Rivers of blood and sand

I ended up having to swim on my own, but I preferred it. Not only was it nice to have a chance to stretch my stiff muscles, but it gave me some much-needed distance from Ander. It was all becoming too much, and being held by him only heightened it.

We were attacked by several more warped animals, and while it was awkward to fight them in the water, we were able to dispatch them without serious injury. I personally wasn’t a fan of the squid-like creature. The damn thing kept trying to strangle me before Ander killed it.

After swimming for over twenty minutes, we finally pulled ourselves out of the water and onto coarse dark brown sand. My limbs were tired and shaking from exertion but I was nowhere near as exhausted as I should’ve been. It had to be Ander’s blood; it was still affecting my body more than I’d expected.

The expanse of the beach stretched out over a mile in all directions. Compared to the desert, the grains of sand were bigger, closer to tiny pebbles than normal sand. Other than hills and small valleys, it was all open space, allowing us to see if anything was sneaking up on us.

As if to fuck with me and prove me wrong, a gigantic alligator emerged from the water. Like all of the animals in this dimension, it looked fucked up and moved faster than I was expecting. Only this wasn’t just any animal, it was the summoner. After facing him twice, I now recognized the telltale energy in the air surrounding him. His scent changed with each animal he shifted into, but there was an undercurrent of death that remained the same.

Spikes followed the length of its spine, down to the tip of its tail as well as down the sides of all four legs. Which were longer than the legs of a typical alligator, allowing it to move faster and look horrifying. The coloring was a dark green that was nearly black, except for its eyes which were a creepy and milky white.

I threw myself to the side but wasn’t able to avoid its barbed tail that drew blood from my leg. The cut didn’t feel deep, so I’d worry about it later and hope my instincts about the level of injury were correct.

I pulled the handle of my sword from my leg harness and released the blade. Since I lost my other two daggers, I retrieved a smaller, slimmer dagger from my bag while Ander had the summoner distracted.

It seemed the scales were made out of a durable material since Ander’s sword had little effect against the summoner. My theory was proven correct when my sword glanced off the side, and the same went for my claws. I just barely avoid getting bitten on my forearm when it whirled around way too fucking fast. Based on the size of its teeth and the power of its jaw, I would’ve probably lost a hand. Which we definitely didn’t have time to deal with. Nor did I want to have to deal with the pain that came with regrowing a limb.

Ander and I kept switching up our attacks, trying to find weak spots in its natural armor, but so far we were unsuccessful. It was a bitch avoiding its tail in between attacks. My bleeding side, legs, and back could attest to that.

As we kept up with our attempts while dodging the countless spikes on its body, I had a sneaking suspicion about its weak spot, but I hoped I was wrong. I hoped it wasn’t somewhere on its belly. As time went on, it appeared like my hope was misplaced.

“Fuck.” I groaned as I shoved stray strands of my hair out of my face as I tried to figure out a way of getting the damn thing on its back, without getting stabbed in the process. I wasn’t liking my odds.

While the summoner was distracted by Ander, I tossed my short sword aside since it would be harder to wield with what I had planned. Hopefully, the slim dagger would be able to slip between the scales of its stomach. There was only one way to find out.

Ander’s gaze flicked over to me after he barely avoided the summoner’s powerful tail. Based on his expression, he knew what I had planned and he was pissed. “Don’t you dare,” he ordered, but it was too late. I was already charging toward the summoner. Before it could turn or react, I plowed into its side, and no, I wasn’t able to avoid getting scratched by the leg spikes as we rolled across the sand.

Somehow, I ended up under the alligator, but that worked in my favor. My dagger slipped between the softer scales of its stomach easily. Unfortunately, I hadn’t factored in that rotten and stale blood would drip down my hand and onto my chest.

I was afraid the heavy animal would fall onto me as it died, but before it could, it was tossed off to the side by Ander.

Fuck, he was pissed off. No, pissed wasn’t the right word. His chest heaved with heavy breaths as his frozen eyes landed on all of my scrapes. Despite his rage, his hands were gentle as he knelt beside me and probed my wound. He had more than a few of his own, but none that put him in any danger. We’d both need to rest and eat more food soon to keep our energy up.

“Your stunt has just aged me thirty years,” Ander murmured, pulling me to my feet and earning a snort from me.

“You’re long-lived, you’ll be fine.”

Before he could respond, the sounds of breaking bones drew our attention to the “dead” summoner shifting into his humanoid form. “He’ll be waking up soon,” I whispered as his heart started beating again.

I grabbed my sword and stabbed him in the heart again, his body jerking as more rotting blood came pouring out. For good measure, I decapitated him. It wouldn’t kill him permanently, since I already tried this with him, but it would give us more time to come up with a plan.

“That’s another way to slow him down,” Ander said, amusement coloring his tone, but I couldn’t focus on him. Not with the pulsing heat in my left wrist, and darkness filled my vision for a few moments.

When the darkness retreated, I was no longer on the beach or even outside.

A spacious ballroom surrounded me. The floor, pillars, and ceiling were made of smooth gray stone, with luminescent veins of multiple shades of blue, purple, and basically every color you could think of. You’d think they’d clash or be too much, but it somehow worked.

The entirety of the walls in the circular room were made entirely of glass, allowing me to see the pink and purple sky, which was darker now than it was earlier. Evenly spaced around the walls were gaps in the glass where five hallways connected to the ballroom. The halls were dark and a sharp contrast to the openness of the ballroom. It was weirdly empty in here, save for the ornate chandeliers. Floating over a hundred feet off the ground and circling the perimeter of the ballroom, was a balcony that bobbed up and down as if it was floating in water.

