Rivers of blood and sand

Roman handed me a bundle of clothes, glancing down at the ones I was wearing, and walked out of the room. Dried black blood coated my clothes as well as mine and Ander’s blood. Koa would lose his shit if I showed up at their house looking like this.

The clothes were simple, with a blue pair of lightweight shorts, and a white tank top. There was also a pair of sneakers that appeared close to my size. My hair was an unruly mess from everything it had been through the past couple of days. Now wasn’t the time to try and deal with it, so I pulled it back into another bun, and changed into new clothes, tossing the old ones in the trash can. When I shut the lid, the clothes were immediately incinerated, making sure my blood—even though it was dry—couldn’t be used against me.

Ander and Roman were waiting out in the hallway, leaning back against the wood-paneled walls across from each other. My gaze immediately locked in on Ander and stayed there. His coloring had returned to normal, his stunning eyes bright and full of life. Like me, he had changed his clothes and was now wearing a dark pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. He looked completely healed, like he hadn’t been at death’s doors—however long ago that was.

I still had the overwhelming urge to go to him and touch him, just to make sure he was truly here.

His gaze was locked on me, scanning up and down my body, looking for any injuries. Neither of us spoke as we stood in a charged silence. A faint warmth buzzed in my chest as the seconds went by, and I didn’t know if it was the bond or my own imagination.

Roman was the one who broke the silence. “I’ll message you when the rift breaks through.” He placed a kiss on the crown of my head and nodded at Ander before leaving us alone in the hallway.

My thoughts drifted to my brother, trying to think up how to tell him when a thought hit me. I checked my wristband and not only did I not have any messages, but it was only a little past six in the evening. We’d been sucked into the dimension sometime around one, and my wristband said it was still the same day. Which confirmed my suspicion of how time ran differently there and my wristband hadn’t been glitching. This really had been the longest day ever and it wasn’t done yet.

But shouldn’t Koa and the rest of them have known something was going down? Harmony was there when I was pulled into the dimension, she’d been the one to tell Roman. I brought this up to Ander, breaking the heavy silence between us.

“Roman told her not to mention any of this to anyone, that all it would do was cause unnecessary worry when there was nothing they could do.” Ander pushed off the wall and came to stand before me. The space between us was charged and I was acutely aware of the distance between us.

It took me a few moments to register his words. Roman’s request made a lot of sense. It was also a relief knowing Koa wasn’t worrying about me, blaming himself for not being there. I’d still have to deal with his anger at not telling him everything right away and putting myself in danger. Which was something I wasn’t looking forward to.

“We should get back and alleviate Harmony’s worries.” His fingers grazed my cheek, sending tingles of electricity through my skin and heating my blood. It was almost like his blood in my body was reacting to his presence.

Ander kept his pace slow on the way back to his house, allowing me to keep up with ease. Tension filled the air between us as we remained quiet, both of us lost in our thoughts. No doubt his thoughts centered around his near-death experience. I didn’t ask him about it, I didn't want to even think about it. I couldn’t handle thinking about how close I was to losing him.

We were nearing the edge of town and entering the residential part of the district, when I sensed someone. I’d somewhat been paying attention to our surroundings and even I hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary, not until moments before they attacked.

They were smart and went for Ander first—who also hadn’t noticed them until I did. He was thrown back into a nearby marble wall, hard enough to leave behind a large crack. Before I could worry or focus on Ander, I was flipped onto the ground and kicked in the stomach. All the breath left my lungs on a sharp exhale. As I coughed and wheezed, I looked up and saw one of the last people I wanted to see right now. Ruby really lent the saying that Redheads were crazy. Somehow she appeared even more crazed and manic than before.

Seeing her pissed me off now that I knew everything. Now I was wishing I’d done more than dislocate her shoulders and knock her out. I’d let her get off too easily last time, but I had a chance to rectify it.

Another big difference between this time and last time was how prepared she was. She had more dripping sigils on her legs—which was dangerous as hell since it could warp the meaning of the sigils and cause them to backfire—and she pressed her bleeding hand against it. Sharp bolts of electricity ran through my body, knocking me back to the ground. She didn’t waste any time, flipping me onto my stomach and wrenching my arms behind my back. Agonizing electricity kept surging through my body as she dug her knee into my back.

The spell she used this time was harder for my dragon to break, and by the time she did, Ruby had already drawn blood from my forearm. Her body went rigid above mine as her already painful grip on my wrists became near unbearable.

“You mixed your blood with hers?” She hissed at Ander who had pulled himself to his feet, appearing unharmed.

“Yes I did, and that was how I discovered she’s my fated mate,” Ander said, his tone and eyes colder than I’d ever experienced as he stared at her. His steps were measured as he approached, blood dripping from his right hand as he subtly hid his left behind his back.

“No! That’s not possible. Scarlet was your fated mate and you killed her!”

Wait. This crazy bitch actually believed they were fated mates?

“No,” Ander said, his voice harsh and cutting. “She was a lying cunt that killed my sister, thats all.”

An ear-piercing screech had me wanting to cover my ears, but with her painful hold on my wrists, I was unable to budge an inch. “If that is true and this is your fated mate, then maybe I should take her from you,” Ruby hissed as her sharp nails dug into my wrists, drawing more blood.

