Page 48 of Heart of the Desert

Pulling back for air, she laughed against my lips as the others arrived. They also let their horses frolic in the surf. For all that they were some of the fiercest warriors to ride the desert, each of them looked utterly struck with wonder at the sight of the ocean.

I pulled back too and looked over the awe-inspiring sight, my hand on Keera’s waist. Although I had seen the sea once before, the effect was no less striking. Water was such a scarcity in the desert, and so much of life among the sands revolved around chasing and preserving it. Even if the water of the ocean couldn’t be drunk, it made me shiver to think of so much in one place.

It was magnificent. Keera, clearly thought so too, her mouth hanging open in wonder as she scanned the view, making me want to kiss her all over again. Before I could, her gaze snagged on something along the beach.

“Look.” She pointed off to the left.

I had been so focused on Keera’s joy and the relief of finally reaching the sea that I hadn’t even seen it—the true reason we had made such a perilous journey.

Half collapsed and barely even a structure anymore, but still unmistakable, was a white stone edifice. The columns around the entrance were crumbling and the salt wind had worn away at the engraved walls, but still I recognized the temple. It was the home of the desert’s Heart.

Chapter sixteen

Keera

Erix smelled like the ocean. I had always loved his sandalwood and salt scent, and now that I had the fresh ocean breeze in my nose, I realized that this is what it had always reminded me of, even if I had never smelled it before. Like a forgotten memory at the edge of my consciousness, Erix was something I had always been journeying toward and dreaming of.

Even as we walked our horses over to the nearly collapsed temple, my eyes kept darting over the sparkling cerulean expanse of the sea. It was like nothing my dreams had been able to conjure when I thought of our destination. I wanted to hang onto the pure wonder of seeing it for the first time, but as we approached the crumbling archway of the stone structure before us, apprehension chased away the light, effervescent feeling.

Erix and I stopped in the shadow of the columns and glanced at each other. The other three hung behind us, all sensing the gravity of the moment.

We had come all this way and faced horrible trials—Elion and Aderyn had been drawn away from their purpose of uniting the clans—and now we would discover if it had all been for nothing. We had to restore the Heart to its rightful place, but the broken weight of its half in my pocket was heavy with uncertainty.

Erix nodded at me sharply, but I couldn’t tell whether he was reassuring me or himself.

“I’ll stay outside with the horses,” Elion volunteered.

“Thank you.” I took a deep breath and stepped into the cool shade of the temple’s interior.

The air was calm and heavy, shielded from the wind rolling off the waves by high walls. Our breaths disturbed the stillness, and I tried to place my feet gently, so as not to make too much noise in this sacred place.

The sun still filtered in through a roof that was half collapsed, making the pillars that had once held up the ceiling cast long shadows. The walls were made of a white stone, every inch etched with patterns that I couldn’t make out at this distance.

While Aderyn and Dhara drifted toward them curiously, my gaze caught on the stone altar in the middle of the room. The air shifted as Erix stiffened next to me, and I knew he focused on the same spot.

It was made of the same white stone as the rest of the structure, which made the blackened marks even more jarring. It was cracked nearly in two, the break charred and dark as if it had done my lightning. Carefully, I approached and looked down at the surface.

A large, circular indent lay on the top, divided in two by the deep crack. Reaching into my pocket, I produced the heavy red gem of the Heart, slotting my half into the indent. The hole cradled the stone in a perfect fit.

I held my breath and my heart hammered in my throat. Erix stepped up next to me, holding his half of the gem. Carefully, he laid it next to mine, lining up the edges perfectly, so it looked like it had never been broken at all. When he let go, though, it shifted, revealing the cloven edge.

I let out my breath in a huff. “It’s not like I actually expected it to be that easy,” I admitted.

“But it would have been nice,” Erix observed.

We stared down at the fractured stone for a shared moment of frustration before Aderyn’s voice snapped us from our contemplation.

“These etchings, I think they tell a story.”

I picked up the Heart, not wanting to just leave it lying there, and shoved both halves into my sash.

“A story?”

I joined her in one corner where she ran her fingers over the stone. Leaning in and looking closer, I found that what I thought had been decorative patterns were actually a series of pictures.

The first thing I was able to pick out was the familiar shape of a tricrith, jumping easily to the forefront of my memory after our journey. I ran my fingers over the pattern carved into the stone. It had clearly once been deep and sharp but was now softened and faded with the passage of years. It was rough under my fingers, and I scrubbed sand out of the indents to make the picture clearer.

“The beasts of the desert,” I commented, and felt Aderyn shiver beside me. Her dislike of tricriths was clear after the ordeal in the nest.