“Temptation demon,” Malakai declared. “It’s trying to win her over… I’m afraid this is a battle she has to fight on her own.”
“What do you mean?” Nate’s voice grew more desperate. “It’s inside her?”
“No, the bite and the temptation have nothing to do with one another. The temptation demon has simply followed us, taking advantage of her weakened state to attempt to corrupt her.”
Nate grabbed Mey’s face, forcing her attention to him. “Hey, look at me. Stay with me, you hear me?”
Her eyes seemed dull, distant, as if she didn’t see him at all.
“Fuck,” Nate exhaled, his body vibrating as I heard his breath turning ragged. He was panicking, rightfully so, what were we supposed to do!?
“We can’t just idly watch her disappear,” Lionel cut in. “There must be something we can do?”
Malakai’s eyes swept over the glade. “Well, if we can figure out where it’s hiding, we could always kill it.”
“Say no more,” Ashley nodded, pulling out her bombs. She took three long strides away from us and then threw one randomly, hoping to get a lucky hit. The ground quivered in response to the explosion, sending a shockwave towards us.
“Shit, wrong one,” she chuckled embarrassed.
The heat of the blast tickled against my skin, as fire slowly began climbing my skin. “Perhaps, I have a better offer for it,” I said coldly, focusing on keeping my flames alive.
“Ethalyn, don’t,” Malakai warned, his voice laced with sharp steel. I had grown a bad habit of not listening to my superior, and I wasn’t about to change that anytime soon.
Whispers slowly found my ears; laughter, sweetness, the promise of being heard, seen. It was overwhelming, special, precious… Then, it disappeared, leaving me empty and cold, I gasped as if I had been stabbed. But there was no blade, no marks, only the promise of more.
“Ethalyn, stop it,” Malakai’s voice pushed through to me, his voice stern and angered.
“What’s happening?” I heard Mey’s faint voice.
“She… she’s baiting it?” Lionel asked, confused.
I looked down at my fingers, my flames burning bright, warming me, and comforting me. “We could be so much more, together.” In my flames, I saw figures, more like shadows, moving. Children with magic playing together withungifted, united.
Farmers and earth-wielders were working together, growing crops for the small villages, ending an era of starvation.
“What do you want in return?” I whispered. A delighted hiss sounded in the background, smoke sweeping around me, closing out the shouts, the voices that tried to reach me.
“Malakai,” the voice slithered in my ears, sweetly, addicting.
From the cloud of shadows, a hand appeared, holding it out as if wanting to help me, offering support, offering my hopes and dreams. “Never alone, never starving.”
Slowly, I stretched out towards the hand, my eyes tracing it. It was humanoid, sculpting a body without a face. It was completely blank, missing parts. Even if I felta quick sense of panic welling up inside by the sight, it was soon covered with a smooth calm.
I couldn’t help smiling at it, it felt right, it felt normal. Then, right before I touched it’s hand, my flames ignited, as I shaped them like a rope once more, latching around the being’s neck.
The creature shrieked, the humanoid shape disappeared and instead a creature colored bright red took its place. It had long ears with sharpened ends, jagged teeth, and horns. Its eyes were like molten lava, burning hot as if trying to scorch a layer of my skin off with its mere gaze.
It wore tattered wings, along with impossibly tall legs, and a tail flailing around wildly behind.
The illusion it had made me see slowly disappeared, as I forced the creature into the real world with me and I heard the others gasp in fear as they witnessed it.
“What the—” Nate shouted first.
“What is that thing!?” Eve shrieked.
The creature began lashing out, pulling against my fire. It tried to claw at us, but I tugged at the flames surrounding it, and it hissed in response, not able to move as my flames wrapped around its arms as well.
“It seems,” Malakai said, his voice radiating with respect, “—that kitten has gotten herself a little temptation demon on a leash.”
