“What are you, a Bugatti?” he asks. “That’s the only car in the world that can go that fast.”

“When you start bugging me, yeah,” I answer, and he groans.

“Worst. Pun. Ever.”

“I do what I can,” I tell him with a grin before glancing back at the group. Jaxon and Flint are discussing potential issues before we enter the Boneyard, Macy is checking her wand and swapping small potion bottles back and forth from her backpack to a pouch wrapped around her waist, and Eden and Xavier are betting each other over who can carry back the heaviest bone. My heart fills with pride at my newfound family.

At least until Xavier demands of Macy, “Are you wearing a fanny pack?”

Macy doesn’t even spare him a look as she answers, “It’s my potion accessory kit.”

“Don’t you mean your potion ASSessory kit?” he shoots back with a sly, wolfish smile.

We all laugh, even as I turn to Hudson and say softly, “You know we’re risking our lives for you, right?”

“Yeah, that’s why you’re all doing it,” he scoffs. “More like to stop me from feeding on your precious Jaxon.”

I shake my head. “Well, it’s why I’m doing it.”

That makes him pause. He stares at me for several long seconds, his indigo eyes blazing into mine with a dozen emotions I can’t begin to name. I wait for him to put a voice to one of them, wait for him to say something—anything—that will help me understand why he’s being so difficult right now.

And for a minute, it looks like he’s actually going to do it. Like he’ll open his mouth and say something that has some emotional depth to it.

But in the end, he just shakes his head and looks away. Shoves a rough hand through his hair. Does anything and everything but actually talk to me about something that matters.

He does, however, say, “Then by all means let me get my pom-poms ready.”

And there we go. Zero to one hundred and sixty. “Fine. And to get you out of my damn head so I don’t have to listen to you ruin my mood ever again.” I huff and give him my back. We’re all very likely about to die. Would it really kill him to just say thanks?

Jaxon motions everyone over, steps into the first cell, and starts to plug the code into the door so we can get to the tunnels. But Flint stops him with a hand to the shoulder.

“That’s not how we get to the tunnels that lead to the Boneyard.”

“What do you mean?” Macy asks. “I thought you said the only way to find it is through the tunnels.”

“It is.” Eden grins. “Just not those.”

Flint motions for all of us to join him at the back of the cell, where one of the walls appears to have several gemstones embedded in a crude circle of emerald, ruby, sapphire, obsidian, amethyst, tourmaline, topaz, and citrine. He taps each gem as though entering a safe code, then steps back.

A couple of seconds later the floor under my feet rumbles ominously, and then the huge stones inside the circle of gems move back one by one, until we’re all staring at a small, round tunnel in the middle of the wall.

“So who wants to go into the creepy hole first?” Macy jokes, and everyone laughs, but no one rushes to raise their hand.

“Well, you’re all in luck, because I think it’s going to have to be a dragon.” Flint’s eyes twinkle with devilish excitement. He turns to Eden and asks, “Should we tell them what’s on the other side? Or more specifically, what’s not?”

Eden rolls her eyes at him. “Yeah, I’m not risking a werewolf bite or fang to the neck in panic.” She turns to address us. “As you know, these tunnels were built for dragons…who can fly. So on the other side of this tunnel…there’s no ground for a bit. For Grace, who can fly—and Jaxon—when it launches you into the air, obviously, do your thing and you’ll be fine. For the rest of you, just count to thirty before each person goes in, and Flint or I will catch you on the other side.”

She nods as though that’s that, grabs the small ledge above the hole, and swings her whole body inside in one fluid motion, feet first. And then disappears.

Flint jokes, “I love this part,” before he, too, jumps into the hole and disappears.

The rest of us just stand there, looking from one to the other, wondering if they’re messing with us or if we’re really expected to just jump and let gravity do its thing. Either way, none of us is particularly excited about being the first one to jump.

Jaxon grabs my hand and says, “Hey, no worries. I’ll catch you.”

Before I can point out that I actually have wings and can “catch” myself, thank you very much, Xavier responds with, “Dude, she has wings. You better catch me instead. No way do I want a dragon’s talon through my heart.”

Everyone nervously laughs, and we tacitly agree as a group that yeah, Jaxon should be the one to “catch” everyone without wings, so he jumps in the hole next. I wait to hear a scream or a splat or something, but this is Jaxon, so…nothing.

