Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

The Viper

I felt more than heard the presence outside my tent. An itching at the base of my neck made me look up from where I was feeding Zephyr strips of raw meat.

At first, I thought it was Aderyn come to visit again after the scene at today’s challenge, but when the form didn’t enter, I knew it wasn’t. Aderyn would never wait for an invitation. With a grunt, I pushed to my feet and walked toward the flap. My muscles were stiff after the fighting today, having had most of the competition take the fight as an invitation to swing at me with little finesse. Still, I relished the soreness of my limbs, knowing I was one step closer to achieving my goal. The final duels were nearly upon us.

I pushed the tent flap open, and the figure there jumped back in surprise, nearly tripping over their feet and falling backward in the sand. They managed to right themselves with surprising grace.

“You,” I said, meeting Keera’s golden glare.

She opened and shut her mouth a few times but did not speak, and I took the opportunity to get a good look at her. She still wore the black stripe of paint from temple to temple, accentuating her narrowed eyes, making their molten color stand out even more.

“Why are you here?” I asked, as she continued to stare at me wordlessly. I knew she couldn’t see beyond my mask, especially as shadowed as my eyes would be now that the sun had set. Still, her gaze was as heavy as though she physically touched me.

“I don’t know,” she admitted.

I exhaled heavily through my nose. We stared at each other for a few more moments before I made as if to go back into my tent. She had made it clear after my last misguided offer to train her in control that my form of aid was not appreciated.

“I did save your life today,” she blurted out before I could push the tent flap aside.

“Are you expecting thanks?” I thought about throwing back at her that I had saved her life in return, but I kept that information to myself. If I admitted to it, I would have to explain why.

“No,” she shrugged. I tracked the movement of her shoulder, and the way the moonlight shone off her deeply tanned skin. “But I wanted to know, why are you here?”

“The same as you. To win the Trials.”

“And if you do? Will you and Lord Alasdar really march on Kelvadan?” she asked.

I cocked my head. “Why should it matter to an exile?”

“I’m not an exile anymore.” She raised her chin defiantly. “I’m a citizen of Kelvadan.”

The noise in my skull crescendoed, having been quiet for most of the conversation. The image of her following obediently behind the queen’s billow of green linen today as she left the melee snapped to the front of my mind. This girl who had been nobody just months ago now filled the role of Kelvadan’s favorite champion. My throat tightened.

“Then you shall die alongside the rest,” I snapped.

Keera drew back as if I had slapped her, and my lips pulled up into an invisible snarl. She shouldn’t be surprised, as I had tried delivering her to her death before.

“Why do you want to destroy the city that is the beacon of peace in the desert?” she argued, eyes flashing.

“The peace of Kelvadan is a lie,” I spat back. “There is no peace to be found among the sands, only the strength to survive or the release of death. ”

She blinked at me, and I turned away to storm back into my tent. I felt magic boiling under my skin, aggravated by her presence. I bit my cheek until salty copper flooded my mouth, the pain distracting me from the odd whirlwind brewing inside me.

“Erix.”

I froze in my tracks. My name on her lips made my heart skip a beat. I had heard it spoken twice in the past weeks, but this time, it was as if a spell had fallen over me. The storm within me dissipated, and I felt… still. In the odd silence in my body, it almost felt as if I floated a few inches above the ground.

Then the world came crashing back in. The whicker of horses and the sounds of the encampment pushing in on me, making my skin itch with awareness of every living thing.

“I am not Erix. I am the Viper, and you would do well to remember it,” I growled. I pushed into my tent without looking behind me. I stopped just inside, and it was several long minutes before Keera’s footsteps carried her away and into the night.

Alza pranced proudly, as if she could sense that the time for her to show off was near. I let her preen, looking up and down the row of sixteen assembled riders. None compared to my mount, her black coat like molten obsidian in the morning sun. I had cut my forms short this morning just to spend a few more minutes brushing her coat and braiding her mane.

The only other horse in the line-up that matched Alza stood at the end of the line, as far from me as possible. Lord Alasdar’s former warhorse stamped at the ground moodily while his rider looked so determinedly away from me that I knew she was avoiding me on purpose.

I frowned and looked away as well. After she left last night, I had laid awake on my bedroll for far too long, the defiant set of her jaw filling my mind every time I closed my eyes.

Now, Queen Ginevra climbed the wooden stand at the end of the line that demarked the start of the horse race. While Aderyn had declared when the challenge was announced that no riders would be eliminated from the competition here, the results would determine the rankings for the final stage of the Trials: the duels.

