Page 273 of Interion

“I'm going with you,” Hiro said, stepping forward, and Aish grabbed his arm tightly.

“If you go, I'm going too.”

“Me too,” Breno said.

“No! You need to protect Breno and get to the barrier as fast as possible. He's our only chance of survival,” I exclaimed. “I'm going—I don't sense the carniceals nearby. Just slow your pace and I'll catch up soon.”

The three looked at me, undecided. Each second lost was life slipping through our fingers. Finally, Hiro threw me his last two arrows, and I caught them midair.

“Take this too, zoozi,” Aish said, handing me her holster containing two daggers and a flare. I took the strap and buckled it around my waist and thigh.

“Be quick. We'll slow down until you get back,” Breno promised, already pushing his friends along.

I waved to him. I trusted his power, but I was still worried something might happen to them.

With no time to lose, I turned and raced back along the path while Zion shouted and pounded on the bond desperately. I blocked him out—I couldn't afford distractions. I leaped over the stream again, zigzagged between the trees, and in the middle of the fog, I spotted Adele's pale glow at the bottom of a hole in the ground. The trap had been set near the deep lake I'd seen earlier, and thin sheets of ice were already forming on its surface. It reeked of iron, the smell worse than any other lake.

“Adele?” I whispered, leaning my head over the hole.

She was crying, huddled against the dirt wall. When she heard me, her gaze drifted through the fog, searching for me, then her eyes widened in astonishment.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, jumping to her feet and wiping the tears from her face.

“Isn't it obvious?”

I reached down from the edge of the depression, but my hand didn't reach her. I looked around and spotted an old tree stump. I rolled it to the edge and dropped it down to her. She climbed onto the stump, and when her hand touched mine, the crushing sensation of carniceals nearby hit me full force in the chest. I grabbed her hand and pulled with all my strength, hauling her out of that hole while her feet slipped and scrambled against the muddy dirt wall.

“Idiot! You shouldn’t have come, I...”

“Save the thanks for later. Did you forget you’re my partner?” I finished pulling her out and we both collapsed at the edge, gasping and frantic.

I got up and pulled her to her feet, but when we turned to run back the way we came, an enormous carniçal was sniffing us out. An arrow still jutted from its right eye, and it looked like something from the depths of hell. It blocked our path. I heard noises all around me, but I couldn’t see much through the fog. Then the first carniçal howled, and all the others joined in as they surrounded us. We were trapped in the center of a death circle.

I pulled Adele behind me, my protective instinct stronger than my fear. I grabbed an arrow, but there was no time to nock it. The beast with the arrow in its eye lunged at us, knocking the bow from my hands. It went flying into the lake.

At the same instant, the carniçal slammed into me with the force of a speeding car, and Adele and I were hurled through the air like rag dolls. I flew backward, slamming into a tree and losing my breath, while Adele was flung far away, tumbling across the dirt. I opened my eyes and tried to focus, but I only had time to see the beast skid to a halt before it charged back toward us.

Without thinking, I fumbled at my pants for the dagger, but found something better. In my desperation, seeing the beast hurl itself at me, I fired the red flare straight into its mouth. The beam of light and red smoke slammed into the back of its throat, and the beast, stunned, crashed into a tree, roaring and thrashing as it tried to rid itself of the light and piercing noise inside its body.

The carniçals surrounding us froze, staring at the beast’s mouth, which glowed red and spewed smoke that filled the air with the stench of burning flesh.

“Run!” I screamed at Adele, who was struggling to recover, her hair full of leaves and a cut on her forehead dripping blood. She looked at me, hesitating.

“I’m not leaving without you!” she shouted as the carniçals assessed the damage to the first beast.

“Run, or you’ll die too!”

I didn’t see what she did next, because another beast moved. The moment it got close, I fired the last flare—the one Aish had left in the holster. The beam sank into its eyes, and the carniçals froze, watching. Somehow, they seemed to fear the red light.

The problem was that now I had no bow, no flares. I pulled Aish’s two daggers from my pocket. The whispers in my mind told me not to fight, and I finally understood whose voice it was.

It was my mother’s voice.

Adele, to my relief, was no longer behind me, and Zion was screaming in desperation. In the distance, I could see the barrier glowing blue as he pounded against it.

I faced the beasts around me. The second flare was already fading against the creature’s skin.

“Don’t fight. Run.”