Chapter 10
CHAPTER
As promised, two others met up with us before leaving.
Caleb, an Ashen Corps soldier with light brown hair and blue eyes, was apparently highly regarded for his close combat skills and had excellent aim for someone who wasn’t a sniper.
Faelin was an air Aetherion, with light ginger hair and impossible moss green eyes.
She walked with grace, but seemed careful and quiet, often casting a cautious eye at Malakai.
At least she seemed to have been notified about his nature, unlike Jaden.
We had been walking for perhaps an hour in the stillness. Slowly, the birdsong faded, crickets stopped chirping, and the trees turned awfully stiff.
“Why does our group keep expanding?” Ashley complained. “It makes it a lot harder to sneak.”
“I apologize if I’m causing you trouble,” Faelin said with a lowered voice.
“Shit. Don’t apologize like that… now I feel like an ass,” Ashley sighed, still irritable.
“I’m sor—”
Before Faelin could apologize again, Ashley’s grunt cut her off.
“The demons whooped us last time,” Eve said bitterly. “Just bow and accept any help we get through these Godsforsaken lands.”
“The day I’m forced to bow to anyone, is the day my explosives target humans again,” Ashley muttered, making Caleb and Faelin stiffen.
“Relax, she’s all talk,” Lionel apologized in her stead.
“Right,” Caleb nodded. “So, what’s the plan then?”
“The group that was sent out before us has drawn some attention, keeping the demons out of our path for a short while,” I explained, trying to remember what Amestele had told us before leaving. “It should give us enough time to sneak past their first line.”
“We’re not supposed to kill them?” Faelin asked confused.
“Eventually,” Lionel added. “But our focus is to make it to Darkshire.”
“Why?” Caleb asked curiously, more open when a fellow ungifted was speaking.
“We need to know more, such as whether most of their forces guard the border, or if they’re preparing elsewhere? What if they have a half-breed army that can wield magic outside of the elements? They’d be able to infiltrate and crush us from within,” Eve muttered, her eyes sharp.
“The question isn’t if they have one, rather why are they stalling? They haven’t made any significant attacks for at least two years,” I said, unease filling me. “They must be planning something…”
“Question is, what?” Lionel pondered, eyes locked forward.
I glanced over at Malakai and saw his hands curling into fists. For him, there was more to this mission than merely facing off against the demons and their leader. The Demon King was his father… He had left Malakai and his mother behind, forcing them to deal with their fate all on their own.
She had been a mage, forced to feed other Aetherions to her half-demon son, so that he may live. What a cruel fate—not only for her, but for him, too. To have to take lives at such young age…
What would Malakai do once he met his father? I knew he had little interest for someone who abandoned them, yet… feelings are complicated… The heart doesn’t always get along with the brain.
For a brief moment, I battled with myself, wondering if I should initiate the conversation, but I ended up pushing it back.
By the looks of him, he was already at war with his own thoughts.
It occurred to me that I never asked him if he had been to these lands prior to when he scouted ahead of us by himself.
Was this land giving him bad vibes, bringing back memories he didn’t want to relive?
Or was he… sensing the other demons?
I swallowed hard, as the squad fell quiet once again, leaving only the sound of our boots hitting the dirt, the tension clawing at us from all around.
This time, we had to get through.
The Demon Lands were exactly as we remembered them: ugly, silent, and twisted.
Grey sand stretched endlessly in every direction, a fine powder like crushed bone beneath our boots.
A thick, dark fog clung low at the surface, crawling around our legs like it was breathing us in.
It swallowed sound; even our footsteps were muted, as if the ground didn’t want to acknowledge we were trespassing.
“Cheery place,” Nate muttered somewhere behind me. “Great spot for a honeymoon.”
“You’d have to find a person willing to marry you first,” Jaden teased next to him.
Ashley scoffed. “If anyone ever proposes to me here, I’d set the ring and them on fire.”
“You’d set them on fire regardless,” Jaden added dryly.
“True.”
Malakai brushed closer to me, fingers ghosting over mine like he was worried the fog might steal me if he didn’t remind it that I was his. Those scarlet eyes were fixed ahead, scanning. He wore a maddeningly calm expression as if nothing could frighten him.
“They’re here,” he murmured. “Watching.”
Of course they were.
Lionel walked a few paces ahead, rifle raised, body stiff. No one could see through the fog, not even him, but he looked ready to shoot the mist itself if it swirled incorrectly.
To our left, Eve kept her rifle steady, jaw clenched in that, ‘you idiots better not make me save you,’ way. She hated this place, hated not having a clear sight, and hated not having control.
