Rivers of blood and sand

Tension simmered between Ander and me as we followed Roman through the forest. It was a decent hike to the offering site and the first half of it was spent in an uncomfortable silence. A small smile pulled at my lips as I imagined how uncomfortable the silence would make Jade feel. Knowing her, she probably would’ve broken it over ten minutes ago. As it stood, Roman was the one to break it. He didn’t seem the type for idle chit chat and it wasn’t until I noticed a theme in his stories that I caught onto what he was doing.

First off, he was directing his stories at Ander. Stories that were coincidently about me and embarrassing as hell, like when I spit up on him the first time he met me when I was an infant. It was embarrassing and amazing how good his memories were, although I doubt you’d forget about that. Unfortunately for me, he’d been friends with my parents and as a consequence, spent enough time around me to have plenty of these stories. There was a fondness in his voice that one usually had when talking about their family. A tone I doubted Ander would miss.

It wasn’t lost on me that Roman had assumed as I had that Ander was jealous, and was assuring him that was far from the case. While I appreciated the support, it was a little embarrassing with all the stories he shared and how he was trying to help a doomed relationship. The only good thing that came from the story time was that it helped pass the time.

I couldn’t stop myself from glancing back at Ander, even though it was near impossible to do so without being obvious. Damn him for always having to walk behind me. Every time I looked back at him, he was looking anywhere but me, looking out into the trees. His careful watch of our surroundings wasn’t unfounded since we'd been attacked at the last place, but I knew that wasn’t the only reason he was looking anywhere but me. Well, until I faced forward again. The weight of his stare was heavy between my shoulder blades.

The sudden silence that hushed the forest let us know we were getting close. As did the stench that made an appearance. While it was still gag-worthy, it wasn’t as rotten or as strong as the first one, making me think the one in the Wilds came first.

Trees were thrown off to the side, with the roots still attached, like someone had ripped them from the ground. Holy fuck, the strength needed to do that was way beyond what I ever could accomplish. It made me not want to meet the thing capable of doing that.

Like the other site, there was a circle of blackened grass and mutilated animals. There were more than double what we saw the last time, with a shit ton of what appeared to be dear. This was what Liv meant when she said nobody came out of the portals alive. Those poor animals accidentally wandered, or more likely were herded towards the portal and were sent here, somehow dying in the process. Whatever magic was at play here was dark and far from natural.

“We need to get to the center,” Roman murmured, standing at the edge of the circle, squinting at the ground.

I was already shaking my head as I eyed the deadened grass like the blood would spray us at any moment. “Nope, the ground oozes the deadly blood the moment you put pressure on it. This shit nearly killed Ander and stopped his heart.” I cut myself off before I could say anything else. I’d already said too much.

Ander’s head whipped toward me as he stared at the side of my face, but I refused to return his stare, choosing to focus on Roman instead. He turned from the circle and focused his all-knowing gaze on me.

“Lucky for us, we have a dragon summoner.” My eyebrows pulled together as I tried to figure out how my spirit animal could help us now. Roman grinned at my confusion. “Dragon fire is more powerful than you think. Where elemental fire is the life fire of the realms, dragon fire has a cleansing energy that can burn away some of the strongest parasitic magics.”

Glancing between my palms and the circle, I slowly approached, stopping just on the outside. “Conserve your energy. We only need a small pathway to the center,” Roman warned, placing his hand on my shoulder and giving a comforting squeeze.

After taking a deep breath, I pulled the fiery heat from my dragon, and my palms heated as fire burst from my hands to where I directed it. The grass sizzled, but not in the way normal grass would. Instead of catching fire, black blood seeped from the grass and bubbled, sending up putrid clouds of black smoke.

Summoning fire required more energy than endurance or healing. Even so, I was easily able to clear a path to the middle without breaking a sweat. I’d have to use a prolonged stream of fire to exhaust myself, which was something I never needed to do so I wasn’t too worried.

Rather than be blackened and dead like normal burnt grass, the path was a sickly shade of yellow. It crunched under Roman’s feet, proving that even though it was no longer covered in blood, it didn’t mean it was revived. The damage was done, the grass was still dead, and I doubted it would ever recover.

Ander and I waited outside the circle as Roman squatted in the center, staring at the ground for nearly a minute. He pulled a pen from his pocket—something I thought was odd to carry around—and jotted something on his forearm before standing and returning to us. His grave expression wasn’t reassuring in the slightest and neither were the symbols on his arm. I’d recognize those symbols anywhere. It was the same as all the writings we found in the haunted hotel.)

Whatever was going on, it was all connected.