Rivers of blood and sand

My entire body ached and throbbed as I came to, wrenching my eyes open. A low groan slipped free at how the bright lights stung my sensitive eyes and made the stabbing pain in my head worse. I covered my eyes, trying to recall what the hell happened for me to wake up feeling like this.

Beneath me was a soft mattress and an equally soft pillow. Soothing notes of lavender and eucalyptus filled my senses. I was no longer outside, and the room I was in was completely silent.

After taking a deep breath, I pulled my hands from my face. It took several blinks for my eyes to adjust to the light, and for me to realize I didn’t recognize where I was. Based on the herbs on the tables, the various jars, and the cots lining the walls, I assumed I was in a healer’s shop. I hadn’t the faintest of ideas of which healer it was. Hell, I didn’t even know what territory I was in. For the life of me, I couldn’t recall what led to this. The thing I remembered was…

I sat up, groaning at the head rush and burst of pain as black spots filled my vision. Ander was nowhere to be found, but I wasn’t alone. “Whoa there, easy. You still haven’t fully recovered yet.” Roman’s words were soft as he placed his hands on my shoulders to keep me in place.

“Where is he?” My raspy voice painfully scraped my throat as I spoke. I distantly noted the cuts I inflicted on my hands were all healed, as well as the ones inflicted by the blood mage.

“He’s fine, he’s in the other room. You both needed special treatment and complete privacy,” Roman said, keeping his voice low and even. When I tried standing, he gently pushed down on my shoulders again.

I couldn’t hear Ander since the rooms in healer’s shops had sound barriers, preventing outside noises from bothering the injured. The barrier only worked one way though, that way the healers could monitor the patients without having to stay in the room. Meaning, Roman and I would have to be careful what we said.

“Are you sure? He didn’t look so good the last time I saw him,” I whispered, the panic still holding me in its clutches, and would continue to do so until I saw him for myself. I couldn’t feel the bond, but with how new everything was, that wasn’t all too surprising.

Roman came to sit on the edge of the cot beside me, putting us at eye level—kind of. “He’s alive and will make a full recovery. You kept your mate alive and against the effects of a death mage no less,” Roman said, placing his hands on the tops of both of my arms.

I didn’t ask how he knew since all I could focus on was the burst of conflicting emotions. There was the thrill of hearing Ander be referred to as my mate. Followed by the sting of sadness at knowing he didn’t want a mate, fated or otherwise.

“No, he’s not my mate,” I whispered, unable to hide the emotions clogging my throat, or how my voice broke.

Understanding lit his features as he pulled me into a hug. I breathed in his comforting scent, even though it wasn’t the one I was craving. His embrace wasn’t the one I needed, but it still helped nonetheless.

The rest of his words finally registered and I pushed away, looking up into the depths of his blue eyes. “Death mage?”

Roman twisted the ring on his left hand. The very one that left the symbol on my wrist and was still fairly visible. “He is a parasite like the blood mage. Only instead of consuming blood, he needs to steal life force from others to remain alive.” Roman made a face at the last word, and I knew he felt that calling the man alive was generous.

“How did you do it? How did you bring us back?” In the grand scheme, it didn’t truly matter, but I was still curious.

Roman let out a low chuckle, running his hand through his hair as he glanced at the door. “A whole hell of a lot of energy and spells.”

Another thought came to me and I started looking around until I found my bag on a nearby table. This time when I tried standing, Roman let me. I stumbled a step, but I was able to catch myself before falling. Roman held out his hands near me but didn’t make contact with me. Not wanting to push my luck, I retrieved my bag and returned to the bed. Where I dumped out the jars and waved my hand at them as if he couldn’t see them.

He gave a small nod, staring at the jars as he rubbed his chin. He didn’t say anything for a little while and when he did, he changed the subject. “You say you aren’t mates, but I can sense the faint cord of the fates between the two of you.”

My jaw dropped, and I was gearing up to ask how he could sense it—either that or correct him—but he held up a hand.

