Rivers of blood and sand
Chapter 23

To my right were several large boulders forming a circle. Four men sat on the boulders, watching me, waiting for me to notice them. I hadn’t sensed their presence, and with how powerful their presence was, it was a big shock. It was both confusing and a huge relief to see familiar faces. I couldn’t figure out how Emperor Titan, Master Ashe, King Caspian, and Alpha Roman were here—wherever here was.

In all honesty, I couldn’t think of any reason why the rulers of the Hunter’s Moon Court, Dawn Court, Water Court, and Lynx Clan seemed to be working together. The only similarities between them was how they were royals and the only four Mythics with access to Alora’s tracking bracelet.

“Why don’t you join us, Starling.” Roman waved his hand toward the boulder beside him when I still hadn’t said a single word. A small smile softened the sharp planes of his face, meant to reassure me that everything was okay.

My steps were slow and hesitant as I approached. The boulder was smooth and silky under my hands as I sat down. I had yet to say anything, unable to find the words. I was having a hard time processing this strange world after the pure agony I just experienced. All of this was so confusing. One minute I was in a thorn-covered house, in so much pain I thought I’d pass out and the next, I was in this strange, bright new world with four royals.

The symbol on my wrist was still subtly glowing, but thankfully, no longer hurt. I swiped a finger over the mark, but the skin felt normal and smooth, not raised like I expected. Nor was it hot or felt like it was on fire.

“Sorry about that, I probably should’ve given you a heads up.” When I looked over at Roman and gave him a puzzled look, he gestured at my wrist. “It’s a good thing I thought to do so, otherwise we would’ve never been able to contact you.”

I gaped at him, unable to form a single word for several moments. “You did this?” I held out my wrist.

Roman rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, I had a bad feeling about this whole situation, and I thought it best to have a backup way to contact you should anything happen. Looks like my instincts were correct.”

“How?” I finally asked after opening and closing my mouth several times with no words coming out. I had never heard of anyone being able to contact someone this way, much less a summoner—it was possible Ashe or Titan were the ones that made this happen.

Roman raised his left hand, and a simple silver-colored ring caught my attention. The flash of his ring brought forth a memory from when Ander and I left his home earlier. He made a point of shaking my hand, which in itself was a weird thing for him to do, but that wasn’t what was strange. The way he held my hand was weird as hell. He’d held my hand so that his ring was pressed against my wrist and was a far from natural way to shake someone’s hand.

I’d been so distracted by what we might face in the Aurora court, that I brushed off the weird icy chill that seeped into my skin when his ring made contact. For a moment my wrist felt numb, but the sensation vanished as soon as it appeared so I instantly brushed it off.

My focus remained on his ring, but I couldn’t sense any magic or energy coming from it.

While I wasn’t happy with him doing this without my permission or at least warning me, I had to admit it was a good thing he thought ahead. If he hadn’t, I wouldn’t have had the chance to tell him what I discovered.

“How do you know how to do this? Is this common knowledge for royals?” Maybe this was something all the royals could do, and only the most powerful were able to do this. I doubted it, but I never claimed to be knowledgeable in all areas. Still, I figured I would’ve heard something about this type of magic.

“No, this isn’t common knowledge,” Ashe said, brushing a strand of shoulder-length Auburn hair from his face.

“We should discuss what you saw, we may not have long here. The connection is tenuous at best,” Titan said, scanning the sky as if he expected something to drop out of it and attack us. I followed his gaze, but I didn’t find anything to indicate we were in danger.

“Harmony told me what she saw in regards to the parasites, but we—”

I held up a hand as I cut Roman off. “Wait, did you say Harmony? She was there?” It was a dumb thing to focus on, but I was thrown by the mention of her. Why hadn’t Ander said anything?

“Yes, she’s how we knew what happened and knew you were out of reach,” Roman said patiently, not the least bit upset at being interrupted. “But we need you to fill in the blanks, starting with telling us where you are.”

I gave a quick summary of all we’d experienced, going into specific detail when they prompted me with many questions. Asking me things like: how big was the desert? Was the desert sand or dirt? What shape was the house? All of them stilled and tensed when I told them about the shark that turned into a man and then disappeared when he should’ve been dead.

I cut off his fucking head, that typically killed everything.

The moment they began asking specific questions about details I hadn’t shared yet, I knew they had knowledge of what this shape-shifting man was. They knew more about all of this than they’d been letting on the whole time.

