Defying Destiny (Afterword Academy #3) - Katie May Page 0,31

watch them, my life flashes before my eyes. “No. No. No. No.”

“You’re going to be okay, baby bro,” Auston says, stepping in front of me, bow at the ready, arrow nocked.

“Maybe if I had my Reaper powers or at least a fucking weapon,” I squeak out.

“Here.” Auston offers me an arrow and I look at it dumbly. What the hell am I supposed to do with a bowless arrow?

An ear-piercing scream comes across the swamp and has me slamming my hands on the sides of my head. Blood pools from my ears from the pitch of it.

It comes again, and my head feels like it might burst. How are we going to defeat them?

The next moments simultaneously seem to take forever and end in seconds. The spiders attack us. Luckily, three of my brothers are excellent fighters. Me? I run around as bait more or less, trying to keep away from hairy legs, sharp feet, and pointed pinchers.

Terror doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel when I run under the legs of a spider monster, watching it chase me below itself until it falls over upside-down, legs twitching in the air. Karston leaps on top of the belly and impales his dagger into it over and over until the legs stop moving.

Auston has leaped up on a large rock, halo glowing, loosing arrows as fast as he can nock them. Hadley is holding her own, slicing at the spiders’ legs, forcing them to the ground, where she or one of the others can stab through their heads.

I could almost get past the bodies, almost, but the eyes are a whole other story. They’re human—white eyes, with an orange iris and black pupil that give the creatures an even more terrifying look. It's almost as if they were human once and somehow mutated.

Shivering, I fall to the ground as a spider lurches towards me, but Braxton is there, slicing through the head with his sword. The monster’s eyes latch onto me as it collapses, and I could swear it whispered, “help me,” as it succumbed to death.

“There’s too many of them!” Brax shouts, trying to fend off three at once.

“I’ve got an idea,” Caius booms, quickly floating to Braxton. Words are exchanged, and after Braxton nods, Caius drifts inside the nearest creature. Sacrificing himself, Caius takes over the spiders one by one and leads them to Braxton, who kills them off. Auston, Karston, and even Hadley fight them as best they can until the last one falls.

Out of breath, we fall to the ground. Braxton nods towards Caius in a wordless display of appreciation and acknowledgement. Not much for what the Darkness just did for us, but at least it’s a start.

Covered in spider monster blood, there’s nothing I wouldn’t give for a shower. But that doesn’t matter anymore. What matters is we are all safe and more or less unharmed.

“You all fought well,” Caius praises. “Even you, Preston.”

I huff and roll my eyes. “If you mean running around like a chicken with my head cut off, then yeah.”

“He’s right, baby bro,” Auston chimes in. “You were the perfect distraction. Loud and screaming, they couldn’t take their eyes off you.”

We all share a laugh at my expense, and I shrug. “Maybe.”

“I know you’re all tired, but I must insist we keep moving. This is no place to linger,” Caius says, smoky face glancing around.

Braxton launches himself into the air and does a quick turn, then his still healing wings give out and he falls to the ground. “That way,” he says, panting, pointing towards what looks like a looming hill. “There’s some fallen trees leading up and out of here.”

Hadley grabs my hand, and together, we follow Braxton. Our conversations are whispered, and quiet words are exchanged. Hadley and I walk in silence. Honestly, I’m too shaken to have an actual conversation. My tongue feels dry and stuck to the roof of my mouth. And the bites from the insects throb and itch all over my skin.

Exhaustion threatens to take me, and I can feel blackness creeping at the corners of my vision. “Come on, Pres. You can do this.” Hadley squeezes my hand, her words of encouragement making my heart swell.

It feels like hours, but after avoiding creatures that look like dinosaurs stomping through the hazy, green landscape and evading avian creatures that look like their muscles were worn on the outsides of their bodies, we finally make it.

Caius floats up the logs first, then Braxton. Swinging Hadley in