Page 98 of Blood of the Sands

He nodded. “It will take two.”

My voice was barely above a whisper, but it seemed terribly loud as I responded. “There are two of us.”

Erix’s eyes darted up from where he had been staring into the fire, meeting my gaze with startling intensity. “I know.”

Something like hope began to kindle in my heart. While the walls between Erix and me slowly dissolved over our journey, the threat of war lingered like storm clouds in the back of my mind. The common enemy of the lava wyrm was a temporary reprieve from the battle we seemed doomed to be on opposite sides of. Now though, I saw away around the bloodshed that seemed inevitable.

“Do you think we might be… allies?” I asked.

My stomach turned to stone as he shook his head vehemently.

“No.” His voice was sharp. “I don’t feel about you the way one feels about an ally.”

My breath caught in my throat. “What do you feel?”

“Too much.” Erix looked away.

I didn’t press the matter, because I was beginning to feel too much for him as well.

“Do you want to spar?” Erix asked without prelude the next morning after we finished our forms.

Internally, I cringed at the memory of the last time we fought and how easily Erix had toyed with me then. I could learn a lot from him.

“We don’t have blunted sabers,” I pointed out.

“We could practice hand to hand combat,” Erix offered.

“I don’t really know much hand-to-hand fighting.”

Erix’s brow quirked in a skeptical expression. It was refreshing to see his emotions so clearly on his face, as he hadn’t put his mask on since we defeated the wyrm the afternoon before. Seeing him without it though, I realized how essential it was to his persona as the Viper. He was far too expressive—his thoughts clear on his face—to maintain such an intimidating reputation without it.

“What is Aderyn teaching the riders these days?” he asked half under his breath.

I paused. “You know Aderyn?”

Erix stiffened, looking away. I thought he was going to evade the question, but he surprised me. “We grew up together. Her father was one of the queen’s advisors, and when he and his wife died suddenly, Queen Ginevra gave her a home at the palace.”

Aderyn had once told me she knew somebody else like me, and it was part of the reason she went out of her way to help me so much. Between her kindness and the queen’s training, even when I repeatedly lost control, I had been living on borrowed compassion. That kindness should have belonged to the man in front of me who carried such a heavy burden, yet cared so much for the desert. It left a bitter taste in my mouth. Erix deserved the queen’s kindness as much, if not more, than I had. I wanted to hit something.

“Let’s spar.” I shucked off my outer layers that protected me from the sun, leaving me in only a cropped shirt and light pants held up by a colorful length of fabric Neven had packed for me to use as a belt.

Erix followed suit, unwinding layers of dark gray linen from around his shoulders and shrugging off his tunic, leaving him in only his pants, wide sash emphasizing the narrow taper of his waist from broad shoulders. My face heated from more than just the sun.

“All right, copy my stance,” Erix instructed.

I did as he asked, bending my knees, and extending open palms out in front of me. He led me through a series of kicks and punches, the rush of blood through my limbs dulling but not silencing some of the bubbling anger in my core. Still, where my hidden rage had disgusted me before, now it felt like a well of energy as I let it power my strikes. Maybe it was how Erix felt when he meditated, letting his emotions siphon out his excess magic.

We moved into drills against each other, me throwing various sets of kicks and punches while Erix moved through the coordinating blocks. With each blow, I gained speed, hitting Erix’s forearms when he blocked harder and harder. If I bruised him, he didn’t say anything, eyes only growing brighter.

As the minutes passed, the drills sank into my muscles like thirsty soil drinking up rain after the dry season. We moved on to sparring. Muscle memories coming from somewhere deep within me surfaced until we were a blur, exchanging blows and blocks faster than my brain could keep up with. It was a dizzying, heady feeling, like after drinking too much laka or the weightlessness that washed over to me when Erix’s hand was between my thighs.

I stumbled in my moment of distraction, and Erix pressed the advantage, tripping me with a swipe of his leg. Sand puffed up around me as I fell on my back with thud, Erix following me down. Now that my rhythm was broken, he pinned me easily, hips pressed into mine, and he held my wrists to the ground.

He stared down at me, eyes glittering with the same energy I felt coursing through me during our fight. I panted, trying to catch the breath that had escaped me when I hit the ground. With the weight of his gaze on me, it was difficult.

He didn’t move to let me up, and I didn’t move to push him off, a long moment passing between us. I tracked a bead of sweat down the tendon of his neck to where it pooled in the hollow of his throat. Adrenaline still pumping through my veins, I had the ridiculous urge to lick it away.

I unconsciously licked my lips, and Erix’s gaze snapped to my mouth. The memory of sitting in his lap, his hand stroking me to pleasure as he palmed his own erection, burned through my mind once again. The heat in my gut grew, not anger now, but want.