of telekinetic power he has. It stops the thing—whatever it is—in midair, for a moment or maybe two. And then it just keeps coming, landing on all fours in front of us.
As I get my first good look at the beast, I can’t help thinking it’s like something out of a fantasy novel straight from hell. It’s huge—the hugest creature I’ve ever seen in my life—and made entirely of craggy rock that’s sharp and broken in a ton of different places, moss growing haphazardly all around.
Its eyes glow red and its teeth are vicious in a mouth that looks like it could swallow all three of us whole in one gulp. And it’s advancing on us, one slow step at a time.
Jaxon lashes out again, throwing everything he’s got straight at the monster. But all that does is make it angry, and it retaliates by striking with one massive hand (paw?) and sends him flying against a stone wall so hard that the cavern shakes.
“Jaxon!” I scream, grabbing Xavier and taking to the air as the thing turns and takes a swing at us as well.
I manage to dodge it, but the ceiling isn’t high enough for me to get out of its reach, so on its second swing, it catches Xavier and me, and we go flying toward the opposite wall.
We hit hard, so hard that my teeth rattle and my brain feels like it’s going to explode right out of my stone skull. I’m a little dazed, a little out of it, but Hudson is in my head, screaming at me to get up. Screaming at me to move, move, move.
I do, one second before a giant fist comes down, right where I had just been lying.
“Xavier!” I scream, but he’s already up and in wolf form, jumping straight over the monster’s shoulder and landing next to Jaxon, who has also gotten back to his feet.
The beast roars and charges straight at them. As it does, I notice for the first time that the chains aren’t its weapons. They’re shackles, keeping it tied to the wall.
“Run!” I yell to Jaxon. “If we get out of the cave, maybe it can’t reach you.”
But this is Jaxon Vega we’re talking about, and there’s no way he’s leaving his mate behind with this monster, something that I’m both grateful for and infuriated by at this moment when I need him to save himself.
Instead of lashing out and trying to blast the monster back like he did the first time, though, Jaxon focuses his power straight into the ground. A giant earthquake hits the cave, causing rocks and bones to fall from the walls and the very floor beneath our feet to buckle even as it rises up.
The creature screams, low and loud and agonizing to hear, and as it reaches out and picks Jaxon up, I’m sure that this is it. I’m sure that this is where it crushes Jaxon into dust right in front of me.
But it doesn’t crush Jaxon. Instead it throws him straight at the cave entrance, so hard that Jaxon flies right out of the cave and keeps going until I can’t see him anymore.
“Go, Grace!” Hudson screams at me. “Get out now, while it’s distracted.”
But I can’t get out, because the thing distracting the beast is Xavier, and he’s heading straight for him.
“Hey!” I yell as loud as I can. “Over here! Come get me over here!”
The beast ignores me, laser focused on Xavier, who has hopped onto one of the rock formations in the wall, waiting—I think—for his chance to leap past the beast.
But he doesn’t have my vantage point, can’t see what I can, which is that there’s not enough room for him to clear it. Anywhere he goes, the monster will get him—if not the second he leaps, then the second right after.
Can’t die, can’t die, can’t die. The gargoyle in my head starts to chant and, right this second, it kind of makes me want to scream. Because my head is a pretty fucking crowded place as it is, with Hudson screaming at me to run, my own thoughts going wild, Jaxon shoving energy down the mating bond toward me, and now my goddamn gargoyle telling me that I can’t die.
Which, no shit. I’m not planning on dying today.
But I can’t just leave Xavier to fight it alone. So I do the only thing I can do—I get back in the air and fly straight at the Unkillable Beast’s head. If I