Rivers of blood and sand

“Why isn’t your sister, Ayla, or Leo here?” Koa asked Wyatt.

My focus remained locked on the rippling air, waiting for the moment it finally broke through. From my peripheral vision, I noticed everyone preparing themselves or aiding in the design. Familiar jars caught my attention from where they sat in the grass next to where Caspian knelt, and I was glad all my hard work was coming in handy.

My gaze briefly shifted off the emerging rift to the lands on either side of the chasm, looking to see if I could sense any traces of the warped parasitical beings. It was worrisome that we hadn’t seen them yet. They should’ve been here already to ensure the rift went off without a hitch.

Why weren’t they here now?

Titan was the one to answer Koa’s question as he infused more magic into the circle. “They’re in their courts putting up shields in case we can’t stop this. If we fail, our courts will feel the effects the worst.”

“If that’s the case, shouldn’t you be in your court?” Jade asked, blunt as ever.

A half smile lifted his lips. “I have those I trust taking care of everything back in my court. I’m needed here.”

None of us argued with that reasoning, we needed all the help we could get. With how the Crescent Moon district was right on the other side of the chasm—which belonged to the Hunter’s Moon Court—Titan would have a vested interest in making sure this rift failed.

The six districts in the sorcerer and sorceress territory belonged to the five lunar courts. Both the Waxing and Waning moon districts belonged to Empress Ayla’s court—the Solar Eclipse Court. The other four belonged to the remaining courts.

My dragon was on edge, pressing close to the surface as she had been since the moment I stepped out of the portal and felt a strange energy. My palms tingled from the fire hovering just under the surface. The funny thing was that I wasn’t even trying to summon fire, this was all due to my anxious dragon.

Sudden bursts of energy rippled over us, whipping up the wind and trying to tug at our energy. Only they didn’t come from the rippling red-tinted air. In front of me, on the side of the bridge closest to the Crescent Moon district, were two towering men. Neither of them were emaciated like the death mage or appeared to be on death’s doors, but that didn’t mean either of them looked well. A plus side was they both had on clothes—sort of. They were the definition of the bare minimum and were torn and dingy.

The one on the right had an energy that resembled a warped sorcerer, only his felt like a sucking void, like a black hole for magic if that made sense. I could actively feel him sucking at the magic in my body, my dragon rising to put up a shield. His dark brown skin was ashen and dry in appearance and his long black hair looked brittle. Black eyes—unlike the death mage, the black didn’t eat up the white—met mine and a chill invaded my body at the sheer emptiness there. It was like something vital was missing. Compared to the man beside him, his ashen skin was nothing.

The best comparison I could make would be to compare his dark skin to the dry cracked dirt in a desert. I doubted the best moisturizer in all the realms could help him. In some places, the cracks went a little too deep, and a dark blackish-green liquid seeped out. His hair was shorn close to his scalp, and I had a feeling it probably would’ve been dry as hell based on his skin. His eyes were gray, but not like Wyatt’s or Ashe’s, which were full of multiple shades. The man’s were more like the absence of color and life. Which was fitting with how dead his stare was.

Based on the snarling and growling behind us, I assumed there were more of them, but I wasn’t willing to put my back on these two. Even though I currently had an unknown amount of assailants somewhere behind me.

Murmurs went through our group, plotting out a plan. Koa, Jade, Rowan, Ari, Reed, Alora, and Wyatt would face those on the side closest to the Convergence point. Parker, Harmony, Ander, and I would face the men ahead of us, and the rest would focus on the rift.

I decided to use one of the new weapons Ander had strapped to me, which was a throwing dart. The shaft was made of smooth dark wood, and the tip was spiked, making it painful to remove once it was imbedded in your skin. Holding the end between my thumb, forefinger, and middle finger, I threw it at the man on the left.

He raised a hand and as soon as the dart made contact, streams of light and white smoke seeped from the wood and metal, curling around his hand until it vanished. As soon as the smoke exited the dart, the wood took on a petrified appearance before it crumbled to dust. At the same time, the metal rusted and fell apart, almost like it was rapidly aging.

What the fuck?

It looked like we found the warped elemental. I threw another dart, and then another immediately after. Aiming high for the first and then low. He did the same to the first, pulling energy from it and disintegrating it. The second one landed on his thigh, drawing more of the black-green blood. My satisfaction at finally hitting him was short-lived. As with the others, the dart disintegrated, and the gash in his thigh healed.

From my peripheral vision, I saw Parker put up a shield to block the sharp spear of dark energy thrown at Harmony by the sorcerer. They appeared to be having a tough time figuring out the sorcerer’s strengths and weaknesses.

