Nate gasped with mock offense. “You mean to say I’ve been lied to by every mapmaker in the world?”
“You’ll live, Nate. Maps are still useful. Even if they can’t save us from your jokes,” Lionel chuckled, walking near the rear.
Eve drifted closer to him, trying to slip into the laugh. “I think they’re funny.”
Ashley rolled her eyes. “Of course you do.”
Ahead, Malakai raised his hand, halting the group. Gone was the sound of birdsong.
The stillness was suffocating, heavy as a held breath. The forest seemed… wrong. A haze shimmered between the trees, like heat off stone, though the air was cool.
“Do you feel that?” I tightened my grip on the gun.
Mey cleared her throat softly. “Not the air. The ground, it’s shaking.”
The soil beneath our boots trembled, faint but real.
With a tearing sound, the earth split open right ahead of us. A shape clawed its way out, its form jagged and shifting, half stone, half fire, a body of molten rock stitched with living dirt.
An elemental demon. Its eyes glowed like furnaces, locking onto us with hunger.
Ashley grinned wildly, already reaching for her satchel. “Ohhh, finally. Something worth blowing up.”
“I’ve got the eye. Give me the shot,” Eve said, steadying her rifle, lips curling in an eager smile.
Malakai’s voice cut through the chaos. “Hold. It’s not alone.”
And he was right. From the tree line, shadows stirred. Shapes melted out of the forest, humanoid, but distorted. Faces that shifted too smoothly, features rippling like water.
One smiled with Lionel’s face. Another wore Mey’s, but twisted, cruel. What the hell were they?
Shapeshifting demons?
Nate swore under his breath. “Oh, that’s unfair.”
The impostors laughed in unison, their voices blending into a single, warped mockery of human sound.
One stepped forward, wearing my own face, its grin stretching too wide.
“Kitten,” it purred, the word rolling with Malakai’s voice.
The squad stiffened, even the Lieutenant’s jaw tightened, but his eyes were focused, deadly.
“Form up. The stone one’s the core. The rest are distractions,” Malakai instructed, his calm voice taking us down a notch.
Ashley cracked her knuckles, gleeful. “Distractions burn just as nicely.”
Lionel shifted closer to me, weapon raised, his eyes darting between me and my doppelganger. “Stay sharp. Don’t let it get in your head.”
The demon wearing my face laughed again, eyes flashing molten gold.
“Too late.”
I swallowed hard, it had already adjusted its voice, trying to sound like me. It was terrifying. Slowly, its shape mirrored mine more and more, until it looked almost like a perfect replica.
The false versions stepped closer, faces gleaming like oil slicks on water. The one wearingmyface tilted its head too far, a smile stretching unnaturally wide.
“You’ll never matter, kitten,” it purred, in my exact voice. “All you are is noise, which your parents had to die for.”
