Page 20 of Phoenix Academy: Mayhem

I can feel the flames on either side of us grow shorter and colder.

Can hear the distant roars of evilness itself catching our scent like the predators they are.

Demons, demons, everywhere.

"We won't make it," David says, sounding panicked. "Ari—keep going. I'll stay back and protect you."

"No."

Reaching out, I grab his hand with a confidence I don't feel. The last of my magic is within me, a tiny little spark. Barely enough to light a flame.

I let it pour from my palm and spark David's flame.

His eyes glow an unnatural burning blue as the feral magic wakens his inner beast. Snarling, his muscles rippling, he picks up the pace and races ahead of me on the path—his hand on mine dragging me behind him.

In the distance, I see our final destination.

It's the lake from before, or maybe a different one, glowing bright blue and still. A copse of trees shelters it from the darkness of Hell that surrounds us. Seeing it makes my heart soar—even as I wonder what kind of escape it could possibly offer. A lake looks nothing like a door.

A sudden cold washes over me as the blue flames on either side of us extinguish themselves.

Beneath us, the last few hundred feet stretch out towards the shore of the lake. I feel my heart catch in my throat. A demonic tentacle reaches out towards Reggie, and he slashes through it with his claws. Behind David and I, something rattles.

He pulls me ahead of him.

Two hundred feet.

One hundred feet.

Almost there.

I scream as something grabs onto my ankle and rips me out of David's grip. Falling to the ground, I twist around to face my attacker: a thing nearly twenty feet tall, with undulating skin, triple-jointed arms, and a circular mouth full of teeth.

Its head stretches down towards me, fangs gnashing as I try to escape its grip. Panic claws at me. I throw my hands out, and no fire leaps from my fingertips, because I've spent it all.

Beside me, there's a roar. A great grey wolf leaps onto the thing's arm and tears through it with a single rip of its jaws. David shakes the demonic hand from his mouth, then runs to me, blood and ichor on his face.

I don't need any prodding. Leaping to my feet, I ignore the new pain in my ankle and run the last stretch of ground towards the lake, Reggie and Xavier falling in around me, each of us coated in blood and goo of some sort.

As my feet touch the ground near the lake, thin blue-green stalks of grass wave around the edges of my shoes. A kind of peace hangs in the air, which is heavy and smells like jasmine. I can still hear the demons, but only distantly.

Turning to face the darkness, I watch as the thing that tried to grab me throws its fists forward only to be stopped by an invisible wall. Its magic rises up at the edge of the grass, circling the entire copse of trees, the lake, even the trailing ivy that grows up towards the treetops. It protects and envelops us.

I take a few more steps further into the peaceful grove. Stalks of grass wave and bend from my shoes. I stop, surprised. The stalks respond, stretching up towards me and gently wrapping around my injured ankle. Several of them press against the bruised and bloody skin. Something seeps out of them, like dew, and settles onto the wound. When they pull away it's gone, and so is the pain.

Around me, something similar is happening to the guys. The grass stalks weave through their fur and settle into their skin. I blink, and a moment later Reggie has shifted back, then Xavier. David follows—and this time, thankfully, he's still wearing the clothes he borrowed from the twins.

I don't know what we'd do if he wound up naked again.

Weave him a loincloth out of long stalks of grass, maybe.

Or just let it happen. At this point, I'm not sure it matters. We either get out of Hell or we succumb to it—because I don't even know if my magic will restore itself down here, where time runs differently and reality seems to be a thing of the past.

I feel like anxiety is nipping at my heels. Consuming me. Turning me into someone I don't recognize.

The lake seems so calming and soothing.

It pulls to me.

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