Chapter 9 #2
My feet touched solid ground, fine sand that shifted beneath my weight. Then salty air filled my lungs, sharp and clean after the electric chaos of the portal. I blinked rapidly, trying to clear the spots dancing across my vision as my surroundings slowly came into focus.
A beautiful expanse of turquoise water stretched before us, so clear I could see the white sand beneath its surface even at a distance.
This must have been the Southern Isles.
While the Bloodsworn spread out around us, I inched away from Arielle to look around me.
We stood on a white sand beach that curved away in both directions, bordered by palms that swayed in the gentle breeze. Behind us rose a wall of lush green vegetation of tropical plants with broad leaves and flowers in shades of coral and gold that seemed almost too vibrant to be real.
But it was the silence that struck me most. The silence and the rhythmic whisper of waves against the shore.
“You okay?” Arielle asked.
“Just a little shaky.”
“It’ll pass.” She smiled reassuringly.
Alaric lifted one hand and began to chant, the words rolling from his tongue in a language I didn’t understand. It sounded ancient and heavy with power.
The chant hadn’t even finished leaving Alaric’s lips before the world answered.
The air thickened, pressure rolling through like an incoming storm. A low, distant thunder growled across the horizon, then the sky split.
A roar slashed through the quiet stillness that had settled here.
A shadow tore across the sky, vast and fast, blotting out the sun in a single, terrifying sweep. Wind slammed against us as wings beat through the air, each strike powerful enough to rattle my bones.
I sucked in a breath as the first dragon burst into view, scales glinting like molten steel as it banked hard and descended. A second followed. It was bigger. Much, much bigger.
Their bodies cut through the sky with lethal grace, massive and elegant all at once, tails lashing, wings spanning wider than any ship’s sail.
The sound was deafening.
They circled once, slow and deliberate, as if claiming the space, then swooped downwards.
The ground trembled as they first landed across from us, claws biting into the sand.
I stood frozen, heart pounding, awe and fear tangling in my throat.
The dragons were enormous. And beautiful.
Truly magnificent.
Pyrion and Hedion were their names. Twin dragons.
Hedion, the smaller one, turned its head. His gaze found me, and something in his expression shifted.
It was recognition. He was the one I’d ridden. Pyrion was Wolfe’s bonded.
Both bowed their massive heads for me.
“My Lady,” they said.
I bowed, too.
Everyone looked at me.
All I could do was stare back in awe. Awe at everything.
I bit back a smile. "I don't think anyone back home would believe me if I told them this."
Garrik grinned. “Welcome to the part of your life that makes normal sound boring.”
I couldn’t agree more.
“Let’s prep the spell,” Alaric suggested, waving a hand toward the thicket of trees across from us. “That’s where it all happened.”
When I looked over, a knot formed in the pit of my stomach. I imagined what took place and the panic I must have felt.
We moved toward the area, weaving through the trees. And then I saw the devastation.
Debris littered the ground, scattered in violent arcs as if the land itself had been flung apart. Splintered branches lay twisted across the earth. Stones, shattered beams, fragments of what had once been walls were —everywhere.
The house ahead was barely recognizable. Its roof had been smashed in, gaping open to the sky. Glass crunched beneath our boots, windows blown out, frames hanging crooked and broken. Trees had been torn from the ground, their roots exposed like open wounds.
It looked less like a storm had passed through… and more like something had tried to erase the place entirely.
Blessed Mother. I brought my hands to my cheeks, my eyes widening as I took in the wreckage around me.
A cold realization slid through my chest. This was just the kind of fucked-up thing I could imagine Thayden calling a rescue.
“This is awful.” I shook my head.
“It is,” Alaric agreed. “You can see they came for blood.”
I wonder what went through Thayden’s mind when he came here. Did he see me with Wolfe?
It felt like he had.
There was a nasty streak of spitefulness clinging to the air.
“Everyone take their places,” Bastian announced.
The Bloodsworn formed a protective circle around us. Grim determination was on their faces, but I caught the flicker of unease in more than one set of eyes as they took their positions.
Then the dragons stepped forward. The temperature spiked instantly, waves of heat rolling off their massive forms as they closed the distance.
“I’ll stand with you in the center,” Arielle said, guiding me with her arm around my shoulders.
Alaric walked up to us and pulled out one of his blades. “We’ll use dragon magic to steady the spell, but I’ll need some of your blood, my Lady.”
I offered my hand, palm up.
He used the tip of the blade and pricked the center of my hand. Blood pooled there instantly, along with a sharp sting that fanned out across my skin.
Alaric reached for my hand and turned it over, allowing the blood to drop onto the sand.
He nodded toward the others.
