Hailey tensed. Death by spider was definitely not how she wanted to go.
‘Who would like me to eat them first?’
Hailey glanced at the night sky. It was the only thing that could save them. But she needed her hands. She struggled against the web binding her wrists, but it was as strong as diamond web. Come on! she begged, sweat trickling down her brow from the effort of trying to yank her hands apart.
Aradia’s eyes locked on to her and she clucked her tongue. ‘Now, now, do not struggle. You will never break free.’
Hailey glared at the spider, and her entire body sagged with relief when she spotted Alec behind the monster, his hands and legs web free. Thank the Tyches for his Unique powers. The five of them would escape becoming dinner after all.
Alec wrapped his arms around Aradia’s neck, hugging her to his chest, trying to squeeze the life out of her. Her black eyes widened as she choked against his grip, and she threw her arm back towards Alec, raking her nails down his side.
Blood splattered the dirt as Alec cried out, his scream muffled by the web covering his mouth, and he staggered backwards, reaching for his bleeding side.
Aradia whipped around, her clawed hand snaking around his neck. ‘You just volunteered.’
‘No! Stop!’ Aaron shouted. ‘Take me instead.’
Alec shook his head, eyes bulging.
Bones crunched beneath Aradia’s eight legs as she spun to face Aaron. ‘You wish to take your companion’s place?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I don’t want to watch my friend die.’
Aradia seemed to contemplate this for a second before saying, ‘Very well. But first I must ensure this one does not escape.’ She grabbed Alec’s wrist, and a snap that made Hailey’s stomach heave resounded around the cave. Alec cried out. ‘Do not attack me again or I will break your legs too,’ the spider warned.
Alec clutched his wrist to his chest, whimpering.
Aradia prowled to Aaron, who wore a mask of defiance, not showing a single sliver of fear. She grabbed his shirt, dragging him to his feet.
This can’t be happening. This isn’t possible, Hailey thought, right before Aradia dug her fangs into Aaron’s neck.
14
Hope
‘AARON!’ Hailey screamed through the web coating her mouth.
His face scrunched up in pain, and he gritted his teeth, as if fighting the urge to yell out. Blood dribbled down his neck and stained his blue polo shirt, while Aradia sucked and slurped at his neck, drinking his blood like it were syrup.
Hailey’s friend was dying, and all she could do was watch.
NO! Hailey would not let him die. Not like this. Her gaze shot to the stars, and she imagined her powers bursting through the web and into the sky like a ball of electricity. A lightning strike was all she needed. Come on! She closed her eyes, concentrating on her powers. Warmth flowed down her arms and into her hands. Yes. Come on. The warmth trickled into her fingertips. Just a little more.
But that was where it stayed, trapped in her hands by the web. NO! Hailey’s eyes flew open, hoping to see storm clouds in the sky. What she saw instead was a teenage girl dropping through the hole with a sword in her hand.
She landed on Aradia’s back, plunging her sword up to the hilt in the spider’s flesh. Aradia screeched, dropping Aaron. Specks of green blood sprayed across Hailey’s face as the girl yanked her sword free, the blade crunching against bone, making Aradia screech even louder.
The girl darted in front of the spider, green blood dripping from her sword as she sliced it towards Aradia’s neck.
Aradia’s arm whipped out, slamming into the girl so hard she soared across the cave. Crack! Her head smacked against a boulder, her sword slipping from her hand as her body turned limp.
Aradia’s eyes snapped to Hailey. Blood gushed from her back, forming a pool of green liquid at the spider’s feet. ‘You’re next.’ Her breathing was shallow, and blood dribbled from the corner of her mouth. She took one step towards Hailey, and collapsed.
Hailey thanked the Tyches when the monster didn’t get up. But then she noticed Aaron lying on his side a few feet away—he wasn’t moving. She flipped onto her stomach and used her elbows to drag herself to his side, the bones littering the ground scratching her skin as she crawled over them. Relief broke through her fear when she saw his chest rising and falling—he was alive, but his skin looked paler than a Thanatos’s victim.
She heard a grunt and glanced up. Alec had picked up the sword from the ground. He staggered towards Jayden, cradling his broken wrist against his chest, and sliced through the web binding his hands and legs before, very carefully, slitting the web on his mouth.
