Jackson heard Vega yell in pain, his voice muffled from the distance. “Are you kidding me? Did you see where he went?”
“Not really,” Heath said. “All I know is he’s down in the bottom of that.”
Three gunshots broke the night air and Jackson squeezed his eyes shut, certain he would be killed. He heard a soft thud hit the ground not a body’s length away from him, then Vega’s shout echoed through the jungle.
“You idiot! Put that away! What in the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“I was trying to scare him out,” Heath said in a pouting voice. “I thought you wouldn’t want him to get away.”
“We have all the leverage we need,” Vega said. Jackson heard the sounds of rummaging for what he assumed was the walkie. “Sloan, we lost Hunt.”
There was a long pause.
“Sloan?” Vega repeated.
“Sorry, no Sloan here,” Black’s familiar voice came in. “If it’s any consolation, she really did try to hold me off, though.”
“I can’t believe this!” Vega hissed. Jackson heard the sound of something small landing in the ravine some way away from him.
“That was a perfectly good radio!” Heath said.
“Forget it. Time’s running out.”
“What about Jackson?”
“We don’t need him anymore. The pack of wild Lyotes isn’t far and they’re raising so much of a ruckus now we’d have to be deaf not to find them. Jackson and his Lyote have done their job. Now help me up. I think I rolled my ankle.”
Jackson did his best to lie completely still while he listened to Vega curse as Heath helped him to his feet. I hope his ankle is broken, Jackson thought.
“I can walk, I can walk,” Vega said in a terse tone after another minute of swearing. “Let’s get moving. We’ve got to get to the pack before sunrise or this whole trip was for nothing.”
The researcher suddenly raised his voice and Jackson’s heart thundered in his ears at what Vega had to say.
“I know you’re out there, Jackson!” Vega said. “I wish you would have just cooperated with me, but I guess you’ve made your bed. I told you you’d be seeing your Lyote again if you just listened to me. That’s something I can’t promise you anymore.”
Jackson wasn’t sure how stupid Vega thought he was but he had no intention of replying or doing anything that might cue Vega and Heath in on his location.
Although it tore at every part of him, Jackson waited a solid five minutes before he dared to move. Meanwhile, the Lyote pack continued to howl, reminding Jackson of his failure. When he finally deemed it safe to get up, he had to crawl through a dozen feet of bushes before he had enough room to stand. Fortunately, aside from the bump on his head and a few cuts and scrapes, Jackson didn’t think he’d broken anything. On the other hand, he didn’t want to think about how sore he’d be when the night’s harrowing adventure was over.
Pulling up the Djinn tracker, Asena’s dot appeared almost at once. Jackson’s heart sank. It was no longer moving, and, judging by the dot’s distance from him, it seemed she’d found the pack. Time was running out.
Jackson glanced up the side of the ravine and farther down its length, weighing his options. He needed to move fast, but didn’t know if he should try his hand climbing out, or if he should continue down the ravine and hope it continued in the right direction.
Jackson looked down at his holo-watch and typed out a message to Kay.
Gave Vega and Heath the slip. They made me release Asena. I’m going after her.
He swiped send on his holo-screen and then dug his fingers into the soft loam of the ravine’s slope. After several slides and some hectic scrambling, Jackson managed to climb up to the edge of the gorge and back onto the Djinn trail Heath and Vega had taken. As he did, his watch buzzed with another message from Kay.
I said don’t be stupid. We’re less than a couple of miles away. WAIT. FOR. US!!!
How do you know where I am? Jackson replied.
The GPS tracker is still on your holo-watch, stupid, Kay wrote back. Now stay put.
Right. His GPS tracker. Jackson clenched his fists. His instincts told him he needed to head to Asena now. He could get the drop on Heath and Vega and use his telepathy with Asena to escape — assuming she listened to him in her state. A huge pit formed in his stomach once again, this time at all the potential variables that could go wrong. Heath still had a weapon, Asena’s mental state was unpredictable, and who knew what dangers or complications the Lyote pack could be? His gut told him to run ahead…but his gut had been wrong plenty of times before. Fighting his natural impulses, he sat down on the trail. He needed all the help he could get, and Fiona and Kay would be a big help.