It all happened so fast. One second Ander’s wide, panicked gaze met mine and the next he was slamming his bleeding hand on his sigil-covered arm, sending Ruby flying off me. Before I could roll over or react, Ander was out of my sight, and behind me was a garbled scream that was abruptly cut off.

My limbs shook as I pushed myself to my feet. Ander rushed over to me, grabbing my arm to steady me. Over his shoulder, I caught sight of Ruby lying on the ground. Blood spread across the front of her shirt from the stab wound in her heart. I didn’t need to use my senses to know she was dead. Not with her unseeing eyes staring up at the sky, unblinking.

“We’ll take care of the body and inform the council what happened,” someone said to Ander from behind me.

Ander gave a small nod and a muttered thanks as he drew sigils on my arms, meant to heal and remove the blood from my forearms. His entire body was rigid as he focused on the task at hand. Once all the blood was gone, he grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the Mythics removing Ruby’s body and cleaning up her blood.

Facing Ruby couldn’t have been easy; it probably brought up memories of her daughter and the shitstorm she caused. While I sympathized with the pain Ruby went through losing her daughter, at the end of the day, Scarlet brought it all on herself. She wasn’t the innocent victim her mother tried to paint her as.

I wanted to try and comfort Ander as he walked faster than he had before, dragging me along behind him as I struggled to keep up. But I didn’t know what he needed right now. Did he want to talk, or did he want to be left alone?

He called me his fated mate, but I wasn’t sure if I should allow myself to get my hopes up. It seemed like he only mentioned it as a fuck you to Scarlet and Ruby. Even him saving my life could be seen as self-preservation since his blood was still mixed with mine.

As we kept getting further and further away from the scene, a thought wouldn’t leave my mind and I knew I had to speak it, otherwise I’d drive myself crazy. I tugged on Ander’s hand and dug my heels into the cobblestone walkway, until he stopped and glanced at me over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow. “I’m not her.”

His eyebrows lowered as he stared at me in confusion. “I don’t care if I’m not the center of everyone else’s world. If I were, I’d be pissed at how I’m now Koa’s second priority. But I’m not. Everyone’s first priority should be the person they can’t live without. The thought of their death makes them panic and lose all reason. And to me, I’m okay if I’m not that person. I don’t need others to protect me all the time.”

I paused, taking a deep breath, stopping myself from going on a full-out tangent. “I’m not her and I never will be.” I shrugged, holding Ander’s shocked gaze, his body frozen in place as he continued watching me. I didn’t say anything else. There was nothing else to be said at the moment, not when we had more important things going on. With that in mind, I followed the path, leaving a stunned Ander behind.

Ander eventually got over his shock and followed close behind me. I could feel his heavy stare on my back the entire time we walked to his house. It felt longer than it probably was due to the tension. I almost sighed in relief when his house came into view. Parker was reclined on the steps leading up to his house beside theirs, his eyes shut in concentration.

“I can see you two have managed to find trouble,” he said without opening his eyes.

“It looks like you already know,” I shot back, noting the tension riding his body. I didn’t care what he said or how relaxed he appeared, he sensed something was off and was the furthest thing from relaxed.

He opened his eyes, pinning me with his sharp gaze, his expression becoming serious as he appraised us. “I was hoping I was wrong and just being paranoid. But it appears my instincts were correct.”

I didn’t say anything else to him, instead, I wondered if I looked as rough as I felt. I had yet to look in a mirror. All of my wounds were healed and all the blood was gone, but I knew my hair was a mess, and I most likely looked ragged and exhausted.

I was the first one through the door and immediately found Koa on the sofa, with Jade lying on top of him. Thankfully they were just laying there and weren’t doing anything that would scar me to see. Jade sprang out of his arms and rushed toward me, her eyes wide as an equally wide smile broke across her face.

“There you two are, we’ve been so worried. And would you look at that? You guys haven’t killed each other.” She chuckled at her own joke, pulling me into a tight hug. My answering laugh released some of the tension that still held my body captive as I returned her hug.

Jade stiffened a fraction and pulled back, her wide-eyed gaze meeting mine before flicking behind me, and for a moment, she looked completely speechless. “I should tell the others you’re back,” she said hastily, shaking off the shocked and confused expression. She made a hasty exit, leaving me staring at her in confusion.

What the fuck was up with her?

I didn’t have long to consider what was going on with her, not with Koa approaching. He gave me an appraising look, but without all the blood and ruined clothes, he couldn’t tell how many times we came close to death these past days.

“You’re in some serious trouble, Star,” Koa said, but his voice didn’t hold any anger or chastisement as he pulled me into a near bone-crushing hug, lifting me off my feet in the process. I laughed in delight, hugging him back just as tightly, having missed the steady and comforting presence of him and his dragon. His warm and familiar scent filled my lungs as I inhaled deeply.

His body tensed and he jerked his head back, eyes wild as the gold and copper churned. Tension and anger radiated from him and I had no clue what changed. One second he was about to crush me in his hug, and the next a searing anger shadowed his face.

What was up with him and his mate today?