Heroine Complex

by Sarah Kuhn

  I refocused on Shasta.

  “You’re not even going to get San Francisco,” I said, making my voice as clear and confident as possible. Shasta seemed unable to resist responding to bitchy taunts. Maybe I could stall her with a whole mess of bitchy taunts, inch one of my arms out from under me, and then nuke her ass. I didn’t know if she, like her hybrids, had the ability to reconstitute herself, but I was guessing that going up in flames would at least distract her for a moment. And if I moved slowly, maybe it wouldn’t be as painful. I dragged my arm a tiny bit to the side.

  Fucking ow.

  So moving was going to be a one millimeter at a time kind of thing.

  “That’s right,” Aveda said. “You’re not going to be able to get San Francisco. I don’t think you realize just how particular San Franciscans are.” I looked at her in surprise. Her voice was shaky, but she met my eyes and gave me a little nod, then winced. She knew what I was trying to do. “Look at the figures you targeted,” she continued. “You’ve got a third-rate actor, a super-annoying blogger, and a dude who plays piano at an establishment that would charitably be referred to as a ‘hole.’”

  “No offense,” I said to Stu Singh.

  Stu held up a desiccated hand, indicating we were cool.

  “Whatever.” Shasta flapped a hand at her minions. “They think my plan is brilliant.”

  “Wee-eeelllll . . .” Tommy Lemon shifted uncomfortably, his glassy eyes going to the ground. His voice had the same watery, inhuman quality as Maisy’s.

  “That doesn’t sound like a vote of confidence to me,” I said, trying to egg Tommy on.

  “Your plan sounded brilliant initially,” Tommy said to Shasta. “But we didn’t realize it had strings.”

  “You get to be fucking immortal,” she snarled. “What are the strings?”

  “I’m guessing the bit where you had to disappear from the public eye and pretend to be in the Andes maybe wasn’t the greatest thing for a big movie star?” I coaxed.

  “That’s right,” Tommy said, nodding eagerly. “This mysterious retreat hasn’t been sitting well with my fans. They just want more movies, ya know?”

  “We also didn’t realize we’d have to look like this all the time,” Maisy said. She frowned at her flaky gray hands. “Honestly, Shast, I don’t know how you expect us to be this gosh-dang powerful cabal when we can’t even go out in public.”

  “People will adapt,” growled Shasta. “Once they realize we’re in charge—”

  “Once nothing,” Aveda said. “I know it’s a little racist, but the public tends to prefer it when your skin stays on your body.”

  Shasta glowered at her. “I think you’ll feel differently once you’ve been hybridized. Now. We should really get started.” Apparently resigned to the fact that she wasn’t going to be able to get Aveda to stand, Shasta knelt down next to her.

  I attempted to move my arm again. The force field stabbed me so hard, I gasped out loud.

  “Evie,” murmured Nate.

  I ignored him. I couldn’t think about him right now. If I thought about him even a little bit, I would come apart.

  “Why do you want a minion who clearly wants nothing to do with you?” I said, trying to divert Shasta’s attention back to me. “It sounds like these other guys went willingly, but Aveda is about as un-minion-like as you can get. For a demon princess, you lack foresight.”

  Shasta sprang to her feet, rage sparking in her eyes. “I have plenty of foresight,” she growled. “I’ve been working on this plan for years!”

  Years? My thought process came to a screeching halt. What did she mean by . . . Was she . . .

  Shit. Of course.

  “As in eight years?” I guessed. “You’re one of the original humanoid demons? The ones who came through the first big portal?”

  “I opened that portal.” She threw me a scathing look. “And I actually came here way before that, for research purposes. The demon elders were looking to expand their empire, and I knew if I could find the perfect realm to invade and annex, they’d finally give me the respect I deserve. You know, promote me from demon princess to queen. And your realm was just so . . . shiny. So full of beautiful things and beautiful dresses and beautiful people.” For a moment, her rage dissipated, and she gave a blissful sigh. “I knew if I could become one of those beautiful people, I’d be able to enslave humanity and the elders would allow me to rule your realm forever.”