“If you weren’t fated mates, you wouldn’t have fought so hard to keep him alive and gone through such serious and desperate measures.” He nodded at my shocked expression, basically telling me he knew the extent I went. “The bond pushes you to keep them alive, and will make you do anything not to lose them.”

His assumption in both his words and tone had my hackles rising and me speaking without thought. “It wasn’t the bond forcing me to keep him alive. Yesterday I was panicking and ready to do anything to keep him alive when he touched the blood in the Wilds. Hell, his heart stopped before Seth even arrived. I had to give him CPR to keep his heart beating.”

Roman wasn’t upset or angry at my interruption. A slow, smug grin lifted his lips, making me realize he bated me into that answer. He purposely got a rise out of me so I’d admit the depth of my feelings and relationship—at least on my part—with Ander.

I let out a long sigh, placing my hands on my hips. “You sneaky son of a bitch.”

Roman chuckled, not looking the least bit ashamed of his actions. “You have one of the purest hearts I’ve ever seen kid, only a fool wouldn’t want you as their mate. And from what I’ve witnessed, I wouldn’t ever say Ander is stupid.”

I pressed my lips together, wishing it was that simple. I couldn’t disagree with him, not without having to explain why he was wrong this time. Ander never told me I couldn’t tell others, but I’d never violate his trust in such a way. It was the same with the others. They never mentioned his sister or the story, and I was certain they knew. It didn’t bother me that they knew. I was glad Ander had friends he trusted and confided in. He needed that support system.

“I’m assuming we didn’t get lucky and kill them,” I said, changing the subject. Even though I just woke up, and my body still ached in a few places, I needed to know what was going on. I now had the chance to ask all the questions I wanted since we no longer had an unknown time limit.

Roman pursed his lips and shook his head, his expression turning grave. “No, the spells are now in the final stages.”

“That doesn’t sound ominous or anything,” I muttered. “Why can’t we try and interfere with the spells?”

“We already cut off the spells, but the damage is done. The energy from them has already been transported to the summoning spell. Our best bet at stopping them from releasing some unknown monstrosity, is to be there when the rift first opens and counter it.”

“You mentioned this before, but I still don’t understand how it works,” I muttered rubbing my forehead.

Roman scratched at his jaw as he glanced at the doorway again. “The combination of the sacrifices, all the parasite’s magics combined, and the tying of this realm to the mirrored dimension has created enough energy to pierce a veil between worlds and allow them to create a doorway just big enough for something to crawl out of.”

As I stood, I ran my hands over my hair, clutching at the messy strands. “Fuck! Where will the rift appear?”

“We have a guess, but we won’t truly know until it enters the visable plane,” Roman said, stretching out his legs and leaning back on the cot, making himself comfortable. While his position looked relaxed, there was an undercurrent of energy that belied his actions.

“What do these final stages entail?”

Roman’s biceps bulged as he folded his hands behind his head. “Right now the spell is piercing the veils between worlds, seeking out a particular entity. The one that is worth all the trouble they’ve gone through—at least to them. Once the spell finds them, it’ll create a pathway. A shortcut if you will, that will bring them to our realm, and that is when the rift will emerge. Once it emerges, we’ll have a short window of time to close it.”

“So we have to wait until the shit hits the fan?” My voice showcased how unhappy I was about all of this.

“I know this isn’t the answer you want, but yes. We have at least a few hours to wait before the rift will begin to appear in our realm. In that time, I would suggest you go home, rest, and restore your energy.” He paused, biting his bottom lip. “You might also want to consider bringing your brother into this, we’ll need his fire. Honestly, if Callahan wasn’t busy, I’d have already brought him into this.”

Callahan being busy wasn’t a surprise, he wasn’t the type of leader who allowed others to put themselves at risk while he sat back and did nothing. He was out there chasing down leads as well, while also being hands-on with our clan.

I knew Roman was right about bringing Koa into this. To be perfectly honest, I should’ve done it sooner, but I hadn’t realized the depths of the danger at that point. Nothing good could possibly come from this rift, if this thing was allowed out into our realm, none of us would be safe.