As Rourke waited not so patiently for it to come, my brother crept to the side of the boat, yanking another huge branch off the nearby tree for himself and then one for Danny. “Stay calm, sis,” he murmured. “I’m pretty sure that snake is dead, but it doesn’t matter. All we need is to get it the fuck out of here, and then we haul ass out.”
The serpent was as big around as a basketball and was so long I couldn’t see where it ended. I also couldn’t rip my eyes away from the spectacle of it, almost as if it had me mesmerized. I didn’t feel any magic coming off it. I’m throwing power at it, I told Rourke, but it’s rebuffing me. Can it be an illusion? Tyler’s right—it has no heartbeat or any signs it’s actually alive.
We’re about to find out. “Now!” Rourke yelled.
I hit the floor of the boat as Rourke swung the tree branch a foot above the thing’s head with supernatural force. The branch shattered instantly as it connected with the snake, but it was enough force to send the serpent flying. As the python went, it tore out the branch it had been coiled on, so it didn’t go nearly far enough as we all would’ve liked.
It plunked in the water a measly five feet from us.
“That thing will be back as soon as it’s able,” Danny yelled, flipping the start button on and off frantically but still not getting the desired result. “Fighting a possessed python that could swallow us whole is not how I’d like to spend the rest of my day. Getting piss drunk on moonshine is a much better option.”
“Danny’s right, fighting that thing is not on the agenda,” I said, scrambling back up. Because this thing was now supernatural and couldn’t be killed easily, it was going to keep coming until it either killed us or took what it wanted. “Let’s get out of here, and I don’t care how we do it.”
“Way ahead of you,” Tyler grunted.
I glanced over and saw both Tyler and Rourke with branches the size of small trees in the water. They shoved them against the bank, their muscles bulging with effort, but we didn’t move.
Not even an inch.
Marcy had turned white in panic, her hands fisted at her sides.
I leaned over and snapped my fingers in front of her face. “I need you to wake up, Marcy. This is exactly the kind of adventure you were looking for not twenty minutes ago. Your adrenaline should be up and running, and now that our happy fun time is beginning, I need you. You can help us get out of here, just like on the plane. Can you detect any spells? Something is holding us here and we need to break free.”
She physically shook herself. “Okay, yes. Yes, okay, I’m on it!” She brought her fingertips to her temples and closed her eyes, but they snapped open after a mere second. “There’s no spell! I can’t pick up on anything. It all just feels… dead. Kind of like what happened on the airplane, but different. The plane was a void. This dead feels… evil.”
I turned to Rourke. “Do you think there’s any chance the Hags are using the priestess to get the job of killing me done?”
“I don’t know,” Rourke answered. “Could be. But we’re not going to wait to find out. We have two choices. We fight that thing once it makes its way back here, or we bail out of the boat and try to make it back the way we came through the cypress trees.” He motioned to the thick trees over his shoulder.
“Sorry, mate, there aren’t two choices,” Danny said, backing up until his shoulders hit the propeller screen. “The way I see it, there’s only one.”
I nodded numbly in agreement as I watched more snakes emerge out of the dense growth and slither toward us from all directions.
There was no fighting. We had no choice but to run.
6
Tyler jumped first because he was closest. He leapt to a clear spot on one of the bigger trees, one of only a few that wasn’t covered in a snake. “Hurry,” he urged. “From up here I can see more. There are literally hundreds. They’ve definitely been called into action, and we’re the target.”
“I’m right behind you,” Marcy called as she launched herself over the side and landed next to Tyler.
Rourke placed his hands over my hips and said, “You’re next. Once you get there, don’t wait for Danny and me, start running. We’ll keep back as many as we can, and then we’ll join you.”
“Goddamn bloody serpents,” Danny yelled as he brought his stick down on the heads of some that had started to creep over the edges of the boat. If it wasn’t so horrible, it might be comical. Attack of the Killer Swamp Snakes. “Get the holy feck out of here, you bloody bastards!” Whap! The blows only temporarily stunned them. Their tongues hissed as they came right back for more.