Chapter 8
“D evon? Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Paige questioned as his cage twirled around on the edge of its rope.
He groaned, pushing himself up to sit and reaching toward his back. He tugged his shirt up. An angry red scratch traveled from his shoulder blade to his low back.
“I’m okay.”
“That doesn’t look very good.”
“It’s fine. It’ll heal in about an hour. Wing slices take a little longer than others.”
Paige slumped onto her hip and ran her fingers through her hair. “Well, this is going well so far. Our rescuer is now trapped right along with us.”
“Yep. I told you Silver Spoon couldn’t do anything.”
“I tried my best, okay?” Devon answered.
“And you got caught. Your best wasn’t good enough. Now we’re going to be eaten! Probably roasted over an open flame.”
“Wait,” Paige said. “Maybe I can still get out. He cut three of these bars. If I can snap them off, I can escape.”
“And do what?” Dewey questioned as she tugged at the bars. “Plummet to your death?”
Paige eased her tugging and stared down at the ground far below them. “How many feet would you say that is?”
“Thirty or so,” Dewey answered.
She shrugged. “Maybe I can make it.”
“It would be like jumping off the roof of a three-story building. Could you make that?”
Paige wrinkled her nose, returning to tug at the bars. “We’ll worry about that if we get that far.”
She braced her feet against the other bars and yanked backward. Heat rose in her body as she continued to tug, but the bar refused to break.
“Dang it,” she said, wiping at a bead of sweat dripping down her cheek.
“Put your back into it,” Dewey shouted.
She offered him an unimpressed stare before she lined up for another try. She clenched her teeth, baring them as she continued to pull. “What kind of wood is this?”
“It’s probably treated in some sort of resin to strengthen it,” Devon said.
Paige let go, and the branch bounced back into place. “This is ridiculous. We have to get out of here.”
Dewey flung himself onto his back and stared up at the sky. “Face it, Paige. We’re stuck. We’re not getting out of this one. Four missions. That’s it. We’re dead meat. You may as well take your last few hours to prepare yourself for death.”
Paige grabbed the bar again as he babbled across from her.
“Yep, we’re goners. They’ll probably eat me first as a snack. And then, Paige will be their main course. And they’ll finish with a Devon dessert. All that sweet vampire blood will go perfectly after–”
His words cut off as Paige snapped the branch at the base. Dewey climbed to his feet, with his jaw agape. “Paige!”
“I did it,” she said breathlessly as she stared at the broken bar in her hands.
“Awesome job, Paige,” Devon said, pulling up to kneel in his cage.
“Yeah, great job. Now, just do it two more times, and we’ll be set,” Dewey added.
“No kidding,” Paige said with a sigh as she grabbed hold of the next bar.
She tugged back, bracing her feet against the other bars. She struggled to break it. Her sweaty palms slipped, and the bar snapped back into place.
She heaved a sigh and reached for it again. With a deep breath, she tugged at it. She lost hold of it twice more before she managed to break it.
She tossed it onto the ground and wiped at her brow. “One more to go.”
“Go, Paige, go! Go, Paige, go!” Dewey chanted.
Paige slumped onto her rear and let her arms rest against her knees. She gathered her strength, psyching herself up to break the last bar and free herself.
“Come on, Paige, you can do it,” Devon said.
Paige scrunched her face and forced herself to her knees. She wrapped her hands around the bar and yanked. It slipped from her sweaty hands. Paige’s shoulders slumped, and she heaved a sigh. She grabbed hold of it again and jerked it back again. It snapped away from her.
“Ugh,” Paige groaned as she tried again. She wrenched at the bar over and over until she exhausted herself.
“Don’t give up, Paige,” Dewey called as she sat back and covered her face with her hands.
“I just need a minute. OMG, it’s hot.”
“It’s the rainforest, duh,” Dewey snapped.
Paige fanned herself before she pulled her shirt away from her, pumping it to create air against her skin. “I know where we are. Believe me.”
The sun disappeared for a moment. Paige breathed a sigh of relief until she spotted the reason. The harpy sailed overhead, circling around them.
“Oh, great,” she groaned.
The harpy circled again before she dove down toward her nest. She landed on the edge and hopped inside. With a flutter of her wings, she circled before settling down inside and curling into a ball. Her eyes slid closed, and she covered most of her face with her wing.
“Oh, you’re kidding me,” Dewey said. “She’s napping.”
Paige banged her head back against the bars of her cage.
“Nice job, Paige. You should have worked faster.”
“Why are you blaming me? I’m stuck inside a cage with bars I can barely break. It’s not my fault I couldn’t escape before her nap.”
“Well, now we’re doomed,” Dewey answered. “When she wakes up, she’ll probably be hungry. And guess who she’s going to eat?”
