Rivers of blood and sand

We were deep in the forest, going uphill when a familiar eerie silence rushed over us. Goosebumps raised along my arms as I suppressed a shudder. Sinister energy, similar but also different to what I felt in the Wilds, coated the air. My dragon was pressed to the surface on high alert, not liking the magic in the air. The strength and malignancy of the magic increased the closer we got to our destination.

The sinister magic wasn’t the only thing that made an appearance. A rancid and almost stale scent coated the air and clung to us. It was nowhere near as bad as the Wilds. I was still able to breathe through my nose, even when it grew stronger. A big difference I noted was a sickly sweet scent that tried and failed to mask the rot.

We didn’t come across dead grass or animals—dead or alive. This time the perimeter of trees surrounding the recently created clearing weren’t looking too good. Their branches drooped, weighed down by the black blood dripping off them and oozing down the trunks. All traces of leaves or flowers were gone. I wasn’t an elemental, but even I could tell these trees were dead or close to it.

I carefully avoided these trees as I walked the perimeter, having to leap over a few discarded trees. The clearing was around the same size as the other and was also a circle. I didn’t know too much about sorcery or blood magic, but I knew circles held significance when it came to rituals. While it may have been a different scene, it was definitely the start of a pattern. We may not understand the pieces just yet, but we would.

On the ground inside the circle of the trees, was a pool of the thick blood. No doubt the grass underneath it was as dead as the trees. There wasn’t a single part of me that wanted to go anywhere near that shit, knowing it only brought pain and death.

Ander’s hand hovered near the trunk of a bleeding tree, making me nervous he’d accidentally bump into it. My stomach pitched at the thought. I nearly rushed over to him and pulled his hand away, but I held my ground confident he wouldn’t appreciate that.

An unsettling weight pressed in on my back between my shoulder blades, reminding me of what I felt in the dark forest, with the weight of unknown entities watching me. Moments later, I heard light footsteps as something charged toward us from behind. I dove to the side, feeling a breeze above me as they just barely miss me.

My hip slammed into the trunk of a fallen tree, sending sharp bolts of pain down my leg and through my hip bones. Growls filled the air, that had my dragon on high alert. Getting to my feet was far from pretty or graceful, but in life-or-death situations, that didn’t matter. I gritted my teeth against the throbbing pain in my hip. I doubted the tree had done any serious damage, but that didn’t stop it from hurting like hell.

None of us had been expecting an attack, and because of that, I didn’t have any weapons drawn. When did I become a fucking amateur? I should’ve drawn my weapons as soon as the silence descended upon the forest. Hell, I should’ve been prepared the moment we stepped out of Raine’s cabin. I’d been so focused on Ander’s hand hovering near the tree, rather than focusing on our surroundings, and because of that, I hadn’t noticed the attacker until the last second. That mistake never should’ve happened.

I let the fact that nothing attacked us in the Wilds fool me into believing the only danger posed to us was the blood.

When I finally caught sight of our attacker, confusion and shock warred within me. I was expecting something humanoid to be attacking us, having figured it would be whoever’s blood this belonged to. I hadn’t been expecting it to be their guard dog. That wasn’t a turn of phrase, it was literally a dog. Well, wolf to be exact, but the sentiment still stood.

The wolf was fucking huge, even bigger than Rowan, and she made normal wolves appear small. It was dark brown, the kind that was only a few shades removed from black, with glowing red eyes. Its body was made up of huge bulging muscles that had no business being on an animal.

Ander barely dodged its swipe at his throat, whirling his sword as he tried to slice across its stomach. While Ander had been fast, the wolf was somehow faster and easily evaded his attack. Surprise flitted across Ander’s face, having not expected the wolf to be so agile.

I pulled the handle of my sword free, pressing on the rune as I did so. My steps toward them weren’t fast, not with the twinging in my hip slowing me down, but I was within striking range in no time. Even though I tried to keep my steps light, the wolf still heard me and dodged my attack like it was nothing.

Spit flew from its mouth as it snarled at me, showing off its gigantic teeth that could do some serious damage if it managed to bite us. It lunged at me, going after my leg and I just barely was able to dodge the attack by stepping to the side. It repeated its actions and I avoided it in the same way.

My movements put me closer to the clearing, and that was not okay with me.

Aidan wasn’t as lucky as me and was hit by the wolf. The only positive was that he was hit by its claws and wasn’t bitten. His shirt was torn across his back where the wolf made contact, blood already staining his once white shirt.

Before the wolf could capitalize on his weakness it was flung through the air and into one of the healthy trees. A crack echoed throughout the air as the tree split in half upon impact. My first instinct was to glance at Ander, but he was as confused as me.

