Page 51 of Heart of the Desert

“That double-crossing bastard,” Aderyn cursed through gritted teeth. “He pretended to help us against Calix, only to invade our shores while our backs were turned.”

Keera sighed heavily, her eyes darting back in the direction she had appeared from a few minutes earlier, where Warrick and the men from Doran had come ashore. “After he helped us with the antidote, I thought I had misjudged him—that I had been too blinded by Calix to see that he was not the ambassador I needed to be wary of.”

“He admitted to me that he was trying to end your rule and put me on the throne instead,” I pointed out. “He didn’t want to help you or Kelvadan. They can both be enemies.”

A crease formed between Keera’s dark brows as she frowned. “Doran must want to challenge Viltov for the desert. An ambassador from Doran once told me that they both refuse to let the other get the upper hand in their endless war, so where one country goes, the other must follow.”

Dhara crossed her arms over her chest and scowled. “They will not be able to conquer from the ocean. The desert does not take kindly to foreigners, and you said you did not see any horses.”

“The desert doesn’t take kindly to anybody in these times,” I argued. “And being from foreign lands hasn’t stopped Calix from gaining a foothold and mounting a cavalry. The people of the desert have lost her favor, and with it, an advantage against invaders.”

“Favor or no, they will not make it far without guidance or mounts,” Elion chimed in. “If we leave them to their fates, they will die before they make it far from the coast.”

Dhara bared her teeth. “Perhaps letting the foreigners travel the dunes will make the desert even angrier. Maybe we all were brought on this journey together so we could wipe out this army and protect the clans we swore to lead.”

I tilted my head. The desert might consume the foreigners if we did not intervene, but with the desert unbalanced, I was loath to risk the anger their presence would cause. Our band might be able to hinder them, but there were many. Risking ourselves meant risking the Heart. It was a price we could not afford to pay.

Keera grimaced, as if her thoughts followed mine. “There must have been a thousand men. I don’t doubt the sword of anybody here, but two hundred a piece may be a stretch.”

“I can take three hundred, if that would help,” Dhara quipped, but it was clear she knew Keera was right.

Dread settled over me as the right course of action became clear. “We will watch them, and we will wait. Either the elements will claim them, or we will discover enough of Warrick’s plans to thwart them.”

My skin itched even as I spoke. Here we were, faced with another problem we could not yet solve. The Heart remained broken, the desert was threatened from every side, and still, I could do nothing but wait in frustration, despite the power roiling under my skin.

If only that power could let me heal the desert instead of unleashing endless destruction—both on those around me and within my own mind.

“Meanwhile, the answers we seek may still be in the temple. Erix and I can sneak back under the cover of darkness and see if we can find anything else,” Keera volunteered.

My flesh crawled with the need to do something—fight something. Creeping around in the night searching for answers wasn’t nearly enough to sate the frenetic energy bouncing around in my skull, but it was better than nothing.

The pale stone of the temple was almost ethereal in the moonlight. While it appeared dilapidated and hollow under the harsh sun, it was now a divine place as Keera and I slipped inside.

We had forgone torches, not wanting the light to be seen from the large camp roughly a quarter mile down the beach. Warrick and his men were far enough away that they wouldn’t hear our voices or see our darkened silhouettes, but bobbing lights might grab their attention.

The moonlight streaming in through the cracked ceiling was enough to see by, although it might be difficult to make out the fine details in the pictures that told the story of the desert. Keera already strode to the wall where the one picture that had shown the Heart was located. She leaned in, staring at it intently, as if she could force it to give her answers.

The stubborn set of her jaw as she looked reminded me of the first time I had seen her, when she all but dared me to end her life. The memory made me shiver.

I stepped up close behind her, enjoying the warmth of her skin as I looked over her shoulder.

“They found the Heart together,” she murmured. “That feels important. The stories only ever tell of the first man to cross the desert, but there were two of them. Together.”

“There are two of us,” I pointed out. “If a pair of powerful people is all it took to heal the Heart, that would be fortuitous. It’s unfortunate I inherited a sword and not Alyx’s power to heal.”

“Maybe it’s not just that.” Keera leaned back against my chest, and I couldn’t resist lowering my head to smell her hair. The curls had grown tighter and wilder in the salty ocean air, and now they tickled my nose.

“They clearly loved each other,” Keera murmured, reaching out to touch the picture of the wedding in the sand.

As the vision of our own wedding flashed in my mind, I couldn’t help but wrap my arms around Keera’s waist from behind and pull her into me. My body tightened with interest at her proximity, and a small part of my mind protested that I needed to focus.

I was here to complete the task I had been chasing for over half of my life, but grappling with my thoughts was like trying to wrangle a horse that would rather stay wild than be ridden. Despite the seriousness of our undertaking, my mind veered back toward Keera no matter where else I tried to steer it. As my mind grew more scattered, Keera was the one thing that could focus it.

I should turn back to pain—not risk pulling her into my madness—but tonight, after such a long journey, I was weak. I wanted Keera, not another line of scars carved into my flesh. I ached for her so fiercely I could scarcely breathe.

“If love was all it took to heal the Heart, it would already be whole once more,” I murmured into her ear. “Because never before has a man so loved his wife.”

Keera huffed, half frustrated, half amused. “The bond between us. The way their love is depicted. It all feels connected to the Heart somehow.”