Simon Thorn and the Viper's Pit

  Simon held his breath as the family headed into the station terminal. As soon as it was safe, Simon broke off from them and hurried to the nearest exit. “Are you sure they didn’t see me?” he said.

  “Positive,” said Ariana, sounding enormously pleased with herself. “Jam shouldn’t have a problem. They barely know what he looks like.”

  “It’s not Jam I’m worried about,” said Simon, leaning casually against the railing of a staircase as he searched the bustling crowd. “Do you think she’ll come back?”

  “Who, Winter?” said Ariana. “Do you really think she tipped Perrin off?”

  “I don’t know,” said Simon. Maybe Winter was right—maybe the flock had split up. “This morning, in the dining car, I—”

  “Simon!” Jam’s voice echoed through the station, and he burst through a group of men wearing suits. “Simon, run!”

  It took Simon a beat to realize what was happening. With his face flushed and his mouth hanging open, Jam sprinted across the tiled floor, a man in a trench coat hot on his heels.

  Perrin.

  Simon darted down the stairs and burst through the station doors, spilling out into the cold Chicago air. It was already night out, and yellow pools of light illuminated the unfamiliar street as cars drove past, tires splashing through piles of slush. He looked around wildly. “Which way?”

  “Does it really matter right now?” said Ariana in her tiny voice as she clung to his shoulder. “Just run!”

  Simon bolted down the sidewalk, dodging pedestrians in overcoats and hurtling around corners. Behind him, he could hear Jam’s loud footsteps against the sidewalk, and Ariana groaned.

  “What is he doing? He’s leading Perrin straight to you!”

  “He doesn’t want to lose us,” said Simon, only narrowly avoiding a mailbox. The streets of Chicago seemed more frightening somehow—darker, narrower, and missing everything that was familiar about New York. Icy fear settled over him, driving its way deep into his bones. “How do we shake the flock?”

  “Normally I’d suggest you fly away, but since they have wings, too . . .” Ariana paused. “I’ve got an idea. I’m going to jump. You duck into that alleyway up there. Meet us back at the train station in ten minutes.”

  “But—” By now Simon was so lost that he couldn’t have gotten back to the train station if his life depended on it. However, Ariana had already leaped off his shoulder, and he didn’t have any choice but to trust her. He took a sharp turn into the alleyway, only to barrel straight into a dented trash can and knock it over.

  “Hey!” cried a voice, and a raccoon wriggled out of the overturned bin, bits of rotting food stuck in its fur. “What was that for?”

  “Sorry,” said Simon, looking around. The alleyway was a dead end. If Ariana didn’t find a way to get Perrin off their trail, the flock would have no problem cornering him.

  “No way,” said another voice, and a second raccoon emerged from the pile of garbage now strewn across the concrete. “You can understand us? Bonnie, check this guy out!”

  A third raccoon poked her head out of a nearby Dumpster that reeked of rotting Chinese food. “Calm down, Billy. You act like you’ve never seen another Animalgam before.”

  “Not out in the wild,” said the second raccoon, and he bobbed his head eagerly, his striped tail twitching. “What are you?”

  “I—” said Simon, but a flash of purple bolted past the alleyway entrance, and he crouched behind the overturned trash can. Ariana.

  Half a second later, Jam followed, and Simon held his breath. Though Jam glanced into the alleyway, meeting Simon’s eye, he followed Ariana instead. She was leading Jam away from him. They were risking their own safety to give him a chance to escape.

  Two men in trench coats sprinted after them, and Simon crept toward the entrance again. If he left now, there was a chance more members of the flock were following them, but if he waited, it wouldn’t be long before they realized he wasn’t with Ariana and Jam and doubled back. Either way, he had to take a risk.

  “Hey, don’t run—we’ve got plenty of food if you’re hungry,” said Bonnie. “You’ll have to dig for it, but it’s good stuff.”

  “Thanks, but I just ate,” lied Simon. He slowly stood, watching people pass on the street. Why wasn’t Perrin running after Jam with the others?

  A screech echoed above him, and horror spread from the tips of Simon’s fingers to his toes. He looked up, but he already knew what he’d see. A hawk perched on a fire escape, watching him.