The wolf struggled to get to its feet, the back leg bent at an awkward angle.

Movement in my peripheral vision caught my attention in time to see a woman charge toward the wolf. She moved almost too fast for my eyes to catch as she leaped onto the wolf’s back and wrapped her arms around its neck. The wolf whimpered as she dug a dagger into the base of its throat and twisted her body so the wolf lost its balance and fell on its side.

All I could see of the woman was flashes of black hair and tanned skin as she removed the dagger from the wolf’s neck, only to stab it again in the chest. She hadn’t hit its heart, not with the way it still beat, but I had a feeling she did that on purpose.

The wolf’s movements had significantly slowed and its blood-red eyes had dimmed. She left the dagger in its chest as she disentangled herself from it. Now that she was no longer moving so fast or blocked by the wolf, I recognized her. It was the woman from Aidan’s cabin. The mysterious blood mage I hadn’t given much thought to after she left.

She didn’t acknowledge us, for the moment all of her attention was on the wolf. In an impressive feat of strength, she grabbed the wolf by the scruff of its neck and dragged it toward the pool of horrible blood.

Ander grabbed a hold of my upper arm and pulled me toward him, away from the blood and the woman.

As if the wolf wasn’t easily over two-hundred pounds, she tossed it into the puddle of blood. We watched in rapt attention as the surface of the puddle rippled and reflections of orange and red waterfals appeared, but I couldn’t focus on it for too long. Not with what was happening to the wolf. Its body sank into the rippling surface until it vanished from sight. As soon as the wolf disappeared the surface of the puddle stilled, and the reflection was no longer there.

That sure as hell hadn’t happened in the Wilds.

“What was that?” I yelped as I took a healthy step away from it, even though I was already a good distance away.

She gave the blood a disdainful look as she wiped off her hands and backed away. Unlike me, it didn’t seem like she did so out of fear, more like disgust. “It’s a portal of sorts. I wouldn't recommend using it. Those that go in, typically never come out. Well, not alive.”

A shudder worked its way through my body at the thought of a portal that killed and made out of blood. “Where does this portal lead?”

“Ah, that is the big question.” Her head tilted to the side as she continued appraising the blood.

“Have you been following us?” Ander asked instead of pressing her and asking if she knew where this “portal” led.

She wasn’t the least bit disturbed by Ander’s tone or the tension radiating through his body. Why should she be worried? She managed to kill that wolf all on her own and made it look easy. Her only response to his accusation was a scoff as she rolled her eyes. I took that as a no.

As she circled the perimeter of the dead trees, I shot Aidan a baffled look and mouthed, who the hell is she?

Aidan wasn’t the one to answer. “You can call me Liv.” She didn’t turn to look at us or slow her walk as she spoke.

My eyebrows shot up as I tried to figure out how she knew what I was silently mouthing. “It can’t be more than twenty miles away from here,” Liv murmured more so to herself than to us.

“The portal's destination?” I asked, making sure we were on the same page.

She glanced at me over her shoulder, like she had forgotten we were here. Her dark quicksilver eyes assessed us for a few moments before returning to the bleeding trees. Her hand hovered over the trunk, careful to not make contact. “The ones in the Wilds formed a triangle and were roughly twenty miles apart. The rest will follow the same pattern.”

The three of us asked questions over each other, each focusing on a different part of her statement.

“What do you mean by pattern?” Aidan asked.

While I was focused on something else. “You were in the Wilds?”

“There’s one of these in the Wilds? All we found were bodies and dead grass. We didn’t see a portal.”

Liv pulled her hand away from the tree with a frustrated sigh and faced us once again. “If you find an offering site—which from the sounds of it, is what you found—then there are two more portals nearby. That’s not always the case, sometimes there are more, sometimes less.”

The way she phrased it caught my attention. She made it seem like, not only has something like this happened before, but that it has happened enough for the pattern to change. But that was impossible because if it happened in our past, it would be in our history books.

“How do you know so much?” Ander’s question came out like an accusation as he moved forward and crossed his arms. I doubted he did this on purpose, but in doing so, he moved in front of me and blocked me from her view.

Her chuckle sounded slightly baffled, slightly amused. “You’re joking right?” I subtly leaned around Ander, just enough to see her expression. She had her hands resting on the back of her head as she stared up at the sky. It was like she was asking for patience.

“I never joke when I’m near unknown blood and a blood mage that suspiciously knows way too much.”

I gasped as I caught onto why she was so baffled and exasperated by his comment. He was accusing her of creating this mess, even though she saved us from the wolf, who had been herding us toward the portal. With how fast it could move, it seemed like it didn’t go full speed when attacking me earlier, moving just fast enough for me to jump out of the way. In the process, I moved closer to the portal. I may have been wrong, but it felt right and seemed the most logical of answers.

