‘Yeah, that was – lucky,’ Demi agreed, leaning a hand against one of the small bare trees scattered around the base of the cliff and clutching at a stitch in her side with the other. ‘Guess it didn’t – see us.’
‘Kendra, get down,’ Aaron ordered, not even appearing out of breath from the 300-yard dash they’d all just done.
‘No,’ Kendra called back, continuing to scale the cliff—she was about thirty feet up. ‘Rain is calling for help. I’m not leaving her.’
If Kendra got much higher and slipped… Hailey shuddered, not wanting to think about it. She didn’t want the pegacorn to get eaten either, but there had to be a better way to save Rain than climbing a cliff without any safety equipment. ‘Kendra, if you fall—’
‘I won’t, if you stop distracting me,’ Kendra shot back, pulling herself up higher and higher.
‘She’s doing all right so far,’ Jayden said. ‘And I can’t see the griffin.’
‘Let’s hope it doesn’t come back anytime soon.’ Hailey glanced at the empty sky, praying the Tyches would continue blessing them with good luck and that the griffin wouldn’t return for its snack—Rain—until after Kendra had completed her rescue mission.
The next hour was torture. Hailey waited with her friends, watching Kendra climb the cliff with bated breath. Hailey’s stomach somersaulted as Kendra’s foot slipped, pieces of rock crumbling off down the cliff before she regained her footing and continued up. Thank the Tyches she’s almost at the top, Hailey thought; her nerves couldn’t take much more of watching Kendra, knowing it would only take one wrong foot placement to send her to her death. She wished Aaron was here. At least then if Kendra did fall, he’d be able to catch her with his force field.
‘She made it,’ Jayden sighed in relief as Kendra pulled herself onto the ledge and climbed into the giant nest of branches.
‘I don’t know how she’ll get down with Rain in her arms though.’ Hailey rubbed her heart pendant between her fingers. ‘Maybe someone should run back and see if Aaron’s out of the forest yet.’
‘Don’t worry, I’ve figured that part out,’ Demi said. ‘I’ll use my powers to—’
A screech sliced through the air.
Hailey’s eyes snapped to the griffin flying towards the cliff. ‘It’s coming back, Kendra!’ she shouted.
Kendra appeared at the edge of the nest, clutching Rain. She stared down at Hailey, Demi, Jayden, and Alec, who yelled and pointed to the sky. Her gaze flicked up to the incoming creature.
Alec gulped. ‘She’s not going to make it.’ His voice was barely above a whisper.
The griffin spotted Kendra and released a piercing cry, swooping towards its nest.
Warmth poured into Hailey’s fingertips. She threw her arms up, preparing to blow the beast to the other side of the world, and prayed to the Tyches she could control her powers well enough to avoid sweeping up Kendra.
Rain leapt from Kendra’s arms, back into the nest, and Hailey hesitated.
That was all it took.
In that second of hesitation, the griffin swung its spiked tail. It collided with Kendra and sent her soaring off the cliff.
17
The Griffin’s Nest
‘NO!’ Demi screamed.
Jayden hugged her to his chest so she couldn’t watch Kendra fall. Hailey didn’t have the luxury of looking away. She stood frozen while part of her mind told her this wasn’t real, that Kendra wasn’t about to die.
Use your powers! a voice screamed in her head. Warmth poured from her fingertips, shooting towards Kendra as Hailey summoned a gale of wind to catch her.
She fell straight through it.
COME ON! Her hands shook as she poured everything she had into intensifying the wind.
Instead of stopping Kendra mid-fall, the wind smacked her into the jagged cliff, and Hailey dropped her hands with a gasp, feeling completely betrayed by her powers. Kendra was falling too fast for her wind to work. Once again, she was a complete failure as a Zeus. She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the sickening thud that would signal her friend’s death.
But it didn’t come.
She kept her eyes shut a few more seconds, thinking she’d misjudged the time it would take Kendra to hit the ground. When there was still no thud, she dared to take a peek, expelling a gasp of air.
