Wind rustled through the dead grass. I felt my breath escape as my jaw dropped. A knight in black armor stood before us. Metal spikes jutted from his shoulders and he held a giant, sickly sword that looked sharper than a shadow demon's claws.
Jake was quick to summon his bow and a light arrow. He shot it, but it went right through the knight like he was made of fog. I knew he was smirking beyond his black helmet. Although the arrow had gone through him, it hit the door, causing it to slam shut.
The knight faded slowly. His voice echoed across the area. "Did you miss me, brother?"
Jake and I were petrified with terror. Not only was Adrian coming back, he was coming back stronger. I knew we were going to have to fight him again, but I said nothing.
Grace stared at us like we were both crazy. I couldn't blame her. She didn't know Adrian's true power. If she did, she'd have legs made of jelly. She wouldn't understand until she'd seen it herself.
"This is bad. Really bad," Jake stated.
"Why?" Grace asked. She still seemed confused. I wondered if she'd been paying any attention to the explanation Jake had given back at the Grand Canyon.
"The gates are walls between the Land of Below and Earth. Not only do they keep things in, they keep things out. If we shut all of the doors, we can't send Adrian back."
"Then how did you send him there in the first place?" Grace inquired. She had a knack for noticing flaws, which was ultimately both good and bad depending on the context.
"The doors must have already been open a crack . . ." Jake's voice trailed off. "This is worse than I thought."
I wondered how things could be worse. Jake answered my question, but it wasn't what I wanted to hear.
"This is just like the prophecy," Jake declared. He pulled out his old, leather-bound book and leafed through the pages until he found the one he was looking for. He read it aloud to us:
When the black heart gets away,
A twenty-year war begins,
Fought by the impure,
Forced forward by sins,
Against the good,
With hearts of gold,
By this battle,
The next eternity is foretold,
The end of a world may come,
One side has a weapon unseen by angel eyes,
Since hidden long ago,
The Land of Below is where it lies,
The other force has stolen from white,
But the taken is unnoticed,
The victor of the battle,
Has hair ablaze and eyes of ice.
"Ok, so I kind of get it, but only the first half," I admitted. "The black heart is either the influence that has been leaking out or Adrian. There will be a battle between the good and the evil. Depending on the winning side, a world will end."
"That's what I got out of it," Grace agreed. "And each side is going to have a secret weapon that they can't win without. They have to venture into the other side's land to get it."
"I guess I understood that," I said, "I just don't know how we'd actually get ours. I don't really get the part about the victor either. I mean, who would set their hair on fire?"
"Wait a second . . ." Jake said as he started to skim through the book again. "Look at this."
He held up the book so Grace and I could see the picture he was referring to. There was a woman with long, slender, and black limbs. I don't mean African black; I mean black like a starless midnight sky. She wore silver armor inlaid with glittering rubies and held a matching scimitar in her hands. She had wings much like a raven's as well. But more importantly, she had hair that was literally fire and eyes that were pure white.
My heart dropped. We were on the losing team, and all three of us knew it.
Grace reached out and traced her finger along the scimitar. She mouthed a "wow". I could tell we were on the same page on that aspect. While the woman looked like something from a nightmare, she also had an eerie beauty that you'd never find anywhere else.
"Who is she?" Grace inquired after lifting her finger from the page.
"Her name is Vivian. She lived on Earth a very long time ago. She brutally killed several men and was rejected entrance to Heaven when she was finally taken down. She spent so much time in the Land of Below that she started to become a part of it. She now likes to call herself the Dark Mistress and was actually granted that title after spending some quality time with the Dark One."
Grace frowned. "We don't stand a chance."
"But we have to try!" I exclaimed. "We will put up the fight of our lives! We can't win if we give up."
"What we need," Jake said, "is a plan."