Rolling her eyes, Liv grabbed the metal bangle on her left wrist, twisting it until it sprang open. I pushed past Ander, or at least I tried to, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me back against his chest. I would’ve been surprised by his seemingly possessive actions if I hadn’t been so focused on the object in Liv’s hand.

The bracelet had opened up into a blade, one she was currently using to draw blood from her forearm. That device was an antique in our world, a relic from the past. No one used it anymore, every blood mage now wore their rings.

Ander tried to move me behind him, but I held my ground, even when he growled low under his breath. Liv kept her movements slow as she approached and held out her bleeding arm to Ander. A bold move to do with a blood mage and was seen as an offering of trust. It could easily turn ugly if they took your blood and used it against you. Most only did this with a family member, a close friend, or someone they were intimate with. The last option had me wanting to growl. No, not me, my dragon.

Keeping one hand on my hip to hold me in place against him, he used his other one to lightly grab her wrist. An action that had me wanting to growl. What the fuck was this bullshit? My dragon—and me—needed to get her shit together. After a few orgasms from him, my dragon was all but ready to call him ours.

Ours…

I was pulled from my thoughts when Ander inhaled the scent of her blood. She only allowed him a few seconds to take in her scent before she pulled her arm away. Her wound had already closed, and she used the rag in her pocket to wipe away all traces of her blood. She went a step further and pulled out a lighter, setting the rag on fire. Apparently, her trust in Ander was limited and that had me no longer wanting to attack her.

When I thought about it, my small moment of possessiveness was ridiculous. Liv had spent the morning fucking Aidan, why would she try and move in on Ander right in front of him? Sometimes logic and reason were nowhere to be seen when your spirit animal became involved.

When Ander hadn’t said anything for several seconds, I tipped my head back, resting it against his chest as I looked up at his face. He was biting down on his bottom lip as he met my gaze. “The blood isn’t the same.”

“No shit,” she muttered, rolling her eyes.

Aidan was wordlessly watching all of this unfold, with his shoulder propped against a tree, and his arms loosely crossed over his chest. Unlike his youngest sister, his emotions weren’t being broadcasted across his face. Based on his relaxed stance, I didn’t think he was annoyed or stressed, but beyond that, I had no clue what he was thinking.

“Do you have a map of the realm?” Liv asked as she rubbed her chin, a contemplative expression on her face.

Once again, I tipped my head back to meet Ander’s gaze, knowing he could conjure a map. He raised his eyebrows and I mimicked his actions, wordlessly daring him to refuse. A sexy smirk pulled at his lips and did sinful things to my body.

Holding my gaze, he spun his ring around his forefinger so the stone was facing down, pressing the stone as he did so. The sharp and thin needle sprung free, ready to draw blood—the ring was spelled so that when the needle retracted, it was cleaned. A good way to ensure that should the ring be stolen, the thief wouldn’t have access to their blood.

Rather than drawing blood from his left arm like I expected, he grabbed my left wrist and held up my arm. I was too stunned to move as he dragged the needle across my forearm, the slight sting barely registering through my shock. He used my blood to draw sigils on his forearm and all I could do was watch as they sank into his arm.

His actions were incredibly intimate, more so than offering your blood to a blood mage as Liv had done. It may seem like the same thing, but it wasn’t. He didn’t ask for my blood, and even though he kept his movements slow in case I wasn’t comfortable, there was a confidence in his movements that said he knew I wouldn’t stop him. Even when drawing from his friends, he asked for permission in one form or another. Which was fairly normal between friends with the type of bond they shared.

What he just did was not something that happened between friends.

A map appeared in his outstretched hand and he offered it to Liv. As she studied the map, I watched Ander, studying his face as he carefully kept her in his sights. Unlike before, my dragon wasn’t threatened by this. It was clear he didn’t trust her. His display only moments ago was probably another reason and seemed to soothe my riled-up dragon, since she was no longer pressing against the surface.

“If my calculations are correct, and they usually are, the offering site should be somewhere in the Lynx clan territory,” Liv said, pulling my attention from Ander as she handed the map back to him. “You’re welcome.”

She turned away from us and began walking away, only to pause beside Aidan. “Nice meeting you.” Her voice was practically a purr as he gave her a smirk. They didn’t exchange any other words before she weaved between the trees and disappeared from sight. Even in the quiet, her steps were near silent, and within seconds I could no longer hear her.

This day just kept getting weirder and weirder, and it was still morning. That didn’t bode well for the rest of the day.