  “You have nowhere to go, Simon Thorn,” said Perrin. The raccoons cursed and scrambled into a nearby Dumpster.

  “Yeah? Watch me,” said Simon. Clutching the straps of his backpack, he darted out of the alley and back onto the sidewalk, running the other way now. He still had no idea where the train station was, but he tried to retrace his steps, cutting corners and darting between cars stopped at traffic lights in hopes of losing Perrin.

  Simon had no idea how to shake a tail, though, and Ariana wasn’t there to give him any clever ideas this time. Perrin followed him easily, soaring through the city sky. The most he had to dodge were cables, but Simon couldn’t count the number of pedestrians and cars he nearly plowed into, only to dart around them at the last second. A symphony of car horns followed him, and he swore to himself.

  At last he had no choice but to admit he was thoroughly lost. He stopped, leaning over with his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. Perrin circled above him, unnoticed by the people milling around, and Simon took some small comfort in the fact that, while Ariana might be able to get away with disappearing in a crowded room, Perrin would never be able to shift back into a human in front of all these people and not be spotted. But if Simon stopped long enough and gave him the chance to shift in one of the dark alleyways nearby, Perrin would undoubtedly grab him the first chance he got. Simon had to keep moving.

  He straightened and surveyed the area. A bank stood opposite him, while the other corners were taken over by a drugstore and two restaurants. He recognized a café sign with a cat on it, which had to be a good thing—he must have passed this way earlier.

  “Excuse me,” he said to a woman waiting at the crosswalk. “Where’s the train station?”

  She pointed him in the right direction. Simon was only a couple of blocks away. Reenergized, he hurried across the street. When he found his friends, they would figure out what to do from there.

  Except when Simon glanced into the sky again, he froze. Perrin was gone.

  He spun around, searching the crowd of unfamiliar faces. Had Perrin sneaked off to shift back? Or was he perched on a balcony somewhere, watching him?

  Simon couldn’t afford to wait around and find out. He hit the pavement again, running as fast as he could toward the station. Before he could get more than half a block, however, a hand grabbed him by the collar, pulling him into a dark alleyway.

  “This would have been so much easier if you hadn’t run, Simon Thorn,” said a deep voice. Perrin.

  Simon twisted, trying to break Perrin’s grip, but the stronger man shoved him deeper into the alley. “I’m not alone,” blurted Simon. “The Alpha’s with me—”

  “Is he? My flock must have chased his double into the Den while you were busy running away,” said Perrin, a hint of amusement in his voice. “Try again.”

  Simon gritted his teeth. He could try shifting, but turning into anything but a golden eagle in front of Perrin would give away his secret and only make Orion even more eager to find him. And if Simon did shift into an eagle, Perrin already had a handful of his feathers. He wouldn’t have a chance of getting away.

  “How many times does the kid have to tell you?” squeaked a voice from Simon’s backpack. Felix. “Let him go.”

  Simon turned his head just in time to see Felix sink his teeth into the soft space between Perrin’s thumb and finger. With a cry, Perrin released his grip, snatching his hand away.

  “Filthy rodent,” he growled, making a grab for F
elix, but Simon jerked his backpack away.

  “I don’t care what you do to me, but if you touch my friends, I’ll peck your eyes out,” he said, stumbling backward. Perrin rubbed his hand and chuckled.

  “I don’t want to do anything to you, Simon Thorn. All I want is to deliver you safely to your grandfather. Why you have to make it so difficult, I’ve no idea. I can have you on a flight tonight. By midnight, Orion will have his whole family to protect, and you’ll be with your mother. Everyone wins.”

  Simon hesitated. It was tempting. Going with Perrin meant his friends could go back to the safety of New York. And as much as Simon didn’t trust the birds, he knew Perrin wasn’t lying—he would see his mother again.

  But Orion didn’t want to protect them. He wanted to use them. He’d imprisoned Simon’s mother because she knew where to find the real pieces of the Predator, and he only wanted Simon because he thought he was the heir to the bird kingdom. If Simon wanted to help his mother and stop Orion from putting the Predator back together, then he couldn’t afford to walk straight into Orion’s trap. And he needed his friends’ help. He couldn’t leave them behind.

