But who was she fighting?

The sandy bowl just held a few of those tall, cactuslike plants and nothing else.

“Kady!” Jake called to her.

She swung around, spinning like a startled cat. Her eyes locked on his, then flicked over to the others.

“Where the heck are we?” she hollered to him. “What is this place?”

Jake stepped toward her. “I don’t—”

“Stay back!” she snapped at him.

Not seeing any danger, he continued a few more steps.

Then to Kady’s left, the sand exploded. A whiplike stalk, covered in hooked spines, snapped out of the ground and swiped at her. Without even turning, she lashed out with her blade and severed it with a single swipe. The stump retreated, seeping a yellowish red ooze. Even the amputated section squiggled back into the sand and vanished.

The nearest cactus shuddered. It was shaped like a man with a single trunk and two sprouting arms. Only its head was a bulbous blood red flower. The petals opened, bent toward Kady—and hissed.

Jake stopped as if he’d hit a wall.

Since when did flowers hiss?

The cactus drew its roots out of the sand, and the entire plant crawled back from Kady.

Before she could take a step, another attacked her blind side. A pair of snaking, spiny roots shot toward her back.

“Kady!”

Jake whipped his rock, aiming for the plant’s bulblike head. The stone flew true and smacked into the crimson petals. The cactus was unharmed but surprised. The snaking roots faltered enough for Kady to duck and spin. Her sword cut through both roots. The severed stumps hit the sand and continued to squirm, digging back underground.

The cactus had clearly had enough and edged sullenly away, dragging through the sand.

“Who else wants some?” Kady growled, making a slow turn.

The other cacti lifted their roots and retreated.

“I thought so!”

She collected her bag with her free arm and headed over toward Jake, but she never let down her guard.

One of the plants made a halfhearted swipe at her, but it didn’t even come close. It was more like the cactus was waving her off, or maybe flipping her the bird. Either way, the plants were letting her go.

Kady quickly joined Jake and pointed her sword at the battlefield. “Okay, who wants to explain all of this?”

Before Jake could even begin, a piercing screech cut through the hot air, sounding hungry and distinctly saurian. Jake knew there were as many dinosaurs in desert climates as in any other. Worst of all, harsh terrains forged the fiercest predators.

Across the sands, other cries joined the first one.

A pack.

Jake stared back at his group’s footprints trampled in the sand. The cries were coming from that direction. Something had found their scent, locked onto their trail.

“We’re being hunted!” he shouted, and pointed across the sand. “Get to higher ground!”

As a group, they fled away from the sandy bowl and toward the mushroomlike pinnacle. It still lay another three hundred yards off. They pounded across the slippery sand. The heat fought them as much as the terrain. After only a hundred yards, Jake’s lungs burned as if he’d been sucking on a blowtorch.