While I had been keeping the elemental distracted by throwing those darts at him, Ander was drawing blood and casting. The elemental went flying in a blast of light full of sizzling energy, landing face down in the grass several feet away. Blood leaked from the corner of his mouth, matching the gash on his forehead. Another long gash marred his chest, reminiscent of a wound made by a sword. I was definitely glad I never had that spell cast against me—although it couldn’t have been worse than the blood-boiling spell.

As I ran toward the elemental, I unsheathed my sword and released the blade. He moved out of the way before I could attempt to decapitate him, but I did manage to slice his shoulder. As the blade made contact, I had the initial fear he’d break my weapon, but all that happened was a vibration running through the sword into my arm. The metal lit up minutely, but it only lasted a few seconds. So long as it worked against him, I didn’t care why he couldn’t destroy it.

Ander stabbed him through his stomach, and he crumpled to the ground. Everywhere he made contact with the grass, energy seeped from it to him, and the once lush yellow grass turned brown and shriveled. As he did so, all of his wounds healed instantly.

It was safe to assume he was stealing energy from nature to power himself. Rather than the give-and-take nature of elemental’s powers, he only took, leaving behind nothing but death. So long as he was in contact with nature, he could steal from it and power up himself. I was guessing that he could only pull from the elements he was in contact with since he didn’t disintegrate my dart until it touched him. It was probably for the best if I only used my sword against him since I knew he couldn’t steal from it.

I figured he wouldn’t be able to pull from my fire since elementals couldn’t manipulate dragon fire. Even with that knowledge, I still didn’t attempt to use it. Not yet. I had a feeling I’d need to use a great deal of it later. I assumed it would work on him as the others, but it was just a guess. In fact, other than killing the summoner—which was a miserable experience that I never wanted to repeat—I had no clue how to kill any of these fuckers. Would cutting off their heads work?

A gust of decaying and putrid air hit me in the chest and sent me flying backward, rolling across the grass until I came to a stop in front of the rift. The four royals were standing around the rippling air that was growing more red as time went on. Magic flowed through the air from both the emerging rift and the royals preparing to close it once it fully emerged. Roman and the other two allowed Ashe to use their blood, which was surprising and spoke of the trust between them. Even when facing life or death, most royals wouldn’t dream of letting anyone have access to their blood. Their distrust ran that deep.

On the other side of the bridge, Koa, Jade, and Rowan were fighting an animal that was a horrifying cross between a bear and a saber-toothed tiger. Wyatt and Alora were fighting the death mage man who nearly killed Ander earlier, both of them making sure to keep their distance. Ari and Reed were fighting the blood mage woman and were somewhat able to hold their own against her.

None of them appeared to be in immediate danger, so I returned my focus to where Ander was fighting the elemental on his own. The wind had begun picking up, whipping at my clothes and making my ponytail smack me in the face. Was this from the elemental or from the rift?

Pulling out a couple of throwing stars, I threw them one after another. It was a gamble since I’d yet to figure out why my sword and Ander’s had been exempt. My only guess was that they were both enchanted. My suspicions were confirmed when he caught the first two and they aged until they were turned to dust. The third one caught him in the stomach, but the wound was quickly healed as the metal vanished.

At least I distracted him enough for Ander to stab him through the right side of his chest. The grass beneath his bare feet was already dead, but the air around him suddenly became frigid and thin. A white smoke appeared out of nowhere and entered his body as before

Ander and I shared a look that said the same thing: fuck. We were fucked if he could steal magic from the air around us.

While his focus was on Ander, I dropped to my knees and sliced the back of his legs. As he fell forward, Ander sliced across his midsection, practically disemboweling him. Smoke started pouring into his body, knitting his torn skin, but we weren’t having any of that. Summoning claws to my free hand, I stabbed him in his chest, not stopping until I reached his heart and ripped it out. Ander followed my move up by decapitating him. I crushed his strangely colored heart and tossed it away from his body for good measure.

“Heal that, bastard,” I muttered.

His gross blood coated my hand and felt stickier than normal blood and smelled sort of like a decaying plant. Since I wasn’t willing to get this shit on my clothes, I wiped it off on the grass. I doubted it was like the blood at the offering site since the reaction had been instantaneous, but that didn’t mean I wanted this shit on my hand.

The wind had picked up to the point where I couldn’t hear anything else. To make matters worse, the ground suddenly started shaking. With how we were on a moving land bridge over a bottomless chasm, this new development was less than ideal.

Harmony dropped to her knees and pressed her palms into the grass, infusing it with her elemental magic, while Ander took her place in fighting the sorcerer. Reed also shifted his focus to the rumbling bridge that bounced and threw me around.