Although it felt like ages, he knew it was only twenty-five minutes or so before he heard Fiona and Kay running up the trail the same way Jackson and the others had taken. Seeing Kay and Fiona made Jackson forget about Asena for a moment, as a wave of immense relief flooded him.
Kay embraced him in a tight hug but when they pulled apart, the awkwardness between the three came crashing down all around them. Jackson wasn’t sure if he should hug Fiona, too or shake her hand or…
She saved him from making the decision. “Let’s get to Asena, yeah?”
Jackson nodded and his entire attention refocused on his beloved Djinn. “This way,” he said, motioning them down the trail in the direction of Asena and the Lyote pack. The three set off as fast as they could under the light of the full moon. Jackson strained as hard as he could, searching for his connection with Asena.
I’m coming, girl.
Chapter Thirty
The terrain soon grew much steeper, forcing them to slow down as they half-walked and half-climbed parts of the narrow trail. In many places it disappeared almost entirely in the rocks and overgrown areas of the jungle, and Jackson had to rely on his Djinn tracker to keep them somewhat on the right course. His efforts guiding them were hampered by the steep hillsides that they had no way of going around. By the sound of the Lyote calls, the pack seemed to be just on the other side of the ridge, which made the whole thing even more frustrating.
Jackson’s only bit of relief was knowing that the climb would be even harder for Vega. They hadn’t seen or heard either the researcher or Heath, but to be safe, Kay had released Sunshine from his ring to act as their scout. He scampered ahead of them a few feet and would sniff the ground then raise his head and twitch his big ears back and forth, searching for any sign of wild Djinn or the other humans.
“If it wasn’t for Black I don’t know what would have happened to us,” Kay told Jackson when they were forced to stop for a drink and to catch their breath. “Sloan watched us the entire time — there wasn’t anything we could do to get loose. Then all of a sudden, Black’s Smilaguar comes out of nowhere and tackles Sloan. Black cut us free then I grabbed Sloan’s gun. I’m not even sure what happened next.”
When Kay finished she looked at Fiona, who scowled. “Sloan managed to release her Djinn, and I was able to grab mine while she was fighting off the Smilaguar. Of course, when I released my Djinn into the mix, it was all over.”
The way Fiona spoke with such finality, Jackson wasn’t sure what condition Sloan might have been left in. “Is she…?”
“We didn’t kill her!” Kay said in a shocked voice. “Once her Djinn both hit zero HP, she couldn’t do anything. We had the gun and she had nothing to fight us with. We helped Black tie Sloan up and told Black what happened — she said she was going to call the local rangers and sent us after you once I’d healed Fiona’s Djinn.”
“This is crazy,” Fiona said. “Where did you find these people?”
“Vega’s been using me this whole time to help him poach Lyotes,” Jackson said. Just saying the words out loud made him angry. He felt exhausted, but his desperation to get to Asena and stop Vega flooded him with new strength. “Come on, we don’t have much time.”
“No joke,” Fiona said. “This whole thing has really
put us —”
“Fiona, don’t you dare mention the Battle Royale right now,” Jackson said, cutting her short. While making the playoffs was certainly at the back of his mind, it was a distant third priority to getting Asena back and surviving the trek home — and given Fiona’s very clear and constant focus on being the best at the expense of everything else, he was in no mood to put up with her.
Fiona looked like she was about to argue but kept her mouth shut.
The ridge grew steeper and for the last quarter of a mile to the top, they were forced to follow an agonizing series of switchbacks made from wild Djinn.
“Jackson,” Fiona said, as they made their way up. “About the Trollava thing.”
Jackson felt his anger flare up again. Really? Jackson was instantly annoyed with himself. Asena’s in danger, and you’re still upset with Fiona?