“You know what we’re facing. I’d wager you’ve known all along.” I crossed my arms, pinning them with a steady look that said I wouldn’t say another word until I got the truth. It almost made me wish Ari was here. She seemed to have a good instinct on whether or not someone lied and right now, I needed that.

“It’s hard to explain all of this,” Roman said, struggling to find the words as he looked up.

“Fuck it.” Caspian had been fairly quiet the whole time, only speaking occasionally. For the most part, he’d been silently listening, playing with his tongue piercing—which I’d been surprised to see, but at the same time, I wasn’t. His forearms were resting on his knees as he leaned forward and put the full weight of his stare on me. “You’re in a mirrored dimension.”

“A fucking what?” I finally choked out after wracking my brain, trying to see if I’d ever heard of it. I hadn’t.

“Mirrored dimensions are complex, and we could easily spend hours talking about them and barely scratch the surface. What you need to know, is that you are in a dimension that is a reflection of a specific realm—a twisted and warped reflection, but one nonetheless. You said nothing changed in the hours you’ve been there?”

I nodded, unable to speak as I watched Caspian lace his fingers together. “There’s a reason for that. The dimension is basically a snapshot of the realm it mirrors. A moment stuck in time. You could set fire to the trees, and they wouldn’t burn because the dimension is trapped in a singular moment, never moving forward or backward.”

“Is that why the shapeshifter didn’t stay dead?” I asked, afraid that we wouldn’t be able to kill the beings that called that place home. It would make it all the more difficult to fight those things and make it home if they couldn’t be killed.

Based on all their reactions, the answer was a resounding no. “Only the dimension itself is a moment trapped in time. Any living beings that find themselves there can be killed,” Ashe answered, a warning in his eyes.

His warning at how Ander and I could die there had a shudder racing down my spine. “Do you know what realm it mirrors?” I asked, grasping at straws at this point, trying to find a shred of logic in all this insanity.

“Without being in the dimension ourselves and seeing the layout, it’s hard to know for sure,” Titan said, still looking around. It was completely silent here, other than us, making me wonder if we would see anyone. I didn’t ask any questions, since it seemed we had limited time here, and I didn’t want to waste it.

“You said it’s a reflection, right? Shouldn’t it be easy to figure out which realm it shares traits with?”

“It is a reflection, but not in the way you’d expect. Mirrors reverse the image and show things opposite as they are. Mirrored dimensions are no different.” Caspian bit his lip for a moment, his eyes taking a far-off look. “Say, for example, the realm is cold and snowy; the reflection might show a desert. A desert could be an ocean or maybe a forest.”

“I was hoping for a direct translation or a you are here type of answer,” I said with a sigh, rubbing my forehead.

“Sorry kid,” Roman said with a small chuckle.

“You already knew about this when we came to you earlier.” A statement instead of a question.

Roman nodded nonetheless, holding my stare. “It’s not that I didn’t trust you or thought you couldn’t handle it, but there are some things that can’t be explained. You have to see them with your own eyes to understand.”

A theory had been building in the back of my mind for a while. A nagging thought that I seriously hoped was wrong. “Why do I feel like you’re going to tell me these things escaped from the rift?”

“I think you know the answer to that question,” Ashe said gently.

Shit.

“Okay, I can handle this,” I muttered to myself, willing my racing heart to slow as I adjusted on the boulder and gave myself a nice mental pep talk. “What about the things I saw? The man, the blood mage-like woman, and the shapeshifter.”

“They’re essentially—” Ashe began, but I couldn’t hear the rest, his voice sounding warbled as the ground shook.”

“Fuck! We’re running out of time,” Titan said, his voice fading in and out.”

Roman knelt in front of me, his frantic expression making my heart rate spike. “The shapeshifter was once a summoner before he became a parasite. Those patches of fur and scales are the animals he’s consumed and can change into.”

His words faded out for a few moments as my vision blurred. “When you kill the animal, you cut off his tie to it, preventing him from being able to shift into that animal anymore. To truly kill him, you need to do it after—”

Before Roman could finish his sentence, the world faded from my vision, and I awoke sitting in Ander’s lap as he cupped my face. Pure panic filled his expression, his hands shaking ever so slightly.

I was back in the house, in the mirrored dimension, and I had run out of time before I could ask how to get out.

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