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I blinked a few times, breaking my staring contest with hair that couldn’t stare back. “What?”
Her voice lowered, sadness creeping in. “Grandma saw your kind—or at least some variation like you—often.”
“She did?” I sat up. “Like what Cyn looked like last night?”
“No. Well, I don’t know if she did. I haven’t.”
“What do you mean you haven’t?”
She scrubbed her eyes. “Because I haven’t seen your kind before, but I’ve seen other creatures.”
“When?”
“I can only remember as far back as when I was four. But I’ll never forget the first time I saw it.” She drew her knees up beneath the covers, wrapping her arms around her shins.
I wanted to reach for her, but I didn’t think she’d welcome comfort right now. She seemed to be trying to mask her deeper feelings from me.
“I went to a birthday party for my friend Crystal. Her mom got up and headed toward the bathroom. When she got near me, I looked down, afraid to be caught staring.”
“Why were you staring? Why were you afraid?” A sudden sinking feeling coiled in my stomach.
“I don’t know. I mean, I got this weird feeling back on the playground when I ran into her by accident. She wasn’t mean and didn’t scold me, just made sure I was fine before I went to play.”
I nodded, listening, but didn’t want to interrupt with more questions.
“But I couldn’t shake the feeling. It scared me, but I couldn’t stop watching her. Kinda like how animals will stop and become hyperaware of their surroundings when birds stop singing. They don’t know what’s wrong, but they know something is. Anyway, curiosity won out. I looked up when she reached my table, but Crystal’s mom was gone.”
“Gone?”
“Mmhm. Gone.”
“I don’t get it.”
“A creature with smooth graphite skin and long gangly arms sagging to its knees stood there wearing Crystal’s mom’s sundress.” She shook her head with a crooked smile. “It sounds silly now, but it was so scary. I still remember how its black nails clacked together when its long fingers twitched. Wanna know the really creepy part?”
“What’s that?”
“Its bald head glowed red through its thin skin. I could see it pulsing like a heartbeat—like its brain was a light source. The eyes glowed the same way. I’ll never forget it as long as I live.”
My blood chilled.
A qualnether.
Damned Shyrlivi cast out of Elyrdin; the ones who never made it past Feranzis on their trek to Moicae. Their moral corruption grew so strong that the land’s darker magic consumed them before they reached the outer lands.
I shuddered. I hated them.
They were more dangerous than lesser infernals. Vicious like those from Moicae, but intelligent enough to use that violence in terrifying ways.
That one had found its way to Earth, and the fact it hadn’t killed Rae only deepened the mystery of what made her so special.
“I screamed and screamed until I blacked out. When I woke up, I was in the backseat of my parents’ car, and they were arguing.”
“Why?”
“My dad wasn’t happy it happened to me, too.”
My brow lifted.
