Page 17

We make it to the rocks and move through them, getting halfway before realizing the worm isn’t following us.

My gaze falls on the sharp edges of the rocks and the jagged direction pointing outward, and I start to relax, realizing it’s probably the only thing stopping the worm from reaching us.

I bend over to catch my breath and find the others do the same.

“Where the hell did they bring us again?” a blonde with thin black streaks in her hair asks.

“Somewhere they’re trying to kill us off,” another answers.

“The Shadows do this every year. They take a group of girls and place them in harsh terrain to weed the weak. It’s lucky we have companions that actually care enough to even tell us about it,” the blonde with black streaks says.

“Weed the…” A girl with long raven black hair, shakes her head. “I fucking hate the academy.”

“So, I’m not the only one?” I ask, feeling relieved but also pissed at my mates for not warning me about this place.

The raven-haired girl glances over at me. “Definitely not. Most of us hate it. I’m Callie, by the way.”

“Sena,” I tell her, and she nods.

She points at the short girl with a hot pink bob. “Cora.” She moves to the brunette next, “Skye,” and then to the girl beside her with blonde and black streaks in her hair, “Lily. And you already know Robin.” She glances at the girl with long, thick wavy brown hair, “And you are?”

“Arabella,” she answers.

“Great, now that we’ve all been introduced, how the hell are we going to last the two days here?” Callie asks.

I glance up at the blistering sun that only seems to be getting hotter. The rocks provide no cover from it, which means we need to find proper shelter.

“Shelter should be our first priority,” I tell them, and they look to me. I tilt my head up at the sun. “Is it me or does it feel like it’s getting hotter?”

Robin frowns. “I was thinking that, too. From the time we got here, to now, it feels much hotter. If it gets any warmer, we’ll start to blister.”

“So, shelter is the priority,” Callie says with a nod. “What’s everyone rations like?”

We all check the bags we were handed, and I open mine to find the bottle of water I brought and that’s it.

Frowning, I glance around at the girls to find them taking out bars and multiple bottles of water and varies items of food.

“Score. I suppose my companions aren’t that bad,” Skye says, lifting up a can of coke and bottle of water. “They know me so well.”

Companions… Their Shadows filled those bags for them. They gave them all a heads up about this place and made sure they had enough food and water. While my so-called mates didn’t even bother to let me know I would be doing this.

I drop my barrier and open a connection to Knox, ready to chew him a new one when I hit against a wall. As if another barrier outside of our own somehow erected between us. I try Malakai next but quickly find the same wall-like barrier as I try to reach him.

“Sena, what about you?” Robin asks and the others look to me. I shake off my frustration of not being able to chew them out to focus on what she’s asking me.

I force a wince and shake the bag, quickly coming up with a lie. “I took the wrong bag.”

“Don’t worry, we have plenty here and will divide this between us,” Robin says.

Arabella huffs. “So, the rest of us get less because she can’t follow basic instructions?”

I wave them off. “It’s fine. I had a big meal. I’m not hungry, and I have some water.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Robin says to me before glaring at Arabella. “There’s plenty to go around. It’s less than two days now. We’ll be fine.”

I shake my head telling her its fine again and then glance around looking for a change of subject when I spot the grooves in a large rock a couple of feet from me.

Heading over to it, I manage to get a footing and start climbing up.

“Sena. What are you doing?” Robin asks.

“Trying to get a better vantage point to see if there’s something we can use for shelter.” I glance around and then spot it. What looks like a small cave not too far from here.

But the only problem is the wide-open space in between us and there. There could be another worm waiting underground. There could be more than one. Or something much worse.

“Well?” Arabella says.

I bite my tongue and give her a fake ass smile as I get down before ignoring her completely and looking at the others.

“There’s a cave not too far from here, but to get there, we’ll have to pass through a wide-open space.

I don’t know if there’s any more of these worm creatures beneath the sand though. ”

Callie frowns. “So, we can either wait it out to see if the sun gets worse or chance our luck?”

I nod. “Looks that way.”

“I say we stay here and wait it out,” Arabella says.

“I think we should make a run for it,” Robin says. “I can already feel the sun getting hotter.” She touches her shoulder and winces. “I’m definitely burning.”

Arabella rolls her eyes. “It’s just a little sun. We’ll be fine. Beside that worm thing can’t reach us here. Staying near the sharp rocks is a smart idea.”

