Tainted roots

A wall of gushing waterfalls circled the perimeter of the region. The sight would’ve been beautiful had the water not been a murky green, so dark it was only a few shades removed from black. Countless rivers—probably only fifty feet wide—branched off from the sprawling pool of water collecting at the base of the waterfalls. Wild and tall greenish-brown grass grew on the land between the winding and lazily flowing rivers. A light blue sky sat above us, and no surprise, there wasn’t a sun.

It was clear almost right away that this region was meant for those who lived in water and not on land. There was a distinct lack of vegetation or cover on the flat expanse of land. Not a single bridge was to be seen, despite the number of rivers.

We only stayed in this region long enough to find the next portal. Somehow we got lucky and didn’t have to attempt to cross any of the rivers. However, our luck didn’t last long.

In what I imagined to be the center of the region, was a mile-wide hole, where all of the rivers met. As if to mock us, the portal was down in the cavernous pit and was so dark we had no clue how deep it was.

After several minutes of debate, Ari threw caution to the wind and jumped into the pit. We heard a splash several seconds later, followed by colorful swears about how much it hurt and how the water was fucking freezing. We followed her lead, and sure enough, the impact of the water hurt like a motherfucker and was icy.

Through the gaps of gushing water, were several tunnels, the ceilings only two feet above water level.

I didn’t care if those were the tunnels we were looking for, there was no way in hell I was even going near them. It was bad enough having to swim in this underground pool. I had no clue as to its depths, or what kind of things were lurking under its surface. I wasn’t going to add a small enclosed tunnel into the mix. Not when the only light in the cavern came from above. There was no way I was swimming in complete darkness.

The whole region had been loud with the roaring from the waterfalls, but they had nothing on the overlapping splashing water pouring from the rivers, echoing off the cavern’s walls.

A low headache built at the base of my skull as my ears ached. Another downside was it was near impossible to hear anything else. Say, for example, a fucking hydra stalking us.

The portal sat in the center of the cavern, hovering inches above the water. I kept cringing at the awful sensation of swimming in all these clothes. There was something so inherently wrong about it.

We were almost halfway to the portal when I finally sensed something behind me. When I turned around I found nothing there, but I couldn’t shake the itchy feeling of being watched. Every few feet, I would stop and look around, only to continue when I found nothing. After stopping several times, I finally caught sight of a snake splashing into the water, the noise hidden by the crashing water. “Creature!” I shouted, hoping the others heard.

I picked up my pace, but it did me no good when the hydra burst to the surface right next to me, sending a wave crashing over me. I was sent tumbling through the water, trying to find my way back to the surface.

Once I finally found my way back up, spluttering water, I saw over a dozen serpents slithering through the water connected by a single body. Koa was a few yards away, dodging the strike of two serpents trying to bite him. Their venom couldn’t kill us, but it could incapacitate us long enough for them to drown and kill us.

Hydra venom only incapacitated us for roughly five minutes, but in the water, five minutes was a lifetime.

Koa had the best chance at killing a hydra with the use of his dragon’s fire, but since we didn’t want to run the risk of drawing more creatures to us, our best bet was to avoid it and get to the portal. Which was easier said than done.

One of the snakes plunged into the water next to where my arm had been a moment ago. My pace picked up, spurned on by the rush of air behind me, from the narrowly missed attack. Ahead of me, Ari and Gemini made it through the portal, narrowly avoiding oncoming attacks.

I was only a few feet away, when a stabbing pain flared up in my calf, followed by a near-instantaneous numbing sensation quickly working its way up my leg. My body quit responding to my commands as my vision blurred. The last thing I remembered seeing was several snakes bursting into flames before being pulled into swirling darkness.

When I awoke roughly five minutes later, I felt like absolute shit. Like, drank half a bottle of hard liquor by myself type of shit. Honestly, I would take being the worst kind of hangover over this. My head pounded, my ears ached feeling like they just popped. The faint light hurt my eyes when I finally managed to crack them open.

We were no longer in the cavern, which was a huge relief. Now we were in a cave, about thirty feet wide and lit up by a fist-sized crystal sitting in the middle of the room. The walls were made of ice. Two tunnels sat at opposite ends of the cave. And to add to the scenery were sharp dangling icicles hanging above us.

How nice.

Cold seeped into my ass and legs from the packed snow below me. The air was chilly, but the cold didn’t affect me as much as it normally would. Not with Koa’s chest pressed against my back as I sat against him. His thighs were pressed against the outsides of my legs, and his arms were wrapped around my stomach. I also was no longer wearing the same soaking clothes as before.