The harpy’s closed eyes snapped open, and she lifted her head, squawking at them.
“Maybe keep your voices down,” Devon whispered after she settled back to sleep. “We can still escape. We just need to do it quietly.”
“He’s right,” Paige hissed. “I’ll keep trying.”
“Okay,” Dewey breathed. “Just pull quietly.”
Paige sucked in a deep breath and wrapped her stiff, aching hands around the bar again.
She wrinkled her nose, yanking back on it.
Her muscles protested her efforts, but she fought through the discomfort.
The bar slid from her grasp. Paige squashed her lips together into a thin line before she grabbed it again.
She lost her grip twice more before she sank her head into her hands.
“Paige, try another angle,” Devon advised.
“You try another angle,” she snapped, sliding a hand through her hair. “Sorry.”
She held her hands up in apology before she wrapped her fingers around the bar again. She tugged back on it before she climbed to her feet and rotated her body around. She swung a leg over the bar, standing on top of it as she pressed down, leaning most of her weight against it.
The branch finally gave way, and she crashed forward, smacking her head into the opposite side of the cage. She pressed her palm against the scrape on her forehead.
“Ouch, damn it.”
“You okay?” Devon asked.
“Yeah,” she said, with a wince.
“You did it!” Dewey cheered.
“I did,” she said, with a smile.
“Great, now climb out, get the machete, and rescue us.”
Paige stuck her head through the opening, staring down at the ground. “How am I supposed to climb out? I can’t make that jump. I’ll break my leg, or worse.”
“You’ll have to swing over to the tree and climb down it,” Dewey answered.
Paige’s jaw dropped open. She glanced at the tree, then back at Dewey and shook her head.
“Uh, no.”
“It’s the only way.”
Paige crinkled her nose, the corners of her mouth turning down into a deep frown. “I can’t swing.”
“What?” Dewey asked. “Of course you can. Just shift your weight from side to side and get a rhythm going.”
Paige glanced at the tree. She’d have to swing fairly far to reach it. Visions of her previous twirling zipped through her mind, and she shook her head.
“I can’t.”
“Dewey’s right. Once you get some motion going, you’ll be able to build it pretty easily. You should be able to reach the branch that’s jutting out on your right,” Devon said.
Paige bit into her lower lip, shaking her head again. “No, you don’t understand, I can’t.”
Tears filled her eyes as she lowered her gaze to her lap.
“Are you hurt?” Devon asked.
“No,” she answered, with a sniffle.
“Okay, I don’t understand why you can’t. This is a simple–”
“I’m afraid of swings, okay? I get motion sickness. I hate them.”
“Afraid of swings?” Dewey asked, with a wrinkled nose and wiggling horns. “Is that even a real thing?”
Paige glared at him. “Yes, it’s a real thing. And I have it. When she put me in here and I was swinging around and spinning, I got sick, remember?”
Dewey winced and nodded. “Ew, right, you did. Well, there’s no time for fear now. You’ll have to buck up.”
Paige wiggled her head back and forth in silent protest.
“Paige, listen to me,” Devon said. “Just…imagine you’re at the carnival. And you’re on the swings ride.”
“I hate that ride!” Paige shouted.
“Okay, so don’t think of that ride. Think of the fun carnival stuff. Like cotton candy.”
“I hate carnivals,” Paige said, with a sob. “I hate the funhouse with those stupid mirrors. And the creepy music. The clowns. And the rides that aren’t inspected properly.”
“Whoa,” Dewey murmured. “That’s a whole lot of issues right there.”
“Okay, Paige, stop thinking about the carnival. It’s not a carnival,” Devon said. “Think of it like…” He shot a glance at Dewey, who shrugged. “Uh…flying. Think of it like you have wings and you can fly.”
“If I could fly, I wouldn’t swing back and forth. Over and over. Back and forth, back and forth.” Her head swung to the rhythm of her voice, and her lips tugged into a frown. She clutched at her stomach, making a sour face.
“Stop, stop, stop, you’re making yourself sick.”
“Yes!” Paige shouted, pointing a finger at him. “Even the thought of this is making me sick. You do it.”
“It wouldn’t help for me to do it. I can’t get out of my cage.”
Paige flicked her gaze to the sky above as she chewed her lower lip. “Okay, fine. I have to dig deep and find my inner trapeze artist and do this.”
“You can do it, Paige,” Devon said. He shot a glance at Dewey.
“What?” the dragon asked.
Devon bobbed his head around, nudging it toward Paige.
“Ohhh,” Dewey said, his thick eyebrows rising, “you got this, Paige. You can fly like a harpy.”
“You’re right. I can do this.” Paige breathed heavily, curling and uncurling her hands into fists. “I can do this. It’s fine.”