Page 57 of Heart of the Desert

Elion stepped up beside me, and made to clap me on the shoulder, but looked as if he thought better of it when his hand encountered the sparks dancing just above my skin. Instead, he just nodded at me. “I don’t think you’ll have a problem drawing a lot of attention.”

He was right. The issue would not be drawing the notice of all those in the camp. It would be not unleashing unwarranted destruction in the process.

The corded grip of the saber against my palm was as grounding as it was infuriating. The rough texture and general shape was familiar enough to be comforting, but the weight was all wrong. I missed the balance of Kelvar’s saber, but broken as it was, I was forced to leave it in its scabbard on Alza’s back.

Instead, I hefted the smaller weapon in my hand as Alza and I walked deliberately toward the camp. I wanted them to know I was coming—for every eye to be on the dark rider approaching and not on the three unmounted figures currently circling around to enter from the other direction.

My legs tightened around Alza’s sides, and she pranced as if she could tell that I wanted to charge full force at the camp, but I needed to give the others time. Finally, we arrived at the outskirts where I was met by a line of armed riders, standing abreast of each other and blocking my way. They had seen me coming and were prepared for a fight.

Good.

I held my sword aloft as I stood before them and wheeled Alza back and forth as I spoke, my agitation spilling over to my normally unshakable mount. “Bring me Keera, and none of you have to die.”

Finally, the line of riders parted and a figure on a white horse stepped forward. The angular lines of her face, accentuated by the way her dark hair was pulled back in a severe twist, made my skin crawl.

“Nathaira,” I growled, refusing to even give her the respect of using her title.

She somehow managed to look down her nose at me, despite the fact that I sat taller than her on my mount. “An army does not bow to the threats of a lone rider, and a betrayer at that.”

“You will bow to me,” I declared. I flexed my hand on my sword. Itching to strike her down right here and now, but I needed to stretch this confrontation. I needed the whole camp in chaos and all eyes on me to give the others time to search. “I carry the power of the whole desert within me. And you, Nathaira? You are not even a grain of sand.”

She sneered, making a face that might have been considered beautiful twisted and spiteful. I smiled back, sharp and devoid of all joy. I knew I had hit a nerve. I wanted to goad her into calling the riders to charge—I itched for an excuse to ride into battle and unleash my fury that Keera had been taken from me again.

My legs tightened and lightning danced beneath my skin. I had to focus on the throbbing in the cut on my arm to keep it from bursting forth, and still, it was a narrow thing. The sky behind me darkened as though with an incoming storm, and the riders’ horses began to snort in distress. I ground my teeth, waiting for Nathaira to make the first move—just like in a duel, if you were patient enough for them to attack, they would give you an opening in which to strike.

Then, a bolt of panic shot down the tether in my gut. Keera was afraid.

My control snapped.

Alza leapt forward, even though I hadn’t told her to. It didn’t matter, for already I swung my sword down in a decisive arc in perfect time with a clap of thunder. Lightning struck nearby as horses screamed in fear and the riders closed ranks in response to my charge.

Somehow, Nathaira managed to retreat behind the lines of her warriors, but I didn’t care. All that mattered was that they stood between me and Keera, and they would fall. Alza and I barreled into their lines, and I batted aside attacking blades as if they were flies. Red closed in at the edges of my vision as voices roared in my head. They threatened to drown out all reason—all thoughts of anything but getting to Keera.

The song of battle in my blood grew, and Kelvar’s voice joined the unintelligible din, punctuated by drumbeats of thunder as lightning continued to strike. The camp around me was frozen in eerie images by the sudden flashes of light. Riders charged at me from every possible direction, trying to surround me and slow my progress.

Wind whipped the horse’s manes and tails as the eye of the storm I had summoned surrounded me. I was lost to its power, not even controlling my own limbs as my sword rose and fell in dizzying patterns.

I couldn’t remember my own name. I could just remember the overwhelming need for violence pounding in my head. Death was the only thing that could stop the burning in my veins, and I would deliver that destruction onto all who stood in my path.

“Erix!” A pained scream cut through the din.

The crimson haze of my vision cleared enough for my gaze to alight on Keera. Across a field of battle, she staggered with Aderyn’s help. The fire of my fury flared even higher to see her in such a haggard state.

Keera screamed again and fell to her knees, as if in agony. Even as I brandished my sword at another attacking rider, keeping him at bay, I instinctively leapt down the tether in my mind toward her, desperate to find the source of her pain.

She clutched her arms to her chest as she knelt, as if trying to hold herself in one piece. Nausea rolled over me as I realized the source of her distress.

Me.

It had happened once before, when I had chased a bone spider into the darkness and Keera had been brought to her knees, barely able to walk with the pain caused by my magic coursing through her.

Now, Aderyn tried to help her to her feet, but Keera twisted away, curling in on herself, as if she was trying to hold something in—her magic. Like me, she could unleash devastation in a shockwave, but she refused, even when keeping it under control left her debilitated in the middle of battle.

Chaos reigned around me, and only a fraction of my mind remained focused on the swing of my sword and the bunch of Alza’s muscles beneath me. Instead, every fiber of my being zeroed in on the approaching catastrophe. Horses, panicked by the raging storm, had broken free of an enclosure and now stampeded through the camp, heading straight for where Keera knelt.

Aderyn desperately tugged at her, trying to haul her to her feet, but Keera’s pain was too great as the storm I had unleashed in the air boiled under her skin. I was the reason she had been captured, and now my lack of control was the reason she would be trampled to death.

Time stretched. A voice I recognized—clearer than it had ever been before—echoed in my mind.