“I told you that once there was viscous fluid, there would be a cocoon,” Beezle said triumphantly. “Although I’ll tell you that I don’t want to know where it gets the thread for the cocoons from. That thing is already weird enough as it is.”

“Where did the other two come from?” I asked.

“It’s Jude and Samiel,” Nathaniel said. “Can’t you hear Jude?”

Now that he mentioned it, I could. The wolf’s voice was muffled by the webbing, but it was definitely him.

Chloe, Samiel and Jude were directly above the sleeping whatever-it-was. The monster didn’t seem to have been disturbed by our presence or our whispers, but that couldn’t possibly last.

“Well, at least we’re all together again,” I said. “I think the only option is for the two of you to fly up and cut them down. Then bring them back here and I’ll cut the cocoon off so we can get out of here.”

They nodded, and I bit my lip as I watched them fly away from me. I wanted my wings back. I was tired of watching everyone else do things I ought to be doing. I was tired of being carted around like a child when I could have been flying.

J.B. and Nathaniel had a quick, quiet conference as they reached the cocoons. Beneath them, the monster shifted in its sleep, grunting and snorting, and we all went still.

The creature didn’t seem like it was waking, so J.B. positioned himself next to one of the cocoons. Nathaniel cut the thread with his sword and J.B. caught the person easily. I saw his mouth move, reassuring whoever it was, and he flew toward me.

Nathaniel was right behind him. He stopped only for a moment to whisper something to the person who remained.

J.B. landed just ahead of Nathaniel. “It’s Samiel,” he said, laying my cocooned brother-in-law on the ground. Samiel was contorting inside the web.

Nathaniel put another person next to him. “Jude,” he said briefly, and went back for Chloe.

I bent close to Samiel. “Samiel, you have to lie still for a minute. I’m going to cut you out, and I don’t want to cut you.”

He stopped moving. I placed the blade at his shoulder and carefully used the tip to lift away the tightly wound thread. Then I sliced through on a diagonal from his shoulder to his hip, and hoped I missed all the major arteries.

Once I’d loosened the thread, Samiel burst out of the cocoon like the Hulk bursting out of his clothing. He looked wildly around, and J.B. grabbed Samiel before he could go tearing through the cavern. He made Samiel look at his face.

“Nathaniel’s getting Chloe,” J.B. said.

I repeated the procedure with Jude, who looked very annoyed once he emerged.

“Never even heard it coming,” Jude said. “I think it only makes noise if it wants to.”

“Uh, yeah, I think so,” Beezle said, and pointed.

We all turned. Nathaniel was hanging in midair, his wings flapping just enough to keep him there. He held Chloe in his arms, and she was deathly still. Very likely she had fainted inside the cocoon, which was a mercy given her intense claustrophobia.

The reptile-mammal thing had silently risen from its sleep and drawn its head level with Nathaniel. It watched the angel and his cargo with orange-yellow eyes, the pupils slit like a snake’s. Its mouth hung open, full of shiny fangs. Those fangs were only a few feet away from Nathaniel and Chloe. The monster and Nathaniel were both frozen in space, staring each other down. It was almost as if they were silently communicating.

“Get out,” I said to the others.

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Beezle said, lifting off from my shoulder.

“No,” J.B. said, his voice strained as he struggled to hold Samiel in place. Samiel had gone wild as soon as he’d seen Nathaniel and Chloe so close to the monster’s head. “We all stay together.”

“Yeah,” Jude said. “Whatever you do, we’re in for it, too.”

“I was going to distract the monster so that Nathaniel and Chloe could get away, and then I was going to run down the passage,” I said.

“We’re not trying to kill it?” Beezle asked, hovering in the air next to me.

“I’m not going to try to kill anything that big or that old without magic,” I said. “Besides, I don’t need it to be dead. I just need for us to get away.”

“Hey!” I shouted. “Hey, over here!”

Jude and J.B. shouted as well. Jude even picked up a heavy bone that looked like a human femur and tossed it in the direction of the creature.

Neither the monster nor Nathaniel moved. I was again struck by the sense that they were somehow communicating. Or that Nathaniel was being…

“Hypnotized,” I said.

“Non sequitur,” Beezle said. “We’re trying to distract the monster here.”

“We can’t distract it, because the monster is trying to hypnotize Nathaniel,” I said.

Samiel broke free of J.B.’s grasp, which was inevitable. Samiel was amazingly strong, stronger than most supernaturals.

However, Jude was amazingly fast and grabbed Samiel’s ankle, pulling him back to the ground as Samiel tried to fly to Chloe.

Jude punched him in the face.

“Quit it,” Jude growled. “Do you want to get her back, or do you want her to be eaten?”

I want her back, Samiel said, and then he swung at Jude. The wolf was more than prepared, and grabbed Samiel’s fist.

“Then stop and think,” Jude said. “Or at least do what Maddy thinks.”