Rivers of blood and sand
Chapter 16

The portal dropped us off at the outskirts of a village nestled in the valley between two mountains. Rather than go in the opposite direction of the village—since all the portals and offering sites had been out of the way—Ander led us into the heart of the village. When I asked him why as I struggled to keep up with his unbelievably fast pace, he said he could hear my stomach growling. I gave an indignant huff. My stomach wasn’t growling or anywhere close to it, but he was right. I was hungry, so I didn’t argue with him again.

Buildings blended into the mountains, having been made of the same purple-gray rocks. The air was chilly here, but not near as cold as it was up in the mountains. You could easily separate those who lived here, from the ones who were just visiting. The residents wore pants and long-sleeved shirts but weren’t bundled up in jackets or wearing gloves as the visitors were. My own sleeveless shirt was a terrible shield against the wind, but I was used to the cold. Living up in the mountainous terrain of the dragon clan lands had prepared me for this kind of weather.

Ander knew where he was going, making me suspect he was from this court. As I said before, I knew next to nothing about Ander—other than what I observed myself. As dumb as it was, I didn’t want to learn about him through others. I wanted him to tell me about his life and his experiences. At this rate, I was beginning to think I’d never know the most basic details about him. While it was a disappointing thought, I knew I couldn’t force him to want to open up to me.

He’d had multiple opportunities today to do so, and he hadn’t taken them

We wound up in one of the few buildings that was more glass than stone. The restaurant was small, and the tables were attached to the walls lining the front three walls with stools sitting in front of them. With the massive windows, those sitting at the tables would have a nice view. Even the views from the side windows were somewhat interesting, with the beautifully crafted neighboring building. It was a good thing there wasn’t a window at the back, I doubted the view of the mountain wall was much to look at.

I grabbed a seat at one of the side tables, with a view of the building next to us. Blood mages wandered out the open back doors and into the garden behind it, with trees towering over the building and a cute little sitting area.

Ander joined me at the table, placing some food in front of me—more than I usually ate in one sitting—but he didn’t sit down to eat his sandwich. “Stay here, I’ll see if I can pinpoint where the portal will appear.” Ander gave me a stern and assessing look, waiting until I nodded to leave.

While I understood the need to not waste time, to divide and conquer, I was still annoyed at being left behind. He didn’t even ask me to stay put, he told me what to do. A part of me wondered if maybe he didn’t care about saving time and wanted to get away from me.

As I finished my food, surprised by how quickly I ate it all, I kept shoving those types of thoughts aside, telling myself it didn’t matter if he wanted to be rid of me. Yesterday, I wanted nothing more than to be rid of him and I could easily muster that type of energy again. Probably…

After a while, the combination of my annoying thoughts, the warm air, and the smell of food began making me feel trapped. Even though I promised to stay here, I left the restaurant. I wasn’t technically going against what he said. Rather than sitting inside the restaurant, I was now standing just outside of it, off to the side so I wasn’t in anybody’s way. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t be able to find me.

Due to the fact I was in unfamiliar territory, I was well aware of my surroundings and those wandering between the buildings. So when a woman attacked me from behind, I was ready for it and whirled around, catching her wrist as she stabbed down at me with a curved dagger. I twisted her wrist in a way that forced her to lose her grip on the dagger and it clattered to the dirt pathway.

Her attack hadn’t been random, and I realized this when I saw sigils on her right arm, with blood dripping off her left hand. Before I could stop her, she slammed her bleeding hand on the sigils, and a blast of blinding light sent me flying. It was full of electricity, making all my nerve endings feel like they’d been zapped. Slamming into the side of a nearby building was nothing compared to the agony that was now singeing its way through my body. All of this was done with only her blood. Had she used mine, it would’ve been way worse.

My dragon surged to the surface with a rush of energy, helping me shake off the electricity and heal my battered body. The woman was faster than I expected, managing to yank my head back by my hair and punch me in the face. Dots danced in my vision as I tasted blood in my mouth. Seriously? Of course this bitch would be the type to pull hair.

