“I know what he is,” I snapped, grabbing her attention away from him. “He’smine.”
I grabbed her leg and stabbed my blade in quickly, pulling it out before she was able to retreat. She hissed, baring her teeth at me.
The fog tightened around us until I couldn’t see sky or ground, only grey swallowing grey. The demon took a step back, probably letting us think we had won as she became a silhouette in the mist.
“Jaden?” I shouted out.
The shape shifted in the fog, turned humanoid, but shorter with hair buns and as the fog slowly separated from it I saw pink highlights.
“Ashley?”
Her shape stood between the dead trees, hair tangled like she’d been running for hours. She looked… broken.
“Why am I here? Do you remember?” she whispered. “Because I do. I remember her hand slipping from mine.” Her voice cut deeper than any blade. “I was supposed to die. Not her. I killed her by living.”
Ashley’s twin, her wound that never closed.
My heart lurched, protective, horrified, but Malakai’s hand squeezed hard around mine.
“Whatever you see, it’s not real,” he warned, voice strained.
Ashley’s face twisted into grief sharpened into accusation.
“You weren’t there,” she said to me. “You never saw what they did. You didn’t hold her while she died.” Her voice cracked. “You would never understand that kind of pain.”
The words hit like a fist.
Before I could answer, the shape shuddered, bones rearranging. Until Lionel stood there, cold and emotionless.
“You’re a fire mage,” he said. “I didn’t walk away because you chosehim, I walked away because of whatyouare.” His disappointment smeared across every memory I had of him. “You burn everything that loves you. It’s just a matter of time.”
My body shook, but my flames exploded outward, pushing back the fog and the visions. Once more I was back at that spider’s nest and her legs had circled around Malakai again; trying to drag him away, but he held my hand firmly and the other hand pressed into the sand… Or rather the sand held him locked in place. Jaden’s magic was holding onto him.
My flames were enough to make her illusions fade, but not to kill her.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of him,” she hummed tauntingly.
I reached for my gun and fired a shot at her.
Quartz burned into where her human and spider bodies became one and she screeched. My hands shot to my ears to try to keep the sound out, and her legs trembled, one wrapping around the wound I had made.
She was still a demon, still vulnerable to quartz.
Thank the Gods.
I shot another two rounds, and her eyes turned furiously to me. Her legs shot out towards me, all at once, ensnaring me as if she was trying to cocoon me next.
Another shot sounded from behind her, making her legs twitch in pain. But she kept encircling me. Was it Jaden who had made the shot?
“Disgusting human,” she hissed. “Hateful creature, what have you done?”
I tried angling my gun at her to fire another round, but her legs pushed my arm to the side. My eyes slid to Malakai, who had fallen to the ground, panting, struggling for consciousness. Then I swept my attention towards her eggs.
I used all my strength to straighten my arm and shoot them. First bullet missed, but the second cracked an egg open, blood gushing out of it.
“NO!” the creature screamed, her body bending as if the shot had hurt her physically too. Her leg slapped the gun out of my hand again. My flames flared, but they had no effect against her legs and her upper body closed in on me.
“I’ll devour you and your sinful flames,” she whispered coldly. “Then, I’ll let my babies feed on those you left behind in the forest.”