“It wasn’t you catching the Trollava,” Jackson said. “You know that, right?”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“You’re just…” Jackson sighed. “You’re a tamer.”
“Okay…so are you.”
“I know,” Jackson said, irritation rising in his voice. “Can we not talk about this now?”
As soon as they crested the ridge, Sunshine froze in place, his ears and entire attention focused forward and just down the slope. At first, Jackson thought it might be the Lyotes, but their howls still sounded farther off. That meant the Fenkit had either picked up a human or another Djinn.
Jackson pulled the others back so they weren’t visible on the ridgeline from anyone down below. “What do we do?” he asked the others in a low voice.
Before anyone could answer, Heath’s voice rose from the darkness below. “I heard you up there, kid! Stay back or you’ll have to deal with my Djinn, and I won’t go easy on you.”
Fiona scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Wow, what a threat. Come on, we can handle him.”
She made to rise but Jackson grabbed her arm. “Wait! He has a gun, too, remember?”
That made even Fiona pause. “What do you want to do, then? We don’t have time for this!”
“What if we distract him?” Jackson asked. “You two can make a bunch of noise in the other direction and —”
“Hey!” Heath’s voice cut in. “I’m warning you, don’t try anything. Come out now and let’s settle this with our Djinn.”
“He doesn’t know we’re with you!” Kay whispered.
“And I think he’s stalling,” Fiona said. “He’s seen you fight, he knows he probably can’t beat you. He just wants to slow you down while Vega gets to the Lyotes.”
“Can you take him?” Jackson said.
A crooked smile crossed Fiona’s smile. “‘Can I take him?’ What kind of a question is that?”
“He doesn’t know we’re together, so if you and Kay distract him, I can slip away.”
“And if he has a gun?” Kay asked, the anxiety in her voice all too present.
“We’ll have to hope either he’d be reserving the gun for Jackson or that he let Vega have it.”
Jackson nodded. In retrospect, it did seem likely Vega would force Heath to hand over his weapon. Vega was certainly no tamer. In spite of Fiona’s lies earlier, Jackson couldn’t help but feel a flash of gratitude for his rival.
“One last thing,” Fiona said. “Take Kay with you — you’ll need her to heal Asena. I can handle this idiot on my own.”
Jackson started to protest but Fiona cut him off with a glare. “Stop being a freaking hero, Jackson! We’re here to save Asena — that’s the most important thing. I’ll be fine.”
She looked like she wanted to say more but Jackson ended the conversation with a nod. “Okay, as soon as we can, we’ll sneak around you. And Fiona…thanks.”
Gratitude seemed to be the last thing Fiona was expecting but Jackson felt he owed her that much at least. She made it clear that her priority here was to gain an edge and make it back with a new Djinn. A part of Jackson wondered if taking on Heath was also a part of her grand plan to keep an edge over him, but he pushed that cynical thought from his mind.
Fiona nodded and clenched her fists around her Djinn rings. With one last look at Jackson and Kay, she stepped back out onto the trail and crossed over the ridge into the open where Heath could see her in the moonlight.
“Huh?” Jackson heard him say. “You?”
Before Jackson could come up with anything, a flash of green and tan light flashed from Fiona’s hands and Jackson heard her charging down the hill, shouting at her Djinn to attack. It was now or never.
“Let’s go!”
Jackson and Kay moved in the cover of the trees and bushes as fast as they could away from Fiona and Heath’s battle. Although he didn’t dare look back, from the sound of things Jackson thought they may not have been giving Heath much credit. He pushed the thought from his mind. They didn’t have time to go back — Fiona would have to handle herself.
Without a trail, they were forced to charge through bushes, jump over fallen logs, and scale clumps of boulders hidden beneath layers of vines and plants. Jackson didn’t stop for anything, and in the back of his mind, he hoped that neither of them twisted an ankle or got hurt at their current pace with only the moon to provide any light.
Asena’s mark on his tracker remained in the same spot. They were closing in. It took another half of a mile and even more scratches, cuts, and bruises, but he and Kay made it down the opposite side of the ridge and through the last tangle of trees and vines. They were almost there.
