
“We wrapped his burns, but he really needs medical attention. The sooner we take care of things here and get everyone home the better.”
I nodded. Time was the enemy right now. We needed to move quickly.
Avery squeezed my hand one more time before he turned to face the recruits and their inevitable teasing about the kiss.
I ran upstairs to find Melanie and Hercules still talking. I knocked on the open door. “Excuse me.”
Melanie stepped away from the orb and waved me into the room.
“The army went to milk some poison from Serpens’s fangs. They said they’d be on the beach and ready to meet Hercules in ten minutes.” I paused for a second before adding, “That is if we are going through with the plan.”
Melanie nodded. “It’s the best shot we have to finally capture Draco.” She exhaled loudly. “How’s the boy who got burned?”
Of course she chose to show some concern now when I needed her to hurry. “Avery and Ophi brought Kevin to Andrew’s room and wrapped his burns.” It felt good to finally say Kevin’s name. “He should be fine as long as we get him to a hospital soon, which means we need to take care of Draco. Fast.”
She walked around the orb, searching for meteors. I tapped my foot while I waited. It seemed to take forever, and I wondered how long Avery would be able to stall.
“There’s something you should know,” Melanie said, and by the tone of her voice I knew I wasn’t going to like it. “Bringing Hercules to Stellaris also means we have to bring Cerberus, the three-headed dog Hercules holds in the sky.”
Three-headed dog? Why did that sound familiar? I wracked my brain until I remembered something. “Wasn’t he Hades’s guard dog? The one that stood at the gates of Hell?”
“Yes.” She said it with no more emotion than if she was simply confirming what she wanted for dinner.
“Are you crazy? We can’t bring that dog here!”
“We don’t have a choice. If we want Hercules, Cerberus comes with him.” She looked up from the orb to meet my glare. “Don’t worry. Hercules wrestled Cerberus into submission. Haven’t you heard the myths about Hercules’s twelve labors? Cerberus was his final labor. He had to remove him from the gates of hell.”
“So you’re saying Cerberus obeys Hercules now? Instead of Hades?” That could actually be useful.
“Well, not exactly. But Cerberus doesn’t attack Hercules.”
“What about us? Will he attack us? I mean, don’t the myths say that he ate living meat? As in people?” This idea was sounding worse by the second.
“Hercules will be able to control him.” Her eyes lit up. “I found a meteor. How long has it been?”
I wasn’t ready to let this go, but I couldn’t waste any more time either. It would’ve ruined my whole plan.
“A little over ten minutes,” I lied. “We should do this before the army starts wondering what’s wrong.”
She pointed to the meteor on the orb. We each placed a finger on it and directed it just as we had when we brought Ophi to Stellaris. This one wasn’t as big, but Hercules had no trouble grabbing on to it. A tear trickled down Melanie’s cheek, and for a split second I wondered if I’d made a mistake. Did Melanie deserve to hurt the way I did?
“On three, pull down and to your body,” Melanie said.
“I remember.”
“One, two, three!”
We stumbled backward, but managed to stay on our feet this time.
We rushed to the window and peered through the gaps in the boards to see if Hercules was heading for the beach. He was, but he wasn’t alone.
“No!” Melanie screamed.
Hercules and the meteor crashed into the beach, right where Draco was waiting for him.
18
I hadn’t expected my plan to work this well. Hercules didn’t even have a second to recover before Draco attacked, raking his claws across Hercules’s back and forcing him deeper into the sand. Cerberus squirmed out of Hercules’s grip. I hoped he was going to help Hercules, like a good guard dog, but he ran for the trees.
Melanie shrieked. “Draco must have seen the meteor! We have to help Hercules.”
“And find the three-headed dog on the loose.” Before it found some living meat.
Melanie scowled at me before she pushed off the window frame and ran out of the room.
