Before I can point out that I actually have wings and can “catch” myself, thank you very much, Xavier responds with, “Dude, she has wings. You better catch me instead. No way do I want a dragon’s talon through my heart.”
Everyone nervously laughs, and we tacitly agree as a group that yeah, Jaxon should be the one to “catch” everyone without wings, so he jumps in the hole next. I wait to hear a scream or a splat or something, but this is Jaxon, so…nothing.
Since I’m the last one of those left who can fly, I take a deep breath and walk up to the hole and peer in. It goes down pretty far pretty fast… My heart starts racing for all the wrong reasons.
“Don’t worry,” Hudson says with a deliberately smug look on his face from the spot where he’s been leaning against a wall the whole time, “Jaxon will catch you.”
And that does it. I glare at him and lift my chin right before I turn back to the hole and jump straight in.
80
A Gargoyle’s Guide
to Antigravity
I try to play it cool, but it’s a long, long, long way down, and I end up screaming before I hit the first turn. Beneath me, the stone is smooth and slick, and that only helps me pick up speed as I zip around each crook and bend, still heading on a massive descent. Honestly, it kind of reminds me of a slip-and-slide water park in San Diego, and I’m grinning madly by the end…at least until the bottom gives way and the tunnel ejects me out into a dark and yawning void.
Black hole anyone?
My lungs—and everything else—tighten up as terror rips through me, but somehow I manage to shift in midair, my wings catching me before I fall more than a couple of feet. I can tell the cavern is small in the near-pitch-darkness, because I can hear the echo of our wings flapping, but not much else. Also, there must be water somewhere nearby, because wet, musty air coats my skin within seconds.
I can feel Flint and Eden hovering next to me, but I can’t see them all that well as a shiver of fear skates along my spine. This place does not want me here; I can feel it in my bones. My inner voice is all but begging me to get the hell out of here, and I’ve never wanted to listen to it more.
I’m pretty sure I spot Jaxon standing on a path off to the side, so I maneuver to him, land, and shift back. He pulls me in for a hug, but his focus never wavers from the hole from hell. As Mekhi, Xavier, and Macy pop out one by one, he floats them easily to the ground.
Mekhi is teasing Xavier that he screams like his sister’s banshee best friend when Eden and Flint shift three feet above the ground and land on solid feet next to us, both shaking their heads.
“What, no one trusts a dragon to catch them?” Flint jokes, but he doesn’t seem to mind as he turns to Eden and confides, “Man, that ride never gets old, does it?”
“Wait, I thought you’d never been to the Boneyard before. Is that not where we’re going?” I ask, genuinely confused.
“Turns out the Boneyard is not too far from the horde, which I most definitely have been to.” He waggles his brows at me comically and I laugh.
“Okay, I’ll bite. What’s the horde?”
Flint’s tone turns almost reverent as he answers simply, “Treasure.”
“You need a napkin to mop up some of that drool, man?” Xavier asks.
But Jaxon grins and shakes his head. “Dragons.” As if that says it all.
“Anyway,” Flint continues, “the Boneyard actually isn’t too far from here. Just down a side corridor. Follow us.”
Eden sets off after Flint into the near darkness, and we fall in behind them. I can’t see much—apparently gargoyle eyes aren’t anything special despite what that old TV show said, so I pull out my cell phone and tap the flashlight app. No way am I walking around creepy tunnels in the near dark.
Hudson chuckles beside me. “Chicken.”
“Shhh,” I tell him and focus on making sure there actually is ground in front of me before I take each step. “I’m concentrating on not falling.”
He chuckles again but thankfully doesn’t comment.
We walk for another fifteen minutes through a maze of tunnels, pausing occasionally for Eden and Flint to argue over a direction. I’ve about decided we’re completely lost