“Wind’s shifting,” Faelin said quietly from the rear, fingers flexing as though she could feel the air’s discomfort.
“Ground’s moving, too,” Jaden added, glancing down. “Like its breathing.”
“Maybe it is,” Caleb said from beside him, checking his handgun with a soft click. He didn’t talk much, but every word he said sounded like a promise.
A loud crack split through the fog.
Everyone froze.
It wasn’t thunder.
It was ice, shattering.
Then, swoosh, like a furnace roaring to life.
“They’re not hiding anymore,” Malakai growled. His eyes flashed red. “Elemental demons.”
Shapes began to form within the mist, glowing embers and jagged frost.
To our despair, the humanoid silhouettes emerged right after.
Us.
Our shapes, our strides and our voices.
One of them, a copy of me, laughed.
And it was my laugh. I guess they had been watching us for a while already.
“Permission to blow everything up?” Ashley asked dryly, already grabbing a bomb.
“Granted,” I hissed.
And the demons responded without hesitation.
The first wave hit hard.
A column of flame tore out of the mist like a serpent, hissing towards us.
Lionel dropped to one knee and fired through the fog, clean and precise, scattering the fire apart with a bullet that roared like thunder.
The quartz bullets burrowed deep into the creature, causing the flames to die and rain down as ash.
Another fire elemental appeared and Faelin answered with a sharp flick of her fingers, slicing the embers sideways with a gust of wind before they could complete their form.
Ice came next.
A jagged sheet burst from the ground, aiming straight for my chest—
Only to shatter midair as something wet and crimson lashed across it, steaming it into liquid that dripped onto the ground.
Blood.
Not mine, Malakai’s.
His magic threads cracked through the mist like whips, gleaming dark and alive. They coiled around me, not enough to restrain, but enough to protect.
A shapeshifter lunged through the fog, wearing my face twisted into a feral snarl. I barely got my sword up before the creature was knocked back so hard its bones cracked.
Malakai yanked his threads back and clicked his tongue.
“You’re too close,” he mused, stepping between me and the creature. “That’s my spot.”
His voice was low. Calm, yet murderous.
Another demon, this one molten like living magma, lunged at us.
Malakai didn’t even look at it.
He flicked a hand and the demon exploded into ash, flames sizzling desperately in the grey sand before being choked.
“Show off,” I muttered, moving to his flank.
His lip curled, half-smirk, half-threat. “Keep hiding behind me and I’ll take it as a compliment.”
Before I could retort, a copy of Lionel materialized ahead, rifle raised, eyes empty.
“Oh, hells no,” Lionel muttered, lining up a shot. “I’m the original. Sit back down, fraud.”
He fired.
Two figures looking like Lionel dropped, their bodies becoming piles of ash instead of black ichor.
“Was that the right one?” Nate whispered sarcastically.
“Who cares,” Ashley yelled somewhere to the right.
“I care!” Jaden added quickly. “One demon in the group is enough, thank you.”
The group chuckled lightly.
“Everyone duck!” Ashley shouted.
We dove as one.
Her explosion lit up the fog like sunrise, but it quickly faded as the light was swallowed again.
Shadows shifted, too many.
“Group up!” Lionel barked.
We tried, but the demons didn’t let us.
Caleb slowly stepped closer to us as if he had all the time in the world, his head dipped, eyes burrowing into Jaden.
“Enemy to the left,” he said coolly, pointing ahead. Jaden turned that way instantly.
“Wait—” I started.
The real Caleb slammed into the fake from behind, knife to its throat.
“Don’t listen to me unless I curse the demons first,” he snapped.
“Noted,” Jaden muttered, looking mildly betrayed.
But not everyone caught on so quickly.
Faelin, already shaky, spun around as my double stepped towards her.
“Are you okay?” the fake me asked, voice soft.
Faelin froze, unsure.
Then she nodded.
Wrong move.
The copy smiled, lunging at her, fingers shaping into claws, but the strike never landed.
Ashley slammed a grenade into its face, before shoving it backward. The demon’s face shimmered, losing its shape from the impact, stumbling backwards for balance.
It detonated within seconds, blasting the shapeshifter into smoke.
“Rule number one,” Ashley said, stepping over the scorch-mark in the sand. “If she is coming at you, it’s not her. Our Ethalyn likes her personal space… well, Malakai and I are exceptions, I guess.”
“Accurate,” Eve said flatly, raising her rifle and firing without looking.
Headshot.
I snorted at their accusation. “That’s how you’re telling me apart from them?”
