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Rheastared at Evan with vacant eyes, then sighed, reaching up to scratch her head in a very unladylike manner. Slowly, she grinned, the corners of her mouth pulling so far apart they almost touched her ears.

Yep. Definitely not Rhea.

“Doesn’t matter who I am, boy. What I said about your friend remains unchanged,” the clone snickered, voice a little raspy. “He has gone too far. You can’t save him now.”

“Let me be the judge of that,” Evan’s voice dropped low—a warning. “Tell me what you are and who sent you here?”

The clone backed away from the blade, that horrifyingly wide smile still plastered across her face. Such a sight on a face Evan was so familiar with made it more disturbing. And all the more infuriating.

“You pretend to be a hero…” The clone drawled. “Yet you cower behind demons for help. Pathetic.”

Energy crackled in the blade, shining brighter as Evan’s blood gushed faster through his veins.

“Where are they?” he ground out, suppressing the urge to stab the clone through her un-beating heart. “What did you do to the kids?”

“Me? Oh, I’m not strong enough to do anything,” the clone raised her hands in mock surrender. “But my master is. If you wish, I can take you to him.”

“Evan,” Delos echoed from behind. “Don’t believe it.”

“Like hell I would,” Evan fixed the clone with a blank stare. “If you tell me where the others are, I’ll let you leave with yourhead intact. But you might wanna hurry because I’m not exactly a patient man.”

The clone seemed to consider that, its eyes moving, rolling around in the socket like a malfunctioning robot, before coming to an abrupt stop on Evan. “I'll tell you, if you give me something in return.”

“I am giving you mercy.”

The clone cackled. “I don’t feel pain. Even if you take my head off, I won’t flinch. But…give me something to nibble on and I’ll lead you to your friends.”

“Nibble on?”

An abnormally long tongue flicked out of the clone’s gaping mouth. “I do occasionally enjoy the taste of human flesh.”

Elysia gagged, slapping a hand against her mouth. Celie’s face scrunched in disgust. Delos pulled the two girls behind him and moved closer, as if ready to step in.

Evan stared at the creature which was starting to look less and less like Rhea and more like a distorted image of her. Its jaw twitched, eyeballs rolling in opposite directions. “You will lead me to them if I give you my flesh?”

With a greedy glint in its eyes, the clone nodded. “I promise.”

Well, a piece of flesh in exchange for the safety of his sister’s friends didn’t sound all too bad to Evan. Plus, he really didn’t want to stab that thing. Not out of the benevolence of his heart but because it wore the face of the only parental figure in Evan’s life.

Stabbing that thing would be no different than driving a blade through his own mother.

Dropping his hand along with the spiritual weapon, Evan offered his free hand instead, which was already smothered with blood. “Go on then.”

“Evan!” Celie called and tried to stop him, but Delos held her back, his own eyes conflicted.

The clone flicked its long tongue out again, drool dribbling down its chin. In its eyes, Evan’s hand probably looked like a finely cooked steak, garnished and all.

However, before it covered the three steps towards Evan and took a hearty bite, it suddenly froze. Its flicking tongue lolled out of its gaping mouth, eyes wide in horror.

It took Evan a moment to realize why it’d abruptly turned rigid. And when he did, he rolled his eyes. “Took you long enough to appear.”

The Shadow’s giant hand grabbed the clone into its fist, yanking it several feet away and up in the air. That’s when it started thrashing. It flailed, viciously gnawing at the hand, but it did nothing to loosen the Shadow's fist.

When the figure was lifted off the ground, standing right behind it was a tall silhouette, dressed in a fine red suit. His face was so proportional it was almost inhumanly gorgeous. Dark eyes settled on Evan, running the length of his body as if checking for something. When they landed on his bloody head, Xen’s jaws clenched.

The Shadow fist tightened around the clone, making it screech like a beast about to be skinned alive.

Delos sighed and covered the two girls’ eyes.