Rivers of blood and sand

I was in the guest bedroom, changing into a spare pair of jeans, a tank top, and an extra pair of boots when someone knocked on the door. Before I could answer, Jade entered the room, closed the door, and flopped on the bed. She propped her head on her hands as she watched me with a smug grin.

“You know, you’re the first girl Ander’s slept with that we’ve met,” Jade said in a conversational tone, her gaze observing my every reaction. Her grin grew when I tensed at the mention of him being with other women.

I immediately chastised myself for the irrational jealous and possessive instincts pulsing through me. Stubborn possessive dragon. We both had pasts, the important thing was he never cared about those women or allowed them the chance to get close to him, unlike me.

“Don’t worry, you’re not alone. I’d like to claw out the eyes of every girl that has seen Koa naked,” Jade said, giving a small shrug when I let out a surprised laugh. “It’s in our nature to be possessive of our mates.”

She wasn’t wrong, our spirit animals became attached to our mates and would do almost anything to keep them safe.

As I finger-combed my hair, Jade’s expression shifted. Her eyes became shadowed as she chewed on her bottom lip. “Did Ander tell you about…the temple?” Her tone was wary, as was her expression. I instantly knew she wasn’t asking about the incident involving her and her sister.

“He did.” Using my extra hair tie, I pulled my hair back into a ponytail. “I also met her mother, Ruby. She was a lovely woman. I can see how she raised a selfless and caring woman.”

Jade sat up, her body riddled with tension. “Harmony told me Ruby was looking for Ander. She didn’t say anything about her attacking you. Did she get any of your blood?” Her eyes were wide as she scanned over me as if she could see past injuries.

“Don’t worry, Ander killed her.” I shrugged, deciding I wouldn’t waste any more time thinking about her.

Jade gaped at me and it was clear she wanted to question me. “I’ll tell you about it when we aren’t waiting for a deadly rift to appear,” I said as I pulled out the handle of one of my thinner retractable swords, my spare dagger, and the harness to carry all of them. Even though my fire was a weakness of theirs, I felt better carrying as many weapons as I could.

“Alright, but I’ll hold you to it,” Jade said, pinning me with a look that said she meant business.

Rolling my eyes, I let out a short chuckle as I strapped my weapons to my body. “I know you will, you crazy bitch.”

Jade wasn’t offended by my comment. A smile was fully in place as she shrugged before hopping off the bed and wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “Come on, we have a whole room.”

She guided me from the room and down the hallway until we came across an open door. Inside was a medium-sized space filled with various types and sizes of weapons. Ander and Koa were both in there, pulling weapons off the walls and checking to make sure they were still sharp. They were both chatting without an ounce of tension between them. Hell, Koa even laughed at something Ander said. It was as if their fight never happened.

I shot Jade a confused look and she just shrugged in response, rolling her eyes. “Men.”

She moved around the room with the confidence that came from familiarity, not having to search around before grabbing an item off the wall or the giant table in the middle of the room. My steps were slow as I drifted closer to the table, taking in everything. Almost by instinct, my gaze immediately sought out Ander, finding him already watching me. Using a finger, he gestured for me to join him at the table. There wasn’t a single moment of hesitation on my part as I joined him.

“Are you familiar with these?” Ander asked, gesturing at the weapons in front of him. A couple of days ago, I would’ve taken the question as a hidden barbed insult. That he doubted my training, but now I didn’t think that way. Now I took it as a genuine question and nodded.

“Good,” he murmured, grabbing a harness from beside them and strapping it around my waist under my shirt. His fingers and knuckles brushed over my skin as he secured the harness and weapons, inciting goosebumps.

I could feel Jade and Koa’s gazes on us every so often. Jade was far less subtle about it.

Ander showed me more weapons, getting a feel for the ones I was comfortable with. For the ones I was less familiar with, he said, “We’ll change that when we have the time.” His words were a quiet rumble that was full of promises.

After we had more than enough weapons, we headed to the kitchen where Reed had prepared dinner. According to Jade, he was an incredible chef. If the rich aromas coming from the kitchen were any indication, she wasn’t exaggerating his skills.

In a room adjoining the kitchen sat a long wooden table that could easily seat all of us with room to spare. We all ate here after we came back from the creature’s realm the last time. Platters of food filled the table, along with plates and utensils in front of nine of the chairs.

As we ate, the others asked more questions about the beings we faced and for a more in-depth description of each of our fights. When I went into depth about the death mages, an icy chill slithered through my body at the reminder of how it felt when he stole my energy, and the state of Ander after having prolonged contact with him.

Alora confirmed that the deity death mages didn’t have the ability to suck the life out of others. Instead, they were able to pull energy from nearby deaths. The more painful and drawn out the death was, the more power they gained. Which was still horrifying to think about. They made the necromancers seem less bad in comparison, at least in the scope of their powers.

While the food was incredible, and Jade hadn’t been exaggerating, I couldn't truly enjoy it with the knots my stomach was in. What if something went wrong and we came across another being with warped deity-level powers? If we only met three of the races, did that mean they had sorcerer and elemental versions waiting in the wings?

Ander grabbed my thigh and gave me a comforting squeeze, making me wonder if I’d been telegraphing my worries to him. Even though the contact wasn’t skin-to-skin, it still eased some of the tightness in my chest a fraction.

As soon as we finished eating, Alora leaped from her seat and immediately began clearing the table. Everyone protested, but she waved away all offers to assist her, telling us she had it under control. I had a feeling she did this often. Reed didn’t make any offers, he just stood up and began helping her clear the table. She protested multiple times, but he ignored her as he carried multiple sets of plates.