‘Here. I’ll free the others. You need to take it easy.’ Jayden took the sword from Alec, who cringed and clutched his bleeding side.
‘Thank you,’ Hailey said the second Jayden cut away the web binding her.
As Jayden moved away to free Demi, Alec pressed two fingers to Aaron’s neck and blew out a breath, his shoulders sagging. ‘It’s weak, but he’s got a pulse.’
‘Thank the Tyches,’ Demi said, dropping to her knees beside Hailey.
‘Is that thing dead?’ Alec nudged his head to Aradia.
Jayden kicked one of Aradia’s furry legs. Everyone tensed, waiting for the monster to lurch up, but she stayed still. ‘I’m pretty sure.’ He approached the unconscious girl. Her head leaned against the boulder, blood trickling over the rock and dripping to the dirt.
‘Who is she?’ Demi asked. ‘Is she from the Academy?’
‘I don’t recognise her.’ Jayden touched his fingers to her limp wrist. The sword clattered to the ground as his face fell. ‘She’s dead.’
Hailey’s heart squeezed. A stranger had given her life for theirs, and Hailey didn’t even understand why.
The wheeze of someone trying to gasp in air had Hailey looking back at Aaron. His breathing was shallow, and sweat glistened on his face.
‘He’s getting worse,’ Demi stated the obvious. ‘Has he lost too much blood? He can have some of mine—how do we do a transfusion?’
‘Let me see where the spider bit him,’ Alec said, ignoring Demi’s questions.
Hailey tilted Aaron’s head towards them. She gasped and reeled back.
Demi’s eyes bulged. ‘Medusa!’
Blood oozed from Aradia’s fang marks, and dark blue lines trailed down Aaron’s veins. ‘It’s poison,’ Hailey said, her voice thick with tears. Aaron still might die.
Alec cringed. ‘He needs an Asclepius.’
‘There’s no way we can get an Asclepius.’ Demi sniffed back tears. ‘At least not in time.’
‘He doesn’t need an Asclepius to save him.’
Hailey’s head whirled around, and her jaw dropped. The girl Jayden had proclaimed dead was standing up, her strawberry blonde hair matted with blood.
‘I thought you were dead,’ Demi said, her voice almost an accusation.
‘Lucky for you I’m not.’ She spun around to the wall of rocks blocking the cave’s entrance. ‘I need to get out of here if I’m going to save him.’
Everyone stared at Alec, who glanced down at his broken wrist, his face falling. His gaze moved back to Aaron and determination replaced his features. ‘Okay.’
‘Alec, you can’t,’ Jayden said. ‘Your wrist’s broken. Maybe the five of us can move the rocks.’
Alec shook his head. ‘No. There isn’t time.’ He marched up to the rock barricade and drew back his uninjured arm. He slammed his fist into the boulders. Dust puffed around him and chips of rock scattered to the dirt. Alec whimpered. Hailey could only imagine the pain shooting through his broken wrist at the force. But it didn’t deter him. He reached back a second time and pummelled the rocks again and again. On the fifth blow, he broke through to the outside and collapsed against the wall, sweating.
Demi rushed to help him. ‘It’s okay. You did it.’
‘I’ll be back,’ the
girl said.
‘I’m coming with you,’ Jayden said. ‘Just in case there’s monsters.’
‘Monsters don’t scare me. But fine, come anyway. No time to argue.’ She darted from the cave with Jayden.
Alec clutched his side, where fresh blood coated his shirt from Aradia’s claw marks. ‘I don’t know what I’ll do if he dies.’ He staggered to Aaron’s side. ‘He thinks I hate him. I couldn’t handle him dying and thinking that.’
‘He’s not going to die,’ Demi said indubitably, swiping at a tear. ‘That random girl will bring back some cure, or some person, to heal him.’
Hailey prayed to the Tyches Demi was right and that the girl had run off to get her Asclepius friend. For the hundredth time in her life, she wished she had the power to dematerialise. If she did, then she could easily take Aaron back to the Academy and get Madam Mendem to heal him. Actually, if she had the power to dematerialise none of them would be in this mess. She would have saved all her friends before the cyclops had tossed them.