Standing on the balcony, appearing unfazed by how it moved, were the four royals. “How the hell am I supposed to get up there?” I asked, placing my hands on my hips when I noticed a distinct lack of stairs. What kind of annoying bullshit was this?

“Move forward until you’re standing under us,” Caspian said, resting his forearms on the railing, standing between Roman and Titan. He played with the rings on his fingers, waiting for me to follow his instructions.

“Okay, now what?” My voice echoed as I stood under the balcony, wondering if he was screwing with me.

“Move a few feet to your left.”

Letting out a sigh loud enough for them to hear, I moved to the left, feeling stupid as I did so. I was just about to give up and call him out for screwing with me when a shaft of light came down from the bottom of the balcony. As the light landed on me, my body became weightless and I was lifted into the air. I was approaching the bottom of the balcony way too fast and I squeezed my eyes shut, confident it would hurt but the pain never came. My feet landed on solid ground and when I opened my eyes, I found myself on the balcony in front of the four men.

I wanted to ask questions about this place, but I remembered how we were cut off the last time and knew I couldn’t waste time with unimportant questions. “How do you kill the warped summoners?”

“You have to kill off each of their animal forms. Only then can you kill it by stabbing it in the heart and cutting off its head,” Ashe said, his light silver eyes meeting mine as he leaned back against the railing.

Fuck!

“There’s one with us in the dimension,” I said in a rush, afraid that Ander would be so focused on protecting me that he would get hurt. I was looking around for a way to get off this balcony and somehow back to the dimension when Roman stepped close to me but didn’t touch me.

“Hey, look at me and breathe,” he said softly in a soothing tone. “How long ago did you kill the summoner?”

“Just now,” I said, my voice slightly breathless.

Roman’s gaze was steady as it held mine, and while it was a comfort, I couldn’t stop my worry over Ander. “It usually takes at least a few minutes for them to heal, and that’s not factoring in the severity of the death. Decapitation takes at least five minutes to heal.”

“You’ve left out that time doesn’t work the same here,” Caspian said, still spinning his rings around his fingers. “You could be here for over ten minutes, but to the outside world, it’ll have only been a minute, maybe two.”

In my worry over Ander, I had forgotten all about that detail. I let out a relieved exhale as the tightness in my chest eased. While the news about the summoner wasn’t great—with the number of scales and fur on him, killing him would take a while—at least I now knew he could be killed.

“Your dragon is well aware of what is going on in your physical body,” Titan said, his warm eyes on me. “Any perceived threat will have her alerting you and dragging you back to the dimension.”

His words reassured me as I took a deep breath and began collecting my thoughts. We had a possibly limited time frame and I wouldn’t waste it panicking or asking dumb questions. “The dimension mirrors the creature’s realm.”

Titan had his bottom lip pinched between his thumb and forefinger as he shared a look with the other three men. “That makes sense.” He didn’t elaborate past that and I sort of wanted to press him for more details.

“Have you come across any more of the…beings in the dimension?” Roman asked, drawing my attention back to him. Now that I wasn’t in panic mode, I noticed something about him that I hadn’t before.

I could clearly see and hear him, but I couldn’t sense his animal, presence, or even smell him.

Curiosity had me reaching out and trying to touch him, only for my hand to go through his arm, a tingle of energy spreading through my hand. A hint of a smile tugged at his lips. “Yeah, none of us are truly here.”

I slowly nodded, not really sure how to take this, but had more important things to discuss. “We came across a blood mage”—I raised my hand and touched my neck, meeting smooth skin—“and I’d rather not deal with her again. She had a skeletal-looking man with her when she created the portal. We came across a woman similar to him when we tried to use a portal to get home. I don’t know anything about their powers.”

They all shared looks that I couldn’t decipher, and with how Ashe pressed his lips together, I doubted it was good news. “It makes sense the portals are guarded. I’d wager they have someone at each of them,” Ashe said as he crossed his arms.

Worry simmered in my stomach, even though I’d already suspected this. “Please tell me you know how to get us the hell out of here? I don’t like our odds against more than one of them at a time, and I doubt they’ll just happen to leave one unguarded.”

“Knowing where you are is a big help, but you’ll have to be in the right place when we put our plan into action,” Titan said, tapping his fingers on his biceps. The dark brown of his skin was accentuated by the light color of his shirt.

“What’s the plan?” I asked, getting right to it before we were interrupted again.

“What you need to worry about is finding the central point of the dimension.”

My eyebrows pulled together as I glanced between the men. “Central point? You mean the center of the dimension?”

Ashe tilted his hand side to side while he said, “Kind of. The blood mage with you should know how to find it.”

“While you are in the dimension, you can help us by gathering ingredients,” Caspian said, preventing me from asking more questions. “Sand, dirt, water, basically anything you can get your hands on. It’ll help in disconnecting the dimension from our realm.”

His words left me more confused than I was before, and my face no doubt showed it.

“The rituals are tying the dimension to our realm, allowing them to create a bridge that can bring something else to our realm. Think of it like a shortcut,” Roman said, reading the question from my expression.

I opened my mouth to ask what they were trying to bring to our realm, but the ground shook as the image around us rippled. “What do we need to do once we get to the central point of the dimension?”

Ashe’s lips moved, but I couldn’t hear a word he said. “What?”

He tried again, and this time I faintly heard his words before the world around us vanished. “Both of you must bleed.”