After giving my leg one last squeeze, Ander stood from his seat, joining Koa and Parker in a discussion about the possible places a rift could open and the layouts of said places. After another shot-down offer to help Alora, Harmony suggested for us to wait in the living room.

The harnesses and weapons weren’t uncomfortable, but I still removed them and placed them on the table before lying on the sofa. Harmony also joined me on the sofa, while the others sat in the armchairs.

While I wasn’t necessarily tired, I still found my eyes drifting shut. It had been a long day, one I couldn’t say how long it had truly been since time worked differently in the mirrored dimension. I was passed out when reentering our realm, but that hadn’t been enough to completely refuel my energy. If we were going to stop the rift from opening, we needed all the strength and energy we could get. Especially if Koa and I would be expending a lot of fire.

From the sound of it, Roman seemed to only want those he trusted on this. Which made sense with how this was related to the rift in the creature’s realm. We still had yet to identify any more traitors in our midst. A big worry of mine was that the numbers were greater than we suspected. In our group, we had several trusted dragon summoners, but somehow our luck was shitty today because they were all too busy to help—most of them had gone dark and weren’t answering their wristbands.

I must’ve drifted off, because the next thing I knew, my wristband rang and flashed with an incoming call from Roman. All traces of sleep disappeared in an instant as I sat up and accepted the call. Roman’s face came into view and based on his expression, it was time or close to it.

“The rift is close to breaking through the barrier. Meet us here. Now.”

The screen went dark and my jaw dropped, stunned by how blunt and short that “conversation” was. I expected that behavior from Seth, but not Roman. This rift was really stressing him out for him to act like this, not that I blamed him in the slightest.

My wristband beeped with an incoming message from him. It was a map of our realm, with a glowing dot in the area between the Convergence point and the Crescent moon district near the center of the realm.

“Get the others.” As I strapped my harnesses back on and reholstered my weapons, Ari left the room. By the time I finished, everyone had joined us in the living room. Without saying another word, I forwarded the map to Parker. With how close we were to the Wilds and the rift opening up in the center of the realm, we didn’t have time to waste running between the two.

Parker didn’t waste time with words and began harnessing his magic to create the pastel-blue portal. To no one’s surprise, Koa was the first one through. One after another we followed each other through until Parker closed it off behind himself.

Nighttime had fully descended upon us, with the full moon in the sky. It appeared bigger tonight, almost double its normal size, lighting up the night more than usual. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, it would be helpful to have good visibility—even though we all had excellent eyesight. But on the other hand, a random variation to the moon like this was never a good sign.

We were standing on a grassy plain, with yellow grass, but it wasn’t a dead or brown kind of yellow. It was vibrant and full of life. Behind us in the distance, I could see the buildings of the Convergence point, the council chambers towering over all others. Ahead of us was the chasm that stretched between the neutral territory and the Crescent Moon district. A floating grass bridge connected the two sides, but it wasn’t a normal land bridge.

It slid side to side between the two pieces of land, slow enough that it was easy to step onto the bridge with no problem, nor would you have to worry about keeping your balance. Another bonus was that it was nearly fifty feet wide, so you didn’t have to worry about accidentally falling off of it.

“Please tell me the rift isn’t on that damn bridge,” Jade whined.

Standing on the moving bridge were multiple royals. At this point, I wasn’t surprised to find Caspian, Titan, and Ashe standing alongside Roman. Nor was I shocked to see Wyatt since he was the one to put me on this path in the first place. I was surprised when I couldn’t find Seth anywhere amongst them. Normally he would make sure he’d be here for something this important.

Roman glanced our way and waved for us to join them. Jade groaned in response and dropped her forehead onto Koa’s chest. He chuckled as he wrapped his arms around her and whispered words of encouragement—ones I pretended I hadn’t heard, because gross.

Even if Roman hadn’t told me the rift was appearing here, I would’ve known. There was an electric energy buzzing in the air. Had my hair been down, it probably would’ve been frizzing like crazy. The magic skated over my skin, making me feel jumpy and anxious. A sense of wrongness coated the air and was melded into the energy. The kind that clung to you and refused to let go. Like that damn mud in the dark forest.

The sensations only grew stronger as we neared the others. It was how I imagined it felt to grab a live wire, but without getting electrocuted or experiencing the pain. The combination of the malignant energy was jarring. They both brought different sensations to my body all at once. The electricity made me jumpy, like one of those humans who had way too much coffee. While the dark pulsating energy tugged at my body, trying to steal from me and weigh me down.

“I’m surprised Seth isn’t here,” I said as we approached everyone else.

Caspian frowned, glancing at the other royals as he ran his hands through his disheveled hair. “Who?”

“I heard he was injured when he was aiding a fellow blood mage in another realm,” Wyatt said, pulling my attention from Caspian. He was kneeling in the grass, using a paint that I doubted was normal, and seemed to have no problem painting over the grass. Both he and Titan were using it to paint a giant twenty-foot circle. Parker joined them, adding runes inside and outside of the circle. With each rune they added, I felt a pulse of their sorcerer magic, but it was dim compared to the power of the oncoming rift.

In the center of the circle, the air rippled and a random spark lit the air several feet above the ground. A few seconds later, another spark appeared, along with a wisp of darkness that sent chills down my spine.

It was only a matter of time until the rift broke through, and all hell broke loose.