“Well, that and your red-hot temper,” Nate smirked.
A shapeshifter tried to creep up behind Ashley, but it exploded into black ash.
Ashley glanced at Eve, who had shot it. “Are we, teaming up?”
“Don’t make it weird,” Eve snapped, then paused. “But yes. Temporarily.”
“Temporary ceasefire!” Ashley cheered.
It wouldn’t last long, knowing those two.
Another shapeshifter burst from the ground, aiming straight for Ashley’s back while she was still grinning.
“DUCK!” Nate roared and she reacted to his voice but froze.
Nate pushed her down quickly, before throwing himself into the demon with full force, tackling it to the sand.
It slashed with its claws against his arm and Nate grunted in pain, but yanked a knife free from its sheath and stabbed it in the throat until it stopped moving.
Ashley blinked, slowly rising to her feet as she stared at him.
“You pushed me,” she said quietly, sounding offended and flustered at the same time.
“You’re welcome?” Nate wheezed, clutching his bleeding arm.
Her expression flickered, something unreadable.
Then she slapped him on the back hard enough to make him stumble.
“Buy me a drink after this.”
He brightened instantly. “So, you are in love with me?”
“Don’t push it.”
We were holding our ground, but barely.
Then I heard it.
A sharp gasp.
I spun just in time to see Caleb stumbling back, clutching his shoulder, blood streaming down his upper arm. Apparently a demon had gotten through his guard, the shapeshifters taking advantage of the fact that we didn’t know each other better…
Jaden reacted instantly. The ground beneath the monster behind Caleb split open and erupted, swallowing the demon waist-deep in stone. Caleb didn’t even flinch, he just raised his gun with his good hand and shot it point-blank in the head.
The body slumped and he wavered.
“Stay still,” Jaden said, moving towards him. He reached out—
Caleb bared his teeth at him. “Don’t baby me.”
“You’re bleeding all over.”
“Then you should step back if you can’t handle it.” Caleb snorted defensively.
Jaden sighed. “Stubborn bastard.”
“Overgrown rock,” Caleb shot back. But he let Jaden steady him.
Good. Several down, only one visible demon still standing.
I exhaled, trying to control my nerves.
Malakai stepped in closer, blood threads tightening protectively around us both, like a spider web spun just for me.
My double flickered back into view ahead, smiling with my lips. It was sickening.
“Pathetic,” she crooned in my voice. “You let the Demon King’s offspring leash you like a pet.”
Malakai stiffened.
Before he could react, I lifted my sword, aiming at the creature.
“Please,” I muttered unfazed. “You think this is a leash? Let me educate you.” I whipped my other arm at the shapeshifter, and fire ignited along the way, lashing like a thick rope.
I forced the flame to encircle its throat, tying it firmly, before I tugged on my end.
The demon hissed as it desperately tried to resist but stumbled forward and landed on its knees.
I curled my hand into a fist, making the flames dig into the creature’s throat, earning a screech from it.
“This is the suffocating feeling of a leash,” I smiled coldly at it, tightening the hold further, causing it to choke and claw against my flames in vain. “And you’re looking awfully pathetic, poor thing.”
“I’ll kill you,” the fake me hissed, before losing the shape of my face, its voice shifting into something unnatural as it struggled to maintain its appearance.
Malakai hummed darkly. “Talking to a fake version of you is getting tiresome.”
I nodded before I threw my sword straight at the demon, piercing it through the forehead, sending it backwards to the ground, lifeless.
My flames retreated to me as another shapeshifter I hadn’t seen appearing out of the fog suddenly attacked from the side, claws wide, maw open.
Malakai’s arm snapped out, threads spearing through its torso like a dozen lances.
“Ah, ah.” He sighed, yanking it backwards and slamming it into the sand. “No biting.”
He didn’t even look at it as it stopped twitching, he only watched me as I arched a brow at him. “You know I can fight,” I muttered, stepping shoulder-to-shoulder with him.
“Mm.” His hand brushed my hair back, threads swirling like a second skin around me. “Let them try getting past me first.”
“What happened to me not needing a guard dog?” I asked, cocking a teasing brow at him.
His fingers brushed blood away from my cheek. “Never said you needed guarding, but I can’t help wanting to protect my treasure.”
Another wave of demon silhouettes approached in the mist, bigger, nastier, no longer playing around.
I hunched down and pulled my sword out of the dead shapeshifter and swung it to the side, making the black ichor splash against the grey sand.
Malakai smiled like this was foreplay.
“Shall we, kitten?”