Page 26 of Mud

“It is, indeed,” Eric Haines said with a forced smile. “Look at this. Can you see it?”

He turned and pressed his finger to the wall, near a large tree that had eyes.

Fuck.

My heart jumped, and most sucked in breaths when they realized that it wasn’t a large tree at all, but a catfairie hidden behind a normal sized one. Holy shit, he wasmassive. I’d dealt with catfairies before. They grew the size of dwarves, barely three feet tall, butthisone shown in this picture was at least seven feet, and it was big.

The reason why they were called catfairies was very simple—because they were fairies who looked like cats. They stood on two legs, had paws for hands and feet, had big eyes with vertical slits and pointy ears identical to cats. Their whiskers were smaller, though, and that’s where their similarities ended. Their bodies were built like people’s—except the paws—and they had fur in the same areas we did. It was silver, like greyed hair, and the color of their eyes was a striking cobalt blue. Fairies existed among us in different forms, though most species were extinct already. The IDD didn’t have a very clear idea where exactly they came from, if they were native to our dimension or not, but because of the type of magic they possessed—illusions andhallucinations so powerful very few could withstand it if they got their claws into you—they were classified asfairies.Sirens were considered water fairies,too, their compulsion magic as dangerous as the magic ofthesefairies, which made dreams seem real. Turned them into nightmares. They could warp reality for you in whichever way they wanted.

And that’s why they were so deadly, and why we hunted them down whenever we found groups of more than five or six at a time.

“That’s right—it’s an almost seven-foot tall catfairie,” Jessica continued. “The tallest we have on record is five foot seven, which tells us that these have been feeding off people’s minds and dreams for quite some time now.”

“Then what the hell are we waiting for? Take us there so we can cut off their heads,” Erid said, and some of the agents murmured their agreement.

“Erid, we’re not done yet,” said Michael, just as the door opened and the twins walked in with sunglasses covering half their faces.

Jim and Jam, the rest of our team.

Of course, those weren’t their real names. One was Andre and the other Andrew, but theynevertold us which was which, and they insisted on being called Jim and Jam when they were working.

They were also very much alcoholics, though they’d never admit it to anyone, and they somehow managed to fool every single test, magical or human, whenever Michael ordered them based on the obvious—we couldseehow drunk they still were as they stumbled into the room, mutteringsorry, excuse meas they slammed into people’s chairs, until they finally made it to two empty ones and satdown.

“Morning, boys. Glad you could join us,” Michael said through gritted teeth. Not a man who got mad often, but the twins always got to him. Couldn’t blame him—I’d have kicked them out of the IDD, too, if they weren’t so good at what they did. They were both Greenfire mages, and they were the best at freezing time. So, Michael—and the IDD—had to put up with their tardiness and the fact that they showed up drunk at work every other day or so.

“As we were saying,” Eric said, and he and the other leaders were all giving Michaelthe look, which also got to him just as much as the twins did. They judged him openly for not having better control of his team, while poor Michael had tried every possible way to get through to the twins without success. Now, he just turned his head to the projected image and continued to speak as if nothing had happened.

“Right, Eric. This is the biggest catfairie ever recorded, and we suspect the rest of them are close to the same size,” Michael said.

“We’re not entirely sure how immune they are to our spells, which is why our teams will be divided into two. Jessica’s and my team will leave in fifteen minutes, while the rest of you remain on standby,” Eric said.

“But wouldn’t it be wiser for all of us to go in at once?” Erid said, and I happened to agree with her, too.

“Like we said, we don’t know what the inside of that forest looks like at the moment. We have no communication with Ralf’s team and the drones aren’t able to pick up much footage from the canopy. They’re staying out of sight,” Lauren said, and you could just tell how afraid she was by the look in her eyes and her pressed lips. She was Blackfire, very powerful, and I heard she’d never missed a shot in her life, butthismade hernervous anyway.

Which was why it mademenervous, too.

“What if they’re all dead?” said one of the agents from the front of the table—Layla was her name.

“Possible, but unlikely. Ralf’s team are very good fighters, just like the rest of us,” Eric said with a nod. “They’re there—we just can’t reach them.”

The problem was, I could smell his bullshit from all the way across the room, and I wasn’t even trying very hard to analyze him.

Ralf’s team was already dead, and I suspected he and the rest of the leaders knew it. They just didn’t want us to get discouraged, so they were lying about it.

Fear was like a sack of rocks falling in the pit of my stomach—this one different from the one I’d had all morning. This one came from a very different place—the eyes of that creature that looked like it shouldn’t exist in our world at all. And it came from that boot and that helmet, that arm torn off a torso that was bleeding all over the grass by the dark, murky water of the river.

Iris help me, I was thankful for it. It was a distraction unlike any other—even the siren hadn’t kept all my senses busy the way this was doing. So, after they told us the plan and pointed out on the map which team would take which part of the woods, we were dismissed to go prepare and rest and report to Transportation so that we were ready to go whenever we received their call.

Even Erid had nothing to say for a long time while we put on all our gear and sheathed our blades and holstered our guns. I had my ring on my finger just like always, and I was ready to leave within ten minutes.

Instead, we were made to wait for almost four whole hours.

Chapter 8

Rosabel La Rouge

2 years ago

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