Page 57 of Run Like the Devil

It didn’t take nearly as long as I’d expected to get out. I’d walked for what had to have been hours with Hale and Tyrus, yet it only took a few—very long—seconds until the sounds of the world came through again. It reminded me of just how quiet the blackness had been.

I opened my eyes, squinting and unable to make anything out at first. The Path wasn’t all that bright to start with, but it was still a far cry from the entire pitch blackness from before. I looked over my shoulder just as I tugged Tyrus forward, as he stepped out of the strange shadow and into the light with me. He recovered faster than I did, repeating the motion until Hale and Gorrin got out as well.

My legs felt weak, seeing them all safe, realizing we’d escaped that horrid empty void.

No, I will not fall down like some fucking damsel.

Or so I told myself all of two seconds before I did just that, collapsing down to my knees in relief.

I lifted my gaze, ready to thank Yazmor, but the moment I saw him, any words I might have uttered died a slow and painful death on my tongue.

He looked nothing like the man I knew. That young face, the ever-present smile, it was all gone. Instead, he resembled the creature from the Forgotten Caves, more like a nightmare tree than a living being. His limbs were long and thin, and more branch-like things went back from his head almost like hair. He had hands with three large fingers, and his legs bent in ways nothing in my world did.

He looked like a monster, like the sort of thing a kid would draw and claim they saw out in a dark forest at night.

His eyes were the only thing I connected to, since they remained the same color as before, that same bright violet. They peered down at me, unblinking, as if waiting to see my reaction.

Calm down, I told myself, using my best guru self-soothing voice.

This was Yazmor. He might look different—a lot fucking different—but he wasn’t. He was the same man I knew, the one who stole my coffee, who hugged me when I’d sobbed, who had washed me so carefully when I’d shattered apart after that horrible memory.

Still, I searched his face, hoping to connect this with the man I knew so well.

Yazmor tore his gaze from mine then shook his head, the action strange from him, before his form shimmered and shrank until he looked like he had before. Even still, he didn’t look at me. He didn’t turn back toward me, didn’t reach out for me to help me up. Instead, he gestured toward the fog. “The Path is this way. We’re not far off from it, so we should get back.”

Yazmor didn’t wait to see if we followed, just heading off with steps that seemed far too heavy for his normally jovial attitude.

It forced me to scurry to my feet, afraid of getting left behind, of losing my way in the fog.

“Was that his real form?” Tyrus asked behind me.

“So it seems,” Gorrin answered.

“What, you’ve never fucking seen it before?” Hale clicked his tongue. “Not a surprise he wouldn’t pull that shit out much. Fucking unnerving, that is.”

I couldn’t argue with their words, even as they whispered to keep Yazmor from catching any of it.

Not that he still wouldn’t. Yazmor had excellent hearing I’d found.

Still, they were right. It was terrifying and so different from anything we’d ever seen. It wasn’t even like a demon form, where it resembled a human. Fuck, even Hubis’ real form was familiar.

Instead, Yazmor was so different it felt as if it tested the limits of my sanity—and that wasn’t a very solid thing to start with. Especially with how he’d said nothing to any of us, how he behaved usually, actually coming face to face with the real him was bound to throw anyone for one hell of a loop.

“He’s like a monster,” Tyrus said. “I knew he was a remnant, but I had no idea he would appear like that.”

Yazmor’s shoulders tensed ahead of us, a change so slight I doubted anyone else would have noticed it.

Guess that answers if he can hear us…

Guilt ate at me and it had me turning a sharp look on the other men to tell them to shut the fuck up.

We all had ugly sides to ourselves that we preferred not to show off. In fact, Tyrus had physically kept me from looking at him when he’d changed, and Gorrin had hidden that he was even an angel! I doubted Hale hid much of anything, he just hadn’t had a reason to change.

Still, were we really in any position to judge Yazmor?

The three of them dropped their gazes and quieted down, telling me they understood my point.

I turned away from them and jogged the few steps up to Yazmor, unsure what to say. I’d be lying if I told him I wasn’t afraid of him, that his true form hadn’t bothered me.

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