Kallie’s face twisted. “No, I can’t. I can’t keep pretending to be someone else. It got me landed in the Institute. I won’t go there again.”
Perfect Kallie scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Well, at least my parents love me. They despise you.”
Kallie flinched. She bounced on her feet, clearly indecisive about what she should do.
Marcus broke in. “I don’tlikethat version of you,” he said, gesturing to Perfect Kallie. “That’s not who you are.”
“But she’s what I’ve always wanted to be,” Kallie insisted as she spun toward Marcus. “Maybe she’s right. Maybe I could be different if I just worked harder.”
“She’s not real. Why do you want to turn yourself into someone you’re not?” Marcus asked.
Kallie didn’t answer, and the illusion took it as an opportunity.
“Take my hand,” Perfect Kallie said gently. “Then you’ll become everything you were always meant to be, and get rid of all the parts that you hate. I promise I’ll make all the bad parts of you disappear. Then your family will love you again.”
Kallie’s hand quivered. I thought she was going to use her magic to break the illusion, but then—
“Kallie!” Marcus screamed as she reached out and grabbed the illusion’s hand. Once she did that, the cavern exploded into chaos.
The figures floating behind us morphed. They changed, bodies twisting and skin mutating until the figures appeared to be hovering corpses, flesh hanging off bone and insects festering out of holes in purplish, blue skin. Their eyes were gaunt and horrifying as the figures charged at us, arms outreached to wrap us within their decomposing forms.
Ugh, ancestors, decaying flesh wasnota good look on me.
Kallie’s illusion changed, too. Perfect Kallie melted into a corpse with a torn dress as she launched herself at her clone. Our Kallie changed into a shifter and yelped, spinning away from the floating corpse with a wolfish whine. Marcus screamed as he ran in circles, trying to get his decaying sister to leave him alone. Rishi launched himself upward and clawed at Erica’s soggy face, but she smacked him off. Marcus gave a cry as Rishi hit the floor of the cave.
“Goddammit, Kallie!” Charlie roared. He was trying to pry Fake Demon Me off of him, who had wrapped her hands around his neck and was squeezing tight. Not that far off from what I wanted to do in real life, to be honest.
My worst nightmare stalked in front of me as Corpse Monica staggered my way. Spiders furled out of her eye holes and nose, and skin dripped off her form. The sight made me want to cry. Monica’s body had been burned, her ashes scattered under the burial mounds in Kinpago, but many times I’d woken up screaming, imagining her remains slowly wasting away in a coffin underground.
I tossed fireballs at her, warning the corpse to get back, while Oberi waved her horn. The corpse remained at a distance, although I couldn’t get rid of the terror welling in my chest as I observed the haunting figure.
Kallie was on her back, whimpering as the image of her own corpse held her down.
“You can’t let me go! Youneedme!” Perfect Kallie screamed. Dark blood dripped from her teeth, spilling onto the wolf’s silver coat.
Kallie closed her eyes. She changed back into her human form, and let out a wicked scream. A burst of purple magic erupted from her hand and rippled through the cavern in a shockwave.
Once the violent spell hit the corpses, they immediately turned to dust. Charlie dusted ash off the front of his clothes, while Marcus crawled to Rishi, who meowed to let him know he was okay.
I let out a breath of relief. Kallie had broken the illusion. Her magic was strong enough to overpower it, though she’d sure taken her sweet time breaking it out.
Even so, Kallie was spent. She lay flat against the ground, and didn’t get up. Marcus stumbled forward and helped her to her feet. She leaned against him, like she could hardly fit to stand right now.
I leaned forward and cried into Oberi’s neck, remembering the depiction of Monica’s rotting body. That had beenhorrible. It’d be something that would stay with me forever.
Charlie ran a hand through my hair. “It’s okay to cry, pidge. I know that was rough.”
I sniffed and wiped my nose. This damn prophecy was going to kill me.
“How’d you beat it?” Marcus asked. He jostled Kallie, who looked as tired as I felt.
“I needed to save my friends more than get what I wanted,” Kallie said. “The illusion wouldn’t break until I decided that. I tried, and it didn’t work until then.”
“Well, if it counts, you’ve always been perfect to me,” Marcus mumbled.
Kallie gave a thin, wavering smile. I took it as a hint not to give up on them quite yet.
“I hope you guys have got the next trap handled,” Kallie moaned. “I couldn’t conjure a cup of tea, at the moment.”
