Chaos Read Online Free PDF Page A

of paws, but in place of fingernails, curled black claws sprouted from each fingertip. Their faces were covered in short, dusky brown fur, and their eyes were solid black marbles, round and shining with an eager, cruel sort of mischief. They had rounded ears on the tops of their heads, and blunt black snouts. Their mouths were ridged with gleaming fangs, and threads of saliva stretched thin as they grinned.
    The two of them paced back and forth on all fours, then rose to their hind legs, their ears twitching as they looked at the surface of the dome and conversed. It was all wrong—they were too human to be animals and too animal to be people. They looked like hyena-human hybrids.
    “The Mazikin,” I whispered. These were the things that forced themselves inside human bodies, that took them over. This was what Juri, Malachi’s sworn enemy and the being who had haunted me for the longest time, looked like in his true form. I’d always pictured him as human, despite the fact that he behaved like a depraved animal, but now it was clear that was exactly what he was.
    “That’s them,” Ana said, impatience creeping into her voice. “But look.” She jabbed her finger into the unyielding surface of the dome.
    In front of the gates, people kept appearing out of nowhere, sprawled in the sand on hands and knees, naked and trembling. One woman was curled into a ball, her head tucked against her knees, like she was trying to avoid acknowledging where she was before the inevitable caught up with her. A Mazikin guard grabbed a leather garment from a large pile by the gates and tossed it at her. When it hit her, she frantically pulled it on, but as soon as she did, the Mazikin grasped a handful of her hair and yanked her head up. Then it leaned into her face and said something. The woman, her eyes open and helpless, her face slack, nodded in this pathetic, defeated way, then got to her feet and trudged toward the gates. Two other naked humans appeared out of thin air a second later, shaking and blinking.
    I turned to Ana. “These people are materializing, like new arrivals at the Suicide Gates. You said Malachi fell out of a hole in the sky.”
    “He did.”
    “Those people died inside the Mazikin city,” Raphael said. “They aren’t recently possessed.”
    “So if you die, you end up back at their gates. Just like in the dark city. Except you’re naked.” The anger twisted inside of me. It was like this place had been designed to humiliate. To oppress. I hated the looks on those people’s faces and had to turn away to keep myself from punching the dome again.
    Raphael’s eyes were also on the hunched bare backs of the humans inside the dome. “Yes.”
    So there was no escape. Ever. My chest aching, I watched as a few more people appeared in front of the gates and were herded back inside. The Mazikin cheerfully shoved the humans over the threshold of the city, some of them to the left, some to the right, like they knew exactly which way each person should go.
    “How are we going to get in?” I asked, my voice trembling. This was it. Was I ready? Was I strong enough?
    I had to be. Ana and I were the only rescue squad available.
    “They’ll see us come in,” Ana said. “The crowd isn’t big enough for them not to notice us crawling through the opening you make.”
    “Have a little faith,” said Raphael. “I’ll get you in without incident. Once I do that, though, you’re on your own.” My heart stopped as his voice hitched, catching on those final words. Somehow, that tiny emotional breach was worse than Michael’s red-rimmed eyes and roared curses.
    I stepped back from the dome. “Be honest with us. Is this possible? Or is this a suicide mission?”
    I expected him to smile calmly and repeat his standard reply, that I didn’t need to know. But his freckled face was arranged in a very strange expression: part pity, part sadness, part uncertainty. And then he looked up at the sky, closed his eyes, and drew