I’ve never wanted to believe anyone more in my life.
By the time we touch down inside a clearing in the crater, it’s at least three o’clock in the morning, when everything is completely still and quiet. Normally, I like being the only one awake in the middle of the night—there’s something about the silence that usually speaks to my soul.
But here, on the Unkillable Beast’s island off the north coast of Siberia, the stillness just feels eerie, in the most disturbing way. I know it’s probably just me projecting my own fears on an innocent, nearly uninhabited island, but the truth is, from the moment Flint lands on the soft, moss-covered strip of land, I know something is very, very wrong. It’s like the island is speaking to me.
I almost laugh at my silliness. Of course the island isn’t trying to tell me something. And so I ignore the voice deep inside warning—no, begging—me to leave.
Instead, I remind myself that the voice wasn’t particularly happy about the Boneyard, either, and that turned out okay. Besides, it’s not like my friends are about to change their minds now, so I try to shake off my uneasiness as I step away from Flint and Jaxon so Flint can shift back to his human form.
Hudson is walking around the edge of the forest about twenty feet away, trying fruitlessly to peer into the darkness. I think about reminding him that if I can’t see in there, he certainly can’t, but I know he’s just trying to occupy himself doing something. He feels as antsy as I do.
Xavier, Macy, and Eden join us a few seconds later, and under the dim light cast by Macy’s wand, we start to search the crater for the den of the Unkillable Beast. We may not have any plans for going in there at the moment, but it’s pretty hard to lure someone or something someplace if you don’t know where the starting point is.
But the more we explore the interior of the crater, the more apparent it becomes that the place is enchanted. It’s March, which means the temperature on one of these islands should range anywhere from fifteen to forty-five degrees, depending on the day and the kind of winter/spring we’re in store for (thank you, Google). And while it definitely felt about thirty-five degrees at the opening, the area inside the crater is a near-tropical climate that has me sweating inside my many layers of clothes.
So yeah, definitely magical is the consensus, and that’s before we discover a waterfall and hot springs that seem to appear out of nowhere and cast an eerie light within the crater. It’s like the water itself is enchanted, its soft blue depths glowing so brightly, the entire area is lit like early morning, revealing trees, tall and green, with big, strangely shaped leaves that look more like they belong on a tropical island than this close to the Arctic Circle. Hibiscus and bromeliads envelop the forest in their sweet scents, and giant boulders are scattered randomly around the nearby clearing.
“This is where it lives,” Jaxon says as we walk closer to the water, even as he keeps his eyes peeled for the monster.
“How do you know?” I ask.
“Where would you choose to live?” Jaxon counters. “In the pitch-black forest on the other side or near this glowing hot bath and fresh water?” He motions with his head just past us and grins. “Also, there’s a cave on the other side of the waterfall.”
“What do we do?” I ask, my gaze fixed on the waterfall now.
“We back away slowly,” Xavier whispers. “And try to figure out what trap we could possibly set.”
“Obviously, we need bait,” Eden tells him as we move back toward the dark forest, to hide in the shadows and plan. “Really good bait.”
“What kind of bait?” I ask even as the voice inside me whispers over and over, Leave.
“I’ll be the bait,” Xavier volunteers. “Once we decide the best place to set up the trap, I can go in and lure it out. No way is it going to put up with having some interloper in its cave.”
“But we don’t even know what the beast looks like yet,” Macy complains. “What if it’s small and faster than a wolf? Or is twenty feet tall with eight long, octopus-like arms that you can’t avoid?”
I know she was just offering some extreme examples, but I find myself nodding to each one. They all sound plausible to me