Page 119 of Heart of the Desert

I gasped. I had barely ever seen this part of me—only ever known it existed in the deepest part of my subconscious—but as I mentally approached it and reached out, its power nearly overwhelmed me, silent but unspeakably strong.

Alyx’s smile widened. “Destruction is loud, and when it is as powerful as yours, it can make it hard to hear anything else. Healing is quiet, but you can find it if you know how to listen. With the anger of the desert falling silent, now you can hear it.”

Gently, I pulled on delicate threads in this new part of my magic that Alyx guided me to. I drew forth more and more, before following her guidance to direct it down my arm to my fingers, which I splayed across Keera’s ribs.

There was a tear in the fabric of her magic—a violent rip. If I could just knit it back together, I could bring Keera back to me. With gentle strands of Alyx’s magic urging me on, I began trying to knit together what had been torn asunder. At first, the threads wound themselves back into shape, but then they wouldn’t quite reach.

The damage was too much.

I began to slip out of the near trance I was in. The back of my eyes burned anew, and my hand began to tremble where it lay on Keera’s chest. I opened my eyes, and even as tears clouded my vision, I could see that the wound wasn’t as gruesome as it once had been. My sword had pierced Keera’s heart, though. Even if I closed the gash in her chest, I could not heal that.

“It’s no use,” I whispered to Alyx in desperation.

The air stirred as somebody kneeled next to me: Kelvar.

His eyes were bright as he stared across Keera’s body at Alyx, but to my surprise, he grabbed my saber—his saber—where it had fallen to the ground. “You two already share a heart, just as Alyx and I do. You can gift her a new one.”

He held the saber to the crook of my elbow. I hissed as he made a shallow cut, and blood flowed readily down my arm from the prominent vein there. Alyx’s magic nudged mine again, and I tried to return to the task of healing Keera. Now, though, I felt more threads I could grab—fibers of glimmering magic that could be used to patch the hole.

It was my own blood, flowing down my arm and into Keera. A flutter of life beneath my fingertips had me gasping and reopening eyes I didn’t realize I had closed. I looked down just in time to see a glimmer like a gem in Keera’s chest. A fresh Heart, crafted of shimmering glass from the mixing of our blood and magic. It looked just like the broken Heart that remained on the bed beside us, but new and whole. Finally, I understood.

Our love, and the sacrifices we were willing to make for it, were the true magic.

Then the wound closed, unfolding our shared heart in Keera’s chest, and a shuddering gasp ran through her as she sucked in a new breath.

Chapter forty-four

Keera

My eyes opened to the same silver gaze they had closed on, but this time, filled with joy and wonder instead of unimaginable sorrow. Physical sensations returned to me in a rush, far more urgent and present than they had been in the strange dream state with the goddess of the desert: The warmth of sticky blood coating my torso. The salty itch of tear tracks on my cheeks. An aching in my ribs as if I had been kicked by an angry horse.

I reveled in each and every one of them, for they meant that I was alive.

I sat bolt upright, making my head spin, but I couldn’t regret it. My muscles responded to my commands, and that meant I could throw my arms around Erix’s shoulders and bury my face in his neck.

My heart hammered oddly in my chest, but I didn’t care, just breathing in deeply the smell of salt and the ocean that lingered under the coppery tang of blood. A chuckle to the side caught my attention. I twisted so my cheek was pressed to Erix’s chest instead of my forehead, half expecting to see the goddess again.

Instead, the sight that greeted me took my breath away.

Kelvar and Alyx both kneeled on the floor across from each other where I had just laid. They were smiling at us, but then their gazes slowly drifted to each other. Tension filled the room as they stared for long moments. I did not want to hold my breath after so recently regaining the ability to breathe, but I found myself doing so anyway.

Then Kelvar sprang to his feet and closed the distance between them in one long stride. Alyx didn’t have the chance to stand up, but it didn’t matter, because he simply picked her up off her feet and covered her lips with his own. Her gasp was one of surprise and delight as he swung her around in a circle. The gold nightgown she wore rippled and reflected the sunlight streaming into the room, so it danced in sparkling pinpricks, contrasting beautifully with the silver of her hair.

Alyx was all soft joy and quiet strength, while Kelvar was hard lines and brutal force. The beauty and the danger of the desert all at once.

When Kelvar finally put Alyx down on her feet, she looked back at Erix and I, still cradled in each other’s arms on the floor, and smiled.

“Thank you, for reuniting us.”

Kelvar nodded his agreement, his mischievous smile fading into an expression of the utmost sincerity. “You are stronger than I ever could have dreamed of. I’m proud to leave the desert in the hands of such successors.”

Erix’s heart thundered beneath my ear, and his breath stuttered. He made a choked sound as if he didn’t know what to say, but Alyx and Kelvar didn’t seem to require an answer. Instead, Alyx slid her hand into Kelvar’s.

“I think you promised me eternity,” she remarked.

Kelvar’s expression melted into a smile again—the same sly look that decorated his statue in the courtyard. “And I make good on my promises, even when they are delayed.”

They turned to the doors, and the light streaming in from outside. It seemed to grow as they took a step toward it, growing so bright that I was forced to shut my eyes against its intensity. When I opened them again, they were gone, leaving just Erix and me sitting on the floor in a room that had once been a tomb but was no longer. Together, Alyx and Kelvar could be at peace.