Page 120 of Crown of the Dunes

She bit her lip, worrying it with her teeth. “The General from Doran,” she started. “He came to find you while you were out.”

I closed my eyes, resisting the urge to rub my temples with my fingers.

“Did he say anything?”

Adette shook her head, toying with the frayed edge of her sash. “I found him on the stairs. I don’t know how he got there, but he told me to tell you that he needed to speak with you… something about needing to hear him out before you proceeded with the wedding.”

I peeled my eyes open and steeled myself with a deep breath in through my nose. “I’ll talk to him tomorrow morning.”

General Warrick and I knew where we stood with each other. Allying with Prince Calix would make an enemy of his nation, but hunger was a foe that had already breached the walls of Kelvadan. He would not change my mind. He was likely just trying to intimidate me into backing out, one last time.

Adette nodded. “Then I’ll prepare your bath.” She hurried past me toward the stairs.

I followed her up and back into my room. If she was surprised to see Erix still standing on the balcony, she didn’t say anything. After tending to my rooms for weeks—finding leftover articles of clothing and sleeping just a story below me—his regular presence was no longer a secret to her. Until now, though, I had maintained some level of pretense, dismissing her for the night before he arrived so they never crossed paths.

Completely ignoring his presence, Adette dragged a tub from the side of the room to the center. Then she scurried from the room before returning with a bucket of gently steaming water. While I had always chosen to bathe in the stone room with the cool waterfall on the same level as the room where she stayed, it had appeared that Queen Ginevra had occasionally liked to indulge in a soak and had a hearth where water could be heated for a bath.

As Adette worked, slowly filling the tub, I rejoined Erix on the balcony.

“The temple at the edge of the ocean,” he started without preamble. “The altar was cracked—blackened as if it had been struck by lightning. Did stealing the Heart break it?”

I chewed my lips, considering. As I did, the sound of fluttering wings drifted on the air. Zephyr appeared, gliding over the roofs of the city toward the top of the palace. He landed on the railing between us and let out a light caw. Absently, Erix reached out to stroke the smooth feathers on his head.

Someone cleared their throat behind us, and I turned. Adette stood next to a steaming tub, her hands folded before her. “Do you need anything else?”

I managed a small smile. “No. Thank you.”

Adette tapped her knuckles to her temple before shuffling from the room. As Erix continued to pet Zephyr, a contemplative look on his face and a downturn to the corners of his lips, I approached the bath. A fragrant, herbal scent laced the steam, and I breathed deeply before raising my brows in appreciation. Adette must have added some concoction to it to make it smell so luxurious.

My fingers moved to my sash, picking at the tie until it released, letting my vest fall open. I groaned as I peeled the fabric off, so dirty I feared it might take my skin with it. Once my pants and tunic joined my vest in a dusty pile on the floor, I stepped over the edge of the tub. With a deep sigh of relief, I sank into the water, sliding down until it was almost up to my chin.

At the sloshing noise, Erix turned away from the edge of the balcony. Seeing me in the bath he drifted back into the room toward the foot of the bed. As he did, I rubbed at my arms, finding my skin becoming remarkably itchy as the dust sloughed off.

Erix stopped, cocking his head as his gaze caught on something behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see the broken Heart laying on the vanity. He stepped over to it before hesitantly reaching out to the glimmering red stone.

I tensed, right before he touched it, half expecting some strange reaction at the contact, even though when I had touched it, I had gotten no more reaction from my magic than if I had picked up a rock. Erix did not flinch as he picked up the two halves, one in each hand. Carefully, he slotted them together—the smooth plane it had broken upon becoming nearly invisible as he aligned the edges. Held together, the gem was about half the size of my fist and the red of freshly spilled blood.

Erix glared down at it as if he could force it together by sheer will—like so many broken things that he wished he could unbreak. But the cracks remained, no matter how well the edges fit together.

I rubbed at my arms again, this time using my nails to scrape at them, finding my skin growing uncomfortably tight as I considered what might have broken the stone. My scratching left fire in its wake, and I frowned. Perhaps the feral exile in me had been too prominent, and I hadn’t been bathing often enough.

I cleared my throat, wanting to suggest that perhaps Kelvar’s journal would have some useful information on the Heart. As I sucked in a breath, steam filled my lungs, thick and strangely fragrant.

Instead of words, a cough tore from my throat. At the noise, Erix turned to face me, and his eyes narrowed.

“You’re flushed,” he commented.

“The bath is warm,” I pointed out, but my voice came out a hoarse croak. I raised my hand again to cover a weak cough. When I pulled it away, it was spattered with droplets of blood. The sight swam before me, and I swayed with dizziness.

“Keera,” Erix shoved the halves of the stone into his sash and crouched at the edge of the bath. He reached for me, but I held up my hand to stop him.

“Wait,” I ordered. A swell of concern pulsed through the tether in my gut, but I pushed it aside, trying to grapple with my thoughts, although they were as slippery as a bar of soap. I tried to pull in another deep breath, feeling like I had sprinted a mile, despite sitting completely still. As I did, the herbal scent of the steam choked me. The heat in my skin grew from itching to burning, everywhere from the neck down.

Everywhere the water touched me.

“The bath water,” I gasped. “Don’t touch it.”

Erix blanched, looking down at the gently steaming bath.