Page 10 of Taken to the Shadow Realm

She swallowed thickly, a deep purple sprouting from her. Fear.

Damn. We were so close.

“So, what can you… see?”

My eyes shifted to look down at my hands.

“You’re confused. It’s frustrating you. You weren’t scared… until I told you about my gift. Sorry.”

Guilt gnawed at me. If it hadn’t been for me, she might have been able to stay in her non-frightened bubble a bit longer.

“It’s not you. It’s just this whole situation?—“

“It’s okay, I was freaked out about it too,” Eve said, cutting her off. “I don’t like people seeing into me like that. Which brings me to you. What can you do? Read minds? Fly? Teleport?”

I looked up at Mia slowly. The fear was still in her aura.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“It took a lot of talking, but we figured it out between us and the few that came before you. We all have something. Iris is auras. I can tell when someone lies. And you?”

She stilled as panic rose in her. Bursts of oranges and purples mixed together. The swirls were so violent I worried for her sanity.

“She’s having a breakdown,” I said, sitting up straight.

“No,” she said quickly. There was something in her aura. A flicker of deep orange, but then it was gone. “It’s just… She called me a spirit seer.”

What was that? I blinked, trying to clear the swirl of colors in my vision, but it didn’t help.

Eve relaxed by me, an easy smile spreading across her face. “Well, then maybe you can spot the one that comes into our room to deliver food.“

I couldn’t look at Mia. She was hiding something. Something I wasn’t sure would hurt or help us.

“Food?” she asked when no one spoke. “How long have you been here?”

“Almost a week,” Eve said. “Iris is on day three.”

I only had a moment to clamp down my own emotions before I was attacked with ones that caused my stomach to twist. We all turned to the door as it was forced open.

The room was bathed in darkness as it got closer, rendering me speechless.

Fear gnawed at my insides and closed my throat.

“Oh, it’s the food,” Eve commented as if it were just a normal thing. “Don’t try to run. That’s how the last one disappeared.”

I turned to stare at my hands, trying to push away the onslaught of fear those emotions brought me. Whatever it was, it wasn’t human. Their aura was sticky, and even though most of the auras never carried feelings, this one felt so heavy it threatened to suffocate me.

“So… did you see it?” Eve asked Mia.

My eyes wandered to the newest recruit.

“That wasn’t a ghost,” she murmured. “Whatever it was…”

She shuddered, unable to continue.

“It’s angry and in pain,” I whispered. “Maybe another type of demon?”

Eve shook her head. “If that was the case, we would see it.”

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