Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
THEY SPLIT UP ONCE THEY REACHED THE FOREST.
Rynaezel, along with Tamas and Laveau, who said she caught the recent scent of the human, went north, to where Auran had loosely pointed to the probable location of the witch they were seeking.
He himself expressed no interest in coming with them. Not that Rynaezel minded, but it made her suspicious as to why. It was strange enough that he seemed to have met the vultures before, but it was even stranger that he'd met the witch who had stolen Rynaezel's prize.
She kept telling herself that it was only a series of coincidences, but she couldn't keep lying to herself much longer.
There was something about Auran, if not his power, then perhaps his destiny, that made this blood bonding possible.
"Are we close yet?" she asked, bristling at her own thoughts.
"I think... But these woods," said Laveau as she brushed a dark hand against the bark of a pine, "I don't think they want us to find her."
Rynaezel heard Tamas snort beside her. "Please, no woods can keep me away. And, besides, if she is who I think she is, then she will be very interested in meeting me."
Laveau rolled her eyes hard enough for them to show clear white. "Gods, you think too much about yourself," she mumbled loud enough for him to hear.
Rynaezel, despite his words, felt the woods pushing back. They had gotten darker, like the trunks and canopy were closing in on them, caging them. She couldn't hear the sounds of birds or the rustling of leaves. It was as if everything had gone into deep, terrifying slumber.
"Stop," she said suddenly as she sensed a colossal presence behind them. It was similar to what she felt around the three vultures. That massive, crushing energy looming over them like a black halo. But this, it was somehow different.
More earthly, subdued. But perhaps just as dangerous.
She whirled around, feeling the eyes of the forest on her, hearing the snapping of branches as they made their slow, wicked path towards them, watching as the thick roots of the oaks crawled through the earth.
Marie stilled behind her, eyes wide as she watched the forest transform in front of her.
"Look," whispered the Queen, who had moved closer to Rynaezel. She laid a gentle hand on Rynaezel shoulder and twisted it, forcing the witch's attention towards the tree line behind her.
There, in a dark arch formed by two bowing trees, stood a shadow.
"Who dares seek me?" a voice boomed across the forest like fire catching and swallowing.
Rynaezel opened her mouth to answer, but she was cut off as Tamas stepped around her, pushing her gently out of the way as he stood in front of the watching shadow.