My dragon and most of my instincts told me to go help Ander and fight with him, but he had Parker’s help. While Ari was now fighting the blood mage alone. These beings were too powerful to face alone. If I didn’t have fire on my side, I probably wouldn’t have survived the last time I fought them. Ander almost hadn't.

Since the blood mage didn’t have the same disintegrating powers as the elemental, I grabbed two of my throwing darts and threw them one after another. The first one caught her by surprise and hit her in the stomach. Unfortunately, she was ready for the second, lifting her bloody hand and stopping it in midair.

Moving way too fast for my eyes to catch, the dart flipped around and came right back at me. I tried diving to the side, but I wasn’t fast enough to avoid it hitting me in my thigh. After ripping the barbed tip out with a scream and an agonizing flare of pain, I sent a small burst of fire through my palm, burning the wood and melting the metal.

Because the dart tip ravaged my leg, it was taking a little bit longer than usual to heal, so I kept my distance from the blood mage. The dart had left a gaping hole in her stomach, but it seemed like having open wounds was part of her magic process. She had multiple gashes on her arms, chest, and thighs. I guess she didn’t have to worry about anyone touching or using her blood against her. That shit was fucking toxic, and none of us wanted to be near it.

Ari was unable to move out of the way fast enough and the blood mage scratched her arm, drawing blood. As she brought her blood-soaked fingers to her mouth—which would give her power over Ari, for an unknown amount of time—I sent a blast of fire at her hand, just enough to make the blood unusable.

She screeched, or I assumed she did as she brought her blackened hand to her chest, the smell of burning flesh made its way to me despite the roaring wind. While she was distracted, I threw another throwing star. My aim would’ve been good if it weren’t for the wind, causing it to only graze the side of her neck.

With the elemental dead, it was safe to assume the roaring wind and quaking bridge were caused by the rift.

The stinging in my leg had finally subsided as it healed, and after wiping off my blood, I lunged at the woman. Since she didn’t seem to feel pain from any of her wounds, I knew I’d have to make mine deep and impactful. She moved out of the way at the last second, so all I was able to do was get her side. My next strike was also blocked. She followed up the block by going in for the same move she’d done with Ari, but I caught her wrist before she made contact.

Her sticky and stale blood coated my hand, and while it sent numbing tingles into my skin where it touched, the blood didn’t incapacitate me. I still wiped my hand clean when I had the chance, not wanting it to affect my grip on my sword.

While I kept the blood mage distracted, and barely avoiding being bitten by her again, Ari came up from behind. If she hadn’t moved at the last second, Ari would’ve stabbed her through the heart. She didn’t appear to be in pain or even angry. No, she laughed. I couldn’t hear the sounds, but the dark glee on her face and the way she threw her head back said it all.

If the whipping wind hadn’t made talking impossible, I would’ve told Ari we needed to stop inflicting nonfatal wounds on this bitch. I had a feeling all we were doing was somehow adding to her power. Luckily, when I met Ari’s gaze over the woman’s shoulder, it seemed she made the same realization.

The ground hadn’t stopped rumbling or shaking, but it had been somewhat manageable, right up until the bridge sharply moved to the side as it picked up its pace. Neither Ari nor I were prepared and ended up sprawled in the grass. I was already disoriented by not being able to hear anything, and having to squint when facing the wind.

Standing was a struggle, with the shaking even worse than before and the quick pace the bridge was moving. It was no wonder I didn’t notice the blood mage until it was too late. She tackled me to the ground and bit my arm. A shock of pain ran down my arm as she gulped down my blood. The way she quickly drank was frantic, almost manic. She was locked down on my arm and no amount of kicking or punching could free her mouth.

Fire warmed my hand as I pressed it to her chest over her heart and sent a strong burst of fire, just enough for her to release my arm and scream. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t have time to do anything else. This time when Ari stabbed her from behind, she didn’t miss.

I pulled the handle of my short sword free and released the blade. In one smooth motion, I sliced through her neck. Stale black blood sprayed my face as her head dropped beside me and rolled to the side.

Using Ari’s offered hand, I stood and managed to stay on my feet when the bridge shook even harder. My attention was immediately pulled to the center of the bridge. The red of the rippling air had grown in intensity and was now glowing. It was so bright, I couldn’t look at it without squinting. Waves of heat rolled off of it, and sparks of electricity sparkled in the middle of the storm. The pulsing light was flashing every few seconds.

An outline of the glowing rift began emerging. It was faint, but it wouldn’t remain that way for long.