Alec stood at the foot of the cliff, cradling a limp Kendra. Hailey’s first thought was that she’d missed the thud, and Alec had picked Kendra’s dead body off the ground. But as Alec walked towards her, she noticed that none of Kendra’s bones were bent at strange angles, which was what you’d expect after someone had just fallen 400 feet—not to mention a lot of blood and gore. But aside from bleeding gashes on her stomach and head, Kendra was unharmed. How’s that possible?
Alec carefully placed her on the ground.
‘I don’t understand,’ were the only words Hailey could manage.
‘Kendra!’ Demi cried, peeling herself from Jayden, who stared, dumbfounded. She fell to her knees beside Kendra and shook her. When she didn’t respond, Demi looked up at Alec, tears glistening in her eyes. ‘Is she dead?’
He slowly shook his head. ‘No. She’s just passed out.’
‘How?’ the question came from Jayden this time. ‘How is she alive after that fall?’
Alec appeared as perplexed as everyone else. ‘I caught her,’ he said in a voice edged in uncertainty.
Hailey gazed back at the griffin’s nest and then down to Kendra, thinking maybe the fall wasn’t as high as she’d first thought, but it definitely wasn’t less than 400 feet. ‘That’s not possible. From that height, she would have crushed you if you’d tried.’
Alec opened his mouth to say something, but Rain’s squealing from above cut him off.
‘We have to save her,’ Demi pleaded, staring towards the nest.
‘We will,’ Hailey promised, but she had no idea how to get up there, since climbing would take too long.
‘Get on that tree,’ Demi ordered.
Hailey blinked at her. ‘What?’
‘You and Jayden on that tree. Now!’
The tree Demi was pointing to was so short its lowest branch came to Hailey’s shoulder. But she knew better than to argue with Demi, and pulled herself onto it with Jayden.
Demi aimed an arm at the tree. ‘Hold on tight.’
‘Whoa.’ Hailey’s body jerked as the tree shot up like an elevator. She grabbed the branch above her to keep from losing her balance.
‘Being friends with a Demeter definitely has its perks,’ Jayden remarked. ‘Just don’t look down.’
Hailey was too focused on looking up to spare a glance down. The griffin’s nest was fast approaching.
The tree jolted to a stop. Hailey eyed the massive griffin, which was too busy playing with its food—Rain—to notice her and Jayden’s arrival. She wasn’t sure how they’d survive this, considering the griffin was five times bigger than them and armed with deadly talons and teeth. On the plus side, if she died it meant she wouldn’t have to worry about being stranded on an island forever.
‘I’ll distract the griffin. You get Rain.’ Jayden leapt onto the ledge before Hailey could grab him.
She watched in horror as he picked up a handful of rocks and started pelting them at the griffin’s back.
The monster’s head snapped around, its sharp eyes fixing on Jayden as he began backing away. The griffin screeched and leapt from its nest, charging at him.
Hailey stiffened when it came towards her, thinking it would see her and send her flying off the cliff. But its eyes were locked on Jayden, and it hurtled by her without a single glance.
Hailey lunged onto the ledge and scrambled towards the nest, which was a collection of mammoth-sized branches that no human could have broken off without a chainsaw—or the power of Heracles. The nest came to Hailey’s waist, and she had to use the branches to boost herself into it, landing with a soft thud.
‘Wow.’ The nest was a treasure trove littered with
ancient coins, crowns embedded with jewels, swords with hilts carved from rubies, and even a gold helmet. And scattered among the trinkets were rotting carcasses.
Hailey tried hard not to vomit as their putrefying smell smothered her. She distracted her mind from the dead animals by focusing on Rain, who was cowering at the other end of the nest. ‘It’s all right. I’m here now.’
‘Watch out!’ someone yelled from below.
Jayden!
‘I’ll be right back,’ Hailey told Rain and scrambled out in time to see the griffin swipe at Jayden with its talons. Blood splattered his shirt and he howled in pain, stumbling backwards.
Something snapped inside Hailey.
She’d had enough of monsters attacking her. First Scylla tried to kill them, and then a knoxen, and now a griffin. ‘I’ve had it with this damn island!’
She raised her arms, anger pulsing through her veins. The blue sky darkened to black as storm clouds flooded in, and Hailey could practically feel her eye colour changing to match it. She imagined her anger morphing into a ball in the pit of her stomach. Around her thunder rumbled and lightning flashed. The wind increased in speed and ferocity, whipping her auburn hair about.
