He took the lead, climbing the first steps. Mungus and Auri were close behind, followed by the others. The stairs stretched before him, leading up the massive pyramid.
James was only a few steps up when he heard a terrible, guttural scream.
He whipped around and saw Mungus lying on the steps, writhing in pain. His eyes were screwed shut and a hiss came from his clenched teeth. Auri stumbled back in shock, lost her footing, and tumbled down the stairs, landing hard on the rock below. James froze, unsure of what to do. He looked past Mungus, expecting to see the Supers jumping into action, but they were similarly frozen, clearly afraid to come forward and suffer the same fate as Mungus.
James acted. He threw the torch down beside him and leaped down the steps. He grabbed the writhing Mungus beneath his arms—not an easy task with how much he was moving. James pulled hard, but the Super was heavier than he expected. He couldn’t get him to budge and was almost thrown off his own feet.
“I’ve got you!”
Rocky was suddenly next to him on the stairs. Together, they were able to lift Mungus off the stairs and carry him down. As soon as they crossed the threshold and returned to the flat stone, Mungus stopped moving and went limp. It was so sudden that James and Rocky stumbled at the dead weight, and all three of them tumbled to the ground.
In the flickering torchlight, Mungus lay face-down, unmoving.
“No, no, no,” James muttered, crawling toward the still body.
Rocky helped him flip Mungus over, revealing an unnaturally pale face beneath his scruffy beard. His eyelids were half shut, and the eyes beneath did not move. James leaned forward, putting his ear to the man’s mouth. Nothing. He moved his ear to his chest, listening, hoping. But it was clear in the unsettling silence of the cavern. Nothing.
“Can’t you do anything?” James shouted up at the Supers, who hovered behind him as if afraid to move. They did nothing but stare.
Finally, Auri, disheveled and bruised from her fall but otherwise okay, stepped forward and went to her knees. She checked Mungus’s pulse, then shook her head. “I can’t do anything!” she shouted, frustrated. She looked at James with tears in her eyes. “I’m powerless.”
“Oh, move,” Katie said, shoving Auri aside. She placed her hands on Mungus’s chest and began doing compressions. She pumped fast and hard, and the man’s chest rose and fell sickeningly. After a minute, she opened Mungus’s mouth and performed rescue breaths. Then back to the compressions. She paused, listening for any signs of life, then continued, working hard, her eyes shining.
The other Supers just watched, speechless. Powerless. Useless.
It went on for a long time. The only sound was Katie panting with each compression. It was hard work, and James almost offered to take over, though he’d never done CPR. But part of him knew it was useless.
Soon, Katie came to the same conclusion. She sat back, panting, her cheeks stained with a mixture of sweat and tears. She covered her face with her hands.
Auri knelt next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at the rest of them and said what they now all clearly knew.
“He’s gone.”
Chapter 24
James couldn’t believe it. His mind reeled. His entire world had been thrown off its axis. A Super, dead on the ground before him. That wasn’t supposed to be possible. The Supers were the closest thing to invincible. The closest thing to gods. They aged incredibly slow, could stop any projectile in its path, could do almost anything. Sure, James had seen some close calls, some serious injuries. But Auri was the healer. With enough time, she could fix anything.
But not this. Her powers had been stripped, and even if they weren’t, there was no open wound, no clear injury. Mungus had just dropped dead, attacked by some invisible force.
James grieved for Mungus, though he hadn’t known the man very well. But the thought that drove its way through all the confusion, all the sorrow, was, What does this mean for Derek?
A chill went down his spine. Calico had said that the other Supers sought out the stone and that maybe they were captured, but he never once entertained the idea they might be dead. James felt like he was going to throw up. This couldn’t be it. It couldn’t end here. No. He shook his head, clearing his thoughts. If Derek was dead, he would know it. He didn’t know how, but he felt it deep in his bones. Derek was still alive. He was still alive.
Auri and Myrcellus knelt next to the body, tears in their eyes. Afectrus stood behind them, biting her lip hard. Even Tonitrus, who always seemed tough and uncaring, sniffed while staring at the body. Calico stood behind them all, gazing into the darkness.
Tonitrus turned toward their leader and said quietly, “We should take him back.”
Calico, still distant, as if his mind was elsewhere, shook his head. “We must go forward.”
“We cannot!” Tonitrus said, surprising James with the furious anger in his voice. “Or we will all suffer the same fate. I will not die for this quest—”
“We must!” Calico said loudly, seeming to come back to the room. He frowned at Tonitrus, then stalked forward near the others. “We can’t let Mungus’s death be in vain. We must continue forward and find what we seek.”
Find what we seek, James thought. Not find the others. Odd way to phrase it. Was he talking about the Supers or the stone?
“What can we do?” Afectrus said. “None of us will risk going up those stairs, not even you. We’ll die by whatever strange power resides here.”
“We can’t.” Calico looked at James, Rocky, and Katie, who were standing side by side. His eyes gleamed in the torchlight. “But they can.”
Myrcellus raised her eyebrows. Auri knelt by Mungus’s body, her