I kept my eyes straight ahead on the horizon, toeing Alza up to the starting line. While most of the riders were packed tightly enough that their knees brushed, the competitors on either side of me gave me as much room as possible, as if I would knock them off their horses if given the chance.

With Alza beneath me, I had no need for such trickery.

“Riders ready,” called a familiar, imperious voice.

I drew in a deep breath and held it, letting it fill my lungs as I relaxed into my seat, loose but tense at the same time.

Alza leaped forward at the gong, faster than an arrow loosed from its bow. I leaned forward over her neck, resting my hands on her muscled shoulders. The riders on either side of me disappeared as Alza pulled away, and the wide swath of competitors narrowed into a single file. As the herd thinned out, and we came toward the first turn in the track that ran around the entire encampment, only one rider remained in front of us.

Keera.

Her golden warhorse’s hooves pounded the earth in a rhythm that thudded in my chest as we tailed her. As we sped around the curve, she was several horse-lengths in front of me. We hit the straight away, and I murmured encouragement to Alza under my breath.

Approaching the second bend, we started to pull even with Keera. She spared me a glance out of the corner of her eye, and I couldn’t help but look back. The wind had pulled dark tendrils of hair from the braid down her back and whipped them around her face, hood thrown back in the thrill of the chase.

Even though Keera had the inside on the turn, giving her the advantage, Alza continued to gain ground. While the stallion had the greater power off the start, Alza’s slighter frame had the better endurance.

Nobody could beat us in a sprint to the finish.

Turning onto the last straight away, I loosened the leash on the magic in my mind that connected me all living things in the desert—especially my horse. With Alza and I moving as one, her head bobbing as she lengthened her stride to reach impossible speeds, we pulled ahead.

The finish line came into view, and the soaring feeling that only came with riding full tilt lifted my soul. With the competition of Keera and her stallion galloping just off my shoulder, the sensation intensified. For a flash, I could swear I was the wind whipping through Keera’s hair.

Then the finish line flew by, and the assembled crowd roared. I had won by less than half a horse-length. I let Alza slow to a trot, patting her sweat-soaked neck and wheeling around to let her cool down. Keera pulled up next to me doing the same, and I couldn’t help but look at her as she tipped her face up to the sun. Her eyes were closed, and the look on her face wasn’t quite a smile, but I knew she felt the same joy I did echoing through her from the race.

A smile curved my lips of its own accord, and the muscles around my mouth protested at the uncommonly used expression.

As if she could sense me looking, Keera’s eyes flew open, gaze shooting to me and pinning me with a glare. The beginnings of my smile were extinguished just as fast, along with any remnants of the exhilaration from the ride.

She wheeled away and trotted off, leaving me to wonder how I had forgotten it was a race, if only for a moment. I couldn’t afford to lose focus when the fate of the desert was on the line.

I was not alone in my tent that night. A warm form pressed against me on my sleeping mat, comforting in the dry chill of the desert night. My arm draped over a soft curve, and I tightened my grip, pulling my bedmate closer.

Her response was a feminine sigh and a subtle wiggle, as if she itched to get closer as well. As her round ass pressed up against me, I grinned in pleasure at the closeness. Something sleepy and muted in my head wondered at the contact—didn’t I always sleep alone?—but I pushed it aside in favor of basking in the comfort of a warm body against mine. Unsurprised that I was already hard, I ground my length against the small of her back. How could I not be aroused with hair that smelled of sunshine and larrea flowers tickling my nose?

As I relieved some of the pressure in my cock by thrusting gently against her ass, I let my hands wander, drifting between her breasts and down her stomach where I flattened my palm, pulling her more firmly into me.

She let out a shuddering breath in response and threw her head back to rest on my shoulder. The movement pushed her dark hair out of her face, and I bent over as if to press a kiss to her neck. Before my lips could touch her skin, I caught sight of her face and froze.

At my stillness, her eyes snapped open, and I looked in horror into the deep molten pools of Keera’s eyes staring straight at my bare face.

I woke with a moan dying on my lips, the warmth of the dream chased away by the icy fear in my veins. My hands flew up to touch my maskless face, and a few moments of staring at the canvas above me reminded me of my solitude. No one was here with me.

I growled at the warmth of arousal still echoing in my core. Why would I have such a dream about the woman who had made these Trials so complicated? She had seen my face once, and it already haunted me, yet my mind continually assaulted me with images of us in increasingly vulnerable positions—with her seeing more of who I was than just my bared face. It was like my subconscious mind wanted to torment me with things I could never have by the light of day.

I rolled and pushed to my feet, ready to go practice my forms. No matter how much longer I laid in my tent, I wouldn’t be getting any more sleep tonight.