Page 39 of Mud

Fuck, that had been close. They’d come out of nowhere, and by the time Erid drove her dagger in the side of the catfairie’s neck, the rest of us had our eyes up on the branches, moving toward an opening that wasn’t wider than three feet. Right now it was the safest place for us.

Then…

“Watch out!”

Could have been Jim or Jam who called, but I didn’t even get the chance to turn my head before another group of three catfairies came at us from all sides.

The problem was, these were bigger, almost as big as the one we’d seen the picture of, and their paws weren’t their only weapons.

The illusion started as a drop of black ink in the middle of all five of us, and then it spread onto us like a wave of the ocean, sound and all. Before I could blink, I was swallowed by this deep darkness that took the color out of everything and everyone and left me all alone.

Power.Magic, raw and unfiltered. Fairie magic, the kind that infiltrated your brain and messed with your mind, fooled your senses instead of altering reality, which was whatourmagic did.

And then came the catfairie. One of them was on me, and he came so fast that he hit me twice in the face before I was able to move back. So fucking disorienting when reality was covered by this black blanket, and I couldn’t see where I was stepping or where the trees around me were, so I stumbled and fell before I’d taken my third step.

The catfairie’s pawed foot slammed onto my stomach. My leather jacket was spelled so his claws couldn’t get to my skin, but it still hurt like hell. If my ribs weren’t broken, they were most definitely bruised.

I screamed, wrapping my hand around his ankle covered by patches of silver fur, and the catfairie leaned down and hissed at my face, showing me his sharp teeth, pushing down his leg onto my stomach harder.

“Fuck you!”I choked with the last of the air in my lung after I’d finished my spell, and then the magic slipped from myfingers and wrapped around his leg, spiraling up to the rest of him like a snake on fire.

The catfairie wailed. The darkness lifted fast—there one second and gone the next. I was back in the woods, now able to appreciate the light of the sun a lot more, especially when I looked to the right and saw my gun—a gorgeous, blood-red M17 that fit my palmperfectly—was right there within my reach. I was hurting, yes, but I was more pissed off, and while the catfairie tried to pull his leg away from my hand and my magic that was slowly slipping under his skin, I reached for it.

I grabbed it.

Claws sliced down my arm, making me scream, but there was nowhere to go now. I raised my hand and shot two bullets right in his crotch before I let go of his ankle.

Blood sprayed me everywhere. The pain had turned most of my body numb, and I sat up, completely disoriented by that darkness still, my eyes searching for the others.

Fuck me, that was not supposed to have happened. Such a perfect illusion that catfairie had created for me. I hadn’t been able to see any colors at all other than him, and that should have been impossible. With power like that, he could have done anything to a person who didn’t know how to fight—anything at all.

We had to get the rest of the IDD down here right now—all of them, every single agent they had on payroll. This was way worse than anybody could have thought.

“Incoming!” Michael was screaming as he moved to the side of a catfairie running and roaring that awful, feline sound, blood dripping where his eyes should have been—courtesy of my team leader. Then Erid rolled on the ground from where she was standing, having killed anothercatfairie, and jumped to her feet just in time with her guns raised. She buried another five bullets in the creature’s head, and it collapsed on the ground like its strings had been cut.

“That’s…that was…” I started, only to realize I was still having trouble speaking.

Only to realize that it hurt, really, really badly to breathe.

So, I looked down. And I saw the blood.

Myblood, not that of the catfairie I killed.Myblood that was coming from the wound in my gut right where the creature had stepped on me with those paws lined with curved claws. It had gone right through my jacket.Right through, as it shouldn’t have, because all our uniforms were spelled with shields.

“Fuck.”

The word fell from my lips and I hit the ground on my ass, finding my legs too weak to hold me. I dragged myself back, closer to the tree so I could lean against it, because it was only a matter of time before my arms let go of me, too.

It was okay, though. I couldn’t really tell how deep that wound was, but it was fine because Erid could get to me in no time. She’d close the wound within seconds, and then I could do my own healing if she needed to tend to the others.

It’s fine, it’s fine, I’m okay,I told myself.

“Erid,” I said as loudly as I could, and looked up at the others. For now, there was no sound of fighting, no more catfairies raining down upon us, or coming from around the trees. We needed to hurry up and close this wound, and Erid was right there. She was bleeding, but on her feet.

And Michael was standing, too, his wand in one hand, but he’d exchanged his gun for his katana. Jam was on theground, muttering curse words while he tried to get up, and Jim was looking down at him. “You’ll be fine,” he told his brother, then raised his head and his eyes landed on me.

“Holy shit, Rosabel is bleeding,” he said, and he started to come to me.

“Water,” I whispered, but I doubted they heard me—they were at least ten feet away. “Wa—”I tried again this time louder, but I never finished the word.

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