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I’d failed. Orrin had managed to use his animal magic after all, and he’d called the biggest monster yet to the street.

The snake flicked its forked tongue and its eyes traced over the streets—it was looking for Orrin.

I better make sure he doesn’t give it any more orders!

“Grove, I need a knock out!” I yelled. I could have kicked or punched Orrin in the head but if I did it wrong, I could end up killing him.

“Duck!” Grove shouted.

A glass vial came hurdling towards me. I side stepped it, and the glass bottle hit Orrin in the face. It shattered on impact showering him with a golden liquid. He collapsed on the sidewalk in a heap—though I wasn’t sure if it was because of the potion or the impact of the bottle.

I flipped him over to confirm he was truly out of it, peeling back one of his eye lids.

Oh yeah. He’s out cold.

That issue solved, I turned towards the snake. “We have to lead it away from the van—”

The snake hissed and struck at Clarence.

He whimpered and threw himself out of the way, barely missing getting bitten, then the snake slithered over the top of him and turned its molten eyes to Binx.

It inflated its hood and rose up, its eyes hypnotically trained on her.

I yanked my gun from its holster, flicked the safety off, then shot—aiming at its underbelly. My suspicions were confirmed—the bullet bounced off its plated scales.

The snake struck, its hiss a chilling sound in the air.

Binx dodged, and the snake smashed its head into the sidewalk leaving a spiderweb of cracks in the pavement from the impact.

There’s no way the four of us can take this monster on, I realized.I’m the only one who could conceivably attack it.

Its eyes were likely its weakest point, but I was the only one with a firearm and trying to scale its body to stab it with a bladed weapon would be too tricky for Clarence and Grove who didn’t have the right training. Binx could have done something in her cougar form, but we didn’t have the minute it would take her to shift into that form.

We’ll need to just lead it away.

CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE

Jade

Iclenched my teeth as I flicked the safety on my handgun and shoved it back into my shoulder holster. “Come on!” I shouted, running down the street.

Clarence, Binx, and Grove sprinted after me. They couldn’t keep my pace—which I expected.

What I didn’t plan for was that the snake was fasterthan them.

The scraping noise its scales made as it slithered across the asphalt grew louder. When I looked back, I saw it was on top of my squadmates.

It struck at Clarence and almost managed to entangle Grove in the coils of its body.

It’s going to completely overwhelm them.

“Split up!” Grove shouted. He grabbed me by the arm and yanked me down an alleyway.

Binx and Clarence ran in the opposite direction, aiming for an enormous hedge bush that decorated the tiny square of lawn one of the human banks boasted.

I whistled trying to get the snake’s attention. It ignored me and followed Binx and Clarence.

It puffed its hood up and struck.