Three Trials (The Dark Side Book 2)(10)
“How do you cross an uncrossable passage layered with flames of fucking death without falling or jumping into the fire, when there’s no obvious escape around you?” Jude asks on an annoyed breath.
“I hate that riddle,” I point out, not coming up with my own genius idea this time.
“Jude and I can throw the farthest,” Gage says, cracking his neck to the side. “And we can jump farther as well.”
“Obviously that’s Plan Z. What’s Plan A through Y?” I reasonably ask, knowing he can’t possibly be suggesting that as anything other than a last resort.
They ignore me, and I ignore the firefall’s edge that we’re getting closer and closer to. Okay, so maybe I don’t really ignore it at all. It actually has most of my attention.
This is so not the time for this bug to be speeding up. In fact, this is the worst possible time for it to finally feel like it’s motoring along.
When they continue to stare at each other like they’re calculating the probability for survival and considering this ridiculous plan as their true course of action, I throw my hands up.
“That can’t possibly be the right answer to the riddle,” I shout at them.
Remember what I said about the drop being fifty feet? I was very much off on that calculation.
The closer we draw, the more I realize my depth perception has been masterfully deceived.
That drop now seems endless before it levels back out again.
Damn that Devil and his illusions.
I don’t find myself any fonder of plummeting from a firefall than plummeting from a mountainside. And I close my eyes, because if I can’t see it, then it doesn’t exist.
I can also ignore the roar of the falls that only seems to add to the drama of the dire situation.
“I don’t see any other option,” Kai says like he’s frustrated and furious. “You’d better damn throw me harder than anything you’ve ever thrown in your life,” he tells someone. “Because I’m up first.”
My eyes fly open as I gape at them, but I don’t yell anything because I sure as shit don’t want to distract them when Gage is already winding Kai up, spinning him out like a father would a daredevil child for giggles.
I’m not seeing why those masochist children find this amusing right now, because my stomach is in my throat, terrified a hand is going to slip and Kai will be skipped across the deadly surface.
Just the image and fear of this has me convinced children are sociopaths. It’s always the ones you least suspect.
About ten feet from the edge, he launches Kai, and Kai sails over the massive divide.
I watch with my mouth hanging open, even as Jude starts winding up Ezekiel, preparing him for the same thing. My heart is divided in halves, watching as Kai sails and Ezekiel is being wound up to do the same.
Kai lands with a crash on the other side, bouncing so hard and rolling out of sight.
Before I can shout for him, my words are stolen as I stand frozen and watch Ezekiel sailing faster across the same distance.
My eyes are bouncing everywhere when Jude and Gage dart to the back of the beetle and get into a launch position as they stare straight ahead.
I glance over as Ezekiel lands just as harshly, rolling into the shadowed land hidden from us amongst the fiery lake that is coming to an abrupt end.
Just as the tip of the beetle starts over the edge of the firefall, I turn in time to see Gage and Jude rushing by me, grit and determination shading their eyes as they pass through me in a blur.
I whirl around with them as they pass, watching as it all seems to happen in slow motion. They run to the last tip of the beetle they can reach before they leap as hard as they possibly can.
For an agonizing tenish seconds, I have repetitive heart attacks.
Jude barely makes it across, and he immediately rolls back up to his feet so he can turn in time to see Gage’s fingertips just barely graze the ledge a fraction of a second too late and centimeters too short.
Gage’s eyes widen as he falls to his back, reaching for the hands that make it another fraction of a second too late to grab onto him. Resignation is painfully immediate in his eyes, and his hard gaze turns cold as he falls helplessly toward the lake. My heart lurches as I leap over the edge, diving for him, zapping myself closer to make up ground.
Our fingertips just barely touch, and I turn whole, grabbing onto him as that light bursts from me again.
No magnificent strength saves us as I scream as loud as I can, begging for a miracle of some sort to stop this from happening. I stay whole, knowing those flames won’t simply pass right through me like this.
But I don’t care. I refuse to let him die alone, even as I scream and feel the tears rushing up the sides of my eyes.
A vine slaps against us, and I try to snatch it, having no idea where it came from. Seconds later, a body barrels by me, and Ezekiel turns upside down, reaching out with one hand and grabbing Gage by the wrist.
Our hands are violently yanked apart when I keep falling and he comes to an abrupt halt.
Gage dangles above me, holding on to Ezekiel, and Ezekiel holds onto the vine with his other hand as they swing over the lake.
“Fucking go phantom!” Gage shouts at me as that light continues to beam from overhead.
I immediately lose my flesh, and I zap myself back to the very top of the cliff’s ledge where the other two are peering over.
Then I collapse as that weird light vanishes from the sky.