Page 72 of Blood of the Sands

“My offer to help you find control still stands.” Now that the Trials were over, her outbursts costing me my own restraint was less of a concern. Still, the same impulse that led me to draw her into my arms when she lost herself to the desert during the duels made itself known in my quiet offer.

“You’ve already told me I shouldn’t trust you,” Keera said.

“And if I were trying to trick you, I wouldn’t have told you that,” I argued. “Maybe learning the true nature of your power will convince you of how wrong Kelvadan is.”

“I doubt it.”

Without another word, Keera turned and marched back to the encampment. With a slight shudder, I realized she hadn’t flat out refused me.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Keera

It wasn’t hard to tear myself from the festivities of the encampment on the second night of feasting after the duels. Shoulders jostled me as I walked between the tents, and stories were recounted at increasing volume at every fire. I had listened curiously to tales of the past Trials at first, but the longer I sat around the braziers, the more I felt an outsider watching the festivities.

The queen and Aderyn weren’t at the celebrations either, having retreated to the palace the moment the Viper had won the Trials. I assumed they were already preparing for war, but I was not invited. I didn’t blame them for excluding me. I had failed them by losing my final duel—why would they trust me to protect the city now?

The day before, I had been introduced as a citizen of Kelvadan—a title I bore proudly. Now, when I sat down on a bench, the people on either side of me would inch away, even as they pressed shoulder to shoulder with other clansmen and city dwellers. All had seen my outburst at the end of the Trials, and I recognized the wary look in their eyes as they offered painfully polite smiles.

Every time I caught somebody glance at me with fear, I saw my parents’ faces. The chances of Kelvadan being the home I dreamed of faded away like water soaking into the sand.

It was a relief to slip out into the dunes, where the only noises were the swish of the breeze over sands and the low hoot of a nearby burrowing owl. I headed in the same direction as I had the night before, toward where I knew the Viper would be.

Erix, my thoughts whispered in correction, but I pushed against the name. Despite my odd nighttime imaginings, my opponent had remained firmly planted as the Viper in my mind through the challenges of the Trials. Something had shifted though after the duels, when I slipped back into my body to find strong arms around me, not making my skin crawl but grounding me.

When I thought of him as Erix, I would only picture his proud, shocked face and the feeling of his hand on my bare skin. He had made it clear he was the Viper, and it would be ill-advised to drop my guard around him. Still, thinking of him as Erix made me feel less like I was doing something incredibly foolish by stealing away in the darkness to meet him.

I wasn’t sure what had brought me to him that first night after the duels, but the feeling of his arms would not leave me. While too often, the touch of others threatened to send me into a spiral of uncontrollable sensations, his embrace had given me something to hold on to in the maelstrom of the desert. My mind screamed at me that I walked into a trap, but as I thought of the fear with which people looked at me, I knew I had no choice.

The queen’s methods of suppressing her son’s magic had failed, but he had mastered his power since he disappeared. If there was a way for me to master this storm within me and serve the Kelvadan riders without endangering those around me, I had to take it. Even if it meant fraternizing with the one who would see the Kelvadan fall. Maybe this was my one chance to gain the control that would redeem me in the eyes of the queen and her city and soothe the gnawing guilt of failure.

I started as a falcon fluttered up to me, flapping around my head as if investigating.

“Zephyr,” called a stern voice, and the bird backed off, instead flying to Erix where he stood in a dip between dunes and alighting on his shoulder. I had seen the falcon the night before but didn’t remember him having it when I first came upon him at my oasis.

“You came,” Erix said. His voice was flat, giving away neither surprise nor disappointment.

I shrugged. It was the only real explanation I had.

Erix nodded once. “Come.” He gestured toward a pile of rocks, ranging from the size of my fist to a boulder the size of me. “It’s time you learned how to use your power.”

I froze, balking. “You said I could learn to control my power; you said nothing about using it.”

“The magic of the desert doesn’t take kindly to sitting idle,” Erix argued. “Like a horse, it must be exercised, or it will turn volatile and restless.”

I shook my head, backing away a few steps. This was a mistake. I had reminded myself of that last time, and all we’d done was practice familiar forms together. This was something else entirely.

“What does your magic do whenever you try to close it in?” Erix asked before I could turn away. I hesitated and took a few steps back toward him. He stared at me in silence, and I wished I could see his expression.

“Throw the rock,” he ordered.

I frowned and took a step forward, but he threw out an arm, stopping me.

“With your magic.”

I looked at him with what I’m sure was an incredulous expression.

“It’s a part of the desert. You should be able to manipulate it just like the wind and the lightning.” He demonstrated, flicking out a hand as if swatting at a fly; one of the mid-sized rocks flew off the pile and landed in the sand a way away with a dull thud.