Kallie and Marcus looked at me. Charlie leaned on the edge of his seat, awaiting my answer.
I stuck out my lip. “Guess I can’t really say no, can I? The Elves are depending on us.”
Charlie’s shoulders sagged in relief.
“If we’re in agreement, why don’t we just break out now?” Kallie asked. “We can get to work on ending this thing before it starts.”
“What about the noxite around the prison?” Marcus asked.
“We’re demigods. We can overpower noxite,” Kallie said. “I’ve been working all summer on negating its effects on me, and I’m pretty damn good at it by now. We already know it barely bothers Charlie. How about you two?”
“I’ve been practicing with it on morning runs,” I said. “I try to get as close to the fence as possible and work on summoning my magic at the same time. Noxite doesn’t bother me anymore.”
“Um… I haven’t practiced, but IthinkI could overpower it if I really tried,” Marcus said.
“Great!” Kallie said. “What are we waiting for? Let’s leave right now.”
“I don’t know if we can…” Marcus started. “On my way over here, I saw the guards burying something around the perimeter of the fence.”
“More stuff to keep us in?” I asked.
“I think so. They’re upping the magical defenses since that Elf broke out. Noxite isn’t enough to keep us in anymore,” Marcus said.
“So? We’re demigods. Let’s just smash through it and have it over with,” Kallie said.
She scampered toward the door before we could protest further, so the rest of us were forced to follow. I kept my distance from Charlie as we left the prison and headed into the yard. We waited until the guards were distracted by a fist fight on the basketball court before we hurried into the forest.
Once we were sure we were far enough away from any guards, and out of the sight of the towers, Kallie said, “Okay. Time to blow this joint.”
Charlie tried first. He created a tunnel out of the earth, and used it to try and dig underneath the fence. Six feet out from the fence line, the tunnel abruptly stopped, as if Charlie had commanded his magic to stop.
“My Earth magic won’t go under the fence,” Charlie said. “I can’t dig us out of here.”
“Try something else,” Kallie demanded.
Charlie tried blowing the fence down with a sharp gust of wind, but that didn’t work, either. It just ended up coming back at us and knocking us over. I summoned my Water and Fire magic together, merging them into a blue fireball that I tossed at the fence. It fizzled out before it even touched the chain link.
“Ugh!” I gave a cry of frustration. I tried to cast jets of water and plumes of flame over the fence, instead of going through it, but water droplets and ashes fell onto my face from above as my magic failed to ascend over the barbed wire.
Marcus tossed battle orbs at the fence before one of them bounced back and hit him in the face. It knocked him over, leaving a red welt on his cheek.
“Hey, that’s the closest we’ve ever gotten!” I said brightly. “At least your magic touched the fence. Good job!”
Marcus rose with a scowl, rubbing the side of his face. I approached the fence warily, reaching out my hand to grasp the chainlink. As I did so, a nauseated feeling whirled in my stomach, and my knees buckled as if I might faint. I backed off. I stepped away from the fence, the feeling went away.
“The guards definitely put something new here since the Elf broke out,” I said. “Whatever it is, it’s making me feel sick. It’s gotta be stronger than noxite.”
“Nothing we try is working. We might as well give up,” Marcus said in exasperation.
“Screw that! I’m done being here. See you later.” Kallie summoned her wings, then fluttered upward. She sailed through the air, and I thought for sure she’d be able to fly over the fence and get out.
Then, without warning, her wings began to twitch. She staggered while hovering, dropping a few feet before she managed to reach the barbed wire.
“Kallie, you okay?” I called.
“My wings aren’t working!” she cried out, before they ceased to beat at all. She gave a scream as she began to tumble through the air.
“Charlie, help her!” I shouted.