  “I’m good on my own, thanks,” he said, taking another step back. Nearby, something rustled, but the alley was so dark he could barely see Perrin’s silhouette. If he shifted, he might stand a chance of going undetected. Perrin would be looking for an eagle in the sky, not an ant on the ground.

  Or you could end this now.

  Simon didn’t know where that voice in the back of his mind came from, but it made his skin prickle. If he shifted into the right animal, it wouldn’t matter if Perrin could see him or not. All it would take was one bite, one deep scratch in the right place, or one dose of venom, and—

  Simon forced the thought out of his mind. If he used his powers against Perrin, that made him no better than the original Beast King, who had slaughtered his own kind. Simon wasn’t a killer. And he wouldn’t let Perrin turn him into something he wasn’t.

  Suddenly his back hit a wall. A sliver of light appeared under a door ten feet in front of him, but Perrin stood in his way, and the alley was too narrow for Simon to go around.

  He was trapped, and this time there was no one here to save him.

  Shifty Business

  “It can’t be easy being the only bird attending the L.A.I.R.,” said Perrin, his voice silky now that he had Simon cornered. “We’ve heard stories of how you’ve been treated. I saw for myself how even your brother isn’t your friend.”

  “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” said Simon as Perrin stepped closer.

  “Don’t I? I was raised in the insect kingdom. I know how hard it is to be a Hybred—to live among those of another kingdom. You’re a bird. Your uncle is a mammal, and your brother is the most powerful person in our world. Surely you’re ready to be surrounded by your own kind. By your family, and by people who care for you.”

  “And how long is that going to last?” Someone snapped behind Perrin. Simon’s eyes widened. He would have recognized that waspish voice anywhere.

  “Winter?” Perrin shuddered. “What are you—”

  “If you don’t want to be followed, you shouldn’t fly high enough for everyone to see you,” she said. “Answer me. How long are you going to keep him? Until you find all the pieces to the Predator? Until he’s no longer useful to you? Don’t tell me Orion actually wants to be surrounded by family, because we both know that’s a lie.”

  Simon felt Perrin’s bony hand on his shoulder, holding him in place as he turned to face Winter, but Perrin didn’t move toward her. He must not have been able to see her, either. “Simon is Orion’s grandson. He loves him—”

  “He called me his granddaughter my whole life,” she spat. “And the first time I wasn’t as perfect as he wanted me to be, he ditched me.”

  “Winter, sweetheart, leaving you behind broke Orion’s heart. Surely you must understand—”

  “I understand everything just fine,” she said. Simon heard the dry whisper of scales against concrete, and he lowered his gaze. She’d shifted. “Orion’s trying to put the real Predator together, and when he does, he’s going to kill the Beast King’s heir. Who, in case you’ve forgotten, is Simon’s brother.”

  Perrin sniffed. “Orion has no intention of killing anyone, least of all his own grandson.”

  “Yeah?” blurted Simon. “Then why did he drop me off a skyscraper?”

  “Because you are his heir,” said Perrin, a note of anxiety in his voice as that dry whisper grew closer. “Of course you were going to shift and save yourself—”

  “Liar!” A loud hiss filled the air, and thanks to the sliver of light from underneath the door, Simon spotted a dark blur flying toward them. Perrin must have spotted it, too, because with impossibly fast reflexes, he snatched the snake out of the air and hurled her against the wall. She hit the brick with a sick crack, and there was a loud ringing in Simon’s ears as panic overtook him.

  “Winter!” shouted Simon, and he fought against Perrin’s grip. “Help! Somebody help!”

  “Enough,” he said, pinning Simon against the wall with his elbow. “One way or the other, you are coming with me.”

  A pained squeak sounded from his backpack, and Simon stopped moving, if only to save Felix from being squished. Perrin bared his teeth.

  “What will it be, Simon Thorn? The easy way, or the hard—argh!”

  Something dropped onto Perrin’s head, and though Simon couldn’t see it, he could feel its fluffy tail brush against his nose—and smell the soy sauce in its fur. The raccoons.

