With the murkiness of the creek making it nearly impossible to see anything, Alex could only just make out the figure of the massive Kaku tugging her down to the creek bed and continuing to drag her upstream. Like a dog with a bone, his ferocious teeth were attached to the vine she’d cut herself free from, the one keeping her feet bound. It was a miracle he’d gone for the trailing vegetation and not latched onto her flesh—a miracle Alex was certain wouldn’t last for much longer.
Her adrenaline spiking, she pushed past her all-consuming terror and her screaming lungs to summon A’enara. When Kaku gave another vicious tug, she used the momentum to her advantage and swung her body around to slice through the trailing vine.
Now free, she released her blade and moved desperately upwards, her legs kicking wildly and her arms frantically stroking through the dense water. She managed to get her head above the surface and gasp in a lungful of air right before she felt the telltale current of movement beneath her heralding Kaku’s approach.
Knowing she was about to give the fight of her life, Alex called A’enara back just as the beast breached the surface with his teeth bared, ready to snap her in half. But she didn’t get a chance to do anything before a shadow launched off the bank and landed on the creature’s neck—a shadow that turned out to be Hunter, who plunged a dagger straight into Kaku’s eye socket.
“GO!” Hunter shouted, hanging from atop the now roaring beast, struggling like a cowboy riding an enraged bull. “Go, go, go!”
Alex didn’t need to be told twice. And she also didn’t need to swim far, because Bear threw a vine from his position on the bank and when she grabbed hold, he used it to swiftly tow her to his side and up out of the water.
As she lay there panting from shock, exertion and oxygen deprivation, Bear threw the vine again and yelled, “Hunter!”
Another roar was followed by a splashing sound, and then Bear was pulling Hunter out as well.
The teacher moved straight to Alex’s side, dripping water down onto her as he slid his dagger through the vines binding her feet. With concerned eyes, he looked her over from head to toe and asked, “Are you hurt?”
Still lightly panting, Alex shook her head and said, “I’m okay.”
“When he took you down and you didn’t come back up, we thought…” Bear couldn’t finish his sentence, his face pale even in the darkness of the now dusky light.
“I’m okay,” she repeated, quieter, using a shaking hand to swipe wet hair from her face.
“You won’t be if we don’t move,” Hunter said, hauling her up with him, water flying from them both. “The Jarnocks will be here any second, and they won’t be happy that their god is missing an eye. Can you run?”
“I’m fine—just go!” Alex said, wanting a repeat of her encounter with the Jarnocks only slightly less than a second round with Kaku.
Her teacher didn’t need further encouragement before he tore off into the jungle. His pace was swift, but when Alex’s ears picked up the furious cries of the Jarnocks discovering their missing quarry—and seeing their maimed deity—she feared they weren’t running fast enough.
Hunter’s thoughts apparently mirrored hers since he picked up speed until they were full on sprinting through the vegetation. He may have been human, but his awareness gift coupled with all the other stealthy tricks he had up his sleeve allowed him to move with almost as much ease as a Meyarin, if not as swiftly.
Alex was able to keep up thanks to her immortal blood and relentless training, but Bear wasn’t gifted in a way that would help him in their current environment, nor did he have any experience as a student in SAS. It soon became clear that he was finding it harder and harder to make his way through the dense shrubbery. But he didn’t lag behind and he didn’t complain. He just put his head down and remained right on their heels.
As dusk turned to night and darkness fell over the jungle, their escape became even more challenging. Alex could barely see a thing, and that was with the advantage of her enhanced vision. Just as she was about to point out that they needed to slow down, the inevitable happened.
Alex actually heard the crack of Bear’s bone snapping when he yanked his leg free from being wedged between two boulders. An almighty scream ripped from his vocal chords before he was able to muffle the sound out of sheer willpower.
“Hunter!” Alex cried as she ran and kneeled beside her friend, but her instructor was already doubling back before the call left her mouth.
Uttering a very un-teacherly word, Hunter dropped down beside them and rolled Bear’s jeans up to his knee. Running his hands carefully along the bone, he repeated his curse word and said, “Feels like you’ve fractured your fibula. But it hasn’t breached the skin, which is good news.”
Alex could hear from the strain in Hunter’s voice that the ‘good news’ was still extremely bad news since they were in the middle of enemy territory with Bear now handicapped.
“Can you hear anything, Alex?” Hunter asked.
Knowing he wasn’t referring to the normal jungle noises, she listened intently, but she couldn’t hear any approaching Jarnocks. “Nothing.”
“We’ve made good ground. I don’t know if we’ve lost them completely, but I think we’re safe for the moment,” Hunter said. “Let’s rest up for a few minutes, strap this leg and decide our next move.”
Alex nodded her agreement, placing a comforting hand on Bear’s chest.
“You’re doing great,” she told him when Hunter tore a strip off his own clothing and bandaged Bear’s leg between two sturdy branches in a makeshift splint.
“I’m sorry,” Bear hissed between his teeth, his voice filled with agony so acute that Alex could almost taste his pain. “I’m slowing us down.”
“Don’t be silly,” Alex said, wishing she had some water or something she could offer him. “We all needed a break. You just gave us a good excuse.”
Somehow he managed a huff of laughter. “Maybe my lucky jeans aren’t as lucky as I thought.”
She was able to muster a smile, but it disappeared when Hunter tightened the splint and Bear released an anguished moan. Stomach roiling, Alex watched as his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he blacked out from the pain.
With a shuddering exhale, she turned her accusing gaze to Hunter. “Was it necessary to make it that tight?”
“You’ve had enough first aid experience to know the answer to that.”
What he said was true, but Alex hated seeing her friend suffer. Because of that, she lashed out at the only person currently close enough to receive her wrath. Releasing the last few hours of fear, frustration, tension, stress, pain and absolute terror onto his shoulders, Alex didn’t hold back—she just launched straight into a verbal attack.
“They’re freaking cannibals, Hunter! Did no one think to mention that to us before we left?”
“Alex—”
“Was it too much to ask for a little warning? For one of you to offer a quick, ‘Hey, by the way, they might want to cook you into a stew or sacrifice you to their underwater dinosaur, but don’t worry—we’re sure you’ll be fine’?”
“We—”
“You all claimed to be worried about our safety—what a load of rubbish!” Alex cried, interrupting him again. “If you were really worried, you would have said something!”
“Would you have listened?”
“And even then—What?”