Page 36 of Heart of the Desert

My gaze snagged on a likely candidate: The largest of the glossy black tricriths, hovering near the queen, seeming to posture threateningly at all who came too close.

Her mate.

I leaned over toward Aderyn and whispered, as low as I possibly could to be heard over the activity in the cavern we currently overlooked. “If we fight our way to the large male at her side, I have a plan.”

“I’m not going to like this plan, am I?” Aderyn whispered back.

“You’ll like it better than no plan at all.”

She set her jaw and nodded. I offered my hand to her, and she clasped my forearm. Then, we jumped.

I tugged on a string of magic, yanking us forward and letting the force of our leap carry us toward the center of the cavern. We both rolled as we landed, absorbing the force of the impact. I swung my sword even before the momentum carried me to my feet.

It met the oncoming tricrith with a crunch, cutting through the unhardened exoskeleton of the youth with a wet crunch. Aderyn snarled next to me as she cut off the leg of a slightly bigger creature, leaving it hopping and scuttling in retreat.

We had landed close to my target of the queen’s mate, but a handful of monsters still lay between us. I hacked and slashed as I tried to cut our way toward it, while Aderyn covered my back from the other tricriths who began to swarm at our sudden intrusion.

They tightened in like a noose, giving me and Aderyn little room to maneuver. I struck again, but the larger monster who stood before me now kicked my weapon aside with a clang, speaking of armor I would not be able to stab through.

The blow reverberated up my arm and to my shoulder. Aderyn’s back pressed against mine as she dodged back against another blow, and bile rose in my throat. There were too many.

Lightning danced at my fingertips, a storm beginning to howl in my mind.

If I unleashed my power here, I could annihilate the brood, but I would likely bury Aderyn and I with it—and Keera and Dhara if they had not escaped the tunnels yet. My heart stuttered, but I didn’t have time to pay it any mind.

One of the tricrith’s three deadly tails shot forward, aiming straight at me. I grabbed Aderyn, dragging her down and out of the way with me as I dodged. My shoulder hit the ground with a heavy thump as the stinger whooshed over our prone forms.

But another of the tails was already prepared to strike, and tangled on the ground as we were, we wouldn’t be able to roll out of the way in time. I curled myself over Aderyn, praying that at least one of us would survive this.

The tether in my mind snapped taut as a feral cry split the air. Keera flew through the air, jumping in from one side and slashing down viciously with her sword as she descended. Her aim was true, her blade landing between the armored plates on the tricrith’s tail and slicing it clean off.

Light pierced through the darkness in my skull, like the first rays of sunshine peeking over the horizon after a moonless night. Keera was here, and we would fight our way out with teeth bloody and bared as we always did.

As the injured tricrith scuttled backward, trying to put room between itself and the new attacker, Dhara charged in. With all the momentum of her approach behind it, she drove her saber between two plates of the exoskeleton.

Before Dhara had even pulled her sword free of the convulsing creature, Keera darted over to me. She reached out her hand to pull both me and Aderyn to our feet. The moment our fingers touched, our scarred palms pressing against each other as we clasped hands, a spark jumped between us.

The storm in my mind still raged with the need for battle, but the lightning danced at my command, and not simply at the whim of the voices that haunted me. She gave me a sharp nod as sparks danced along the tether between us.

“Get me to that one!” I shouted, gesturing with my sword toward the largest male tricrith. Only two more creatures stood between us and my goal.

The women did not hesitate, and all four of us jumped into battle. Aderyn and Dhara took on the tricrith on the right, Dhara bating it with small lashes of fire while Aderyn darted close enough to land a killing blow.

While the orange flashes of Dhara’s flame punctuated the eerie blue glow in the cavern emanating from the queen, Keera and I charged at the monster on the left. As we reached it, Keera dropped to the ground, sliding on one hip. One massive pincer reached for her, but I slashed it out of the way as she ducked beneath the creature and drove her saber up into the soft spot on its belly.

She had learned from using a similar tactic on the lava wyrm. Rolling out of the way as its legs began to shudder and convulse in its death throes, Keera seamlessly came to her feet.

Now nothing stood between us and the largest tricrith beside the queen. He glittered darkly, rounding on us as he put himself between us and the brood mother. His pincers clacked loudly as he hissed a deadly warning.

But I did not plan to slay him. Not yet.

I took a running start, the edges of my mind already dissolving as I reached out toward the creature. Just like when I brushed against its mind before, it felt like teetering on the edge of the abyss. As I leapt into the air, I tumbled headlong into it.

The torrent of Keera’s magic pushed me even further into the air and I landed atop the armored back with a slap. It instantly shivered and writhed, trying to throw me off, but I dug my mental fingers into the darkness of its mind.

Where touching the mind of my horse felt like calm and life—the peace of the desert at sunset—this was chaos. The smell of death filled my nose, but I grabbed tighter.

Kill.