Page 111 of Blood of the Sands

“I think it will take more than one line for you to regain your sense of control this time.”

Lord Alasdar lifted a hand, summoning a palmful of flame, exercising far more control than I’d hoped to have when coaxing our fires to life, often singing my own fingers in the process. My eyes widened in horror as I realized what was going to happen. Despite my weakness, I tried to launch myself from the pile of cushions, ignoring the agony of my tearing skin, searing as blisters ripped open and a new layer of puss coated my bandages.

“Izumi,” Lord Alasdar said without looking up from the fire he coaxed to life in his hand.

A figure I hadn’t noticed before stepped out of the shadows at the back of the tent, and a woman grabbed me by the shoulders, stopping my feeble crawl toward Erix. Her grip was strong, and the pain of her fingers on my charred shoulder whited out my vision for a moment. When it returned, I tried to meet her gaze, recognizing her as the woman who had fed me during my time in captivity, to beg her to release me, but she didn’t look at me, her hard gaze fixed on the two men before us. I could only watch.

Lord Alasdar clapped his hand to Erix’s bare chest, right over his heart. He grunted, and every muscle in his body went tight at the same time, twitching and twisting as if attempting to get away but tensing to hold still. Still, he didn’t scream, and I wanted to cry out for him. My throat was dry, but silent tears flowed down my face as the smell of burning flesh filled the space. I threw myself down the bond between us, hoping to comfort Erix or take some of the pain for myself. Instead, I found a wall, as if he had completely detached himself from his magic.

Maybe he was right. You could be in enough pain to completely drown out the call of the desert.

After long seconds, Lord Alasdar pulled away, revealing an angry red brand of his handprint forever burned into Erix’s skin. The fingers on my shoulders tightened, and perhaps it was my own trembling, but I thought I felt the Izumi’s hands shake.

Lord Alasdar cocked his head expectantly.

“Thank you,” Erix rasped, and I nearly heaved, despite having nothing in my stomach. His voice was as hoarse as if he had been screaming, even though he hadn’t let out a sound.

Closing his eyes, Lord Alasdar breathed in deeply, as if taking in the fresh scent of the desert after rain.

“I can feel your magic has pulled back from hers.” His tone was satisfied. “Are you ready to purge yourself of her influence completely.”

After a moment that stretched forever, Erix nodded. In a matter of seconds that passed too fast, Lord Alasdar had unchained him. Erix’s hands fell to his knees, and although his wrists were red and raw from straining at his bonds, he didn’t rub them. He didn’t move at all until Lord Alasdar approached him again, offering him the hilt of a saber—Kelvar’s saber.

With a hand that only shook slightly, he took the weapon before pushing to his feet.

“Now, give her blood to the desert and free yourself from Kelvar’s mistakes.”

Izumi still held my shoulders where I knelt on the floor half collapsed, but she didn’t need to. I wouldn’t try to run, not that I would make it that far even if I did. The one person who I thought had seen the whole of me and not shied away, only saw me as a weakness. He belonged to Lord Alasdar, not me, no matter what we had said when he moved inside me.

Erix approached with slow measured steps. I stared at his boots as they stopped in front of me. He didn’t raise his sword though. At his pause, my gaze trailed up his body, stuttering over the fresh handprint on his chest to stare into the mask of the Viper.

When my gaze met where his eyes should be, he raised his blade, point resting at my throat.

“Do it,” I whispered.

My greatest regret would be that I wouldn’t at least be able to look into his eyes as I died.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Erix

Keera stared up at me with the same glare she wore the first time I pressed my great-grandfather’s saber to the hollow of her throat—somehow both hopeless and defiant.

“I will be free of my weakness,” I insisted. My hand trembled from tension and the adrenaline still coursing through my body after Lord Alasdar’s lesson. The tip of my saber scratched Keera’s skin with the movement, and she gasped quietly. I could only hope she understood what I meant.

Then I struck, swinging out in a decisive arc at where Lord Alasdar stood behind me. Before my blade could meet his neck, I found myself on the ground, saber clattering to the floor next to me, though I didn’t remember dropping it. A scream tore from my lips as Lord Alasdar stood over me, hands outstretched. A commotion beside me told me Keera was fighting against Izumi, shouting too, but I couldn’t make out her words against the sensation of Lord Alasdar’s magic ripping into my own well of power at the base of my skull.

Where Keera’s power was always flowing water, sometimes a calming coolness and other times the raging ocean, Lord Alasdar’s magic was lightning. It seared nerve endings I didn’t even know I had, pinning me in place.

“Maybe I need to remind you how the people this girl serves tried to control your power,” Lord Alasdar sneered down at me.

The flickering orange light of the lanterns in the tent disappeared, leaving me blinking in confusion. My fuzzy eyes could only make out dull gray around me. Lord Alasdar was nowhere to be found. I sat bolt upright, whipping my head around. Keera was gone too.

I was about to shout her name when I realized where I was. Everywhere around me was solid stone—hard and gray and unforgiving. Unlike the last time I had been in the chamber in the heart of the mountain, there wasn’t even a door. Just a cube large enough for me to reach out my arms and touch both walls.

I reached for my magic, and while the phantom talons of Lord Alasdar still ripped at my mind, the comforting yet maddening presence of the desert was nowhere to be found. I was trapped and alone. I would die here, never feeling the wind of the desert or riding Alza across the sands again. Without ever telling Keera I loved her. Because I did.

I had loved her the first night when she spit in my face and for every inch she had pushed me after that. Even when I’d pretended I didn’t exist, letting the monster Lord Alasdar wanted me to be devour the man I was, the heart buried underneath all that darkness only beat for her. And now my weakness would cost both of us our lives.