Draiks and Angels: Rescued

26 - Infiltrate

Cona could hear herself screaming as the freezing Shadows pulled her into the inky blackness beneath her feet. The heat of the flames surrounding her did nothing to alleviate their icy touch on her skin. It seemed to permeate her entire being and remove any warmth left in her body.

Then there was blackness. It pressed in on her from all sides, assaulting her mind. It was cold, colder than anything could possibly be, yet her blood did not turn to ice. The silence was deafening. Her mind could not accept that such things were possible, and shut down, sending Cona into unconsciousness.

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Cona felt cold. The whole front of her body felt cold. Her neck hurt, but she couldn't understand why. Something hard was pressed against her cheek. That same thing seemed to be pressed against her hands and arms. Slowly she felt that the hard thing was along her whole body, and understood it was what was making her cold. Her head hurt like it had an ax embedded in it, making it hard to think, but finally she gathered that she must be lying on a stone floor. After a few minutes, Cona mustered the energy to open her eyes. She saw black.

The walls and floors were made entirely of black stone, carved roughly, and there were no windows. There was a large stone double-door to her right, almost 20 feet tall, and a throne to her left. The throne was facing the door and was raised a few steps above the floor, with purple fires burning on either side in midair. They gave off an unearthly, flickering light, casting huge shadows that danced on the floors and walls. It looked like the throne was made out of obsidian. It was sharply chipped so that the natural tendency of obsidian to break into razor sharp edges formed all the corners, making it look as lethal as a throne shouldn't be. It didn't look very comfortable or safe.

Blinking her eyes a few times, Cona managed to focus on some black blurs in front of her. They were bars, about an inch thick and an arm's length away from her. She reached forward from her spot on the floor to touch a black bar with her fingertips.

She was on her feet against the wall before she realized what had happened. She looked down at her hand, which she was now cradling protectively with the other. Her head hurt. Her fingertips felt even colder than before. She looked back at the bars and saw them all around her. They were about five feet away from her on both sides, and about four feet in front of her from the wall where she stood. An arm's length above her was a flat, solid ceiling, obviously not as high as the cavernous room around her. It looked like the stone wall she was leaning against made the fourth wall of a cage.

Tentatively, Cona stepped forward, and with one finger, reached towards a black bar. Just millimeters from touching the metal, she stopped. She recognized this feeling. The bars weren't made of metal, they were made of Shadows!

Stumbling backwards away from the evil beings, she remembered being attacked in the forest. Michael had tried to save her but couldn't get to her in time. Tripping on her own bare foot, she collapsed to the floor, uncomfortably jarring her wings and bumping her head with something that felt like metal. Curious, she turned and looked at her wings. Covering the talons were gold caps, polished to a mirror-like shine. Quickly she looked down at herself and gasped aloud.

She was wearing almost nothing! Gone were her jean shorts and tank top. Instead, she was wearing a black silk bikini trimmed with twisted, polished gold straps that then followed the upper hem and met in the middle of her chest. The bottom was similarly adorned. She felt her cheeks get warm at the thought of anyone seeing her dressed like she was. At the same time, she noticed a black tattoo around her navel. It consisted of four shapes: underneath was a triangle that pointed downward, with the edge next to her belly button curved to match; on either side were shapes that looked like horns coming off the space around her navel; on top was a smaller triangle that was just as wide and the one underneath, but a third as tall, and pointed upward. Cona hugged her arms to herself to try and hide more of her bare skin.