“The fog, it split us apart… Couldn’t find them.”
“So you left without searching for them?” I asked confused.
His eyes shone in the fog as they settled on me. “I needed to find you.”
“But the others—” I started but was cut off as he took a few quick steps towards me and flung his arms around me. His embrace was rough, tight and made me worry about what the voices had told him to make him like this. Had it been desire or fear that had affected him?
“Malakai—”
He took a deep breath at my neck, as if breathing in my smell. “It’s okay, everything’s fine now, my dear.”
I froze.
I counted inside my head.
One.
Two.
Three.
My hand steadied around my gun, before I swiftly pulled the trigger and shot him in the chest.
He grunted loudly, throwing himself backwards. His hand clutched at the wound, which sizzled angrily.
“What are you doing?” Eve shouted.
I released the breath I had been holding onto while triggering the gun, before I took a deep inhale, lifted it and aimed at him again.
“Um, Ethalyn? We said to not listen to the voices,NOTkill, remember?” Ashley tried stepping up beside me. “Are you okay? Talk to us?”
“Where are the others?” I asked, ignoring Ashley and Eve.
Ashley stilled, but I felt her intense stare digging into me as if she was trying to decide whether to act or listen, considering whether I had gone mad or not.
“You thinkIhurt them?” he asked, looking wounded.
I cocked the gun and he lifted his hands in surrender, his face telling me he felt betrayed.
“What the hell is happening?” Faelin asked behind me. “I thought you were certain we could trust him!?”
“More incoming,” Eve informed, her voice steady again, as more silhouettes appeared in the fog.
I saw him turn and look, I fired my gun again, getting him in the temple this time. His body stumbled in return, and then slowly it fell to the ground.
“Are you insane!?” Ashley shouted. “In the head!?”
About then, the other figures came into view: Lionel, Nate, Jaden and Caleb. As soon as they saw the body they stopped and stared wide-eyed at it.
“Where is he?” I asked, my voice shaking.
Lionel met my eyes, and the emotion inside of them was hard to read, yet felt familiar…
It was that same look he had whenever he realised a storm was coming, trying to decide whether to act quickly or take cover.
A few seconds passed with silence. My body began trembling from a mixture of uncertainty and anxiousness.
The Malakai I had shot had been a fake, a shapeshifter of some sort, I was sure of it.
