Page 49 of Not Today, Satan
I kick mud at him with my free leg to get his attention. He doesn’t budge. I seethe, biting back a cry as the shadeling’s nails reopen the almost-healed cut on my shoulder.
“Nate!” I yell. “Help me.” Gritting my teeth, I dig my heels into the dirt, my palms sweating and threatening to slip off the hilt of the sword.
I cry out and wriggle my body, trying to dislodge the clinging appendages. The weight on my ankle lessens as one of the shadelings screeches and drops, collapsing motionless to the ground. Nate stands behind them, baton raised.
“About freaking time.” I resume my sword tug-of-war with the second shadeling. “Get them off me.”
Nate peers down at the body of the one he hit and nudges their unmoving form with his toe. “I hope I didn’t kill them.”
“They’re already dead, remember?” I growl through my teeth as my boots slip in the mud. “Hurry, Nate.”
He slams the baton down on the head of the shadeling piggybacking me, and they fall to the ground. I fly backward as the weight disappears, and my blade slices through the hands of the last shadeling. They release the sword with a yelp, whimpering and clutching their palm, before slinking behind a tree stump.
Mud seeps through the butt of my dress, and I groan.
Perfect.
I attempt to push myself up but slip and land back in the dirt with a squishing sound.
“Need a hand?” Nate stretches out his arm.
I grit my teeth but take it, and he hauls me to my feet, his mouth struggling to remain in a straight line.
My cheeks blaze with a heat that rushes from my neck “What are you laughing at?”
“I’m not. Mud’s a good look for you, Dev. You have a bit… Hang on…” He wipes my cheek with his sleeve before I shove him away.
“You shouldn’t take so much pleasure from this.” I stomp ahead, swinging at any shadeling who dares to look my way. “They almost got my sword.”
“Don’t be like that.” Nate jogs to my side. “People pay a lot of money for mud treatments on Earth. In fact, you can use this to pay for it.”
He flicks something gold into the air, and I catch it. It’s a coin, shimmering, with a smiling skull and crossbones on the front. I close my fist around it, then hurl it across the beach. It explodes into a puff of smoke before it reaches the ground. Nate gasps.
“Was that what you were digging for while I was being attacked? I warned you about this place. It’ll try to tempt you. But like the mirrors, it’s all an illusion.”
He stares at the space where the coin disintegrated and nods. “Got it. Huh, maybe this place affects me but not you. Like, the opposite of the mirrors. You knew that coin was fake, but it looked and felt real enough to me.”
I open my mouth to reply when a rustling behind him catches my eye. My mud-caked fingers wrap around the hilt of my sword. “What was that?”
“I don’t hear anything.”
“Over there.” There’s a flash of black as something dashes behind a tree. I only catch a glimpse, but it’s enough to hitch my breath.
I know that hair, that skin. I’ve seen them in mirrors my entire life. And, most recently, in photographs I transformed to ash.
I take a shuddering step toward the figure.
“Mom?”
XXII.
My breath catches in my throat as I plunge into the forest. “Mom! Come back!”
Nate reaches for my wrist, but I slip out of his grasp and keep running.
I trail the shadow as it darts from tree to tree, a blur among the dead trunks and branches.
My heart jackhammers in my chest.
