Down the Rabbit Hole - Book Four

19. They Take Their Shots

ADARA

We travel through the cramoisy woodlands without any more mishaps, and now I lead the team into the black, shadowy forest of Ink Woods. Our horses' legs are stained black from the ink saturated ground, and an unseasonably chill clings to the dim air. Apparently there's a portal out here. It's so crazy to think I was wandering aimlessly through these woods when I first came to Raetri, only back then I didn't have the same connection with Raetri as I do now so I couldn't sense any of the portals hidden throughout this realm.

But what's even crazier to think about is that it was here in Ink Woods that I meet a certain Dark Rider for the very first time.

I've been painstakingly trying to avoid looking at him though.

The last thing I want is for him to suspect I'm thinking about him or that night that started everything...

I suddenly pull my horse to a stop, motioning for the others to freeze too. Beside me, Analia and I exchange an anxious glance and I know she must be able to sense what I can.

The Shamen are just ahead of us.

We both cautiously dismount, and the others follow our lead.

"There's a portal here," Analia says quietly.

"I know," I curtly nod. "We can't let them open it!" I whisper urgently.

"One step ahead of you, blondie," Analia gestures at her friends. "Spread out and wait for my signal!" She hisses.

"Wait! What about us?" Adisonia anxiously demands.

"I don't know!" Analia huffs impatiently. "Follow our lead, I guess!"

I roll my eyes but gesture for the others to follow our Imanian teammates.

I hurry after Analia as she creeps over a ridge overlooking a clearing. "Are those the Shaman?!" I widen my eyes with disbelief as I catch a glimpse of two beings standing on the shore of a giant lake.

"Shh! Get down!" Analia seizes my wrist and yanks me behind a thorny bush. "That's Naima," she hisses darkly as her eyes zero in on the woman. "And that...thing beside her is the reanimated body of the dark wizard Sejal."

My eyes are huge with horror as I take in the monster she refers to as Sejal. I struggle to believe that what I'm looking at was ever once a real guy, this creature now looks more like a volcano shaped into the towering form of a male standing somewhere over seven-feet tall.

The resurrected wizard's body is entirely encased in broken, obsidian stone, and glowing green veins of lava is stretched over his smoldering, rocky flesh. Tendrils of smoke waft steadily off his muscles and his face honestly is more resemblant of a burned skull than an actual face.

Tendons are stretched over his jawbone where his cheeks should be -his mouth is just one big opening full of massive fangs- and his eyes look like they have been rolled back in his sockets so I can only see the whites. He wears this huge crown made of bones and thorns and the top of his head is literally made entirely out of blazing green and black flames. Smoke billows up from his fiery head and streams out of his open nose cavity as he breathes.

I shudder with disbelief.

The Shaman at his side, Naima, looks significantly less horrifying, but still has her own brand of alarming. Her deep Black skin glows with rivets of neon yellow etched over her flesh live a navigation chart, and her searing yellow eyes illuminate the space around her face. Her eyes look like they've been rolled back in their sockets too. Her nose seems to have been melted off, leaving only an exposed bone cavity behind, and her lips have been shaved off to reveal an array of fangs much smaller than Sejal's but equally lethal, I'm sure. Her long dreadlocks are encrusted in crushed crystals, and ornaments of bones are scattered throughout her head of hair.