Does Brennan realise how lucky he is? She wondered where he was now. Is he part of the search party? Did he dematerialise before the cyclops grabbed him too?
‘Step aside.’
Hailey, Demi, and Alec scooted out of the way so that the mysterious girl who’d fallen from the sky could get to Aaron. She slathered green mush that smelled of unripe bananas all over his neck.
‘What’s that?’ Alec’s eyes glistened with curiosity.
‘Plantain. I used some rocks to smash it into a poultice. It’ll drew out the poison.’ A fistful of spider web glistened in her other hand. ‘And this web will stop the bleeding.’
‘We really appreciate everything you’re doing,’ Jayden said to her slowly as she pressed the spider web over Aaron’s neck, ‘but I have to ask, how are you alive?’
‘I’m immortal.’ She wiped the remnants of green mush onto her ripped dirty jeans. ‘I never stay dead for long.’
Immortality was an Inbetweener power. It was almost as rare as Hailey’s power, with only one or two immortals emerging every few decades or so. Nothing could kill them—at least not permanently. Although the power worked differently in certain people. Some grew old like a normal person and died of old age; others grew older at a much slower rate; and a very rare few eventually stopped ageing all together.
‘That’s incredible,’ Alec said, his curiosity temporarily distracting him from the pain of his injuries. ‘I’ve heard about immortals, but to see one’s powers in action is… just wow. What kind are you? The kind that lives forever, or the—’
‘So who are you?’ Demi cut Alec off, regarding the girl suspiciously. ‘I mean, I’m grateful and everything for you saving our lives, but it’s kind of weird you being out in this forest.’
‘I could say the same thing about you,’ she retorted. ‘I’m Hope.’
‘So how did you get here?’ Hailey asked. ‘On the island, I mean.’
‘About two years ago my parents and I were on a cruise. One of the boat’s engines exploded or something—I don’t really know. It sank. Everyone died. When my powers brought me back to life, I’d washed up here. I’ve been living in this forest since then. I’ve probably died a dozen times out here—the monsters aren’t very friendly, as you’ve just learned.’
‘Two years?’ Hailey gawked. ‘And you’ve been all alone this whole time?’
Hope nodded. ‘Yes. But the dryads and naiads keep me company. They told me about how humans would be coming to the forest. I’d been on my way to see you, and hopefully get a trip back to civilisation, when the cyclops attacked. I watched it throw you and I started tracking you, hoping you’d survived the fall.’
‘Well, you have impeccable timing,’ Jayden said. ‘If you’d come a few minutes later, Aaron would be dead. Thank you.’
As if hearing his name, Aaron moaned. Some of his colour had returned, and the dark blue lines had receded to his shoulder.
‘I feel like I kissed a Thanatos,’ he mumbled, his eyes struggling open.
‘You’re alive!’ Demi exclaimed, reaching down to hug him.
‘And how exactly is that?’
‘Hope killed the spider woman,’ Demi explained. ‘Then she found some herbs to draw out the poison. She actually got shipwrecked here, and she’s an immortal. Can you believe that? An immortal!’
‘Wow.’ Aaron’s voice was croaky. ‘That’s a lot to take in.’
‘You should rest,’ Hope told him. ‘The poison isn’t out of your system yet. I’ll make a fresh poultice.’
‘What? Not following her this time?’ Demi said to Jayden when Hope left the cave.
Jayden shrugged. ‘She’s immortal, I don’t think she needs my help.’
Alec knelt beside Aaron and swallowed. He opened his mouth and then closed it, fighting for the courage to say something. He swallowed again. ‘Why did you do that?’
‘What?’
‘Ask her to feed on you instead of me when I’ve been horrible to you. You should hate me for the way I’ve treated you.’
‘You had every right to hate me for what I did.’ Aaron’s eyes flickered for a second before he managed to focus on Alec. ‘I betrayed you the worst. I wouldn’t be surprised if you never forgave me. But no matter what, you’re still my friend, and I wasn’t about to let you die.’
Alec squeezed Aaron’s hand. ‘I forgive you. Just don’t ever do it again, okay?’
Aaron managed a weak smile. ‘Okay.’
