Tainted roots

We followed Alora down the tunnels again. “Are you fucking kidding me?” Ari yelled the first time Alora disabled a trap in front of her. A small smile lifted Alora’s lips as she glanced back. It was clear she knew these tunnels well since she didn’t even have to look around to know when the next trap was coming up, or where on the wall she had to tap to disable it. Each of her movements were precise and practiced. It made me wonder how long she’d been hiding out down here.

“Why haven’t we seen any creatures yet?” I asked when I realized we’d been here for hours without seeing a single one. Did any of them live here, or did the traps keep them away?

“They live here,” Alora said as if she could hear my unspoken question. “They live in different tunnels, the ones with hardly any traps. They don'tknow how to disable them, and unfortunately for them, the traps don’t recognize them as they do with us.”

“Meaning they won’t stop when they’re close to death,” Gemini surmised.

“Exactly. It’s a gamble for them to live here.”

“Do you live down here?” Ari asked, blunt as ever.

Alora was quiet for a few minutes, struggling with whether or not to answer her question. “For the past few months, and before that I was hiding out in the other territories.” Her voice was low as if she was afraid the walls were listening, maybe they were.

After close to twenty minutes of following her through the tunnels, we came across a room. This one was different than the others. For starters, it was twice the size. There were also only two tunnels leading to the room. An unrolled bedroll sat in the back of the room, with a duffle bag sitting next to it.

Alora tapped out a rhythmic pattern on the walls beside the two tunnels and then sat down on the bedroll. “It’ll alert us if anyone is coming down one of the tunnels.

I took a seat on the floor a few feet away from her, with Koa sitting on my other side. He laced his fingers through mine, almost in an unconscious gesture, like he needed to have physical contact with me.

“Why are you in hiding? Is it because of the key, or is it something else?” Gemini asked gently.

Alora stared down at her hands as if they held all the answers. “How are your matings done in your realm?” She asked instead of answering, throwing all of us off, and left the room silent for a few moments.

We shared a look, silently arguing over who should answer it. I looked at Gemini, assuming she would phrase it the best. She sighed when Koa and Ari looked to her as well. “Technically, there are five types of mate bonds,” she said slowly as she watched Alora’s reactions. A slight frown creased Alora’s brows, and I was glad I wasn’t the one to have to explain this to her.

“There are the fated mates, like Koa and Jade.” She waved her hand at us. “Where the fates tied their souls together at birth. The next is bonded mates—it’s more physical than the soul bond of fated mates. Then there’s chosen, which is self-explanatory. The last two don’t technically count, many courts no longer allow them, especially the last one. There are arranged matings, and like I said it’s rarely ever done, but they are politically driven matings arranged by their parents. The last one is forced matings, and I think you can guess what that entails.”

Alora quietly listened, nodding to herself. “What type of matings do you have here?” I asked.

“I’ve heard about fated mates, but it’s always made out to be a legend, so rare that it almost never happens.” She wrung her hands together, not lifting her attention from them. “The arranged and forced matings are mainly how matings are done in our lands.”

“Is that why you ran?” Ari asked carefully, leaning back against the wall next to the tunnel we exited. “Was someone trying to force you into a mating?”

We quietly waited, not daring to move as she dragged her hands down her face. “Things are different here than they sound in your realm. When we reach our aging peak, we are to be mated in the hopes of having a child soon after, and we don’t get a choice who it is with either.”

“What about the one chosen for you?” Koa asked, his voice quiet in the way Ander’s sometimes was.

A look of despair filled her expression and ice formed in my stomach. “He’s the prophet.”

“The fucking what?” I blurted out, tempted to shake my head to see if I'd heard her wrong.

She looked at me like I was crazy and glanced at the other’s confused faces. “He’s our leader, what do you call yours?”

“That’s a difficult question to answer,” Ari murmured, scratching the back of her neck.

Gemini gave a brief explanation about how each race had multiple courts and called their leaders different names. Alora was overwhelmed by her answer, not expecting us to have so many different types. “Ours is less complex. We only have one, the prophet, and his word is law. He does have his councilors to help him with his decisions, but in the end, it’s his to make.”

