I start to say as much to Hudson, but Jaxon finally stirs behind me.
“We need to set a trap,” he says.
“What do you mean, a trap? Like a bear trap?”
“Something a little less gruesome, hopefully,” he answers. “But don’t you think that’s our best bet? Home-turf advantage is a real thing. You never attack on your opponent’s home turf if you can avoid it, because it’s the territory they’re most familiar with and therefore most able to defend.”
“And also because it’s the territory they’re most likely willing to die to defend,” I add, thinking back on everything I’ve learned in history class through the years.
“Exactly. Now, we don’t have the time or the resources to lure the monster off its island—so that’s out. But we can lure it out of its comfort zone, away from its cave or wherever it’s living.” He pauses, and I can practically hear the wheels turning in his brain as he continues to plot.
Suddenly, I feel bad about turning to Hudson earlier when I thought Jaxon just wasn’t going to engage with the situation. I should have known better—no matter what he says or does, Jaxon has always made my safety and everyone else’s a priority from day one. And that includes making sure we have the best shot he can give us against an unkillable monster.
“When we had Mekhi,” he continues, “it was okay to take it at its home because we could manipulate the odds with Mekhi’s ability to hypnotize, but with him gone…it’s just too risky.”
He shakes his head, then focuses on me instead of the horizon. “What do you think?
“I think it looks like baby brother is finally starting to use his brain for once,” Hudson comments. “I’m impressed.”
I ignore the sarcasm of that last comment and focus instead on the realization that I have the two most powerful vampires of my generation currently focused on solving the same problem at the same time. Surely that’s enough to get something important done.
“I think it sounds like the beginning of a plan,” I say as I text Macy what’s going on so she and Xavier can get in on the planning session. “So what do you think we should do first?”
“Hopefully not die,” Hudson replies, and I have to admit, he’s summed it up nicely.
99
With Baited Breath
We finally arrive at the island and realize it’s not an island as much as a volcano, partially sticking up out of the ocean. There is a huge crater at the top, but its craggy sides jut straight into the water. Which means, the monster must be inside the crater…and there’s nowhere to land except inside the enclosed space the beast calls home. I can’t help but shake the feeling this is about as ridiculous as fighting a tiger at a zoo—in his cage.
Flint and Eden circle the opening several times, but all we can see from this height, with the bottom of the crater hundreds of feet below the opening, is surprisingly dense forest areas and huge piles of boulders. But no Unkillable Beast.
A thought suddenly occurs to me. “Did any of the books or databases say how big this beast is supposed to be? Should we even be able to see it from the sky?”
Jaxon leans forward so I can hear him over the wind rushing past us. “The stories vary, but most of them say it is massive. Several stories high.”
“Then why can’t we see it?” An uneasiness creeps into my bones as we both stare down into the crater again and still see nothing but trees and rocks. Everything in me says it’s a very bad idea to land inside this crater. We need to turn around. Now.
“Let’s go ahead and land!” Jaxon shouts to Flint, and my stomach pitches as Flint swiftly moves in for a quick descent.
I start to beg Jaxon for us all to turn around and go home, but he squeezes my waist and says, “Everything’s going to be okay.”
I’ve never wanted to believe anyone more in my life.
By the time we touch down inside a clearing in the crater, it’s at least three o’clock in the morning, when everything is completely still and quiet. Normally, I like being the only one awake in the middle of the night—there’s something about the silence that usually speaks to my soul.
But here, on the Unkillable Beast’s island off the north coast of Siberia, the stillness just feels eerie, in the most disturbing way. I know it’s probably just me projecting my own fears on an innocent, nearly uninhabited island, but the truth is, from the moment Flint lands on the soft, moss-covered strip of land, I know something is very, very wrong. It’s like the island is speaking to me.
I almost laugh at my silliness. Of course the island isn’t trying to tell me something. And so I ignore the voice deep inside warning—no, begging—me to leave.
Instead, I remind myself that the voice wasn’t particularly happy about the Boneyard, either, and that turned out okay. Besides, it’s not like my friends are about to change their minds now, so I try to shake off my uneasiness as I step away from Flint and Jaxon so Flint can shift back to his human form.
Hudson is walking around the edge of the forest about twenty feet away, trying fruitlessly to peer into the darkness. I think about reminding him that if I can’t see in there, he certainly can’t, but I know he’s just trying to occupy himself doing something. He feels as antsy as I do.
Xavier, Macy, and Eden join us a few seconds later, and under the dim light cast by Macy’s wand, we start to search the crater for the den of the Unkillable Beast. We may not have any plans for going in there at the moment, but it’s pretty hard to lure someone or something someplace if you don’t know where the starting point is.
But the more we explore the interior of the crater, the more apparent it becomes that the place is enchanted. It’s March, which means the temperature on one of these islands should range anywhere from fifteen to forty-five degrees, depending on the day and the kind of winter/spring we’re in store for (thank you, Google). And while it definitely felt about thirty-five degrees at the opening, the area inside the crater is a near-tropical climate that has me sweating inside my many layers of clothes.
So yeah, definitely magical is the consensus, and that’s before we discover a waterfall and hot springs that seem to appear out of nowhere and cast an eerie light within the crater. It’s like the water itself is enchanted, its soft blue depths glowing so brightly, the entire area is lit like early morning, revealing trees, tall and green, with big, strangely shaped leaves that look more like they belong on a tropical island than this close to the Arctic Circle. Hibiscus and bromeliads envelop the forest in their sweet scents, and giant boulders are scattered randomly around the nearby clearing.
“This is where it lives,” Jaxon says as we walk closer to the water, even as he keeps his eyes peeled for the monster.