  “You thought you could enslave humanity by being beautiful?” Aveda said, her voice heavy with skepticism. She met my eyes. When Aveda and I were kids, our co-dependent connection meant we could communicate entire paragraphs of thought in a single look. I tried to do that now: Just keep Shasta evil monologuing. She seems to be really into bragging about this damn plan of hers and if she keeps doing that, I know I can drag my arm out from under me and set her on fire and save us all.

  I tried shifting the weight of my torso, freeing my arm a bit.

  That’s it. That’s it . . . I moved my arm a fraction of an inch then stopped when the force field pain hit me. It felt like it was seeping through my skin, wrapping itself around my lungs and squeezing.

  “Ugh, Shast.” Maisy rolled her sunken eyes. “You’re explaining things all wrong, as usual.” She turned to us. “She thought she could just magically become one of our human-type celebrities. Entrance all of us that way. She didn’t understand that becoming a celebrity requires panache.”

  “And some kind of talent,” Tommy chimed in. “That’s what I’ve been trying to advise her on—the actorly side of things.”

  “So you came here from the Otherworld through your own portal for, uh, research,” I said, trying to keep Shasta talking.

  “Correct,” Shasta said. She examined her nails, now in full evil monologue mode. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I mean, yes, I wanted her to be in full evil monologue mode, but I was starting to see why her minions looked so fed up. I noted that Maisy looked especially fed up. Something else I could use.

  “It was a very experimental one-person portal,” Shasta continued. “But I knew if I worked hard, I’d eventually be capable of bigger, better things.”

  “So then, eight years ago, once you’d deemed us suitable for invading, you opened a way larger, scarier portal from the Earth side. And brought a whole posse of humanoid demons through.” I had another sudden, desperate urge to look at Nate, to see if he knew any of this already. But I couldn’t risk the force field pain. I needed to conserve any pain-tolerating abilities I might have for getting my stubborn arm out from underneath me.

  Shasta beamed. “Every celebrity needs an entourage.”

  “But obviously something went wrong,” Aveda snarked. “Because your entourage ended up dead.”

  I noticed she was attempting to drag herself away from Shasta and the minions, but she was making about as much progress as I was in trying to move my arm. I met her eyes again. It’s okay, I tried to tell her. Stop moving. Save your strength. I got this.

  Shasta’s face darkened. “I may not have had my bigger portal-opening spell entirely worked out, particularly from the human world side . . .”

  “Yeah, to say the least,” Maisy snorted. “Your stupid portal snapped shut immediately and killed your entire invasion team and trapped you here with no meaningful way of communicating with the Otherworld.”

  “And I didn’t let that stop me!” Shasta exclaimed, throwing her arms out dramatically. “If anything, I was even more determined to rule you humans.”

  “Whoa,” Tommy said. “You’re hitting that line a little hard. Remember what we talked about with dramatic monologues? You gotta loosen up, connect with people, be more real—”

  “Shut up,” Shasta snapped. She turned back to me. “Anyway. In order to properly annex your realm, I needed to regain access to the Otherworld and open a permanent portal between here and th
ere. I figured out how to open portals all over the city—”

  “Which were smaller and weaker?” I said, catching Maisy’s eye and giving her a skeptical look.

  Maisy snorted in agreement. “And so unstable that only your mindless little puppy-demons could get through,” she said. “Not exactly as threatening as the big, bad humanoid demons, eh?”

  “But threatening in their own way,” Shasta said peevishly. “I mean, yes, we keep them as pets in the Otherworld, but they do adore the taste of human flesh.”

  “If you’re such an important demon princess and you were trapped here, why didn’t these so-called elders try to rescue you?” Aveda said.

  She had stopped moving, at least for the moment. I dragged my arm a bit more to the side. Now it was trapped right under my tailbone. The force field pain was starting to make me lightheaded. Tiny white dots danced in front of my eyes and I tried to blink them away.

  Shasta’s eyes shifted from side to side. “Well,” she said slowly, “they did attempt to open more portals from the Otherworld, but they kind of couldn’t because . . . um . . .”