Kicking out her legs from under her, I put some much-needed distance between us as I checked to make sure I wasn’t bleeding outside my mouth. She charged at me again, and while her moves were fast and strong as hell—the side of my face could attest to that—her moves were sloppy. There was a crazed gleam in her dark eyes and I wondered if she was all there in her mind. When I blocked another one of her blows, an ear-piercing screech followed and stung my ears. The entire time I fought her, I was careful to keep my distance and avoided her dagger at all costs. Not that I didn’t do the same when I fought others, but when fighting a blood mage, it was imperative not to allow them near your blood.

After another failed attempt at stabbing me, she turned her dagger on herself and cut deeply into her arm. Before she could draw a single sigil, I flipped her to the ground so she was face down. I pulled both of her arms behind her back as I dug my knee into the middle of her spine.

“What the fuck? Why are you attacking me? I don’t even know you,” I growled as I pulled her arms harder.

“You’re with him! You’re with the monster that killed my little girl!” She screeched more unintelligible words as she writhed on the ground, trying to break my hold, but all she managed to accomplish was dislocating her shoulder with a sharp crack.

“What the fuck are you even talking about? Who?” This bitch was fucking insane.

“Leander,” she spat out the name like it was the foulest-tasting word she’d ever spoken.

It wasn’t a leap to assume she meant Ander, proving once again how little I knew about him. Never once did I consider that Ander was a nickname. I should’ve guessed with how his friends all had nicknames for each other, but I hadn’t.

Her anger at Ander made sense if she was correct, and he killed her daughter—it was hard to take her word for it with how she seemed insane—but I couldn’t understand why she was attacking me instead of him. I never met her daughter, and I most certainly wasn’t involved in her death.

I was staring down at the woman, who was now kicking at the ground like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum, trying to find a way to diffuse the situation when I felt a chill roll through the air. Normally, I’d brush off the feeling since I was in the mountains and it was already cold here, but there was something different about this chill. A numbing, almost dark energy threaded it, making me think of death. My dragon stirred at the sensation, and I knew it wasn’t in my head. Based on everyone else’s reactions or lack of reaction, the magic had been faint enough that they hadn’t noticed. It made sense they wouldn’t notice it, since they wouldn’t be on the lookout for unnatural magic as I was.

Even though Ander would be pissed at me, I knew I had to follow it. This couldn’t be a coincidence.

The woman hadn’t stopped flailing and screaming. Now that my attention was solely focused on the dark energy, I no longer had the time or patience to deal with her. Jerking her shoulders even harder, the uninjured shoulder dislocated with another loud pop, and her shriek became even louder. After grabbing her hair as she’d done with me, I smashed her head into the ground, hard enough to knock her out. Hopefully, this was the last time I ever saw her.

Several blood mages had stopped to watch, but none of them interfered, having seen her attack me first. They stayed out of my way as I followed the icy and numbing energy out of the village through the other side, different from the path we took to get here.

* * * * * * * *

The icy magic intensified as it led out of the valley and into a forest. I’d forgotten to ask Roman if the other sites were also in forests. It might’ve been a coincidence or possibly they were the easiest spots to find out of the way.

When the sounds of the forest hushed, I knew my instincts had been correct, and I was heading in the right direction. My quick steps stuttered to a stop as reality sank in. I had no fucking clue what or who I’d find, and yet here I was, going it alone like a dumbass.

On the other hand, if I went back for Ander, there was a good chance we’d be too late and miss our shot for answers.

It wasn’t until I turned on my wristband and went to call or possibly message Ander that I realized I couldn’t. If I were a human, I’d say that I didn’t have his number. Fucking shit. I knew not being able to call him would fuck me. We should have connected wristbands when we’d done so with Aidan.

I shot glances in the direction of the growing insidious magic and back toward the village that was over ten minutes away. I couldn’t wait; this opportunity was too important to waste. We needed to know more about our new enemies.

Even though there was a high chance I would regret this, I continued following the path I was on, knowing Ander would be pissed as hell at me. Too fucking bad for him. Maybe if he hadn’t gone off on his own he’d be here with me right now.

