Page 45 of Heart of the Desert

I plunged into the mist again, this time pulled forward by the invisible string that drew me toward the other half of my power. Erix’s shouts were wordless and wild, as if he were in great pain. My heart leapt in my throat, desperate to reach him and ease whatever suffering he faced.

His dark silhouette appeared in the mist, his broad shoulders and powerful build unmistakable even in a hazy outline. His sword was drawn and he hacked viciously at something before him.

As I ran closer, words became discernable in his pained shouting. Or rather one word shouted over and over.

“Keera!”

“Erix,” I shouted in return, kicking up sand in my haste as I drew closer. It was as if he didn’t hear me, continuing to swing his sword frantically, again and again. He hacked at thin air.

Whatever demons the desert had summoned for him to face, they were not visible to me.

“Erix,” I said, trying to grapple on to the tether between us, but finding it slippery with panic and fear pouring from his mind. I skidded to a stop at his shoulder, reaching out and hoping my touch would be enough to bring him back from whatever visions gripped him.

The moment my hand touched his arm, he whirled around, free hand outstretched. Fire cracked from it like a whip, and I threw my hands up to protect my face. Pain bit into my flesh as the fire burned my forearm, and I screamed.

The tether in my gut—chaotic and frenzied a moment before—snapped into perfect clarity so violently it nearly drowned out the scorching heat. I lowered my hands and clutched my burned arm to my chest in time to see the look of utter horror on Erix’s face.

“Keera.” His voice had dropped from frantic shouts to a pained murmur in an instant. His hands gripped my elbows, following me down as I fell to my knees.

“I’m all right,” I bit out from behind gritted teeth.

Erix shook his head violently enough that his dark curls fell across his forehead and into his eyes. Carefully—the gentleness in his movements at jarring odds with his ferocity from a few moments ago—he pried my arm away from my chest.

A line of angry red ran diagonally across my forearm, already starting to blister around the edges. Still, it was thin, and I hadn’t been exposed to fire for long enough for it to burn my flesh down to the root.

Erix’s face was stricken, though, as he stared down at the mark.

“It’ll heal,” I said. “What’s one more burn?”

Indeed, half of my body still bore faded swirls and divots from the melting heat of the lava wyrm’s flesh.

“I did this,” he murmured, fingers hovering over the crimson mark. “I thought I was trapped, and I was trying to get to you—to help you—but I only hurt you instead. He was right. There is no way to stop me from hurting you.”

“Who was right?” I asked, trying to grapple onto his words through the urgent throbbing in my arm. I’d experienced worse, but Erix was right about one thing—the immediacy of pain made it difficult to focus on anything else. Even the vastness of the desert’s magic in my mind.

“Kelvar.” Erix swallowed. “He’s been speaking to me more every time I see him.”

The back of my neck prickled in apprehension. “If he said you would hurt me, it is only reflecting the fears of your own mind.”

Erix finally tore his gaze away from the burn. When his eyes met mine, they were so full of hurt that I nearly shattered.

“It doesn’t make the threat any less real,” he pointed out. “I saw the way it pained you—the magic when we were fighting the bone spider. My madness hurts you.”

“I trust you.”

“I don’t trust myself,” Erix admitted.

Reaching down with my uninjured hand, I peeled his fingers away from my wrist and rested his hand on my sternum, right above where my heart still hammered from the urgency of my chase.

“I’m alive, and we’ve both made it through this trial,” I assured.

He nodded, although his expression remained unconvinced. “If only Alyx would appear in my visions, to show me how to heal.”

“It’s unfortunate that we’ve both been denied that power,” I agreed.

Erix pulled me close and rested his forehead against mine, and I took the opportunity to breathe in his salt and sandalwood scent. The tang of his sweat was soothingly real in a landscape of fears and illusions.

Remembering the visions that had plagued me, I tore my face away from Erix’s and looked around us.