Since I’m the last one of those left who can fly, I take a deep breath and walk up to the hole and peer in. It goes down pretty far pretty fast… My heart starts racing for all the wrong reasons.

“Don’t worry,” Hudson says with a deliberately smug look on his face from the spot where he’s been leaning against a wall the whole time, “Jaxon will catch you.”

And that does it. I glare at him and lift my chin right before I turn back to the hole and jump straight in.

80

A Gargoyle’s Guide

to Antigravity

I try to play it cool, but it’s a long, long, long way down, and I end up screaming before I hit the first turn. Beneath me, the stone is smooth and slick, and that only helps me pick up speed as I zip around each crook and bend, still heading on a massive descent. Honestly, it kind of reminds me of a slip-and-slide water park in San Diego, and I’m grinning madly by the end…at least until the bottom gives way and the tunnel ejects me out into a dark and yawning void.

Black hole anyone?

My lungs—and everything else—tighten up as terror rips through me, but somehow I manage to shift in midair, my wings catching me before I fall more than a couple of feet. I can tell the cavern is small in the near-pitch-darkness, because I can hear the echo of our wings flapping, but not much else. Also, there must be water somewhere nearby, because wet, musty air coats my skin within seconds.

I can feel Flint and Eden hovering next to me, but I can’t see them all that well as a shiver of fear skates along my spine. This place does not want me here; I can feel it in my bones. My inner voice is all but begging me to get the hell out of here, and I’ve never wanted to listen to it more.

I’m pretty sure I spot Jaxon standing on a path off to the side, so I maneuver to him, land, and shift back. He pulls me in for a hug, but his focus never wavers from the hole from hell. As Mekhi, Xavier, and Macy pop out one by one, he floats them easily to the ground.

Mekhi is teasing Xavier that he screams like his sister’s banshee best friend when Eden and Flint shift three feet above the ground and land on solid feet next to us, both shaking their heads.

“What, no one trusts a dragon to catch them?” Flint jokes, but he doesn’t seem to mind as he turns to Eden and confides, “Man, that ride never gets old, does it?”

“Wait, I thought you’d never been to the Boneyard before. Is that not where we’re going?” I ask, genuinely confused.

“Turns out the Boneyard is not too far from the horde, which I most definitely have been to.” He waggles his brows at me comically and I laugh.

“Okay, I’ll bite. What’s the horde?”

Flint’s tone turns almost reverent as he answers simply, “Treasure.”

“You need a napkin to mop up some of that drool, man?” Xavier asks.

But Jaxon grins and shakes his head. “Dragons.” As if that says it all.

“Anyway,” Flint continues, “the Boneyard actually isn’t too far from here. Just down a side corridor. Follow us.”

Eden sets off after Flint into the near darkness, and we fall in behind them. I can’t see much—apparently gargoyle eyes aren’t anything special despite what that old TV show said, so I pull out my cell phone and tap the flashlight app. No way am I walking around creepy tunnels in the near dark.

Hudson chuckles beside me. “Chicken.”

“Shhh,” I tell him and focus on making sure there actually is ground in front of me before I take each step. “I’m concentrating on not falling.”

He chuckles again but thankfully doesn’t comment.

We walk for another fifteen minutes through a maze of tunnels, pausing occasionally for Eden and Flint to argue over a direction. I’ve about decided we’re completely lost when Flint looks over his shoulder and shouts, “We made it!”

And then he and Eden turn sharply left…and disappear.

81

One Hundred Percent

That Witch

Jaxon and I rush to the last place we saw the dragons, but all that’s there is a solid wall. We start pressing our hands on the jagged edges of the stone surface, thinking maybe there’s a secret latch or something.

All of a sudden, my hand touches flesh, and I scream and jump back. It’s Flint.

“How—?” I start to ask.

“What are you guys doing?” he asks as he walks straight out of the solid wall. “Come on, stop messing around. What’s the holdup?”

“Well, we don’t seem to be able to walk through solid stone walls.” I raise one eyebrow as Xavier pats his hand against the wall to show Flint.

“Oh, damn. We didn’t think of that.” He calls over his shoulder to Eden. “Apparently only dragons can pass through.”

Eden walks through the wall now, too, and yes, it’s just as creepy when she does it. “Huh. Grand-mère didn’t mention that would be a problem. I wonder if she doesn’t know. Any ideas?”