‘Yay! The family’s back together,’ Demi cheered.
Hailey shook her head, thinking only Demi could be smiling in the worst possible situation. Sure they’d been rescued from a giant spider, and Aaron wasn’t about to die, but they were still lost in a forest teeming with monsters. And now they didn’t have a wall of rock protecting them from said monsters.
Hope returned carrying green mush in one hand, and an elephant-leaf brimming with green-tinged water in the other. She replaced the poultice on Aaron’s arm before lifting the elephant-leaf to his lips.
‘Uck.’ Aaron wiped his mouth. ‘What was that?’
‘The same thing I put on your arm, just mixed with water.’ She tossed the leaf aside. ‘Now time for sleep. All of you.’
‘We’re not sleeping with you standing around,’ Aaron protested, holding a hand to his neck and sitting up. ‘We don’t know you well enough to trust you not to murder us.’
Hope flinched. ‘Murder you? Why would I have saved your lives if I wanted to murder you?’
‘So that you won’t be robbed of the pleasure of doing it yourself,’ Aaron offered. ‘It’s a little weird you just popping up out of nowhere. For all we know, you’re working with the monsters.’
‘Um, Aaron, I think you might be delirious,’ Demi said, ‘because you’re not making any sense.’
‘I want to get off this island,’ Hope said. ‘So it’s in my best interests to keep you all alive. They’ll be people looking for you.’
‘Aaron, I think we can trust her,’ Jayden told him.
‘What about the lack of door? Anything could come in here,’ Hailey pointed out.
‘I’ll lead away any monsters.’ Hope retrieved her sword from the ground and slipped it into the sheath on her back. ‘It’s okay. I promise you’ll be safe.’
15
Safe and Sound
As soon as the forest was light enough, they left the cave. Aaron looked better, and even managed to walk on his own. But Alec looked awful. Hope had made a splint for Alec’s arm out of sticks and vines, but his wrist was an ugly shade of purple, and his face was pale and sweaty.
‘How do you know where you’re going?’ Demi aimed the question at Hope, who was leading them through the forest.
‘This has been my home for a while now. We’re about half a day’s walk from where you met the dryads.’
‘Half a day?’ Hailey’s jaw dropped. She hadn’t realised how far the cyclops had thrown them. They were definitely in the deepest part of the forest, and had
a long trek through monster territory before they got back to safety. She gazed around, eyes searching the trees and bushes, just in case something was gazing back at her.
Although she supposed if they did cross paths with a monster, Hope could deal with it. After last night, Hailey figured she probably had a lot of experience fighting monsters. And it wasn’t like she could die—permanently, at least.
‘So where’d you get the sword from?’ Demi asked as they skirted around a fallen tree.
Hope touched the hilt of the sword strapped to her back; a few specks of dried green blood dotted the blade. ‘I found it. I explored every inch of this forest looking for somewhere safe to hide, and I came across this sword. It was the first time a monster killed me here,’ she said, her voice distant. ‘A hydra attacked me when I went to grab it. I assume it killed the owner of the sword too.’
‘What’s it like?’ Alec’s voice was tired. ‘Dying and then coming back?’
Hope shrugged. ‘It’s like falling unconscious, I guess, and then waking up.’
Jayden kicked a stone from the path. ‘Does it hurt?’
‘Yes. I wish it didn’t. Death can be very painful. But the pain is gone when I wake up. I’m all healed.’
Hailey shuddered. Maybe immortality wasn’t such a great power. She wasn’t sure she’d like experiencing the pain of a hundred deaths.
A snap had Hailey whirling around, and her hands shooting to the sky.
‘Relax,’ Jayden told her. ‘I just stepped on a stick.’
‘What monsters live here?’ Aaron asked, his footsteps a little staggered.
Hope hesitated. ‘How about I tell you when we’re back at your school. I don’t want to scare you when we’re walking through the forest they live in.’
Chills crept down Hailey’s spine, and her eyes darted around the forest again. She wondered where the cyclops was now. She didn’t understand why it had attacked them. They hadn’t been in the deep part of the forest. It shouldn’t have been anywhere near them. ‘Do you know why the cyclops attacked?’ Hailey thought maybe Hope could offer an explanation.
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