Chapter 12
CHAPTER
The forest was endless, stretching beneath the sinking sun. Shafts of light speared through the branches, painting their path in shifting gold and shadow. Boots drummed a steady rhythm on the dirt, the sound broken only by the occasional crunch of roots and twigs.
The squad had spread out in a loose formation, the silence softened by idle conversation.
Nate swung his bag lazily and muttered, “If we keep walking west long enough, we’ll fall off the edge of the world.”
“You do that, I’ll look after your sister,” Ashley snorted.
Mey smiled faintly at her brother. “The world is round, stupid.”
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 wearing my face 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.”
My grip on my weapon tightened until my knuckles ached.
Another demon slithered into Mey’s likeness, her features sickly pale, eyes hollow. “You’re fading already,” it whispered. “The cough in your lungs will finish you before any enemy does.”
Nate took a step forward, voice rough. “Shut your mouth.”
Then it shifted, melted into his form, Nate’s face, but crueler. “Protector. Brother. But what happens when you fail? What happens when you can’t keep her safe?”
Nate’s jaw clenched, and I hated how obvious it was that the words dug so deep.
A ripple of shadows became Eve, smirking. “Pretty smile. Shame he only tolerates you. You’ll never have him, you know.”
Her eyes flicked towards Lionel, and though he refused to look at her, my stomach turned anyway.
Another stepped out in Lionel’s likeness, voice soft, accusing. “How long will you keep protecting her, hm? Until she chooses someone else? Until she breaks you?”
The real Lionel stayed silent, but I saw his shoulders tense, refusing to avert his eyes.
Another shadow appeared, shifted into Malakai. His sneer made the perfect mirror of the original one. “Lieutenant. All discipline, no heart. I wonder where you left it?”
Malakai didn’t react. Not outwardly. He looked bored, death lingering in his stare.
The air grew heavy with their voices, every word a mirror held up to our weakest parts. I could feel them pressing in, needle-sharp, digging for cracks.
Ashley’s laughter shattered the tension, sharp, chaotic. She pulled a bomb from her satchel, fuse sparking alive.
“You can wear our faces, our voices, hell, even our bad jokes. But you’re forgetting one thing.”
She hurled it into the pack of shapeshifters. The explosion rocked the forest, fire licking skyward. The demons screamed, black shapes warping in the flames.
“You will blow into pieces, like the rest of us.”
The ground shook as the elemental demon roared, molten cracks splitting across its body. Fire and shadow poured out as it surged forward.
“Formation!” Malakai barked. His voice cut through the rising roar of inhuman screeches.
“Lionel, guard the flank. Nate and Mey, keep the shapeshifters at bay. Eve, high ground with that rifle or you’re dead weight.
Ashley, hold your blasts for the stone bastard.
Kitten—” His eyes locked on me, searing, merciless. “You’re with me.”
The world blurred into motion, more demons appearing between the trees.
Eve sprinted upslope, boots crunching through leaves and mud, her rifle barking in sharp rhythm as bullets left its barrel. Each shot rang out, but her demon-double, same face, same smirk, danced between bullets, its laughter ringing in the air like shattering glass.
On the left flank, Nate crashed into a shapeshifter, his blade cleaving through flesh that rippled and writhed like water. “I’ve got you, sis!” he yelled.
“Don’t get sloppy!” Mey snapped back, raising her gun. She fired point-blank into the chest of her own mirror, the recoil making her jolt. The demon staggered, chest cavity smoking, but it kept coming, eyes glowing with that same uncanny calm as hers.
Ashley’s shriek of laughter cut through the clash. “Who wants to explode?” She hurled a bomb, and the blast tore a cluster of demons apart in a bloom of smoke and burning ichor. She danced in the haze, wild and untouchable.
Lionel moved like a tide against the right flank, a relentless wall protecting us. Every enemy that slipped close met his blade. His face was grim, controlled, but his eyes flickered towards me, again and again, as though tethered.
And then, our problem—mine and Malakai’s.
The elemental loomed, stone skin cracked and pulsing with molten seams. The earth trembled under its steps, every movement heavy as thunder.
Malakai and I struck together. His blade crashed against the elemental’s fist, sparks flying as molten stone shuddered.
“Focus on the cracks!” he roared.
I found them, glowing seams across its chest, thin as veins of light. My sword bit shallowly, I hissed as the heat seared my arms. I faltered, nearly losing my grip, but Malakai was there, his blade intercepting the blow meant to crush me, the impact reverberating through my bones.
“Stay on rhythm!” he barked, driving forward.
I swallowed my fear, matching his pace. When he blocked, I struck. When I staggered, he steadied me, not with kindness, but with force, like an officer dragging a soldier through fire.
The air split around us as the elemental roared. Trees cracked as the ground shook violently, leaves falling everywhere. Shadows faltered all around us, demons shrieking in disarray.
Somewhere behind, Mey cried out, her voice sharp with pain. Nate’s answering snarl rose over it. Gunfire rattled, sharp and fast, Eve, still firing, teeth bared in frustration.
I risked a glance, saw blood on the ground and Nate shielding Mey with his body. Lionel and Eve worked as a team for one brutal second, their rifles cutting down the attackers before they could finish the siblings.
Rage burned hot in my chest. My blade came down with all my might, slamming into the glowing fracture. The seam split wider, fire spitting like a forge.
Malakai seized the opening, his voice cracking through the battlefield. “Now!”
I roared, every ounce of fear and fury pouring into my strike. The crack split open, blinding, hot light bursting out. Malakai grabbed my arm and forcefully pulled me away from it, as fire spurted into the air, searing the trees, smoke billowing upward.
The elemental shrieked, a final, piercing cry, then collapsed into rubble, the ground quaking as its body shattered, smothering the flames once more. Stone fragments scattered across the ground and glowing embers hissed into silence.
Silence, except for ragged breathing and the distant crackle of cooling rock. My chest heaved, lungs raw. My sword trembled in my grip, the heat still burning along my palms.
It was over. But the battlefield reeked of blood, smoke, and something colder, the knowledge that this was only the beginning.
The remaining shapeshifters broke, their stolen faces twisting before dissolving into formless shadow. They scattered, vanishing into the trees until the forest fell silent again.
I stood in the smoky clearing, as everything caught up with me, sweat and ash clinging to my skin. I hadn’t frozen in horror.
“That’s what I call a warm-up,” Ashley whooped, tossing a burnt fuse.