They hadn’t seen any sign of Vega anywhere, but the howls of the Lyotes were so loud, there was no way he could have missed the pack.
All at once, the trees ended in another meadow, similar to the one they’d been camped in the day before. Kay grabbed Jackson’s arm and pulled him to the ground. Before he could say anything, she pointed out into the clearing.
A large chunk of jagged volcanic rock rested in the middle of the meadow. It was more than three stories tall, with numerous ledges and outcroppings all around it. The peak ended in a plateau, just big enough for about a dozen Lyote to sit on. Jackson knew that because the entire face of the rock was covered in Lyotes.
The canine Djinn sat on every available tier and ledge, their heads tipped back, howling. With the moon framed perfectly overhead and looking bigger and brighter than Jackson had ever seen it, the scene made for an eerie setting. As the crescendo of howls picked up among the pack members again, Jackson felt the hair on the back of his neck rise.
But where was Asena? All of the Lyotes looked almost identical, save for a few changes in the color of their orange or a scar here and there across their muzzles. Jackson would have said before that he could have picked his Djinn out from any crowd, but now he wasn’t so sure.
And then he saw her.
Asena stood in the middle of the circle atop the rock, surrounded by the rest of the pack. If they had any problems with letting an outsider in their midst, none of the other Lyotes showed it. The moon beams fell down perfectly on the circle of Lyotes, lighting them all with an otherworldly glow. Each time the howling stopped, it was Asena who picked up the call again.
A moment later, a vermilion light enveloped Asena, lighting the entire meadow.
“No!”
Ignoring Kay, Jackson tore out into the open meadow, screaming and shouting for Asena. In his frenzied state, he knew he wouldn’t be able to reach her telepathically, even if Asena wasn’t blocking him. That meant the only thing he could do to stop the evolution was to intervene, even if it meant the rest of the pack attacking him.
“Asena!” Jackson yelled. “Asena, stop girl! You don’t have to do this!”
The head of every Lyote turned toward Jackson. The pack snarled and the hair on the back of their necks rose, but none moved from the rock. Jackson couldn’t see Asena behind the orange glow, but he kept shouting as he drew closer.
“Asena!” Jackson’s throat felt like he’d swallowed a mouthful of glass from
shouting, but he drew in a deep breath and screamed even louder. He’d come this far. He was this close.
“ASENA!”
The vermilion light winked out like a switch turned off. All around the rock, the Lyotes ceased their snarling and turned to look back at the peak, Asena remained in the middle of the pack, and although she was standing and still in the same form, her entire body shook violently, almost as though she’d been struck with an ice attack.
Jackson took another step toward the rock. He was only a handful of paces from the nearest wild Lyote, and his movement caused the Djinn to turn its attention back to him. It snarled and snapped, lunging forward a few steps and deterring Jackson from coming any closer. Jackson didn’t dare call to Asena anymore — he had no idea if she was strong enough to make it down the rocks without falling and hurting herself.
“Can you recall her from this far away?”
Jackson jumped at Kay’s voice. In his desperation to get to Asena, he’d forgotten she’d been with him when they reached the clearing. He hadn’t even considered the possibility, although it was further than he’d ever attempted to call a Djinn from.
“I — I’ll try.”
On top of the rock, Asena let out a loud whine. She padded over to the side of the rock and the Lyotes parted their circle for her. Jackson’s heart froze in his chest and for a moment he thought she would jump.
“Asena?” Jackson called. “Are you okay, girl?”
The Lyote’s tail wagged for a moment and Asena let out another plaintive whine. Then she collapsed.
Chapter Thirty-One
“Asena!”
Jackson shouted, but the Lyote made no movement. As if awakened from some spell, the Lyotes on the rock all turned their attention toward Jackson and Kay. Several leaped down from their places among the rock outcrop and advanced slowly on the pair.
Djinn Tamer - The Complete Bronze League Trilogy Page 76