Rivers of blood and sand

I lagged behind Ander as theories kept swirling through my mind. Ander wasn’t the type to needlessly kill, and I was confident he had a reason as to why he’d done this. If she was anything like what I’d witnessed from her mother, I could easily see her doing something that caused her death.

We didn’t measure morals the same way humans did. With how long-lived we were, it just wasn’t possible. Killing was one of those things that greatly differed. It wasn’t like we could go around killing whenever we pleased, but there were factors that had to be taken into account. If someone were to kill another for touching their mate, that was seen as an acceptable kill. If that woman would’ve found and killed Ander—a thought that had my chest clenching and my stomach sinking—that could’ve possibly been seen as a clean kill since it was revenge. It would’ve been taken under review and they would’ve looked into why Ander killed the daughter in the first place. If it was seen as a clean kill, then the woman wouldn’t have been justified.

I remained quiet as we walked, not asking any of the questions plaguing me. He didn’t owe me these answers. We weren’t friends. Who was I to ask such personal questions? He most likely wouldn’t have answered them anyway. If he wasn’t willing to tell me why Harmony was in the Aurora court, he wouldn’t be willing to tell me this. It wasn’t like I expected him to suddenly open up to me because we had sex or because I had opened up to him. It would’ve been nice if he did though.

As we followed the maze, we came across more animals. Each of them were normally considered harmless, but here had sharp, jagged teeth and claws that suggested otherwise. One of them was similar to a squirrel but had spikes growing down its tail and was the size of a house cat.

After what felt like at least five hours—but was only close to an hour according to my fucked up wristband—we reached the end of the maze and before us was the fucking desert. “Please tell me we didn’t just walk in a giant fucking circle,” I said with a low groan, dropping my forehead onto Ander’s back.

Ander’s back shook with quiet laughter. “We didn’t; look,” Ander said, and when I looked up, he was pointing toward the horizon. In the distance, over several miles away, was an ocean, possibly a lake that stretched off into the distance. From my vantage, the water wasn’t blue but appeared to be black. To our right and left, the desert stretched out into the distance.

There was something vaguely familiar about this layout, and had me frowning as I wracked my brain trying to figure it out.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this desert is separating the different sections of land,” Ander said, placing his arm in front of me when I tried to step onto the sand. I was more than ready to get away from this maze and all it held. “One moment.”

As he took a tentative step onto the sand and surveyed the surrounding area, his words kept replaying in my head on a loop. The answer to my plaguing thoughts was on the tip of my tongue, my frustration mounting as I tried to put the pieces together. It wasn’t until he rejoined me, speaking words I wasn’t paying attention to, that the pieces finally came together and had me gasping.

Ander clutched my biceps and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I know what realm this dimension reflects,” I whispered, my face feeling numb. It made complete sense this dimension mirrored that realm since the beings escaped into it from the rift. “The creature’s realm.”

I guess we could’ve, and probably should’ve started calling it the necromancer’s realm since they were the ones in control. It just didn’t have the same ring to it. I was so used to calling it the creature’s realm, that I didn’t even notice I was doing it anymore.

Understanding lit Ander’s features, and he scanned the desert with a new perspective. “The desert is the river.”

I wracked my brain trying to figure out what the bramble maze and forest full of strange trees were the opposite of in the creature’s realm. Caspian said it was hard to come up with a direct translation since there were multiple interpretations of what it could be. There was also the fact that we hadn’t been to all the regions.

“It doesn’t matter which region these reflect,” Ander said, somehow knowing I was doing exactly that. His gaze returned to mine as he bent his head so our faces were close together. “We need to get out of this area and regroup. They may not follow us, but it’s a risk I’m not willing to take. Not with how we can’t seem to kill the summoner.”

“You’re right,” I whispered, glancing at the rustling bramble behind me. Ander placed his hand on the small of my back and prompted me to go ahead of him. I’d forgotten what a pain in the ass the downward slope was.

Knowing the sand was deep enough to hide an animal, our pace was faster than before. My gaze swept over the sand, as did Ander’s. He also kept a constant surveillance of the bramble behind us, but so far, nothing emerged.

The sand was a little deeper here than before, coming up to the middle of my calves. Which if we ended up in a fight, wasn’t ideal. I still found multiple random deep spots that nearly tripped me several times. With the depth of the sand, we weren’t moving as fast as I would’ve liked and were expending more energy than before. If we hadn’t replenished our energy earlier, I’d be worried about whether or not we could handle an attack.

At least we didn’t have to refrain from using magic like we did in the real creature’s realm. We were already at a disadvantage with how we were unable to get out of this dimension, with no way to contact everyone else—I mean, there was the strange way Roman contacted me, but I didn’t know how to access it—and no idea how to kill these assholes. We needed all the help we could get.

Normally, I wasn’t the type to engage in small talk or idle chit-chat. I could easily handle sitting or walking in silence, but for some reason, not today. I made sure to keep a watch on the sand, looking for the smallest shift as I talked. I rambled and I couldn’t seem to stop. It was like the floodgates opened and I couldn’t get them to shut.

I didn’t get into any heavy shit like I had earlier or anything that would take our focus off the desert around us. The stories were all safe topics. I told him about the first time I got drunk. How every time Koa and I went to the human realm, we always stopped at the same place to get snow cones. Koa would always get the blue raspberry, and I went for the cherry. I told him about the time I broke my leg in training. The time I first summoned fire when I was eight years old and freaked out.

There was also the first time I summoned fire on accident and destroyed my bed. For weeks afterward, I was terrified to touch anything without wearing gloves. These weren’t a regular pair, they had silver thread weaved into the material. It was used for young dragon summoners who struggled to control their fire. The silver in the gloves didn’t hurt me or touch my skin, but they made it difficult to connect to my dragon. Because of that, it was recommended they only be used in extreme cases and for short periods of time.

I wore them for weeks and would’ve had them on longer if it weren’t for Koa. He took it upon himself to train me how to control my dragon and made sure I knew my abilities weren’t anything to be afraid or ashamed of, that they were a part of me.

Even though Ander was still on constant surveillance, he was an active listener throughout my ramblings. He asked questions every now and then, prompting for more details. What kind of training was I doing when I got injured? What was it about snow cones that kept bringing us back? How did Koa teach me control?

Conversation flowed easily between us, which was something I hadn’t expected. Our topics remained fairly neutral and he didn’t offer up any stories from his past. None of his stories were from before he met the sisters, but I didn’t mind. I was finally learning about him, and I was a greedy bitch that absorbed every story he told. I’d already known Ari was wild, Jade was crazy, and Harmony was a sore loser, but hearing some of the shit they got into had me wondering how they were still alive. Had it not been for Ander and Reed, that probably wouldn’t have been the case.

Unfortunately, our much-needed moment of peace and levity wasn’t meant to last. I was busy laughing at a story from Ander, his quiet chuckles joining mine when I felt an icy shiver of awareness skitter down my spine. My laughs abruptly cut off as did Ander’s.

Something, someone was watching us. I glanced around, but I saw nothing. Which was worse.

We picked up our pace, neither of us saying a word as we kept our heads on a near-constant swivel. The unsettling feeling of being stalked persisted. My dragon was on high alert, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the gold from my dragon was bleeding into my eyes.

“Shit! Run!” Ander yelled when he glanced over his shoulder again. Ander grabbed my hand and pulled me along beside him as he took off. I really hoped it wasn’t the summoner.