Rivers of blood and sand
Chapter 18

Harmony

The jar was crafted for one purpose, to store blood and keep it fresh for a couple of days. It was one of the many reasons why we had to be careful not to leave blood behind. They could easily scoop some of it up afterward and store it to use at a later date. The blood didn’t last longer than a couple of days, but that was more than enough time to do some serious damage. Which was why it was incredibly rare for someone to willingly bleed into one. I knew for certain that Starling wasn’t the type to do so, making me wonder how he had her blood.

“It’s just a precaution in case we were separated,” Ander muttered as he drew sigils on his forearm.

Normally I wouldn’t have interrupted him while he was casting, but I was too stunned and confused by this whole situation. “Does she know about this?” I asked, watching as the blood sank into his forearm.

Ander ignored me at first, walking down the pathway in the other direction. His strides were long and just as fast as before. Even though I was half a foot shorter than him, I was having a hell of a time trying to keep up.

“She should know better than to allow herself to bleed around a blood mage,” Ander said after a few minutes of silence, sounding a little too defensive. It was safe to assume she didn’t know about the blood.

“What’s going on?” I asked after several more minutes, and still no explanation.

Ander growled under his breath, running his hands through his hair. “That woman will be the death of me.”

“Is she alright?” I picked up my pace as I tried to catch up to him and see his face.

“Rather than wait for me, it seems she’s decided to head into a potentially dangerous situation, alone,” Ander huffed, and I swore he sounded worried. I was pretty confident it wasn’t because Koa would be pissed if something happened to her. Color me intrigued.

Starling didn’t seem like the type to run off alone into a dangerous situation. From what I’d seen from her during our time in the creature’s realm, she seemed like the careful type that thought things through first. The type to follow the rules. Maybe my assessment was wrong, though. Ander didn’t seem surprised by this since his first instinct was to assume she had wandered off. He wasn’t surprised as I was; he was pissed.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say the way his reactions reminded me of how someone would act if their mate vanished.

In the past, Ander had been vocal about never having or wanting a mate. Not that I or anyone else could blame him. Even though I understood, I couldn’t silence the part of me that was always saddened by his words.

It wasn’t like I thought everyone needed a mate to be happy or to have a fulfilling life, but to just cut off the possibility of ever having that seemed incredibly lonely. Even though the chances were impossible, I’d always secretly hoped Ander would one day change his mind and find someone who made him forget all the bad shit from his past.

“Are you sure she wandered off?” I asked after nearly ten minutes. Why would she have come all this way by herself?

My stomach was in knots the further we trekked into the forest. Something was off. The natural flow and undercurrent of energy running through the ground was disconnected. It was almost like something was poisoning it and stealing from the natural well of power.

Before he could respond, an unnatural silence descended upon the forest, and not just from the lack of sounds from the animals. There was unnatural quiet coming from the earth and the trees that had sweat dotting my forehead and sliding down my back.

Ander wasn’t surprised by the eerie and loud silence or the stale, rotten, and horribly sweet scent. The more we walked, the stronger the scent grew, making my nose wrinkle. A thread of energy ran through the ground under my bare feet, making me shudder which had nothing to do with the cold. A rot was taking root in the ground, its origin less than half a mile away. Something unnatural was going down out there, and it pissed me off to no end.

Why did they have to poison nature?

As we neared the source of the rot, the horrible scent grew, as did the nauseating and stomach-clenching feeling coming from the poisoned earth. The nausea only grew worse as we came across the source of the malignant energy.

Trees were ripped out of the ground, leaving behind voids of energy as well as holes in the ground that were being filled by poisonous blood. The same blood dripped down the circle of trees surrounding the new clearing. My breath stalled in my chest at the knowledge that those trees were completely dead with no hope of ever being revived, even with the help from an elemental.

There was a lot we could do to reverse the death and decay of nature, but this wasn’t one of those situations.

With each drop of blood hitting the ground, the earth screamed out in agony, but no one else could hear it but me. If you weren’t an elemental, you didn’t understand the connection we had with nature. It was a two-way, symbiotic relationship. Give and take. We nurtured and in return, it gave us power and energy. Yet here these bastards were, just taking and destroying, not even caring about the damage they were inflicting.

Inside the circle of dead trees was a mutilated Mythic, his blood seeping into the earth, and it too was poisoned. Several feet away, Starling was fighting against two… I had no clue what the fuck these things were, all I knew was they were anything but natural.

Starling sent a blast of fire at the woman oozing the disgusting black blood from the countless wounds covering her entire body. Red blood dripped from her mouth, and based on the ragged bite mark on Starling’s forearm, some of it was hers. She raised her arm to block her face from the fire, shrieking as it made contact and a horrible burning smell along with a sizzling sound followed.

The man tried to grab ahold of Starling, but thankfully she managed to move out of the way, shuddering at the proximity to him. I couldn’t blame her, he was disgusting and horrifying. He appeared half dead and I wondered how he had the energy to move as fast as he did.

It all happened too fast. Ander and I were still over twenty feet away, sprinting toward the circle when the woman viciously bit into her own wrist. Black blood gushed out way too fast for it to be safe, coating her hand. With an ear-splitting shriek, she slammed her palm into the blood-soaked earth next to the dead Mythic. A quake shook the earth as more threads of ancient and disgusting magic ran through the ground and air. I was thrown off my feet as the earth screamed at the rot invading its energy.

When I pushed myself off the ground and glanced at the center of the circle, my stomach sank at the sight. Starling was gone along with the dead body and two things. Where the fuck did they go? Left in their place was a massive puddle of that disgusting and wretched blood. It was a dead spot of energy, a sucking void of magic.

To go along with the clenching in my stomach, my pulse was pounding in my neck so hard I could feel it. My limbs shook from the aftershock of the spell. Whatever the purpose of this spell, it was in full effect and until we knew its purpose, we should stay clear of the circle.

Normally in these types of situations, Ander was cool and collected, the voice of reason. Not now. His face wasn’t neutral or determined. He was showcasing pure panic mixed with rage. In that expression, I saw something that had me rushing over to him and pulling back on his arm.

“We need to be smart about this! We have no idea what took her!” I yelled to Ander, trying to pull his attention to me. To be honest, I don’t think he heard a single word I said. His entire focus was on the place Starling disappeared.

“Find Roman, he knows what’s going on,” Ander said in a rush, finally looking my way. I’d never seen him so terrified and that in itself had me on edge. He never usually showed fear or weakness. “Don’t tell the others, especially not Koa. I’ll find her, and I’ll bring her back.”

I screamed his name as he shook off my hand and ran through the tree line. The blood rippled and sucked him into the ground. An image appeared in the rippling surface that looked vaguely like trees, but were thicker and darker in color than the ones here. Before I could study the image further, the blood stilled, and the reflection disappeared. It happened so fast, within a couple of seconds, and I began wondering if I imagined it.

I was left alone with this horrible magical spell—which I still had no clue what it did or where it transported them. All I could do at first was stare at the spot Ander vanished. Reason eventually took root, and I began the long hike back to the village.

While I was still stunned and annoyed at Ander’s rash actions, I would do as he asked because what else was I supposed to do in this situation? I didn’t even know what the fuck was going on in the first place.

Our friends knew nothing of what Ander and Starling were looking into, and neither did I. Although I disagreed with his sentiments of keeping everyone in the dark, I’d go along with it for now. All I’d accomplish by going to them would be to create panic.

Hopefully, Roman knew where this fucking thing took them and was willing to help.

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