His mouth tightened into a grim slash and he raised his sword and stepped forward, calmly facing Blake and the approaching guards.
But I wasn’t about to let Devon sacrifice himself for us. Not when I knew that Blake would probably kill him, despite Victor’s orders, just for making Blake chase us. So I whirled around and around, trying to figure some way out of this mess. I’d thought that once we’d gotten across the lochness bridge, we’d be safe, but Blake had cut off our escape route by sending that SUV to the opposite side. And despite what Devon said, we couldn’t go back, not now, not with Blake and his men getting closer and closer by the second.
Desperate, my head snapped left and right, my gaze scanning the surrounding buildings, searching for a ladder or a fire escape or even a drainpipe that we might climb up to at least get off the street and give me a few more moments to think.
But there was nothing. No ladders, no fire escapes, no drainpipes. Just the rundown warehouses and the bridge and the dark, glimmering surface of the river below where the lochness made its home— The river.
My head whipped around again. The lochness had saved Devon and me once before when we’d been on the bridge because I had paid its toll. I wondered if the creature would do the same thing if we actually went down to the water where it lived.
Monsters are your friends. Never forget that. Seleste’s voice whispered in my mind. That was the prophecy, the warning, the message she’d given me last night. I just hoped that her words were true. That the lochness really was my friend and that I wasn’t about to get eaten, along with my friends.
Only one way to find out.
“This way!” I hissed. “Down the riverbank!”
“What?” Deah hissed back at me. “Are you crazy? A lochness lives under this bridge! It’ll drag us into the river and drown us before it eats us. And that’s if we’re lucky.”
“Trust me. This is our only option. Now let’s go.”
Still holding on to my stolen sword, I raced over to the bridge, using my free hand to shove up my black suit jacket and dig into one of the hidden slots on my belt. I didn’t have time to sprint out to the stone marked with three Xs in the center of the bridge where you were supposed to leave your tribute, but I was hoping that the lochness wouldn’t be too picky about where I put the coins, as long as it got paid. So I grabbed all the quarters I had in my belt and slapped them down on the stone column at this end of the bridge. Then I sprinted back toward my friends.
“This way! Follow me! Hurry!”
A wide swath of grass ran alongside the bridge before gently sloping down and running all the way to the water’s edge. It would have been a pretty picnic spot, but none of the locals ever stayed close to this part of the river for long, knowing that it was the lochness’s territory. Several black-and-white monster warning signs were also planted in the grass to keep the tourist rubes away. DON’T FEED THE LOCHNESS.
But I sprinted past the warning signs and scrambled down the bank anyway, hoping that I hadn’t just made it that much easier for the creature to snatch us up with its long, black tentacles. All the while, I kept listening, hoping to hear the scrape-scrape-scrape of coins sliding off the stone column above as the lochness accepted my tribute.
But try as I might, I couldn’t hear anything over the rapid thump of my heart, the slap of my sneakers on the grass, and my friends’ harsh, ragged breathing. I’d just have to risk it.
We reached the bottom of the riverbank and stopped. A wide stone ledge ran along the edge of the grass, almost like a boardwalk, separating it from the water. The moon and stars were shining brightly tonight, making the rippling surface of the river gleam like a sheet of polished silver. The air was even more humid down here than it had been up on the street, and the entire area smelled wet and fishy. I stared out at the water, using my sight magic, but I didn’t see anything lurking in the dark depths.
“Now what are you going to do?” a snide voice called out. “Go for a swim?”
The four of us whirled around.
Blake and his guards stood at the top of the riverbank, swords clutched in their hands. I raised my own stolen sword, ready to defend myself and my friends. But instead of charging down the slope after us, Blake snorted and actually sheathed his weapon.
“You are without a doubt the four stupidest people ever.” He stabbed his finger at the closest warning sign. “Don’t you know that this is a lochness bridge?”
I didn’t say anything, and neither did any of the others.
He laughed and shook his head. “I don’t even have to come down there to kill you. The lochness will do it for me. All I have to do is wait.”
All around him, the guards snickered and sheathed their own swords. Across the bridge, Draconi guards got out of the SUV, spreading out until they had lined the opposite side of the river. All of them sneered down at us as well, just like Blake was doing.