The griffin wasn’t paying attention to the storm. Its talons gleamed as it moved to swipe Jayden again.
‘Leave him alone!’ Hailey threw her hands at the griffin, releasing the ball of anger she’d formed.
A blinding streak of lightning exploded from the sky and struck the griffin. A deafening ROAR of thunder shattered the air, and the monster plunged from the cliff in a fiery ball.
The storm clouds withered into wisps, and the blue sky re-emerged as Hailey sprinted towards Jayden. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked, helping him to his feet.
‘Just a couple of scratches, nothing serious,’ he said dismissively. He glanced over the ledge to the dead griffin; smoke curled from the monster’s smouldering body, making the air smell like burning feathers. ‘Ouch. Remind me never to get on your bad side.’
Hailey smiled; if he was making quips, then he was fine. ‘I’m going to get Rain.’ She ran back to the nest, climbing into it again and scooping up the trembling pegacorn. ‘Don’t worry, little one, you’re safe now.’ Hailey whirled around when she heard someone drop into the nest. ‘Demi? I thought you were on the ground.’
‘I was,’ she said, rushing over to give Rain a pat. ‘When Kendra woke up, I decided you two shouldn’t have all the fun. But you killed the griffin as I was coming up—nice work, by the way.’ Demi gazed around. ‘I guess this means the treasure is all ours.’
Jayden landed in the nest with a slight wince, touching the scratches on his chest tentatively. ‘I don’t think so. We’re not thieves.’
‘Speak for yourself.’ Demi placed a diamond-encrusted diadem on her head. ‘I always knew I was a princess, and now I have the tiara to prove it.’
‘Come on, Dems, you’re not taking this stuff.’ Jayden snatched the diadem off her.
She scowled. ‘We just killed a griffin. I think we deserve some sort of reward.’
‘Technically, Hailey killed the griffin.’
Demi waved her hand dismissively. ‘Details.’ She twisted to Hailey, who was running a hand along Rain’s bony spine, trying to calm her. ‘Hailey, you agree with me, right? We deserve some of this treasure?’
Hailey thought they deserved all of it for what they’d had to put up with in the past twenty-four hours—battling monsters wasn’t easy work—but Jayden would no doubt bore them with a lecture about honesty if she agreed with Demi. And it would be pretty hard to sneak the stuff back into the Academy without a teacher noticing and confiscating it.
She decided on a compromise. ‘I think we’ve earned one piece of treasure, considering everything.’
‘Fine,’ Jayden conceded. ‘Just one piece, Demi.’
Demi clapped her hands together. ‘Yay.’ She lunged for a small gold chest that had a series of ornate patterns carved on it, and an antique padlock clasping it shut. ‘I choose this one.’
Of course, Hailey thought, staring at the chest. There was something alluring about it that made her think it was the only reasonable choice.
‘Look, it even comes with a key,’ Demi said, reaching for the gold key in the lock, which looked like the type of key that you’d expect to open a treasure chest.
‘Don’t even think about opening that.’ Jayden smacked her hand away. ‘I know you well enough to know if there’s something disappointing inside, you’ll toss it and start searching for something else.’
Demi rolled her eyes. ‘Fine. I won’t open it—yet. It’s more suspenseful to wait anyway.’
‘Now let’s go,’ Jayden said impatiently.
The second he turned his back to climb out of the nest, Demi reached down and grabbed a small silk pouch, tucking it into her shorts pocket. Hailey smirked. What Jayden doesn’t know won’t hurt him.
Everyone piled back onto the tree.
‘Going down,’ Demi said.
Hailey locked one arm around Rain and used the other one to grip the branch above her as the tree shrank. It wasn’t until she was back on the ground and saw Kendra up and about that she let herself relax.
Kendra plucked Rain from Hailey’s arms. ‘Thank you so much for saving her.’
‘I’m sorry about your head,’ Hailey said, grimacing at the oozing gash on Kendra’s forehead. ‘I was trying to use my wind to catch you, but it pushed you into the cliff.’
‘Don’t apologise. You were trying to save me.’
Jayden shook his head in utter disbelief. ‘I can’t believe you’re okay.’