  The door burst open, and light flooded the alleyway. “In here,” said a girl who couldn’t have been older than fifteen, and she gestured for Simon to join her. He ducked underneath Perrin’s flailing arms, narrowly avoiding having Perrin’s elbow connect with his nose, and he crouched down long enough to gently pick up the cottonmouth slumped against the brick wall. Winter was unconscious, and Simon wished he knew enough about snakes to tell whether or not she was breathing.

  “Are you coming or what?” said the impatient girl. Simon glanced at Perrin. While one raccoon bit his ear, another climbed up his leg, and Simon didn’t wait around to see what it would do. He hurried through the doorway and into what looked like a storage room for a restaurant, stopping dead in his tracks when he saw who was waiting for him.

  “Jam? Ariana?” he said. Ariana looked annoyed, and Jam clutched Winter’s purse. “How did you find us?”

  “This one knows Chicago like the back of his hand,” said Ariana, nudging Jam in the ribs.

  “I told you, I’ve never been here before,” said Jam, his face turning red. “We just followed the raccoons.”

  “Are they going to be okay?” said Simon, peering over his shoulder at the now-closed door.

  “They’ll be fine,” said the girl, tucking her short bleached hair behind her ear. It was uneven, like someone had cut it without caring much about making it look good. “But we need to get out of here before the manager catches us.”

  “We need to find a doctor,” said Simon, looking down at the cottonmouth coiled in his hands. “Or—a veterinarian.”

  “You are not taking me to the vet,” came Winter’s muffled voice, and Simon breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Stay like this—I’ll carry you,” he said, and though her tongue flicked out in a halfhearted hiss, she didn’t argue.

  The girl with the bleached hair led them through the storage room, grabbing items off the shelves as they went and stuffing them into a ragged tote bag slung over her shoulder. By the time they exited into a bustling restaurant kitchen, her bag was overflowing with tin cans and whole vegetables, but she walked in as if she had every right to be there.

  The smells emanating from the ovens made Simon’s mouth water, but he was too worried to be hungry. The girl seemed to have no such hang-ups, and she grabbed a roll off a waiting plate as they passed into the dining room.

  “Hey!” cried a woman dressed in
a pantsuit. “I told you not to come back!”

  “Time to run,” said the girl, and the four of them bolted through the dining room, weaving between tables and customers enjoying their dinner. As the woman—the manager, Simon presumed—continued to shout at them, they burst onto the sidewalk and sprinted down the street.

  Simon did his best to keep Winter steady, but by the time they finally slowed down, she was moaning. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  “She could have a concussion,” said Ariana as they followed the girl into another alleyway. “When we stop, she can shift back. That might help.”

  “Where are we going, anyway?” said Simon, who didn’t want to think too hard about what sort of injuries Winter might have. She’d gotten them trying to protect him from Perrin yet again, and he felt guilty enough already.

  “Bonnie said we can crash at her place for the night,” said Ariana. “There’s a train in the morning we can catch. With any luck, the flock will be looking for us on the streets, not the station. It’s a risk, but we have to take it.”

  “Where—” Simon cut himself off. “Bonnie? The raccoon?”

  “Only when digging through trash and running from the cops,” said the girl, leading them between two Dumpsters. They took another turn. “It’s just up there.”

  Outside of the L.A.I.R. and his own family, Simon had never met an Animalgam before, not like this. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but with her choppy hair, big boots, and the row of earrings running up the curve of her ear, Bonnie wasn’t it.

  She pushed aside a piece of plywood, revealing a hole in the wall of a crumbling brick building. “Home sweet home. Watch your head.”

  One by one, they bent down to fit through the hole and emerged in a dark hallway. Simon blinked, trying to get his bearings. “This is where you live?”

  “You don’t have to sound so judgmental about it,” said Bonnie.

  “I—I’m not,” said Simon. His ears burned with embarrassment. “I didn’t mean it like—”

  “Calm down. I know what you meant. It’s actually pretty cool once you see the inside.” She pulled the plywood over the hole again and, after flipping on a flashlight, led them down the hallway and through a heavy door that squealed as she opened it. “Our security system. You can hear that anywhere in the theater.”