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  Chapter Twenty Five

  The gigantic maiam panted heavily, tastihan’s ughter in the air, but didn’t move. The amulet’s blood-red light was the only spsh of color on its entire body. For a long, tense minute, we faced off on opposite sides of the road. I held Sptsy out in front of me, but pared to that monster she felt about as threatening as a marshmallow on a stick.

  “Henry?” Ethan whispered urgently. With me fag the road, he was stuck staring out into the pitch bck forest behind us. “What’s happening? Why aren’t you—”

  “Have you asked them,” the masked man said in his raspy, smoker voice, “about the farms?”

  I swallowed hard. “What farms? Stop talking in riddles!”

  He looked at me sideringly for a few seds. “There is no time to expin. We he boy alive. Leave your on here, and we will allow you to e with us. There, we will answer your questions.”

  I paused, cog my head. “We? Are there more of you?”

  “We have no time,” the masked man insisted. He held out his hand. “The boy?”

  “Is staying with me!” I raised Sptsy.

  “Then we’re afraid we will have to kill you.”

  He took a step back, and the maiam — to my utter disbelief — seemed to uand what he wanted. Lig its razor sharp jaws in anticipation, it lowered its head and charged at us!

  “Oh, deep fried crocodile!” I yelled. “Ethan, jump!”

  “Jump where?”

  He couldn’t see, and I didn’t have time to expin, so I was forced to throw us both out of the maiam’s way. We crashed to the ground in a tangle of limbs, and a split sed ter the maiam thundered past, barely a foot away. It crashed into a tree, shattering it with its rock hard head.

  “Ethan, I think we might be in trouble,” I said, getting back up as quickly as we could.

  I raised Sptsy, but with my arms ed arouhan, swinging her was going to be hard. I’d be lucky if my attacks had even half of their normal power — not even enough to bruise this monstrosity.

  And, I realized with a lurch, I was wearihan like a human shield.

  “Think, think!” I whispered. “I do this. I just need a pn.”

  “I help,” Ethan said suddenly.

  I shook my head. “Just stay out of my…okay, you ’t stay out of the way. Try to follow my movements as best you .”

  “No, I help! I just o—”

  The maiam roared and it charged at us a sed time.

  “Jump to the left!” I yelled. “Now!”

  I jumped to my left — ahan jumped to his. Our forces celed each other out, and we fell to the ground again. Heavy footsteps shook the forest floor, eaore than enough to crush my skull like a grape. Thinking fast, I eled magito my shoes and smmed my feet against the ground, ung Ethan ao the air. The maiam passed less than a foot below us. I sighed in relief…

  And the the tree.

  Stars fshed in front of my eyes, and a faraway voice cried out in pain. I think it was mine. I could feel twigs scratg at me, but we weren’t falling. Shaking my head to clear it, I realized we were lying on a thick branch twenty feet above the ground.

  “Ethan?” I groaned. “You okay?”

  “I- I think so.” He was lying on top of me, gasping for breath. I could see a couple scrapes on his face, but nothing serious.

  The maiam howled angrily from below us, cirg the tree like a wolf who ks prey was ered.

  “I ’t beat it,” I whispered, my heart sinking into my stomach. “Not like this.”

  “Let me help, thehan said.

  Before I could say anything, the maiam raised both its fists.

  “Hold on to something!” I yelled.

  It puhe tree, uprooting it like a freaking dandelion, and I grabbed hold of the branch as we began to fall. With adrenaline c through my veins, I charged up my shoes and released the magic, bsting me ahan back up again. We did an awkward flip above the maiam’s head, but then crashed to the ground hard enough to knock the wind from my lungs.

  “G-G-Get up!” I coughed. “We have…to run. That’s our only…ce!”

  “Like this? We won’t make it te! Just let me—”

  “Here it es!”

  The maiam was lumbering in our dire, thick ropes of drool dangling from its mouth. Ethan was right, I realized. We couldn’t run. We could barely waddle for tapioca’s sake! With trembling hands, I raised Sptsy and stood my ground.

  So, this was where it ended. If you had told me that a maiam was going to kill me, I’d probably have believed you. But if you’d said it would happen while I was stuck magically hugging a boy, then…

  A soft glow came from behind me. I gnced over my shoulder, hoping against hope that help had arrived, but there was nothing there.

