Chapter 104

CLAUDIA. Time is playing with us right now, and I can feel it. It’s going way too fast when I look at the blood flowing out of Achilles’s puncture wound, but it’s going too slow when I try to move. It almost feels surreal. Everything about it doesn’t feel real. I just hear the claw of the beast exiting Achilles’s body with a wet squelch, and he falls to his knees right in front of me. I catch him, but my hands are so numb that it’s almost like catching air. There seems to be blood everywhere as I take Achilles in my arms. It’s soaking through his torn shirt, seeping into the rocks below us. It’s on my hands, on my legs as I lay him on my lap. The monster goes right in for another stab, and this time it’s Carlos who gets in the way, kicking its arm and going in with a punch. He shifts into his wolf form, and even though he looks like a pup next to the beast, he attacks, trying to distract it away from us. I look down at Achilles, cradling his face. “Achilles, just hold on, okay? We