Only a second passed.

  And suddenly I heard a scream.

  I didn’t wait another moment.

  I rushed back into the celr.

  The scene in front of me made me freeze for a heartbeat.

  One of the soldiers had pinned the woman to the floor. He had torn her dress open and was roughly gripping the wound on her leg—blood seeped between his fingers while he breathed heavily and ughed. His trousers were already down, and he was about to do something terrible.

  I didn’t fully understand what he was doing.

  He was so absorbed that he hadn’t even noticed me.

  Just like those goblins.

  Who had tried to kill.

  I opened my mouth to shout “what the hell are you doing,” but then I saw the second soldier.

  He was holding the little girl.

  And he was tearing her clothes too.

  He licked her skin—slowly, with pleasure, like some kind of animal.

  A clear, icy thought fshed through my mind.

  They’re going to kill them.

  And then they’ll kill me too.

  I froze.

  Just for a second.

  Then my body moved on its own.

  I lunged at the first man and struck with all my strength.

  His flesh was softer than that of goblins or imps.

  The bde slid easily through his neck.

  The head—with a face twisted in horror—fell to the floor.

  A fountain of blood spshed over me—hot, salty, sticky.

  The second soldier saw it and screamed:

  “You little bastard! What are you doing?!”

  He reached for his sword.

  But I was faster.

  My bde entered his eye with a wet sound.

  And came out the back of his skull.

  For a moment everything stopped.

  I stood there, breathing hard.

  I had killed people.

  But…

  They acted like demons.

  Maybe…

  Maybe they were demons?

  Yes.

  People can’t be like that.

  I spun toward the woman.

  She screamed and spped me across the face—hard, desperately.

  I was stunned.

  This was strange.

  I had saved her.

  Why were they looking at me like that?

  As if I…

  “Are you all ri—”

  “Don’t come near me, demon!”

  I froze.

  Demon?

  But I had saved her from demons…

  “Murderer! Get away! You’re all bastards!”

  I felt something burn in my eyes.

  I probably should have cried.

  But the pain suddenly became stronger.

  My eyes began to ache strangely—as though fire was igniting inside them.

  “Drake? Are you here?”

  Lohan burst into the celr.

  He stopped dead.

  And I saw his face.

  There was horror in his eyes.

  He looked at me the same way those people did.

  As if…

  I was a demon.

  Why?

  “Uncle Lohan…”

  My voice sounded strange—hoarse, low, not quite my own.

  “They attacked the woman. They’re demons…”

  Lohan smiled.

  But the smile was fake—forced, stretched tight like skin over a drum.

  “It’s all right, Drake… I’ll expin everything. You’re not to bme.”

  He pced a hand on my shoulder—cautiously, as if afraid I might explode.

  “You did good.”

  But why was there still fear in his eyes?

  He’s lying?

  “Calm down. Come with me. It’s over. We killed all the demons.”

  He spoke softly.

  Too softly.

  “We need to leave.”

  I said nothing more.

  I just followed him.

  Everything after that was like a fog.

  People running back and forth.

  Someone shouting.

  Someone being carried—wounded, dead.

  I barely understood anything.

  Then suddenly I was standing in front of Kane.

  He looked at me strangely.

  For a very long time.

  His face held a complicated expression—a mix of exhaustion, pain, and something else I couldn’t name.

  “Drake.”

  He nodded slowly.

  “You did the right thing.”

  I lifted my head.

  “Really?”

  Kane sighed—heavily, as though dropping a stone from his shoulders.

  “Yes.”

  He looked aside—toward where the soldiers’ bodies were already being carried away.

  “Those two were worse than demons.”

  I was silent for several seconds.

  Then I asked:

  “What were they going to do to the woman and the girl?”

  Kane exhaled heavily.

  “Damn it…”

  He rubbed his forehead roughly, as if trying to erase the memory.

  “I didn’t think I’d have to expin things like this to you.”

  He looked at me again.

  “But since you’ve already had to kill people…”

  He gave a crooked, joyless smirk.

  “…then you need to know about things like this too.”

  He sat down beside me—right on the ground, ignoring the mud and blood.

  “Listen carefully.”

  And Kane began to expin.

  He told me exactly what those two had been about to do.

  Why people can sometimes be worse than demons.

  Why I wasn’t wrong.

  And why the world is far darker than I had thought.

  And I just listened.

  And for the first time I understood one thing.

  Sometimes monsters…

  look like people.

  And sometimes they are killed by children.