Page 83 of Shadow & Stars
“Last thing I want is to be some demon’s boyfriend.”
I came to a stop on the other side of the grass, taking in my surroundings for a moment. There were demon towers glistening in the distance. Their energy licked at me, my resistance pushing against it.
Ismael…
Back here to unleash his tyranny. I had to stop him.
Could I? Did I possess the strength to watch the light leave his cruel eyes?
“What’s wrong?” the boy asked, breaking my train of thought.
“Nothing.” I kept going, not stopping again until we reached the street I aimed for.
“Thank God that’s over,” Roman said, peeling himself from my back.
The street was dark, a lost place. Many abandoned homes, a toxic river in the middle of the road driving most of the people away.
“Nasty place,” the boy added. “Rivers give me the creeps.”
“Yes.” The address Darcy gave me sat directly ahead. “Come on. Let’s get you?—”
Something stirred in the dark.
“What was that?” Roman asked, his hands igniting with magic.
Lemons. I smelled lemons.
Make that Lemon Drop. My stomach rolled, my skin itching with prickly heat. Heavy nausea engulfed me, sending noxious fog into my skull.
“Run…” I told the boy. “Hide…”
“But…”
A figure slithered from the shadows, lunging for him. Roman fired off a Synth beam, missing the attacker. He yelped, a tentacle quickly subduing him. It coiled around his lithe body, crushing him.
Not a tentacle, but a dark green snake.
“Tanith…” I wheezed, the Lemon Drop intensifying as she slithered closer.
She wore a silver choker, a yellow jewel at its center—the source of the Lemon Drop.
Had she come from the other time? Slipped past the ADU agents to hunt me down?
“It’s been years…” I said.
Only, it hadn’t. She was a deadly part of my future.
Roman’s eyes bulged, only his head visible in the suffocating scales and green flesh.
A fragment of understanding lodged itself in my brain, whispering the truth from a different part of me. From the me who’d exploded in the garden.
Stop her…
Save the boy…
Thunder crashed in the distance but there were no storm clouds in the sky from what I could see. It might have been the sound of more demonic attacks spilling through that doorway.
“Let him go,” I said, unsteady on my feet.
