Page 38 of Heart of the Desert

I let her haul me to my feet, and with her fingers between my own, the darkness of the tunnels leading back to the surface seemed less complete.

Chapter twelve

Keera

It took us hours to find our way out of the tunnels, but eventually, an orange glow appeared in the darkness—the blood-stained light of the setting sun. We were able to traverse the tunnels more quickly without the fear of being ambushed, and Aderyn had noticed a dry breeze carrying the smell of baked earth that we followed to a passage that sloped up toward the surface.

A heavy sigh tore out of me as I felt the warmth of the sun on my face again. It was still scorchingly hot, even at dusk—although the temperature would plummet dramatically over the next hour—but I reveled in the burn on my face after a full day underground.

An enthusiastic whinny cut the air, and a cloud of dust approached. I smiled despite myself as I recognized a golden silhouette in the haze.

“Daiti!” I cried as he nearly barreled into me with the force of his greeting. He butted his head against my chest so hard I stumbled back a few steps and snorted as if scolding me for leaving him behind.

The others’ horses all greeted them with their own forms of enthusiasm. Aderyn’s roan mare pranced in happy circles around her while Alza pressed her face into Erix’s as he muttered soothing words of praise. Elion rode his own horse into the group with a look of abject relief on his face.

Stopping in the middle of our weary group, he dismounted with none of the strength and grace I was accustomed to from him. In two long strides he crossed the open distance between him and Dhara before sweeping her into his arms and crashing his lips into hers.

We all stiffened for a moment—Dhara included.

For a fleeting moment, I thought we might not be done with bloodshed for the day.

Then, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back with all the fervor with which she had fought the tricriths. He molded himself to her so forcefully that she bent backward, but he held her fast.

Despite the direness of the day, my face broke into a smile, and I met Erix’s gaze over the kissing couple. His eyes were molten as he stared at me, and I knew we thought the same thing. Tonight was a good night to celebrate being alive, despite the challenges that lay ahead.

“All right, all right,” Aderyn cut in gruffly when Dhara and Elion came up for air. “Let’s find a place to camp before we all become thoroughly distracted.”

Dhara and Elion separated, but I didn’t miss the way their fingers stayed tangled until the last possible second, as if now that they had finally let themselves touch each other, they couldn’t bring themselves to be apart.

“Once we do, I need to know everything that happened down there,” Elion demanded. “I had been searching everywhere for another way down into the caverns all day.”

The crackle of the fire was comfortable in its familiarity after such a harrowing day. It was a pleasant reminder that life in the desert continued, even after so much death. We all sat around it as Erix relayed the tale of what happened after our tumble into the tricrith lair.

When he reached the part of the story where we were separated, his gaze flickered to Aderyn, and the pace of his story stuttered. We all looked at her and she sighed heavily.

“There’s no point in hiding it,” she said, staring straight into the fire. “I’m pregnant.”

I blinked, the words taking longer than they should to sink in, like rain into earth so dried by heat that it could barely absorb moisture.

Aderyn chewed her lip as the group stared at her in shock.

“Hopefully we reach our destination before I’m too big to ride a horse.”

I slid sideways and wrapped my arms around her. She stiffened momentarily before wrapping her arms around me in return. A bubble of fear grew in my belly—fear for what this journey might mean for Aderyn and the new life she carried. But I just squeezed Aderyn tighter, trying to imagine what this moment would be like if we were still in Kelvadan, without the weight of the desert’s fate crushing us into the earth.

“You don’t hug,” she commented to me, even as she squeezed me in return.

She was right. I hadn’t ever embraced anybody but Erix since my exile. But this was more than a hug—it was a promise.

“We will heal the desert and retake Kelvadan,” I assured her, low enough that only she could hear. “And your child will grow up knowing tales of how you saved your home.”

Aderyn let me go and held me at arm’s length. “They will grow up knowing the most loving of families.”

The back of my eyes burned as I nodded my agreement. This should be a joyous time for Aderyn and Neven, but instead she was spending it facing unknown perils on a journey of insurmountable difficulty. I had lost Kelvadan—her family’s home—but I would pay whatever price it took to regain it. So, her child would know the loving family that I had spent a decade of exile yearning for.

I looked away quickly, before I could think on it further. Imagine what it would be like for that to be my childhood, loved and safe. This makeshift family around me was more than I could have ever dreamed in the loneliness of exile—more than I even deserved.

“I knew I brought this along for a reason!” Elion proclaimed, drawing my attention from Aderyn’s own overbright eyes.