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Without a word, he slid off his fleiral, stumbling as he landed. He staggered forward toward the waiting horde.
Gods be damned! That idiot was in no shape to fight, let alone take on an entire horde!
Sliding off Jax, I followed him — close enough that he could hopefully hear my words … but not so close to be within reach of those hungry lengths of shadow now whipping around him like black flame.
"Jaiel!" I hissed, heart thundering in my ears. "Come back before they notice you! We need to go back the way we came!"
He stopped, but instead of turning back, he turned to face a copse of trees to our left and smoothly dropped into a fighting stance.
What the fuck is he thinking?
A large form burst from the cluster of trees as I stared, followed immediately by several more large, lumbering shapes.
Gods!
Four ghoul-type wraiths, their body korras twisted with corruption, lumbered toward us, torn gray skin hanging from arms and faces. They were as tall and as wide as a man could get, their pocked and blistered faces staring straight ahead with empty eye sockets.
Fuck. These certainly weren't large enough to be mountain wraiths, but they were more massive than any wraith or human I'd ever encountered.
While the shadow lashed out of him in all directions, Jaiel weakly lifted his weapon over his head with one hand. He used his other hand to point his open palm toward the monsters.
I waited, frozen, for the torrent of inky shadows to flow out of his hand and consume the twisted creatures.
But the darkness just spurted and writhed, then exploded in a furious burst. Jaiel yelled and fell to his knees, pulling back the shadows as they threatened to overtake everything.
What in the seven hells?
From behind the large wraiths, a dozen more ghouls emerged, screaming as they shuffled toward us. More screams echoed from behind me, and I turned to see even more ghouls shuffling toward us from the other side of the path.
We were going to be surrounded if we didn't get out of here quickly!
"Jaiel?" I hissed. "What's wrong with your monster?"
"RUN!" He yelled over his shoulder. "My charisma's too low and I'm losing control of the shadow. If it breaks free …" His eyes met mine, dark as night. "You won't be safe."
"Fuck," I muttered.
This was a mistake!
I needed to get him back on his mount and out of here — even if we went back to that terrible fishing village. It had to be better than this!
As if the Mad Queen had heard me, a low pounding sound drew my attention behind us.
I stared in horror as even more massive ghouls poured out over the hills and onto the path behind us, blocking off our retreat.
No. My stomach sank.
There had to be another way …
But there were ghouls in every single direction. We were completely surrounded.
My mind flitted from one doomed option to another.
Fuck, fuck, fuckidy, fuck! We desperately needed that shadow monster of Jaiel's!
But that stubborn asshole had vehemently opposed the one solution that might give him back control — and all because he was worried about me.
So would he really oppose it if it saved our lives? Surely not.
