Malakai gave me a warning look, blood threads flickering around his fingers, protective and unamused.
“Ignore it,” he growled into the fog. “They want us divided.”
But the whispers kept hunting for soft spots.
Lionel’s jaw clenched as he stared into the shadows. “They’re using memories… Information they shouldn’t have.”
And then the shapes appeared.
Movement flickered on the edges of vision, hiding in the fog, urging us to chase after them as if they were playing tag.
No thanks, I’d rather not die by childish games today.
My heart hammered as two shapes walked out of the fog at once.
Caleb.
And Caleb…
“What… I was just behind you guys?” one of the figures exhaled and looked panicked.
“What is happening?” the other asked confused.
They had the same stance, same brown hair, same hand gripping a dagger like they’d been born with it.
Both looked furious, frightened, and alive.
Jaden swore quietly, while Eve raised her rifle but didn’t shoot, her hands steady despite the confusion, eyes darting between the two Calebs. She hesitated, fully aware that she had already been traumatized by shooting the wrong person before…
“Don’t you dare pick the wrong one,” one Caleb snarled.
“That’s exactly what a demon would say,” the other spat back.
Malakai’s posture prowled with irritation, threads pulsing around us like a blood red spider web. “I could've ripped the demon apart,” he offered, voice low and hungry. “But the fog is making it hard to smell which one it is.”
“No,” I snapped. “We can’t go in blind.”
One Caleb surged forward suddenly, shoving me away from Malakai. “What if he’s behind this?”
Nate sighed. “We’ve talked about this before—”
“Right, we ‘talked’,” the other Caleb snorted.
Shit, the demon version was really blending in good this time. They glared, and pointed at one another. “That’s the wrong one.”
It was as if they had practiced it, words slipping at the same time, the same shocked expression afterwards.
“Demons spread doubt, fear, hatred and greed,” Faelin mumbled over, and over.
“This is stupid!” one of the doubles hissed. “I’m right here! Shoot us in the foot or something if you don’t believe me! Look at the blood, like the map-reader said!”
“One minute he can smell other demons, but when we really need it, he can’t? How convenient.” the other one spat towards Malakai as steel flashed in the fog.
A wet, ugly sound cut through the hush. Jaden had lunged forward, burrowed his dagger into the back of the Caleb who blamed Malakai.
“The one holding on to hatred,” Jaden breathed out, pulling the dagger out again.
The stabbed Caleb fell to the ground, coughing upredblood.
