bushes aside, and a roar shook my bones.
I rolled onto my back and looked up to see—
Nothing.
Utter darkness in all directions.
I wasn’t unconscious. My heart was pounding, and I could feel the damp,
dew-covered grass beneath my body. Had its gaze blinded me?
Fuck.
The ground shook softly, and the creature’s breath rasped a few feet from
where I lay, drowning me in an unbearable carrion stench. The thing sniffed,
and I felt a hot puff of air roll over my skin.
It was right there. How was I not dead? Was it blind as well?
The thing made a hissing noise, and I held my breath as I slowly and
soundlessly readjusted my feet to leap away.
Gunshots rang out to my right. The basilisk unleashed a deafening roar,
and my eardrum burned in pain. Then something swept within inches of my
body as the beast charged away.
Suddenly, a hand grabbed my arm.
“Come on!” Savannah whispered.
“What the fuck’s going on?” I couldn’t see a thing.
She pulled me forward, and we started running. “This is my shadow
magic. I can see. Follow me.”
A blood-curdling roar sounded from twenty or thirty feet away.
“Hold on.” Savannah skidded to a stop. “Amal, come to my voice.”
“What’s going on?” Amal whispered from the darkness.
“We’re wrapped in shadows. It can’t see us, and we can’t see it. Nobody
gets turned to stone.”
“Brilliant, but—”
“Amal, take Jaxson’s hand and follow me.” Amal took one of my hands
in the darkness, Savannah the other, and we moved through the garden.
Our feet crunched over a strip of gravel, and then we were pounding over