She slipped her hand out of his, heat pulsing from her palm.
“You’re killing me, Yassen,” she said softly, “and at the same time, you’re the one keeping me from death.” Her eyes met his. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Elena… I…” He paused, looking down at his hands, the blackened and the pale, and then finally met her gaze. “You survive.” He took her hand again, almost unthinkingly. “I know a place where you can hide. It’s a small cabin, a safe house in the Sona Range. They’ll never suspect us hiding in Jantar. You can rest there. Heal.”
“How can I save my kingdom from Jantar if I’m hiding in some shack?”
“Don’t you see?” he said, and she heard his voice crack. “Youare what’s left of this kingdom. If you die, so does Ravence. It will not win without you. And you can’t go on hiding in the desert.”
He was right. There was no capital to return to. The Ravani army was scattered. Samson’s men were likely in disarray. Teranghar, Magar, and Iktara were too far. Rasbakan, the closest port, was probably sacked.
Even if she tried to reach the Black Scales or the generals, the Jantari or the Arohassin would find her first. They would parade her through the streets, and then they would melt metal onto her head. She would die like her ancestors in the Five Desert Wars.
Elena looked down at her feet, at the sand underneath her toes. Without Leo, she was fatherless. And without her desert, she was motherless.
She was just another orphan wandering through the dunes.
“There’s something else.” He reached into his jacket, pulled out the holopod from within his inner pocket. It was dented and scuffed, but when he scanned his thumb, it opened. A map of tunnels sprawling under the Sona Range hovered between them. “Samson gave me this map before I left. He has a training base in the middle of the range. There are still some Black Scales left there, I think. We can’t get to the base directly, but if we go to the cabin, there’s a possibility we can use the tunnels from there to find them.”
“I thought Samson pulled all of his troops from Jantar,” she said.
“Do you really believe that?” he asked, and she looked away.
“I don’t know who to believe anymore.”
“You can believe me.”
She laughed. “That’s rich.”
“Now you know everything,” he said, spreading his hands. “I have no more secrets left to keep. I took the Desert Oath, and you may think that I’ve broken it, but I haven’t. You’re the kingdom now. I’m still willing to give my blood for you. Here.” He pressed his pistol into her palm and took a step back. “If you don’t trust me, then shoot me. This might be your last chance.”
She stared at the pistol. It was heavier than a pulse gun, the trigger more curved. Slowly, Elena wrapped her hands around the grip.
He had betrayed her, and the raw truth burned her throat.He can betray me again.A part of her wanted to shoot him, to feel vindicated, relieved, and leave his body to rot for the vultures. But as Elena met his eyes, she was struck by that image: Yassen staring up at the sky, cold and dead. Her, wandering the dunes alone, without a kingdom or a hearth waiting for her.
Her heart twisted at the thought.
Yassen was the only one left standing by her side. He could have left her to perish on the mountain. He could have abandoned her.
The Phoenix spoke of forgiveness as an act of redemption. A way to free oneself of sins.
But now Elena knew forgiveness was not redemption, it was selfishness. Because try as she might, Elena could not tear herself away from his gaze.Damn him.
She needed Yassen Knight as much as he needed her.
Elena held up the gun, the barrel facing the earth. “I don’t need your gun. I need your word. The desert words. Prove it. Swear it.”
Yassen considered this, his eyes cutting through her.
Then he sank to his knees. A low wind finally stirred the dunes as he pressed his palms to her feet, his voice steady and clear as the desert whispered with him.
“The queen is the protector of the flame, and I its servant. Together, we shall give our blood to this land. I swear it, or burn my name in the sand.”
“So it is thus sealed,” she whispered, and Yassen rose to his feet.
They looked out at the horizon.
There was nothing ahead of them but Jantar. Nothing behind them but sand.
