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The ground disappeared from under me. The green, humid, sweetly scented jungle vanished into vapor. I slammed into something hard and craggy, bellowing as wind and rain lashed me. The sun winked out. Through the torrent I could make out nothing but angry, black clouds, and Ionna.
“Aella, hold on!” She strained half over the cliff’s edge—Why were we on a cliff!?Frantically kicking for purchase, Ionna screamed against the wind—her death grip mangling my collar and choking me.
“—Aphrodite!” she shrieked. “It was an illusion. A trick! Visions of the people we love, leading us to our deaths!”
I gasped, her words punching me in the gut. “N-no! Mom! That was my mom!”
“It wasn’t,” she screamed. “I thought it was my—my—” She sobbed. “I thought they came to save me, but then I had a vision of falling off a fucking cliff! It wasn’t real, Aella, but this is. Help me! You have to climb up. We have to save the others.”
My head spun. How was this happening? That was my mom. Her hair, her perfume, her laugh, her hugs. I knew my mother. I couldn’t be fooled by some illusion.Thiswas the trick. It had to be!
“Aella, please. Climb.”
I looked down, and down, and down. Darkness swallowed the bottom of the pit before my gaze reached it. Somehow I knew, if I fell down there, I was never coming back.
“Climb!”
And then I saw them.
Daciana, Theron, Jason, Nitsa, and a limping Tycho. Eyes glazed, and smiles on their faces, they walked straight for the edge of the cliff.
I scrambled to grab the edge, legs kicking against the slick and slippery cliff face. Rain pelted my eyes, undefeated by me rapidly blinking and shaking my head. I could barely see. I could barely hear, and my friends couldn’t hear us.
“Tycho, stop!” I heaved against the side, willing strength in my arms to lift me. Ionna thrashed in the mud—trying to pull back as I pulled her down. “It’s not real. You have to wake up. You have to—”
Tycho walked off the edge.
“No!”
His scream echoed all the way down.
I stared in disbelief.He’s gone? No. No, he can’t be gone. This isn’t happening. This isn’t real.
“Daciana, snap out of it,” Ionna wailed. She got her knees under her and heaved, dragging me up centimeter by centimeter. “Wake up. It’s not real. It’s not—”
Daciana jumped. The smile still hung on her lips as shadows claimed her.
Tears mixed with rain and snot, running down my face. “No, this can’t happen.” My boots slid off the rock, refusing to find a toehold. “Undo it. Let me undo it!”
“Aella, grab on to the edge. If you can hold on for just a little, I can stop the others before they jump.”
Jason tipped off the edge before she finished her sentence.
“Hurry!”
I snaked my arm around hers, squeezing it in a death grip. Hanging for dear life, I pulled up and reached—reached—for the edge. My nails scraped and clawed at the mud and rock, almost—
“I got it!” One hand followed the other, and I grasped the rim, heaving myself up on my elbows. “I’m fine, go,” I shouted at Ionna. “Save Theron! He’s almost—”
Crack!
The heavens split open, lashing their judgement across the earth. Lightning struck the ground beside us—flooding my senses with heat and blinding light. Our piece of earth broke off, and we tumbled into the dark.
“Open! Open,” I called to the heavens, the gods, the Fates. I didn’t know. “Let me undo it!”
Theron fell off the edge, joining us on our final descent into hades.
Wind and rain buffeted me—throwing me around; filling my mouth, eyes, nose, and lungs; whipping my clothes off my body. Anger exploded out of my chest.
