can distract it even a little, maybe Xavier will have a chance to get away.
Get away, get away, get away! My gargoyle chants its new mantra even as I dive-bomb the monster’s head. At first, it ignores me, still so focused on Xavier that it barely acknowledges I exist. But when I get close enough to kick it in one of its bloodred eyes, it turns on me with a roar that echoes off the walls and shakes me down to my toes.
“Run, Xavier! Get out of here, now!” I yell as the beast faces me. Our whole plan was to lure the beast out of the cave, and if Xavier will leave, I think I can fly past it and hopefully its chains are long enough it can follow us outside to where Macy is waiting to put it to sleep.
I fly away as fast as I can, determined to stay out of its reach long enough for Xavier to have a fighting chance. But I’ve barely made it halfway across the cave before the beast grabs me in its massive rock fist and sends me spinning toward the wall Xavier was just standing on. I bounce off and land in a heap on the ground.
Xavier at least managed to get down in the ensuing chaos, but he didn’t leave. Instead, he switched back to his human form and landed on the wall where the chains are embedded.
As the beast reaches for me a second time, Xavier grabs on to the chain that binds its arm and pulls with every ounce of werewolf strength he has.
It doesn’t do much, but the resistance surprises the monster enough that it turns its head to glare at Xavier for a split second. And that’s all it takes for me to roll away.
The beast yanks its arm forward hard enough to send Xavier ricocheting off the wall, but then screams when it realizes I’m not where it left me. As it whirls around with a giant growl, Eden, Flint, Macy, and Jaxon must have given up on Xavier and me luring it out, because they suddenly storm the cave.
Eden and Flint are in their massive dragon forms, and as they circle around the beast like it’s an airplane tower, I realize just how big it really is. Because Eden’s and Flint’s dragons are huge, and they look like nothing more than hummingbirds buzzing around its head. It must be…eighty stories tall. And growing, if my eyes aren’t deceiving me.
Eden hits the stone giant with a blast of lightning that has it bellowing in rage, but this attack barely slows it down. Flint follows with a stream of ice so powerful that the entire cave freezes around us, icicles dripping off everything.
And still the monster barely seems to notice. It just keeps fighting, just keeps snarling and smashing and throwing us until rocks are tumbling down from the walls all around us, pieces flying everywhere and slicing us to ribbons.
Go, go, go! Don’t die, don’t die! The gargoyle in my head is screaming now, so loud I can barely concentrate on anything else. Until a wrench on the mating bond has me gasping and nearly falling right out of the air.
“Jaxon!” I scream, whirling around just in time to see my mate fall to his knees. His complexion is gray, his eyes dull, and though he throws a hand out and manages to catch himself before he pitches forward onto his face, I know it’s a close thing.
I can see it. More, I can feel it.
I dive down, racing to him as fast as I can—trying to get there before the beast sees just how weak and vulnerable Jaxon is.
And I get it. He’s already used up so much of his finite energy today—the guards at school, the telekinetic attacks on the beast, the energy burst he sent me a little while ago while he was racing to get the others. Between all of that and what Hudson drains from him, Jaxon’s got nothing left to fight.
I manage to get to Jaxon just as the beast knocks Eden clear out of the sky. She hits the ground so hard, her dragon screams, and when she tries to get up, she can’t. She stumbles, falls, and I realize in horror that her wing is broken.
I throw myself in front of Jaxon, and as I do, I get a chance to look around at my friends who are valiantly fighting and realize that there’s no way