Where my jeans before had been a dark wash, these were light. Before, I had been wearing a black short-sleeved T-shirt, but now was long-sleeved and covered by a jacket. My hair was still damp but was covered by a thick knit hat, preventing my hair from freezing. I didn’t have to ask who changed my clothes, I already knew. Unlike last time, I wasn't disturbed by this knowledge.

Koa’s arms shifted around my waist, his hands splaying on my stomach. “How’s your leg?” He asked softly, but his voice still bounced off the icy walls, an annoying downside of caves and tunnels.

Reaching down, I gently probed my tender calf, a slight sting meeting my touch. I rolled up the leg of my jeans and saw a jagged bite mark marring my leg. With no puss or redness around the wound, I took it as a good sign. “It’ll heal.”

Koa’s body was tense behind mine. Brewing emotions were churning under the surface, spilling through the bond into me. The main ones were intense protective need to keep me safe, and anger. When your mate was injured, all rational thoughts and feelings went out the window, especially with summoners. Our animals would press against the surface, riding us hard, and making it difficult to separate our needs from theirs.

Physical touch between mates helped ease and soothe both the spirit animal and the Mythic. So that’s what I did. My fingers lightly skimmed over his hands and traced the tendons and veins.

“Where are Ari and Gemini?” I asked when I realized neither of them were here.

Some of the tension had eased from Koa as he now had a better grip on his turbulent emotions, stopping them from spilling over to me. “They’re scouting, looking to see where the tunnels lead.”

I hummed noncommittally, drifting my hands up his forearms where the sleeves of his shirt were pushed up. “I’m okay,” I whispered, feeling the need to reassure him again.

He buried his face in my neck, inhaling deeply. His hands flexed on my stomach as a fresh bolt of fear entered my chest. I remembered what he said in the bedroom of the haunted hotel, how he never truly felt fear until he saw me injured.

“You used magic,” I said after a couple of minutes of silence, remembering the burst of flames over the water.

“I did, and I would do it again in a heartbeat if it means keeping you safe. I would do almost anything to protect you,” he vowed, resting his chin on my shoulder. His arms tightened around me and pulled me even tighter against his chest.

“That almost anything, better not include leaving me behind.” I shifted on the ground, turning my head to face him.

“Jade,” he began, but I cut him off.

“I’m serious, I can’t go through being ditched again, and I don’t want to constantly worry about you leaving me behind to protect me.” I didn’t bother trying to keep my voice low, its echoes bouncing down the tunnels.

Koa took ahold of my hips and shifted me around so I straddle his legs facing him. His churning eyes held mine captive. “I won’t leave you behind ever again, I’ve learned my lesson. The entire time I was away, I could barely focus on anything else. I was constantly worried about whether or not you were safe. Missing the way you smell, and how perfectly your body fits against mine.”

His fingers gently stroked my sides, inciting heat and tingles of energy where his hands lifted my shirt, and brushed my bare skin. “The only way I can ensure your safety and keep a piece of mind, is to have you by my side.”

I pressed my forehead against his, relief flooding my body.

Muffled footsteps broke up our moments. Almost a minute later, Gemini exited the tunnel to my left. “Dead end.”

* * * * * * * *

After sitting around for over twenty minutes, and still no sign of Ari, I was done waiting around. Horrifying scenarios kept playing through my mind as to why she hadn’t returned yet.

We followed the tunnel to the right, which was thankfully wider than the one inside the mountain. The snow-packed ground began inclining upwards, making me wonder if we were underground. As we followed the path I kept finding traces of Ari’s scent. It did little to reassure me since she had obviously gone down this tunnel. Where else would she have gone?

The winding tunnel led outside, where I was nearly blinded once again. This time by the expanse of pure white snow blanketing the terrain of hills, flat plains, and chasms full of sharp shards of ice at the bottom—ready to impale you if fell off the icy cliffs.

A flurry of snow poured from the sky as the wind tugged at my clothes and stung my cheeks. The snow was coming down hard and fast, making it impossible to find footprints or even catch Ari’s scent.

“Where the hell is she?”

Gemini pointed to the top of a hill to our right, her lips moving, but I wasn’t able to make out her words. Glancing up at the top, I didn’t see anyone or anything besides a bare tree, bending over in the harsh wind. When I turned back to Gemini and gave her a puzzled look, she rolled her eyes and began trudging through the snow.