  “Because that portal attempt from eight years ago was just that botched?” I guessed, lifting a knowing eyebrow at Maisy.

  “So botched!” Maisy crowed in agreement. “It totally shut down their ability to open anything from the Otherworld side.”

  Shasta glared at her. “You need to remember who’s in charge, here.”

  Maisy gave her an injured look. “I’m a princess, too. A demon-human hybrid princess.”

  “Only because I decreed it,” Shasta said. She gave us a smug smile. “You’ll notice I even allowed her to keep her human appearance until the karaoke contest. Well, mostly. I gave her a bit of flaky skin so she could start to feel the glory of being demonified.”

  “Allowed me to?” Maisy snorted. “Shast, you know there’s a certain amount of time between when you decide to hybridize someone and when the turn fully takes place. And that we scheduled it so my turn would happen during that climactic karaoke moment.”

  “Wait.” I looked at them in disbelief, momentarily distracted from my excruciating arm-moving project. “Aveda had already used her fire power to defeat Tommy and Stu’s hand at that point. What made you think things would be different with Maisy?”

  Shasta gave me a “duh” look. “You sure are inquisitive today, Rude Girl. Maisy was my third hybrid. I figured I’d perfected the hybridization process, so she’d be strong enough to take Aveda out.” She frowned at Maisy. “Who knew my chosen princess would be such a disappointment? After her defeat, I had to figure out how to mask my DNA, just so I wouldn’t be found out by your stupid human police.”

  “The Otherworld higher-ups are the ones who decreed I become a princess,” Maisy shot back. “They recognized my charisma and sent you that Golden Princess stone to make it happen.”

  “So that stone was a directive, too,” I murmured. The puzzle was coming together in a totally unsettling way. But I couldn’t get caught up in that. I had to focus on sending my fire blazing in Shasta’s direction. I shifted my arm again and braced myself for the inevitable pain. My elbow was jutting out from under my torso now.

  “Yes, yes,” Shasta said. “Those stones are the only things the elders have been able to send through my, as Maisy refers to them, ‘puppy-demon’ portals. The stones used to be merely informational, but recently, they’ve started sending me little bits of advice for taking over your world.”

  “Or they were trying to give you proper instruction since you keep fucking up,” Maisy muttered. “Exact instructions, in fact: ‘Make the human-demon hybrids, already. No, you can’t use an Aveda statue, you have to make them out of actual humans. Hey, here are step-by-step instructions on how to make them.’ Oh, yeah,” she said, noting my look of surprise, “there were tons of stones you guys didn’t find.”

  “So the statues were a sort of prototype that didn’t work out?” Aveda said. Our eyes locked again. We’re nearly there, I thought. Blabby Demon Almost Queen just needs to talk for a few seconds more. And then my arm will be free . . .

  Shasta shrugged. “Well, they did nothing to increase my power, but they succeeded in scaring you, didn’t they? I had to round them up and destroy them once I realized they weren’t working out, but that wasn’t nearly as big a crimp in my plan as Team Aveda getting to some of the stones before I did. Luckily we managed to recover this particular stone when it fell out of that purple-haired brat’s pocket at The Gutter.” She brandished the You Need stone at us, then flipped it over so we could see the number.

  1

  My stomach clenched and my brain started working overtime. The stone must’ve started at 4—but by the time it came our way, Tommy had already been converted. Stu and Maisy had ticked the number down to 1. Nate and I had assumed that whoever was in charge planned on creating the last hybrid at the karaoke contest. But actually, she planned on doing it now.

  We had been wrong about so many things.

  “Enough chatter!” Shasta snapped, even though she was the one who had been doing most of the chattering. She tucked the stone into her pocket. “Let’s get this final hybrid thing going.” She knelt next to Aveda again and grabbed her arm.

  “Wait!” I cried.

  Shasta gave me an exasperated look. “What now?”

  “Um.” I scoured my brain, frantically searching for what else I could possibly use to stall her. My arm was almost free, dammit. If I could just move it a little bit more . . . “If you were trying to take Aveda down before, then why do you want her as your minion now? That seems like . . . not the best life choice you could make?”