The more I learned about the necromancers, the more uncomfortable I felt. If she mentioned anything about inbreeding, I was going to lose my shit. “This prophet must be a real piece of work if you’re willing to go into hiding,” I said, trying to keep my voice light.

“I would be his seventh mating,” she said quietly. Our chorus of swears and insults at this fucker echoed throughout the room. Alora’s eyes widened in shock, not unused to anyone saying anything bad about the guy, especially not in the colorful way we had.

“That is some cult-ass bullshit,” I growled, struggling to sit still.

“I’ve never heard of anyone being able to be mated to more than one person at once. I don't see how this is possible,” Gemini said more to herself. “Does he perform actual mating rituals with each of his mates?”

“I have a feeling our mating rituals are different than yours.” Alora shifted around, pulling her knees up to her chest. “The prophet blesses the union and the couple drinks wine laced with his blood.”

“Cult!” I yelled, throwing my hands up in the air.

“Yeah,” Ari said, drawing out the word. “That’s definitely not how we do it.”

Koa’s hand flexed on my leg as a burst of anger flashed through the bond, matching my own. This fucking prophet douchebag was taking advantage of their seclusion from us and was preying on them. Not only was he taking multiple mates, but he was forcing them into it. No wonder fated mate pairings were so rare here. They were forced into matings at twenty-eight.

“How long have you been in hiding?” Gemini asked, keeping her voice soft and gentle.

“I think it’s been a year, it’s hard to keep track.”

I nearly asked why she hadn’t left the realm before I realized that was a stupid question. She’d been raised to believe we’d kill her on sight, and who knew what she’d been told about the human realm

“Not to sound like a dick or anything, but why you? Why were you chosen to be the prophet's”—I raised both hands and made air quotes—“seventh mate if it’s not because you’re the guardian of a key?”

She rolled her eyes and let out a long breath that spoke of both her annoyance and exhaustion. “My parents are a part of his inner circle, and I have good breeding. I would give him strong children."

I couldn’t hold back my gag, not that I actually tried.

“What’s your long-term plan?” Koa asked, his voice deceptively level.

Alora dropped her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. “I don’t know. I hadn’t thought that far ahead when I left. All I could think about was getting out of there.” Bleak hopelessness bled into her expression and voice.

Koa was looking at his wristband again, as he’d been doing on and off during our walk in the tunnels, and during this conversation. A considering look shifted across his face as he glanced up at Alora. “Give me a few minutes.” He went back to typing something on his wristband. I didn’t know who he’d been messaging, I had assumed it was about how we found a necromancer. He had his emotions locked down as was his expression, and I had no idea what was going through his mind right now.

Ari and Gemini silently asked what the hell he was doing, but I shook my head. Alora stared at him in bewilderment, her gaze locked onto the glowing crystal of his wristband, and on his hand tapping what looked to be empty air. It wasn't surprising she didn’t know about these, they were only invented a thousand or so years ago.

“It’s our crystal wristbands, we can use them to communicate with each other. And only the one wearing it can see it,” I said, smiling when her mouth gaped open in shock.

“You’d be surprised what can be accomplished when our races work together,” Gemini added.

For the next half hour, Koa continued sending messages while we explained how the wristbands worked, as well as explained how the crystal projectors worked. Which led to us having to explain what tv shows and movies were. We had just gotten into explaining fictional books that weren’t historical texts—because of course that was all they had to read here—when Koa powered down his wristband. His face remained impassive, not revealing a damn thing. He pinned his gaze on Alora.

“There may be a chance a deal can be worked out for you.” He paused, making sure he had her full attention. “If we play our cards right, you may be able to come to our realm to get away from your leader and family. It’s not a guarantee our allies will be able to pull this off, but they’re willing to try. However, there will be some conditions.”

This was what he’d been working on? I hadn’t been expecting to hear him say that, and neither were the others. I could tell from the look on Alora’s face, she was trying not to get her hopes up.