Bastian and Garrick spread out their hands, and a white wall of light emitted from their palms, surrounding us.
The dragons roared together, and a stream of blue flame poured from their massive jaws.
The wall of light blazed around us, beautiful and terrifying in equal measure, but it was the dragons that stole every rational thought from my mind.
Then ancient words spilled from Alaric’s lips. "Kythara nos veridian, solthen mor drakmys,” he chanted. “Aethon vel sanguinus, nethys tol vaelthara."
The words seemed to carve themselves into the air, each phrase more potent than the last. Where my blood had touched the sand, it began to glow with an eerie silver light that spread outward in spiraling patterns.
The dragons' breathing grew deeper, more rhythmic, as if they were feeding power into whatever force Alaric was calling forth.
His voice rose. "Morveth sil enarion, thulan mae govannen. Vex'ahlia nos draconis, silthen na vaelora."
The final words cracked like a whip across the beach, and suddenly, the sand beneath my feet felt different, charged with something that made my skin prickle.
Every hair on my body stood on end as the air itself began to thicken, pressing against my soul.
The air crackled with an energy that tasted of copper, making my teeth ache. Whatever we were about to do, whatever ritual this was, the island itself seemed to recoil from it.
Then it began.
The sand where my blood had fallen pulsed.
The silver light spiraled outward in intricate patterns that seemed to follow some celestial design.
The spirals widened and rose, lifting from the ground in ribbons of luminescence that twisted through the air.
They moved with purpose, weaving together to form shapes like mountain ranges.
A gasp tore from my throat as heat bloomed inside my chest, just above my heart. The sensation was gentle at first, a warmth that spread through my ribs, but then it intensified.
Light—pure and silver—began to pour from my skin, streaming out of me to join the spirals dancing around us.
“It’s okay. I got you.” Arielle tightened her grip around me.
“I—"
My words cut as a map took shape before my eyes, suspended in the air like a constellation made manifest.
Glowing lines raced up to the sky and pathways pulsed. A living chart formed, showing not just where things were but where they belonged—the hidden connections between realms, the secret roads that linked world to world.
And at the center of it all, a single point blazed brighter than the rest, calling to something deep in my soul.
I gazed, utterly mesmerized as everything solidified. The light beaming from me, the light creating the map, the light keeping the balance.
The last location shimmered in red beyond the path that led to it.
To Wolfe.
“Gods, the spell worked,” Alaric rasped. “But look…”
Bastian and Garrick lowered their arms, and the dragons ceased their flames.
The light dissipated from me, but the map remained.
Bastian came closer, inspecting the map. His face fell when he looked over the land connecting to the place where Wolfe was.
Arielle had the same unsettled look on her face.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Wolfe is in Morg?ven. One of the dead realms,” Garrick explained in a low, reflective voice. “It’s an in-between plane of existence. The place where tortured souls lose their way because they were lost in life to some terrible fate.”
“Wolfe won’t survive there much longer if he’s injured—which we know he is,” Alaric continued. “The souls in Morg?ven feed off yours until you die, then you join them. And, um… it’s also a shifting plane.”
“What in the hells does that mean?” My chest rose and fell like the waves of my fear.
“It means we can portal there, but we can’t come back the same way,” Arielle answered. “We can’t even portal from there. Magic is unstable on all shifting planes, but in a dead realm, you’d need death magic to attempt such a thing.”
“We’ll have to find another path back,” Bastian said. “But that might be difficult. We have no way of knowing where we’ll end up, or how long it might take.”
Gods. Everything was on the line here.
What a risk to take.
What if I went and couldn’t come back?
That would put my family at risk.
But Wolfe.
He’d been in that place for nearly a week. He’d be dying.
The thought gripped my insides, and my heart squeezed.
I couldn’t say no before. And I couldn’t do it now.
I couldn’t come all this way, stand here and watch the path to him laid out before me, then turn my back on him.
My heart wouldn’t allow it.
I stepped forward, and they all looked at me.
“Time is of the essence, remember.” I gave them a gentle nod.
Alaric studied my face. “Are you sure you want to go?”
“Would he do it for me? Wolfe?”
“In a heartbeat.” Alaric didn’t even have to think.
“Then I’m going.”
A gentle smile floated across his lips. I got the impression it was one of those rare, heartfelt smiles you wouldn’t see too often on this warrior. “You do us a great honor, Elariya Grayson. I hope you know that.”
I nodded.
Alaric turned to the dragons. “Guard the path for us then head back to Vyrenth Hollow.”
The dragons bowed, and Alaric snapped his fingers and opened another portal.
And I prayed to whoever was listening that we’d find a way back.