The hill wasn’t too big or steep, and had there been no snow, we would’ve been to the top within minutes. But with the knee-high snow, our trip was a lot longer and more tiring. Not to mention uncomfortable as hell. Snow seeped in through the tops of my boots, pissing me off. It was no longer snowing, but sleeting.

The top of the hill overlooked a snowy valley, but that wasn’t what made my blood run cold. Pools of blood speckled the side of the hill, dropping down into the valley, not yet covered by the blizzard.

Darting down the hill, I dropped to my knees at the nearest splatter of blood and was relieved when it didn’t smell like Ari, but a necromancer’s creature. “It’s not hers!”

My feet slid as I ran down the hill, bloody knee-high snow flying as I shuffled my feet, trying to stay upright. The frigid air burned my lungs and my feet were freezing as more snow slipped into my boots.

Near the bottom of the hill was a large lump half covered by snow, a pool of blood seeping from it and staining the surrounding snow. When I got a closer look, I spotted long white fur matted with blood. The yeti’s head was a few feet away, nearly covered in a fresh layer of snow.

I was about to stand from where I knelt in the snow inspecting the body, when I saw some more blood on its long and sharp claws. Swiping my finger through the liquid, I inhaled the scent and froze.

It wasn’t the yeti’s blood. It was Ari’s.

The blizzard had covered any tracks and possibly any dripping blood. Visibility sucked ass, and it wasn’t until I was almost a foot away, that I noticed another body nearly completely covered in snow. The lump was way to big to be Ari, but I still brushed the snow away nonetheless. Another dead yeti. This one still had his head. Its body was face down with blood coating its back.

I didn’t have to be able to hear Koa to know he was standing behind me. Not with the bond and his steadying presence brushing against my back. I met his gaze, silently pleading with him to find my sister. His lips moved, but I couldn't hear a thing. I shook my head to let him know I couldn’t understand him.

He pointed into the valley ahead of us. I strained my eyes until I spotted a tree in the distance. Its bare limbs not moving an inch despite the unforgiving wind. What the fuck? I looked around, convinced he wasn’t pointing to a fucking tree. When I found nothing else of note—no blood or body-shaped lumps—I turned back to him and mouthed, a tree?

He nodded and inclined his head back at Gemini, whose gaze was locked on the tree. Having no clue what was going on, but trusting Koa, I waved my hand toward the tree signaling I would follow. Koa captured my bare and cold hand that I had forgotten to put back into my pocket. His skin wasn’t heated as it usually was, but it still warmed mine. Sometime during our walk, he had pulled on a thin coat, and a hat covered his damp hair.

The tree was almost half a mile away. Which normally wouldn’t have been so bad, but the combination of below zero temperatures, the thigh-high snow, and winds so strong I would’ve been knocked over had it not been for Koa, made it an annoyingly slow process. My cheeks burned as did my eyes, which I could barely keep open.

I couldn’t even imagine how fucked we would’ve been if we hadn’t changed out of our wet clothes. Whoever thought it was a good idea to put a portal from the waterfalls to this frozen wasteland and have the damn portal in the fucking water, was a sadistic asshole. One I’d like to meet and shove my foot up their ass. The whole walk, I imagined all the ways I could kick their ass. It was better than worrying about Ari.

All I knew was that she was most likely the one to kill those yeti and that one of them scratched her. With the storm, I had no idea of the extent of her injury. It could’ve ranged from a simple scratch to near disembowelment—probably not the latter since she was able to walk away.

I tried not to dwell on what she was doing out here in the first place. Once she realized the tunnel led outside, she should’ve turned around and come back to us. What could she have seen to make her go outside during a blizzard?

At long last, we finally reached the tree. It wasn’t an impressive tree by any means, it’s height only a few inches taller than Koa. The branches remained still despite how twig-like they were.

Before I could pointlessly ask why we were here, I felt it. The faint trace of energy skating over my skin reminded me of the sensation I felt in the forest, at the entrance of the haunted hotel.

I should’ve known there would be more places like it in the different regions.

I reached my hand toward the tree only to be stopped by Koa. He shook his head, pulling my hand back and reaching out his own. Before his hand could make contact, the image of the tree rippled with energy as it pulled Koa through the doorway.

Taking a deep breath, I followed him through the rippling doorway. Hopefully, we’d find Ari here.