“But also one that could get us killed,” I mumble, and everyone looks at me.

I point at the small rodent on the ground. “That looks like it’s melted. Completely .”

The girls move closer and cringe in disgust.

“I think Robin’s right. It’s only going to get hotter. We need shade,” I glance up at the sky and beating sun that looks to be growing bigger, “and by the looks of it, fast.”

Robin raises her hand, “I vote we go.” Callie, Skye, Lily and Cora all raise their hands too.

“Majority wins,” Robin says before glancing over at Arabella. “Or you could just stay here and take your chances,” she shrugs, not bothered either way, and then gathers her stuff and starts moving through the rocks.

Arabella glares at me as I grab my bag and water bottle and follow Robin and the rest of the girls.

“Let’s keep our eyes peeled,” I tell them. “Any movement and we run.”

They nod, agreeing, and we get walking, trying to be as quick and silent as we can.

Lily hisses, “Fuck, that’s hot.” She places her hands on her shoulders and pats them as she moves.

I glance up at the growing sun and then across at the open area to the cave. It’s much farther than I originally thought.

A low growl stops me in my tracks, and I freeze and glance around. But there’s nothing there.

Maybe the heat is messing with me. I shake it off and get moving when Lily speaks up.

“Did anyone hear that?” she asks, and my stomach drops realizing it wasn’t something in my head after all.

“I did,” I tell her and glance over to share a worried look with her.

Another growl echoes out around us. But this time, it sounds much closer.

Arabella turns and runs without a backward glance, and a beast that looks like a huge black wolf reveals itself and heads straight for her.

Arabella glances over her shoulder and spots it, her eyes widening in fear as she lets out a loud scream. It’s so loud it’s probably woken up every beast and creature near us.

“That idiot,” Callie hisses as we head after her, running twice as hard just to try to get ahead of the beast.

I make it to the beast first, and Robin shouts over to me, raising something in her hand. A blade.

She throws it to me, and I catch it by the hilt before diving onto the beast’s back and slamming the blade into its side.

Before it gets a chance to turn on me, Robin is on the other side of me within seconds, slamming another blade into its other side.

It growls and then moans before collapsing.

“You fucking idiot,” Callie shouts as Arabella walks back toward us. “You could’ve got us all killed,” Callie says, panting while trying to catch her breath.

Arabella narrows her eyes on Callie. “What did you expect me to do? Get eaten?!”

Robin hisses, and we all look to her to see smoke curl from the material on her shoulders. Seconds later it sparks, with the edges starting to flame and burn off.

“Shit.” Callie opens her bottle and quickly pours it over Robin’s shoulders.

The burn from the sun intensifies, and all of our clothes start to smoke. Small embers start forming, forcing us to waste more water and strip off layers of clothing to cover our heads.

I share a worried look with the girls. “Let’s run.”

“Oh, now it’s okay to run,” Arabella huffs while patting a small flame on her top.

“Shut up, Arabella,” Callie grits out as we all get running.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck ,” Skye hisses as the sun literally burns us.

It gets hotter within seconds and small fires start erupting across the ground.

“There,” Robins shouts, and I glance up to find the cave not too far away. Pushing my legs harder, I keep telling myself we can make it.

Ignoring the blistering pain all over my back and shoulders, I keep moving while glancing around at the others, hoping they’re all okay.

Nearly there.

I make it to the small cave first, but my stomach drops when I realize it’s not a normal cave. There’s a small entry but it’s not big enough to fit anyone. It’s more like an indented wall with the only shelter looking to be above in a small cove.

I shout over to the girls as they make it to the cave and tell them what I see before I start climbing. I reach the top and sigh in relief when I spot the small ledge and shade. It’s not much of a cave either. But hopefully it’s large enough to fit us all.

Turning around, I start helping the girls up when I hear a growl and freeze. Ice crawls down my back when I hear another and another growl just before over a dozen huge black wolf-like beasts appear.

The beasts start making their way toward us, and it snaps me out of my shock. I quickly grab Robin’s hand and pull her up and we work fast to get the rest of the girls into the small cove.

“It’s too tight, we won’t all fit,” Arabella moans beside me.

I ignore her and pull up Cora, feeling relieved that we’re all safe for now.

“What now?” Cora asks as we all try to stay inside the cove and out of the blistering sun.

Robin sighs. “At least the beasts can’t get us from up here.”