‘Neither can I.’ Blood dripped from Kendra’s torn shirt onto the honey-coloured sand, staining it red. ‘I thought I was dead for sure when it knocked me off the cliff. It’s lucky Alec is a lot stronger than he looks, or I wouldn’t be here,’ she said with an indebted smile at him.
Alec shifted uncomfortably under her and everyone else’s stare. ‘So, Hailey, I never knew how powerful you were. But I don’t understand why you didn’t shoot the griffin with a bolt of lightning before it hit Kendra.’
‘If I’d known I could, I would have, but I’ve never been able to manipulate lightning before.’ Hailey’s eyes drifted to the smoking griffin.
An image of her dad lying on the ground with burned flesh burst into her mind. The memory pressed against her chest, constricting her breathing like a giant serpent trying to crush the life out of her. She flinched when someone touched her arm.
‘Are you okay, Hails?’ Demi asked. ‘I hope you’re not feeling guilty about killing the griffin, because you know it would have killed you and Jayden.’
Hailey banished the memory back to the dark part of her mind it had escaped from. ‘We should get back to the palace.’
‘I’d love to if it hadn’t disappeared.’ Demi slumped to the ground. ‘We’re marooned, remember?’
Oh yeah, Hailey thought with a sinking heart. What were they going to do? They couldn’t just march back into the forest and ask the dryads to watch over them until someone realised they were missing and came back for them—especially when that knoxen might be on the hunt again tonight.
‘I think for now we need to head back and see if the others have come out of the forest,’ Jayden said.
‘I forgot about them.’ Demi sprang to her feet. ‘Let’s go.’
Hailey had forgotten too. There’s nothing like taking on a griffin to distract you from everything else. She prayed to the Tyches they’d find Aaron, Kora, and Tahlia sitting on the beach, waiting for them with a good explanation as to why Hailey, Demi, Jayden, and Kendra hadn’t bumped into them on their way out of the forest.
It seemed like wishful thinking, even to Hailey, but she couldn’t let her mind think about the alternative: that something had dragged them off.
18
Getting Home
They trekked back down the beach in silence. Hailey was too exhausted to talk. Her adrenaline rush had worn off,
and she could now feel how much energy causing that storm and lightning strike had drained. Her muscles ached with every step, making her feel as though she were hiking up a ninety-degree hill rather than across a flat beach. It was times like these she wished she had the power to dematerialise.
‘I see them,’ Alec said.
Hailey dragged her eyes from the sand. Aaron, Kora, and Tahlia were standing by the horses. She forgot about her non-existent energy and sprinted towards them with the intention of instigating a group hug. But she stopped when she got close enough to see the bleeding gashes covering them.
‘What in Tartarus happened to you?!’ Demi exclaimed.
‘We could ask you the same thing,’ Aaron said, looking at Jayden and Kendra’s torn and bloody shirts.
Jayden regarded his injuries. ‘This? This is nothing,’ he said, waving a dismissive hand. ‘And besides, we asked you first.’
Aaron plunked down on the sand. ‘Okay, you win,’ he said in a tired voice as Kora and Tahlia saw what Kendra was holding and darted forward to coo over Rain. ‘When we went back into the forest after you, we got attacked by those sti—stem—those metal man-eating birds Madam Grayson taught us about.’
‘Stymphalian birds?’ Alec’s eyes were wide.
‘Yep, those ones. So anyways, as you probably remember, they’re made of metal and can shoot their feathers like daggers.’ Aaron touched a deep gash on his cheek and grimaced. ‘They attacked us so fast we didn’t have time to react until after they’d torn our skin to shreds. I managed to use my force field to hold most of them back, and Tahlia took care of the rest with her powers.’
It made sense now why Hailey hadn’t run into them on her way out: Aaron and the others had run off the path when the birds had bombarded them.
‘I can’t believe Stymphalian birds attacked you.’ Alec plopped down in front of Aaron. ‘How did they attack? In pairs? Or as a group? Did you save any of the daggers?’
Aaron chucked a handful of sand at Alec’s stomach. ‘Not now, Alec. I’m too tired to answer your questions. And I want to hear what happened to them.’ He looked pointedly at Hailey, Demi, and Jayden.
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