At least I didn’t make the same mistake as I had with the tainted all those months ago. This time I held my weapons in my hands and kept my pace on the slower side. It had dual benefits of conserving my energy, while also making sure I wasn’t making too much noise. The lack of natural forest sounds was both an upside and a downside. I would’ve heard if someone was following me, but I also ran the risk of alerting whoever was doing this of my presence. If they were still here.

Conflicting emotions raced through me. On one hand, I wanted to figure out the species of the masterminds behind the sites and what their endgame was. But on the other hand, I was a little afraid of what I might find and that I’d be doing it alone.

I never realized how much I liked having support and backup until these past few months alone. Yes, I was more than capable of handling these situations alone. But it was nice knowing I had backup, that I didn’t have to know everything or have to be the one to deal with everything. Koa was one of the most badass Mythics I knew—and yes, I might’ve been a little biased—and even he has said on multiple occasions, that everyone needs help every once in a while. Asking for help doesn’t take away from your strength or independence.

There was a real maturity in learning to ask for help versus being stubborn and going it alone.

Just as doubt began creeping in again, and I was about to turn around, a sickly sweet scent masking stale death invaded my senses as low garbled growls filled the air. My ears ached at their grating sounds as goosebumps raised along my arms and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. My dragon had been hovering close, ready to funnel more energy into me, and she recoiled at the sounds and the weight of the magic.

All of my doubts and thoughts of turning around vanished as my curiosity took hold of me. Pushing me to creep forward until I came across fallen trees, a familiar sight despite them being a different species. Ducking behind a still-standing tree, I looked onto the scene in horror, trying to keep my breathing quiet.

A man and a woman—if you could call them that—were standing in the middle of the newly formed clearing. Gouges where the trees used to stand speckled the still-alive grass. A Mythic lay at their feet, blood seeping out of the countless deep cuts all over his body. He was dead and based on the state of him, it was a slow and agony-filled death. The blood flowing from his wounds seeped into the ground around him. Black blood was smeared around his mouth and dropped down his chin.

The man standing above the dead body had ashen and gray skin, with black cracks spiderwebbing across every available inch of skin. His eyes were sunken and pitch black, with not a single inch of white showing. He was so thin, the bones of his ribs, collar bones, and shoulders grotesquely stood out. That wasn’t even the worst part, weirdly enough. No, the worst part was that he was naked. I never wanted to see anything like that again. No one wanted to see a shriveled-up dick.

Other than the woman with him. She was wrapped around him and rubbed up against him. When she moaned, I nearly gagged on the spot. What the fuck had I walked in on? This was not what I signed up for.

The woman was also sickly pale but wasn’t gray like him. Like the man, she was stark naked, but from what I saw, at least no parts of her were shriveled up and gross. She also wasn’t near as thin as him.

Red blood dripped down her chin, and when she opened her mouth, I saw a set of razor-sharp teeth. Black blood oozed from the cuts along her arms, stomach, and legs. Cuts that the man was inflicting, closing his eyes and inhaling deeply as he made them. She didn’t mind, actually, I think she enjoyed it, throwing her head back and moaning. I nearly gagged again when those two started making out. I was too stunned to move, much less figure out what the hell was going on and how I could stop it.

The ground sizzled as droplets of black blood made contact with the grass.

Based on how the woman was the one doing all the bleeding, I had the distinct feeling she was a blood mage, or at least something similar. Her energy was all wrong as was her blood. His energy didn’t seep out of him and coat the air as hers had, so it was difficult to get a read on him.

I didn’t know how she was doing it, but she was casting without drawing a single sigil on herself or the man. The malignant energy and the rotten sweet smell were the same as what we found in the cougar territory.

While I knew I shouldn’t let them complete this ritual, I had no fucking clue how to stop it without making things worse. Not to mention, there were two of them and the scope of their powers was unknown, putting me in a dangerous position. Especially if her casting process was different and her magic followed a different set of rules.

I hadn’t made a single sound, despite my stomach roiling at this disgusting scene, but somehow they knew I was here. Both of them stiffened and turned to face me. Their dark eyes immediately found me and sent icy chills racing through my body, leaving cold numbness in its wake. A hissing whisper that didn’t sound like words came spilling from the man’s mouth and the woman smiled. Shit.

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