It spoke of how respected Koa was within his group if they were willing to consider bringing a necromancer to our realm at his recommendation. For all they knew she could be playing us. And while that was possible, I knew she wasn’t. There was something genuine in her hesitance and fear when she spoke of the prophet. There was a deep-seated hatred in the way she held herself when she spoke of her parents. If she was playing us, then she deserved a damn award because that would mean she somehow fooled Ari and that never happened.

“What conditions?”

“They are still being worked out and they’ll have to meet you to finalize them, but you’ll essentially be on probation for a period of time. You’ll have to wear a wristband that monitors your magic use as well as your location.” He winced, with an apologetic look. I cringed at the horrible invasion of privacy. Koa paused, clearly not liking the next part. “This part is nonnegotiable, we have to retrieve the stolen key.”

“That is some fucking bullshit. We have no clue where it’s hidden,” I nearly yelled, annoyed by this crap. While I didn’t like the first requirement, I somewhat understood the need to take this precaution. She would be the first necromancer in our realm in over five thousand years. I didn’t understand the last stipulation. I understood their desire to study this unknown power and to keep it out of the necromancer’s hands. But it was fucking ridiculous to make this a requirement for Alora to enter our realm.

“Wouldn’t it be the demons since they’re the ones that stole it?” Gemini asked.

Our attention shifted to Alora, our new resident necromancer and creature expert. “No, something that powerful and unique—that contains death magic—would be kept with the prophet.”

“Dammit.” I smacked my hand on my leg.

Ari groaned, leaning her head back against the wall. “That puts a kink in our plan.”

“How many necromancers are there? How many does he have protecting him?” Koa asked.

Alora looked up at the ceiling for a few moments, mouthing something to herself. “Roughly five thousand, give or take a few hundred. But that’s not including the creatures—mainly demons, vampires, and werewolves—coming through every once in a while.”

Motherfucker.

I’d been hoping for her to say less than a thousand, maybe even a few hundred. Not this. Not when they had an entire realm filled with who knew how many creatures, all loyal to them. We’d be surrounded, not only by an insane amount of necromancers but their creatures as well. We’d lose that fight any day of the week. The only way we’d succeed is by stealth, but I didn’t know if that could work.

“Can the creatures sense if we use magic?” I asked, figuring it was best to ask and know this for certain.

“If they’re close by when you use it, yes. If they are from the same bloodline as the Mythic, they’ll be able to sense their magic from even greater distances. But it’s not only with magic use, it’s also by spilled blood.

My focus drifted to the blood staining our clothes. Oops.

“If we’re going to try and mission impossible our way into their territory, we’ll need some reinforcements.” I glanced around at the others, gauging their reactions on whether or not they agreed.

“Ander won’t be happy we came back here without telling him,” Ari said with a sigh. I winced, already hearing the verbal lashing that was to come, but it wasn’t like we could avoid it. He’d find out one way or another.

“They won’t be able to find the rift in the human realm on their own, chances are it’s already moved,” Koa said.

“If only we knew a grouchy sorcerer, who’s been to this realm twice and knows how to track the rift,” I said, glancing at Gemini. Now while I didn’t know what her deal with Wyatt was, it was clear something happened between them. Her face was impassive, and I didn’t know her well enough to know if it was an act or not.

“I’ll message Wyatt and have him locate the rift. You tell the others to meet him in the human realm in an hour,” Koa ordered, powering up his wristband once more.

Ari and I stared at each other for a moment, before calling out, “Not it!”

“I told him the bad news last time, it’s your turn,” I complained.

Ari sighed dramatically, rolling her eyes. “Fine.”

Since Reed was with Ander, I didn’t bother messaging him. I typed a message to Harmony saying: Stop what you’re doing and meet the others and Wyatt in the human realm in an hour. We need your help in the creature’s realm. Don’t kill me, but we’re already in their realm and we found something important. Bring weapons. Lots of weapons. Again, please don’t kill me.

Not even a minute later, I received a message from her saying: WHAT? No promises on the killing you part, but we’ll be there. Just so we’re prepared, what type of creatures will be facing?

I sent back only one word: Necromancers.