Page 21 of Heart of the Desert

A crash and a shout sounded off to one side, and I turned, boots skidding in the earth as I tried to change direction quickly, the noise giving me a foothold in reality. I tried to follow the sounds of battle, but with chattering and screams pressing in on me from every direction, including the inside of my own head, it became impossible.

I slid to a halt, my head whipping this way and that as I tried to gain my bearings. My muscles still twitched and shuddered, as if I were a horse trying to shake off an unwanted rider. The oppressiveness of the night closed in around me and blinded me. With no reality to hold on to, the force of my madness drove me to the ground. The thump of my knees against the earth jarred me enough that I was able to gasp in a breath and throw out a mental hand. There was a reason I shouldn’t reach for the one thing I knew—I hoped—could still save me, but I couldn’t remember. The only clear thought in my mind was her.

Keera.

Her name was the last thing I thought before I tipped headfirst into the bottomless well of insanity.

Chapter eight

Keera

The night might be dark, but it was anything but still. Aderyn swore colorfully behind me, and I blinked rapidly in an effort to think straight. The tether low in my belly yanked me forward toward Erix and the terror of the uncharted night hard enough to make me gag. It was obvious he wasn’t thinking clearly, and I desperately tried to hold on to reason before running after him.

“Stay with the horses,” I ordered Aderyn. “Find a way to make some light so we can make our way back to you.”

Aderyn muttered something frustrated and undiscernible under her breath, but it was the most instruction I could offer until I set off into the darkness. I tried to move carefully, not knowing if other predators waited or if the bone spider who had taken Dhara was trying to lure us into another attack.

A female scream and a terrified shout from one side grabbed my attention, and I started to grope through the darkness toward it, but another tug on the connection in my gut drove me to my knees. The next second, a searing pain tore through me. It was both a visceral feeling and one beyond what my body could understand. Like the well of magic that lived in my core was boiling over.

My hands hit the ground, and I gasped for air, but my lungs wouldn’t expand fully against the sensation.

Erix.

I knew he was the source of this pain. Whatever I was feeling, it had to be worse for him. As loud as the feeling was, and as hard as it was to move against it, at least I could follow it back to its source.

I crawled forward through the darkness; all thoughts of monsters faded in my need to get to Erix. He would not be in a position to fight like this, and neither would I.

Dirt ground under my fingertips, and the hard earth scraped my knees as I scrabbled forward. The pain lessened as I grew closer to my goal, although it still made my eyes water and my breath come in short pants. Finally, my hand landed on what felt like a clothed thigh.

A noise like a whimper cut through the haze of pain tearing through me, but it lessened as I touched Erix. Through his clothes, it wasn’t quite enough to bring him back. I groped blindly, tracing my hands up the planes of his torso until I could find his face.

I cupped his cheeks in both hands, and his whimper transformed into words—fast and chaotic, whispered under his breath so I could barely hear him.

“So dark. Alone in the dark. Under the mountain… Trapped forever. My flower is gone.”

I frowned, not understanding all of it—I couldn’t be sure even he knew what he was saying. But alone under the mountain was a fear I understood. The impenetrable darkness of the night with no moon had transformed the openness of the desert into something suffocating. Her anger had turned her freedom into a cage for Erix’s mind.

“Erix, you’re not alone,” I murmured back at him.

His eyes were screwed shut, but I pressed my forehead to his.

“Not real. It’s not real.” He muttered frantically.

I needed him to see me. To know that I was truly there.

I peeled one of my hands from his cheek and cupped it between us. As chaotic as the magic was around us, and distracting as the pain that had settled into an ache in my lower belly was, a spark of magic flew easily into my hand.

A small ball of fire formed in my palm, and I had to grit my teeth to keep it from growing into a towering flame as Erix’s chaotic magic tugged on mine. Instead, I kept it small, cupping it between our chests where the warmth bloomed and chased away the harsh cold of the desert at night. Finally, the flickering flame illuminated Erix’s face. The harsh shadows it cast sharpened his look of pain, but his eyes blinked open.

They were hazy at first but then cleared to the piercing silver that had become a calming presence to me. I tried to meet them steadily, even as pain continued to boil in my abdomen, making it hard to focus. His breath rushed out of him all at once, blowing loose hairs back from my face. Erix let his face fall forward so his forehead pressed to mine, and the last of the swirling pain dissipated from my stomach. I kept the small ember of fire gently cradled between us.

I wouldn’t leave him alone in the dark.

For a moment, we stayed like that, sharing breath. It wasn’t quite calm, but it felt nearly so after the chaos of the bone spiders.

My breath caught.

“Dhara and Elion.”