Behind him, I see Signe and Reece slip into the burrow. The Dreamweaver spins around and stares at the entrance. He’s heard them. He can see the webbing jiggle with their movements. I can’t let him go back inside. I draw my sword and run straight for him, screaming Braveheart-style.
Without looking at me, he points an arm and shoots a new bone needle. I deflect it with my sword and keep running toward him. Another arm rises. Another needle flies out. I deflect that one, too. I’m almost on him, and the boy turns and frowns at me like I’m a pest. His lips start moving. I can’t hear what he’s saying, and then I’m glad I can’t. He’s singing my death song.
Too bad I’m not ready to die yet.
I swing. My blade connects with two of his bony appendages. Another slashes a thin line along my cheek. I barely avoid the next bony needle by pulling back, and when I do, my sword skids off the bones without making a mark. My sword always leaves behind a mark. I jump away and dart back in. Thrust up, hit bone. Duck. Spin to the left. Lunge forward and slash his hamstring. Roll away. A needle stabs into the ground, barely missing me.
A solid kick to his injured leg drops him to his knee. I jump to my feet and run into the forest, hoping he’ll follow. The cut to his hamstring is deep, and when he stands, the boy snarls, showing bloodstained teeth. I push through the underbrush, moving from hiding place to hiding place. He doesn’t enter the trees, only stands at the edge, pacing. Waiting. He knows I won’t leave, that I’m here for Kera. I pick up a rock, jump out from my hiding place, and throw it, hitting him square on his spine. A bony dart spikes through the foliage and hits me in the thigh. I stagger back and fall. My sword slips from my hand.
He turns, and a triumphant smile settles on his face. He drags his leg behind him as he moves toward me.
I don’t dare take my eyes off the Dreamweaver. Reaching over my head, I feel for my sword, but I can’t find it. Strands of dirty long hair string over the boy’s face as he approaches. He raises an arm and I roll, barely missing being stabbed to the earth. Two more needles fly. I grab my satchel and deflect the needles, but one grazes my left arm and lands nearby.
He’s singing again. I’m actually tempted to listen, and that kinda freaks me out. I think my earplugs were knocked loose. I hum, blocking any sound that may get through, and pat the ground all around me for my sword.
It’s nowhere. The boy stands over me. The bony needles grow longer and longer. His smile turns evil, his song louder. I can hear my death song like a sweet whisper through the fabric. I hum louder. I can’t find my sword. I begin to sweat, and then my hands knock into the two bony needles he shot at me. Grabbing one in each hand, I yank them out of the ground and in one motion, slam them into his chest. Shock spreads on his face. My death song dies on his lips and he topples backward.
“Dylan!”
The sound of a female screaming penetrates what remains of my earplugs. I rip them out as well as the needle sticking out of my thigh and struggle to my feet. Signe bursts out of the burrow, and behind her, Reece emerges, dragging a long white shell. My heart tightens. It’s Kera.
Signe is crying and talking at the same time. I limp over, grab her shoulders and shake her. “Stop it. I can’t understand you.”
She swallows her sobs. “We cannot remove it. Whatever we try fails.”
Unmindful of my leg, I race back for my sword, and when I bring it down at the base of the cocoon, it sizzles, but it doesn’t burn or cut through the hard shell.
This can’t be happening.
Signe drops to her knees by Kera’s head and places her hand on the cocoon. “It’s so cold. She’s stopped moving. Do something.”
If my sword can’t cut through, I have no idea what can. And then I see one of the Dreamweaver’s needles. I scoop it up and yell for Signe to move. One hard jab and it’s through the hard shell and into the gummy mass near Kera’s head. I stick my finger in and feel for her mouth. Using the needle, I rip through the cocoon until I can see blue lips. She’s freezing and not breathing. Reece and Signe drop down next to me, each holding a needle, and begin to rip into the cocoon with me. In less than a minute she’s free.
“Get back,” I yell. Placing my hands over Kera’s heart, I don’t think about failure. I send a jolt of energy. Her body arches, then lands lifeless on the ground. I send another jolt. I can hear Signe softly crying, hear Reece cuss. I touch Kera’s neck for a pulse. Nothing.
“Wake up, Kera! Wake UP!”
I press down over her heart again and pump out a massive jolt of energy. Her body jumps a good two inches off the ground, and when she hits, her mouth pops open and her chest rises with a deep breath. I scoop her into a sitting position and hug her tightly to me. She’s shivering and covered in gooey God knows what. I wipe her wet hair out of her face and whisper in her ear. “I thought I’d lost you. You’re going to be okay. I’ve got you. I’m not going to let go.”
I look at Reece and Signe. “Let’s get out of here.”
Kera slips her arms around my neck and presses her lips against my ear. “He’s coming.”
She’s shivering so violently, I’m not sure if it’s from the cold or fear. I stand with her in my arms, and pull slightly away to stare into her big violet eyes. “I killed the Dreamweaver. He won’t hurt you ever again.”
“No. Baun. He’s been set free.”
The Walking Wounded
Hadrain freed my father and all because Kera implanted a thought deep in his brain. It sounds completely unethical and exactly like something my dad would do.
I glance at Signe and Reece, who are deep in conversation ahead of us, and hear them worry over where Blaze has gone. He wasn’t where we left him and that’s got us all on edge.
At least they aren’t paying attention to Kera and me. I can’t keep the irritation out of my voice. “He used you, Kera. He manipulated you. That’s what he does. Signe is the one who found you.”
She shakes her head adamantly. “I know he helped you somehow. You just don’t want to admit it.”
He did help, but not in a way that he can take any credit for saving Kera, though I don’t think that’ll stop him from trying.
My leg is on fire, and carrying Kera isn’t helping, but I’m not about to let her go. We used the water in my canteen to clean her hands and face, but goo still clings to her hair and body. She’s shivering like a Chihuahua in a room full of pit bulls, so I let the heat I hold deep in my core warm my skin, and she cuddles closer.
I shift her in my arms and calmly repeat what I’ve been saying for the last ten minutes. “As soon as we find Blaze, we’re leaving.”
“Not without Baun.”
“We can’t trust him, Kera,” I say louder than I should, but I’m getting frustrated, and I’m beginning to wonder how much he messed with her mind.
She stubbornly shakes her head. “Baun has changed. I know he has.” She places her palm against my cheek and gently runs her thumb over the line of blood I feel drying along my cut. “He has been tortured enough, Dylan, and I would as soon leave him here as I would you.”
She kisses the corner of my mouth, and then lays her head on my shoulder.
The loyalty of the firsts. It can be unreasonable when activated. “We don’t know where he is.”
“He will find us.”
Saving Kera is as natural to me as my next heartbeat. Waiting for my messed-up dad to appear from the hole he’s been imprisoned in since I was born goes against my better judgment. Looking at Kera, I know I don’t have a choice. She’s not budging without my dad.