Page 41 of Run Like the Devil

We were acting strangely, weren’t we? Not so much as to say it wasn’t natural, that it was easy to blame on stress or the situation, but we weren’t being normal.

“Why isn’t it affecting you, then?”

“It is. That’s the reason I’m still here.”

“You want to explain that? Because I don’t speak crazy so fluently,” I snapped.

Koller smiled, but it lacked warmth or humor. “I came here to escape my punishment, to traverse the Path and return to my home, to the Plains, but as I spent more time here…I started to doubt if I belonged there. I thought…there’s something wrong with me, something broken, something that caused me to behave the way I had that had cast me out.”

She dropped her gaze to her hands as she wrung them together. “If there is truly something wrong with me, what right do I have to try to return, to overrule the most high? I wandered here, through the fog, learning the ways of the Path, too afraid to truly escape. If I make it through here, if I return, what if I’m cast out again? Right now, I still have the hope of a return, but if I made it and lost it again? If I had to confront that I don’t belong, that I can never return? Would that not be so much worse?” Her hands moved against each other, starting with a slight scratching until drops of blood escaped and fell to the dirt.

Gorrin caught her hands, pulling them apart gently. Koller focused then on the damage, on what she’d done by gouging her nails into her own skin.

So much for thinking she’s sane.

Still, her words stayed with me. That fear, that disbelief. I thought about how I’d clung to Gorrin, how I’d been afraid that Koller would take him despite me having no good reason to think that at all.

At least feeling so out of control made a little more sense.

“Do you know how to get to the Plains?” Tyrus asked, his no-nonsense tone the same as always able to get right to the heart of the matter.

Koller shook her head, the action causing her long pale hair to move. “Not exactly. I’ve spent a long time looking around, and the Path doesn’t twist around me. Possibly because I was an angel, possibly because I don’t feel I’m worthy of the Plains. I’ve learned a lot, but that answer still evades me. All I know for certain is that the Path will not lead you there.”

Hale leaned in, resting his elbow on his knee. “Everything I’ve heard says the Path is the only safe fucking place here.”

She nodded. “There is some truth to that, at least at first. The dangers here avoid the Path. The Guardian—the creature that guards the fog—will attack on the Path if people remain here too long, but it is far safer.”

“Then why tell us to leave it? That seems the opposite of a good idea. It’s like telling someone to jump into shark-infested water,” I said.

Koller looked at me again, blinking slowly, her eyes an unbelievably beautiful green that made me nearly fall in love with her crazy ass. “That is a more apt description than you realize. The Path is a raft, but a raft is only a temporary haven. Eventually, a person will die from exposure or hunger or thirst, or perhaps be knocked into the dangerous waters if they refuse to move. The only salvation is to face the sharks and swim for shore.”

She looked at me, but it almost felt as though she looked past me, and it was then I knew that she was fucking nuts. What she said might be true, but it didn’t change that this place has broken a part of her, that her psyche had deep cracks running through it.

“Others have followed the Path, have stuck to it, and they have all perished. If you wish to do what no one else has, you must behave as no one else dares. You must do what they have not.” After that, she blinked again, some animation returning to her expression as if waking from a trance. “Other tips for surviving the Path—one, trust no one. Anyone you meet here belongs to the Path. The damned and demons who have survived are no longer the people they once were. Two, eat and drink as you like—the items here won’t harm you. Three, remember who created this place and why they did it. Four, fight against your own darkest nature, because that is what ultimately tears people apart here.”

She rose, graceful as though her every move was a dance. “And yes, I include myself in those you should not trust.”

“Then why should we listen to your rules?”

Her gaze flirted over to Gorrin, quickly looking away as if embarrassed. “I wish you to make it through. I may not deserve to taste Paradise again, but Gorrin does. Still, we all have our own motives, things we want, things we will do anything to get. I am no exception to that. Even now, this place whispers to me, tells me to take what I want and damn the costs. So, no, you should trust only that every person here will do whatever they must to get whatever they most want.” She took a few steps backward, toward the fog as if to leave.

“Wait,” Gorrin rushed out. “Why are you going? Wouldn’t you be safer with us?”

She smiled, the look showing nothing of the innocent girl she’d appeared as before. “Yes, I would, but you would not be. Go ahead and rest before you leave. This place? It drains us terribly, and if you aren’t careful, it’ll overcome you that way alone.”

No one spoke when she waved and turned, all but skipping into the fog until I couldn’t even spot her silhouette.

“Well, that’s fucking unnerving,” I muttered.

“That girl has her hot-to-crazy measure all off,” Hale responded. “She’s upped her crazy way too high.”

I turned a glare on him, not caring for anyone to talk about Koller as hot, not with the jealousy still burning inside my chest.

Hale smirked as if he fed off my annoyance. “Don’t give me that look, Loch. You’ve got both your hot and crazy levels maxed.”

“Somehow, that doesn’t make me feel any better.” I crossed my arms and hunched closer to the fire.

Hale didn’t appear sorry in the least, though, as he stretched his feet out toward the flames.

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