I hung back for a second looking for the army. “Come on, Avery. Where are you?” But I knew where he was. He was doing exactly what I’d asked him to. Stalling. But I hadn’t expected Draco to move this quickly, and now Hercules was in serious trouble. I peered through the boards, squinting toward the side of the hill where Serpens and Scorpius were tied up. The army wasn’t there. They had to be on their way to Hercules.
I ran out of the castle and down the hill. No need to waste time in the weapons room. The army would have the poison arrows and plenty of bows. I spotted Melanie when I reached the beach. She had a good lead on me, and she must have stopped in the weapons room because she was carrying a bow and arrow and a double-sided axe. I didn’t think she was the type to keep those things in her bedroom, but then again Melanie wasn’t a typical sixteen-year-old girl. And wow, she could run!
A scream drew my attention up ahead. Draco had Hercules in his claws, and he was lifting him in the sky. If he flew off, I had a pretty good idea where he’d take Hercules, but Draco would have too much of a lead on us. He’d be able to destroy Hercules before we got to the hills.
Draco headed straight for the meteorite and slammed Hercules into the side of it, letting go at the moment of impact so Hercules bounced off and fell to the sand. He landed with a sickening thud and didn’t get up.
“Hercules!” Melanie shrieked. Judging by the sound of her voice, I knew Hercules wasn’t the only one hurting.
My throat tightened. What had I done? It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. I stared at Hercules lying motionless on the sand and willed him to get up. Draco circled back around and extended his claws. He was going to do it again.
I strained to make my legs move faster, but I knew it was useless. I couldn’t make it in time to help Hercules. My legs were no match for Draco’s huge wings and speed. I was watching my own version of a horror movie, knowing something horrible was about to happen. Hercules slid his arm across the ground. Nothing big, just a couple inches, but it meant he was alive.
“Draco, stop!” I didn’t know why I’d said it. He wouldn’t listen, but I didn’t have a weapon, and I was too far away to help Hercules. Draco swooped down, completely unfazed by my outburst.
Melanie took off. I’d never seen anyone run that fast. I struggled to catch up, afraid that she’d reach Draco before the army got there. I’d wished she would take part in the fighting before, seeing as she was always so willing to put everyone else in danger, but I didn’t want her
feelings for Hercules to make her do something stupid like take on a constellation-sized dragon on her own. The fact that she hadn’t thought to use the bow and arrow to stop Draco from pummeling Hercules led me to believe she had no idea how to operate it. I was afraid to think how she’d handle the axe.
Draco was about a foot from Hercules now. I almost couldn’t keep my eyes on them. I didn’t want to see what Draco was about to do. But Hercules rolled sideways before Draco could grab him again. Then he sprang to his feet and dodged behind the meteorite. I had to hand it to him. His injured act was very convincing. He’d fooled us all into thinking he was close to death, but it was all part of his plan. I should’ve known Hercules, The Strong Man, couldn’t be taken down that easily.
Draco wasn’t happy about being tricked. He landed in front of the meteorite and breathed fire, torching it in a blaze of red and orange. I didn’t know enough about meteorites to have a clue how long it could withstand heat like that.
“Hercules!” Melanie yelled again—as if saying his name was going to help in some way.
“Don’t distract him!” I finally caught up to her. “You’ll get him killed. He needs to stay focused on Draco if he’s going to get out of there alive.”
Melanie stared at me in horror and then picked up the pace, sprinting to Hercules.
Just as we reached the meteorite, the army came out of the trees behind Draco. I wondered if they’d seen Cerberus. Avery shot an arrow in Draco’s tail, which got his attention pretty quickly. I said a silent prayer, thankful again that Avery could still use his fading hand when he was wearing a glove. Draco stopped breathing fire and turned on the army. They fanned out, surrounding him with their bows and arrows ready.
The run must have cleared Melanie’s head because she turned accusingly to me.
“You knew this would happen! Didn’t you?” She gripped the axe, holding it out toward me. Her face twisted in a combination of fear and rage.
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