  “Ethan, what’s—”

  “Cogito et creo,” he began to t. “Cogito et creo.”

  Panic shot through me like white hot lightning, and I spun around to stop him. But since we were still stuck together, all I mao do was turn him to face the maiam. The spellhammer’s glow was lighting up the forest as bright as daytime now.

  “Where did you get that?” I demanded. “I kicked it under your bed!”

  He ignored me. “Cogito et creo!”

  “Stop! Yoing to get us killed!”

  “I have to do this!” he yelled back. “Cogito et creo!”

  The maiam charged. I fought to spin us around again, but Ethan stubbornly pnted his feet.

  “ETHAN!”

  “Cog — Henry, stop! Just this once, let me save you!”

  The maiam was barreling toward us like a freaking freight train! Frantic, I hooked my ankle around his and pulled sharply, throwing us both off bance.

  “COGITO ET CREO!” he bellowed o time.

  My brain was almost on fire with terror. If the maiam didn’t kill us, Ethan was going to blow us both to smithereens. That would be better, I supposed, si meant the maiam wouldn’t be able to feed off of him. At the moment, though, that wasn’t very f.

  But as we fell, I caught sight of the rapidly approag maiam — and the beam of pure energy that erupted from the spellhammer with enough power to blow my hair back. It sliced straight through the maiam, instantly vaporizing its eop half. Its legs kept trying to run for a few steps, but theo the ground and began to defte. Our fall veered the ser off target, and it cut through half a dozen trees before blinking out of existence.

  “How…How did you…” I stuttered as the trees crashed to the ground. Only luck kept any of them from nding on top of us. Ethan didn’t answer. I looked to see him passed out from exhaustion with his head on my chest.

  But we weren’t out of the fire yet. Footsteps came out of the dark woods, and I could faintly see the masked man through the dark purple lihat the spellhammer had burned into my vision. He picked his way toward us over the fallen trees. I struggled to stand up, but couldn’t lift both myself ahan off the ground. I colpsed with a gasp, pinned by the sixteen year old boy on top of me.

  “Stay away from him!” I growled, but the masked ma down beside us anyway.

  “You really do care about him,” he said. “How odd.”

  “He’s my friend!”

  I had Sptsy in my hand, but she was trapped underh one of the fallen trees and I couldn’t pull her free. Quietly, hoping he wouldn’t notice, I shrank her back down to ping pong paddle form, and the transformatio me slide her out from uhe tree. My heart ounding in my chest. I would only have one shot…

  He stepped on my hand.

  “Hey!” I yelled, but immediately fell silent when he pressed the cold edge of his knife against my throat.

  “If that is true,” he said, “then perhaps we share a on goal.”

  “What’re you talking about?” I demanded.

  “Together, we could—”

  “Drop the knife,” growled McGus, appearing out of the darkness behind him. One of his twin hammers was resting on the masked man’s head. “Now!”

  The masked man locked eyes with me, but didn’t move. For a few seds, it was like the whole world had stopped — and thehing exploded into motion! The masked man ducked and rolled, McGus swung and missed, and they both spun to face each other uhe eye of the thin silver moon.

  I went pale with shock. He’d dodged McGus. He’d freaking dodged McGus! That was all I o see to know that he was even more dangerous than the maiam had been.

  The two of them stared each other down, cautiously shifting their feet, both waiting for the other to make the first move. Hammers against knife. Maniac against Hunter. I thought about getting up and trying to help, but with Ethan weighing me down I knew I’d just get in the way.

  McGus darted in for an attack, and the masked man leaped nimbly out of the way. Even in the dark, McGus never lost track of his foe. As soon as the masked man’s feet touched the ground, McGus hurled a hammer at him. My breath caught in my throat. The masked man didn’t have time to—

  He turned on his heel and vanished.

  McGus cursed, st over to pick up his hammer. He’d thrown it so hard that it’d buried itself in a tree like a hatchet. He fumed for a few seds, sheathing his ons, and then reached out to search for the er the masked man had cut. I already knew he wouldn’t find it.

  Finally, he turned bae. “You all right?”

  I nodded, and he helped me to my feet. Leaning against his shoulder, I was able to stand.

  “So,” I said as he pulled out the Escher Cube, “looks like I was right after all.”

  His expression darkened, and he didn’t say anything as he turhe Cube to us away.