Chapter 613 I’m going to protect you
Luna clung to his back, her fingers white-knuckled, her heart in her throat.
"I’M OKAY!" Vlad Jr. shouted.
"YOU’RE NOT OKAY! YOU ALMOST GOT EATEN!" Luna screamed back.
"I’M STILL FLYING!" he replied.
Luna’s heart was pounding so hard she could feel it in her throat. Her leg was screaming. Her hands were bleeding from gripping Vlad Jr.’s fur so tightly. Her eyes were burning with tears she refused to shed.
She looked around wildly, searching for something, anything, that could help.
The trees below them were getting thinner. The ground was becoming rockier. The distant shape of the mountains was closer now, but not close enough.
And the monster was still following.
It was faster than them. Stronger than them. It would catch them.
Unless—
Luna’s eyes flashed.
She remembered.
Her dad.
Alpha Ryker had taught her many things. How to track. How to hunt. How to fight. But he had also taught her something else. Last time when an earth monster attacked their classroom, her dad had given her some lessons just in case.
"Worms sense through the ground," her dad had said once, during a lesson she had barely been paying attention to. She had been impatient, more interested in running than listening. "They feel movement. They feel warmth. They feel the living things above them."
She had nodded, not really understanding.
"If you want to escape a worm," he had continued, "you need to confuse its senses. Make it think you’re somewhere you’re not. Make it feel things that aren’t there."
"How?" she had asked casually, not wanting to let her daddy know she wasn’t interested in his teaching.
He had smiled. "You’ll figure it out when you need to," he had said.
Luna had forgotten that lesson.
Until now.
"Vlad Jr.!" she shouted. "Fly toward the rocks! The big ones!"
Vlad Jr. didn’t question her. He banked right, his wings tilting, and flew toward the cluster of large boulders at the edge of the forest.
The monster followed.
"NOW FLY LOW! VERY LOW! ALMOST TOUCHING THE GROUND!" Luna commanded.
Vlad Jr. dropped.
They plummeted toward the earth, the wind screaming past Luna’s ears, her hair whipping across her face. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, then opened them.
The ground was rushing up to meet them.
"NOW!" she shouted. "FLY UP! FAST!"
Vlad Jr. pulled up.
His wings strained, his tiny body shuddered, but he flew upward. Straight up, away from the ground, away from the rocks, away from the monster.
The monster lunged.
But it had been following their heat signature, their vibration, their movement. When they had dropped low, it had adjusted. When they had flown toward the rocks, it had followed.
But now it was confused.
The rocks were cold. The ground was uneven. The monster couldn’t feel them anymore.
It thrashed, its massive body coiling and uncoiling, its circular mouth snapping at empty air.
"KEEP FLYING!" Luna shouted.
Vlad Jr. flew.
Higher. Higher. Higher.
The monster’s body began to shrink, to sink back into the earth. It had lost them. It couldn’t find them.
Luna watched as the massive creature disappeared into the ground, its teeth grinding one last time before vanishing into the darkness below.
She let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding.
"We made it," she whispered.
Vlad Jr. didn’t answer. He was too tired, too focused on flying.
But his wings kept beating.
And the Snake Domain was getting closer.
Meanwhile, Alina’s hands were shaking as she dug through the debris near the snack table. The frozen servants stood like statues around her, their trays still tilted, their faces blank. The ground was covered in torn fabric, spilled lemonade, and the dust of collapsed worm monsters.
But her phone. She needed her phone.
Her fingers closed around it under an overturned tray. She pulled it out, wiped the screen on her torn sleeve, and pressed the power button.
The screen lit up.
No signal.
"NO!" she hissed, pressing the screen again. "COME ON!"
Nothing.
She tried calling anyway. Drake’s father’s number. The call wouldn’t connect. She tried again. Nothing. Again. Nothing.
Her eyes flashed with something she had never felt before. Something cold and sharp and ruthless. She wanted to throw the phone. She wanted to scream. She wanted to find Clara and—
No.
She couldn’t.
Not yet.
She looked up.
Clara was walking toward the kindergarten building, her dark robes billowing behind her, her black eyes fixed on something in the distance. She wasn’t even looking at the children anymore. She had moved on. She was heading for the building.
The kindergarten.
The empty kindergarten.
Alina watched as Clara pushed open the door and disappeared inside.
Why?
There was no one in there. The children were all outside. The teachers were frozen. The building was empty.
What was she looking for?
What was she after?
Alina didn’t have time to think about it. The worms were still coming. The children were still screaming.
She turned back to the playground.
"EVERYONE!" she shouted, her voice raw. "GATHER NEAR THE PRINCIPAL! NOW! MOVE!"
The children on the ground, the ones who were still able to move, ran toward her. Some were crying. Some were limping. Some were carrying smaller children on their backs.
Alina pointed to the area around Dante’s frozen chair. "THERE! SIT THERE! STAY TOGETHER!" she commanded.
The children obeyed.
They huddled around the principal’s chair, their small bodies pressed together, their eyes wide with fear. The ground around Dante’s chair was flat. Smooth stone that had been laid for his exclusive seating area. No dirt. No soil. No cracks for worms to push through.
Alina had noticed it earlier, when the first monsters appeared. The worms came from the earth, from the grass, from the cracks in the soil. But they didn’t come from the stone.
Flat surfaces.
Worms couldn’t push through stone.
"Stay here," Alina told them. "Don’t move. Don’t leave the stone."
A girl from Class A grabbed her sleeve. "Where are you going?" she asked, her voice small and trembling.
Alina looked down at her. The girl’s face was streaked with tears and dirt. Her small hand was shaking.
"I’m going to protect you," Alina said. "All of you."
She turned away before the girl could ask more questions.