A broken gasp dragged my attention back.
Nate had fallen to his knees, Ashley right beside him, palms clamped to his bleeding shoulder.
“Hey, hey, look at me,” she begged, voice raw. “Don’t close your eyes. Just,please, stay with me. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!”
Nate tried to smile for her, but it twisted into a grimace. “I’m not going anywhere… you finally stabbed me. Not missing that.”
His humor cracked apart with a cough as blood soaked between Ashley’s fingers.
We couldn’t stay here.
Malakai tugged me closer, teeth bared. “Let me and Lionel handle the demon. You staywith—”
The fog answered him with a low hiss, not entirely human, almost… liquid? A wet, dripping sound echoed around us, making it hard to tell which direction it came from.
“We need to kill it,” Eve shot back.
Ashley’s voice cracked through the tension,
“Go!”
She pressed harder on Nate’s wound, sobbing.
“I’ll keep him alive, justgofind that thing and make ithurt.”
Something broke open in me. Heat roared outward, my flames swirling through the mist, a hungry beacon challenging the demon back.
“I’m going,” I said.
Malakai’s threads coiled lovingly, possessively around my wrist. “Together.”
“Stay with Nate,” I breathed out to whoever listened, as I took a step forward, Malakai following me without question.
“You belong to me… come to me…” the voice echoed, trying to mimic Malakai’s voice but it was too dark, too unhuman.
“What kind of demon is this?” I whispered, glancing up to Malakai. But he was silent, eyes focused forward. Had he never encountered this kind himself? The mere thought made me nervous, and my hand instinctively reached for his, braiding our fingers together. I feared that if I didn’t hold onto him, we’d be separated by the mist.
My foot landed in something squishy, and I froze, my eyes darting down. A pool of blood and something gooey. When I tried to pull my foot back, the weird material followed like it wasn’t ready to let go. “What the—”
My eyes caught something moving and at the same time, Malakai’s hand tightened around mine. Something red and resembling vines crawled along the ground, thick with blood, leaving a trail.
They weren’t vines.
They were arms.
“Ethalyn, we should head back,” Malakai said, voice guarded. The red veiny arm lunged, hooking like a tentacle around mine in a swift movement.
“Stay,” it hissed from the fog, the grip painfully strong. I tried pulling away, thinking the wet blood would let me slip out. Instead, sharp pain coursed through my arm as small needles pressed out of the red limb, piercing my skin.
I snarled, and Malakai lunged forward, gripping the arm with his free hand. His threads of blood swirled around it like a rope pressing tight, trying to cut off the flow of blood. The grip around my arm loosened reluctantly, and I saw the marks from where the needles had scratched me, but there was no blood. I panted out a relieved breath, my hand shaking as I pulled it back.
The creature latched onto Malakai’s arm instead, and two more red arms appeared out of the fog, grabbing his legs and slithering around them.
Malakai hissed, his magic pushing back.
“Malakai?” I asked, confused.
Laughter sounded as a slithering mass of red flesh came crawling into view. The mist parted slightly to reveal—
