Page 93 of Blood of the Sands

I grimaced even as my stomach sank. If the lava wyrm was really such a formidable opponent, it seemed unlikely that Erix and I would be able to best it. If Erix had any of the same thoughts though, he didn’t let them show.

“Do you know where it nests?” he asked.

One of the other riders pointed out in the direction opposite of where we had approached the encampment from. “It normally attacks from that direction, although we haven’t ventured out far enough to find where it rests. We’ve been keeping our riders close, focusing on protecting the encampment while waiting for aid.”

“Some aid it’s turning out to be,” his companion muttered under his breath, but I could still make it out over the crackle of the fire.

I opened my mouth to defend Erix—to tell them he had volunteered to come alone even when all those assembled for the Trials shied away, but Lord Dhara beat me to the punch.

“Are you volunteering to face the beast then?” she asked, her tone icy.

His eyes bellied his cockiness, but the rider raised his chin. “Why should we trust help from one who just months ago threatened to raze our clan if we didn’t follow his demands? Or some random girl we know nothing of?”

“Do you need to know anything other than she comes to your aid?” Erix asked in return, his voice controlled, but I sensed the tenuous thread of anger at the base of his tone. To my embarrassment, it sent a thrill up my spine.

The fire crackled violently in the middle of the circle, but to his credit, the rider didn’t back down in the face of Erix’s expressionless stare.

“Where do you come from, rider?” Lord Dhara asked me.

I swallowed thickly as all eyes turned to me.

“I’m Keera,” I responded, letting the silence after my name stretch. While I had been proud of being declared a citizen of Kelvadan just a week ago, I questioned the wisdom of claiming as much in present company. When they joined with Clan Katal, I would be an enemy.

“And what clan do you ride with?”

“Keera needs no clan.” Erix’s tone was a threat. The rider either didn’t notice or was in the mood for a fight.

“I’m supposed to accept being rescued by a filthy exile?”

I had barely processed the insult in his words when a horrible choking noise filled the air. The rider scrabbled at his throat as if strangled but an invisible noose. Erix held out a hand lazily in his direction, head tilted in a predatory manner.

“Perhaps we don’t need Clan Otush’s help to march on Kelvadan, if your riders are such cowards,” he observed, his voice a low growl that might not have been audible if the whole encampment hadn’t gone silent except for the desperate gasping of the man held in the grip of Erix’s power.

The anger of his magic simmered under my own skin as he pulled at the threads connecting the desert, the tension palpable in the air and pulling at my own well of darkness in the pit of my belly.

I reached out and laid a hand on his outstretched forearm. The tension in the air severed, and the rider collapsed forward onto his hands, gulping down air. I didn’t look at him though, watching as Erix’s face snapped toward the point of contact between the two of us, all attention on where my hand rested on his long leather glove.

It occurred to me that our explorations of touch, something both of us seemed to need so desperately, might not be welcome now that we no longer had the privacy of the wilderness. Just as I was about to pull back, Erix’s other hand came to rest over mine, pinning me in place. A deep breath hissed in and out of the holes in his mask.

Abruptly, he pulled away and stood. “We will ride for the wyrm at dawn. Be ready to ride for the united clans.” Then he stalked off into the night.

Silence fell over the group, a far cry from the comforting quiet of the wilderness. All those assembled looked at me as if I had an explanation for what had happened—as if I fully understood it myself.

I stood and wiped my hands on my pants, inclining my head toward Lord Dhara. “Thank you for sharing your fire.”

Then I walked off in the direction Erix had gone. The tightly wound knot of his magic was centered around the tent we had been given for the night. I hesitated outside the flap, thinking of how much I preferred the prior night’s sleep without shelter, but I knew Erix would not take off his mask where the rest of the clan could see him. I supposed I could set up my own sleeping mat outside and leave him to his privacy, but that didn’t seem appealing either.

Inside was dark, only lit by a single lantern. The flame waxed and waned in the rhythm of the measured breaths echoing in the silence. Erix knelt in the middle of the small space, fists clenched on his legs. He didn’t respond as I stepped into his space and echoed his posture, knees barely brushing his, just as I had when he had offered to teach me how to meditate.

I thought back to that lesson and the well of magic within me. Closing my eyes, I focused on the swell of power around me, following it back to its source, not inside me, but from the man before me. Where my anger had been a dark thing, hidden at the base of my power, his was cultivated, carefully grown and tended to until it wove through every fiber of his being. I pushed my way into the tangled knot that was the base of his power. He flinched but did not push me away, physically or otherwise.

Deep within him, behind the web of darkness, I found something familiar. Something wild. Something bright.

My eyes snapped open with a gasp. I couldn’t see Erix’s face, but I knew he stared back at me.

“The darkness makes me strong,” he murmured.

“I know.” It was the same darkness that pooled within me, buried at the root of all the power I couldn’t yet control. It exploded out of me to keep me alive in the face of danger—when Clan Katal had tried to execute me. “Will it be enough to defeat the lava wyrm?”