Page 74 of A Shade of Myself
Panting, she continued kicking it, a crazed glint in her eyes.
She’d lost it. A past version of myself would have taken joy in seeing her so undone, but right now I was just horrified. Whatever thin barrier on her sanity book club had been shoring up, it was gone now and she was putting herself in danger.
I pulled her off him, scared she’d hurt herself. The pain was making me woozy and I couldn’t get my scythe to solidify. We had to get behind the wards.
The demon grabbed my ankle with a gnarled hand.
“Get on the lawn!” With a jolt of adrenaline that made all colors sharper, I shoved Marsha away, my weapon snapping into place.
“Let go of my mom!” Sadie yelled, sprinting toward me.
Terror seized my heart. No. Not like this. “Sadie, stop!” I shrieked.
The demon jumped up, shaking off its weird fast-aging, and spun toward my daughter.
Everything slowed down. It was disorienting. Was this real or just another illusion? I didn’t know, I couldn’t figure it out, and I couldn’t take the risk.
I ran toward Sadie, my weapon raised in my good hand, but it was like slogging through thick mud. My legs didn’t work properly. There was no way for me to get her to safety before the monster grabbed her off the front walk.
The demon hit the property line at the same time as Sadie. He reached for her and bounced off the invisible magic with an electric crack.
Marsha grabbed Sadie by her collar and hauled her back a few precious inches.
I may have peed a little in relief that we had wards. In the seconds it took the demon to throw off the electric shock, I hacked off its head, kicking it into the gutter.
The demon’s lifeless eyes stared back at me.
With a whoosh, its headless corpse burst into flames, burning high and bright for a fraction of a second before winking out, leaving only an oily stain on the ground.
Confused, I looked over at Marsha, who stared at Sadie, now by my side.
My daughter clutched her mini flamethrower, Phoebe, her chest rising and falling raggedly.
I looked from the demon’s head to the surprised Ohrist to my child and made my magic vanish. “At least we saved the fancy cheese.”
