Page 129 of Thief of Hearts

“Is this where you threaten me to behave and remind me that you are undefeated in your fights?” he asked. “Because I’m not sure that counts when you walk away from fights you know you can’t win.”

I came to a stop, my mouth open, as he continued walking east.

That . . . that . . . that was entirely untrue!

I would never walk away from a fight.

Before I could tell him so, we heard what sounded like a distant roar.

“Thunder?” I asked. “Another flood?”

“I think that’s another chimera. Maybe this one’s mate. We should leave.”

He started running and I followed, easily catching up to him. “But I thought you said there weren’t any monsters in the desert! No hydras that would eat us!”

“You can be smug about this later, my illora. Right now, let’s run.”

Chapter Thirty-Eight

We spent the rest of the day walking. We didn’t come across any more corpses and didn’t hear anything that sounded like a roar. I couldn’t get used to the eerie silence.

While we had more than enough water, thanks to the magical waterskins, we began rationing the food. It would take us twice as long to return as we had anticipated since we didn’t have our horses. Part of me kept hoping they would magically appear at some point, but that didn’t happen.

It wore down on me, the endless monotony. Even Zain stopped regaling me with tales of his stealing adventures. I was grateful when we stopped for the night. While we ate, something glinted on one of his left fingers and I leaned in to look.

“Is that a topaz?” I asked, reaching for the ring it was on.

He jerked his hand clear. “It is.”

I was too exhausted to ask him why he didn’t want me to touch his ring. Was he worried I would steal it? I wanted to laugh at the thought but couldn’t muster the energy.

Because we had decided to sleep on rocks just in case of another flash flood, we were both uncomfortable and didn’t sleep well.

I kept nodding off during my turn on watch, which was not something I had ever done before. I was angry with myself for doing it because this desert had already proved it was unsafe.

We left before dawn, both of us wanting to reach our destination as quickly as we could. Zain studied the maps intently, making certain that we were going the right way based on the position of the sun.

It was midafternoon when I saw something that made me come to a stop. “Look! Fruit trees!”

We were headed east, but northwest of us, I saw a luscious, green oasis. And it had fruit trees of every kind. We would be able to make sure we had enough food for our trip back to Epirius!

“There is nothing there,” Zain said to me.

“Yes, there is. I can see it!” I started walking in that direction and he stayed on my heels.

“Illora, stop. You can’t go over there. It is dangerous.”

“Dangerous?” I scoffed. “Oh no, will I eat too much fruit and make my stomach sick?”

“If you’re seeing something, that’s a marjun mirage. It is a trap, and you need to stop! Nothing but death awaits you there.”

The word “marjun” sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Not that it mattered. Zain wasn’t going to prevent me from plucking fruit from those trees.

Then suddenly he was in front of me, his hands on my shoulders to keep me in place. “Marjun serve the goddess of discord. They are tricksters. They lure weary travelers, cast a sleeping spell on them, and then eat their essence.”

I wanted to get away from him. I tried to shove him to one side but he didn’t move.

He stayed where he was.