  “Not the best life choices are kind of her specialty,” Maisy muttered.

  Shasta gave a long-suffering sigh. “Originally, I was trying to knock her out so I wouldn’t have any competition for my obvious future role as ultimate San Francisco celeb. I got my hybrids to stalk and attack her, and after a bit, they were even able to follow her patterns, predict where she’d be.” She smiled down at Aveda, her face lighting with exaggerated benevolence. “But now I see that she’s the one who can make our cabal complete. And even if she’s a little reluctant now, I know I can convince her once hybridization takes hold. She’s better than human. She deserves to be part of this. Part of us.”

  Aveda tried to pull away from Shasta. “But none of these people want to be part of you,” she spat out, gesturing to Maisy and Co. “Not anymore. So why would I?”

  “It might be more fun if you were with us, Aveda,” Maisy piped up, picking at her falling-off skin. “We could finally be true best friends.”

  “She is not your best friend, Maisy!” shrieked Shasta. She dropped Aveda’s arm, scrambled to her feet, and stamped on the ground so hard, one of her heels snapped off. “I am! That was the whole point. We were supposed to be awesome besties taking on San Francisco together. Instead you hogged all the attention for yourself and treated me like a second-rate sidekick!”

  Maisy cast a meaningful look at Shasta’s broken shoe. “If the cheap knock-off stiletto fits . . .”

  I dragged my arm a bit further, managing to free it completely from the weight of my torso. The pain of the force field was burning through my entire body now, a near constant presence. But I had to keep going.

  Almost there, almost there . . .

  “I think I’ve had just about enough of your sass-mouth,” Shasta said, taking a threatening step toward Maisy. Her features turned malevolent.

  My palm was facing the ground. I just had to turn it over.

  “Let’s get back to Aveda!” Maisy said brightly. “That’s why we’re here, right?”

  “Right.” Shasta turned back to Aveda. “I can make you immortal. If I’m interpreting the message on this stone correctly, once I have my four hybrids, I’ll be strong enough to open that permanent portal to the Otherworld, the whole demon populati
on will invade, and we’ll rule San Francisco together!”

  There was a moment of resounding silence.

  Shasta stomped the foot wearing the broken shoe, nearly toppling over in the process. “Together,” she growled out of the side of her mouth, prompting Maisy and Co. to half-heartedly echo, “Yes, yes . . . together . . . right . . .”

  “No.” Aveda’s voice was hoarse with pain, but she still managed to sound like she was dealing with an overzealous—but ultimately harmless—fan. Shasta’s gaze darkened.

  I managed to flip my hand partway over. Goddammit. Ow. Okay. Just one more bit of movement . . .

  “So tiresome,” Shasta said. Her eyes shifted to me. I stilled my hand. “What about you? You’re no Aveda, but you showed promise during that little incident at the mall. Are you still test-driving the fire power?”

  “No,” Nate growled, finally speaking up. He’d gone so quiet, I’d nearly forgotten he was there. With great effort, he hauled himself in front of me. “Mother. I told you: you can take me. I’ll be your final minion . . .”

  “We’re not minions; we’re partners!” chirped Maisy.

  “. . . if you let them go.”

  Shasta looked thoughtful. “I was thinking more along the lines of you joining me as minion support, Nathaniel. You know, help them adjust to their new lifestyle. But there would be a certain poetic justice to you being one of my actual minions. I still need someone like Aveda, though. She brings me prestige.”

  I started to ease my hand all the way over, channeling all the fear and confusion I was feeling toward my palm.

  I can do this, I can do this . . .

  “You know what?” Shasta said, her tone light with a false whimsy. “I don’t see why I can’t have both. I just need to make some room.” And with that, she snapped her fingers and Tommy Lemon disintegrated before our eyes.

  It should’ve been a quick thing, disintegration. The turning of someone into dust in the blink of an eye. But this moment seemed to last forever as Tommy screamed and shriveled, his flaky skin crumbling, his eyes caving in on themselves.