“Wilders?” Amber’s voice dripped disdain. “We’re not Wilders.”
“Then, what are you?” Bale asked.
“Just a simple group of people looking to survive the apocalypse. Obviously”—she waved a hand at Lix—“you are something more, but we came to offer you help.”
“She’s lying,” Aisling whispered so low her words didn’t travel past us. “She’s hideous.”
Amber was far from hideous, but Aisling saw more than I could of the woman. I rested my hand briefly on her arm and felt the tension in the honed muscles beneath my palm. Aisling’s eyes flickered toward me before locking on the woman again.
“We don’t need any help,” Bale said and whistled for the hounds. “Let’s go.”
The hounds slunk out of the mist and prowled closer to Bale. All of them kept their heads low and their attention on Amber’s group as they surrounded us. Aisling hesitated before falling into step behind Lix as Bale led the way through the fog.
“Are you sure that’s the right way?” Amber called after us. “The mist can be disorienting.”
Bale didn’t reply, and Aisling didn’t put her gun away after we left the humans standing in the mist.
“What do you think she meant by that?” Wren asked.
When we were on the hill, the fog hadn’t seemed that thick, but standing in the middle of it was like standing in the middle of a moving room. The walls followed us everywhere we went.
“She’s evil and repulsive,” Aisling said.
“I don’t think she’s up to any good,” Lix said, “but she wasn’t repulsive.”
“Yes, she is.” When Aisling stopped walking, so did the rest of us. Her hand trembled as she rested it against her chest. “On the outside, she’s perfect, butinsideshe has one of the most corrupted souls I’ve ever seen, and those people with her were also malformed.”
“What do you mean?” Corson asked.
“I can see souls. Not born demons, of course, because you don’t have one, but I can see the souls of humans and demons who have human DNA in them like Hawk and Wren. I’ve always possessed the ability, and I’ve run into some pretty shitty humans in my lifetime, butthatwoman is one of the worst. Whatever she’s done, it’s turned her into a monster, or maybe she was born one. I don’t know, but she’s evil.”
“No one is born evil, and there is no such thing as good and evil. There are shades of gray in all things,” Bale said. “The angels aren’t all good, and demons aren’t all bad.”
“Fine,” Aisling said impatiently. “She wasn’t born evil, but her piss-poor life choices have turned her into a monster. You don’t understand how rarethatis. I’ve seen the corrupted souls of people who have hurt others and who are cruel and manipulative, but until today, I’ve only encountered one other soul so corrupted it was abeastinside a person. Andallthe people with her were corrupted, but none as bad as her.”
Panic tinged Aisling’s voice, and she glanced nervously behind us when she stopped speaking. I gripped her elbow and drew her closer.
“They’re watching us,” she whispered.
And I knew she was right as I could feel eyes boring into us as the mist rolled around us like a living, breathing thing. I didn’t know how, but I suspected Amber or one of her friends was controlling the fog.
“We should have killed them all,” Aisling said.
Corson’s eyebrows shot up before he nodded approvingly. He gave me a thumbs-up that Aisling couldn’t see and flashed a grin. I shook my head at him. Demons often didn’t understand the more emotional side of humans, but they did understand destroying their enemies, and apparently, Corson approved of Aisling’s words.
I stroked Aisling’s arm as I tried to ease some of the strain from her. I’d seen her ruthlessness during the battle, and she may kill when necessary, but she wasn’t cruel. She wanted them dead because she’d seen something that terrified her.
“We have to get out of this valley,” Wren said. “We only saw seven of them, but there could be more.”
Aisling shuddered at Wren’s words, and I bent to kiss the top of her head. “It will be okay,” I promised.
Corson rested his hand on the small of Wren’s back as Bale started into the fog again. I released her elbow but stayed next to Aisling as the mist thickened until I could barely see Corson and Wren before us.
The scrape of metal against leather rebounded off the mist as Bale pulled the sword she wore on her back free of its sheath. I saw her do it, and she was no more than two feet away from me, but I couldn’t tell if the sound came from beside me or a hundred feet away.
From the corner of my eye, I saw something darker slip through the fog. As soon as I turned toward it, it vanished. I slid the blade hanging from my side free and gripped it in both hands as something darted through the fog. Laughter trailed behind it.
“Son of a bitch,” Corson muttered.
