I feel my whole body jerk as Sailor abruptly stops sliding. My hand is almost wrenched from hers but she holds on with a fierce strength. Another hand appears over the edge of the chasm and I take it. A hand appears beside Aziza too.
Sunday yanks me up as Jinx yanks Aziza up and as I come level with the chasm, I see Mel, Grace, and Ya-Ya holding Sailor’s ankles. We scramble backwards as more of the ground crumbles away. I lie flat on my belly and look over the chasm. It’s pretty deep and the bottom is all jagged rock. We were damn lucky not to end up down there.
“Now what?” Mel says.
I push myself up to my feet and look toward the dagger. A thin beam runs from our side of the chasm to the dagger’s side. It’s no more than five inches wide.
“I guess one of us walks over that,” Sunday says.
“I’ll do it,” Aziza says. “I’m pretty sure-footed.”
“No, I’ll go,” I say. “I’m the leader, so it’s only right I’m the one to risk it.”
The whole team starts talking at once, everyone saying they should be the one to go.
“Guys, enough,” Sailor shouts.
Everyone quiets down and looks at her.
“We all know it has to be me. I’m the Paradox and I’m the only one who can retrieve the dagger, remember?”
“But Sailor, you’re so clumsy,” Ya-Ya bursts out.
Sailor glares at her.
“Sorry, but you are,” she says.
“Maybe, but I’m also not completely dense.” Sailor laughs. “Do you really think I’m going to be dumb enough to attempt to walk over that? Damn, for a bunch of gods, you guys really don’t like to think outside of the box do you?”
Sailor goes to the edge of the beam. She sits down and slides herself forward so she’s sitting straddling it. She pulls herself forward with her hands. The knot of tension I’ve felt in my stomach since Sailor pointed out she had to be the one to get the dagger doesn’t release its grip on me at all. Even shimmying across how she is, I can’t help but picture her falling to one side and crashing to her death.
The whole team watches silently. Mel and Grace are clinging to each other’s hands. I hardly dare to breathe as Sailor reaches the middle of the beam. She keeps going, dragging herself forward. She’s almost at the other side when one of her hands slips from the beam. She leans scarily close to the right, a small scream escaping her lips as her arms flap desperately. She locks her feet together beneath herself and makes a grab for the beam. She manages to hang on and right herself and I finally breathe out.
“That was close,” Sailor says with a shaky laugh.
She reaches the other side and gets to her feet. My heart is almost in my mouth and even seeing her back on solid ground does nothing to calm me down because I know she still has to get back. She pauses in front of the dagger for a moment and then she reaches out and grabs it. For a moment, the silver blade seems to light up white, but the effect is gone in the blink of an eye and I know I must have imagined it. Sailor pushes the dagger into her boot and turns back to us. She gives us a shaky smile.
“Right, I’m coming back,” she says.
From a small opening in the wall behind the dagger, a Voke Wolf appears.
“Sailor, look out,” I scream.
She glances behind her and then she’s running across the beam. I run to meet her, stretching my hands out to grab hers. How the fuck she is managing to stay on the beam is beyond me. Jinx reaches his hand out and fires a painful force field at the Voke Wolf. He’s a second too late.
The Voke Wolf falls into the chasm, screaming in agony, but on the way down, it hit the balance beam and set it off shaking. It begins to crumble behind Sailor and just as her fingers brush mine, it disappears out from underneath her, and for the second time in ten minutes, I’m once more falling through the air.
I know I’m about to die, but as long as I save Sailor, I don’t care. I pull her toward me and wrap my arms around her as we fall. I flip us just in time as the rocky ground hurtles toward us. I slam onto the ground on my back, Sailor on top of me, and everything goes black.
***
I wake up with a pounding headache and a pain in my back. I close my eyes again as I try to work out why the hell I’m in so much pain, and then I remember. The chasm. Falling. Sailor. My eyes fly open and I jump up, ignoring the shooting pain in my head. I am in my bedroom in the cabin. I run to the door and pull it open. I call out, but there’s no response.
I run down the stairs to the game room. No one is there, but I spot an envelope with my name on it. I tear it open and pull out a sheet of paper.
Rye,
We did it. We got the dagger. Nexus has been by and cast a healing spell. She insisted we go to school today to keep up appearances. She figures we’ll be home by the time you wake up, but I’m guessing she’s underestimating you, so I’m leaving this note just in case.
Sailor is fine. A little shaken, but you basically saved her life. Nice job. Come meet us at the school if you get this in time,
Az
I check my watch. The last period is almost over, but I don’t want to waste any time waiting for the team to get back. I know Aziza would never claim Sailor was okay if she wasn’t, but I need to see her for myself. As I
