Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

The Viper

A flutter of wings and a stutter of magic warned me of Keera’s approach. I didn’t look up from where I latched my bundled-up tent to Alza’s back, but something inside me loosened and tensed simultaneously. Even as I realized that leaving now to aid Clan Otush would mean I wouldn’t be able to receive the Champions circlet, it hadn’t been a hard decision to ride out. Aiding the clans would win me more loyalty from them than a ceremonial piece of metal.

What had been a harder realization was that I would be riding away from Keera sooner than I had expected.

I found my gaze darting toward the encampment often, hoping to see her dark silhouette approaching our usual spot. An odd tightness formed beneath my ribcage when the sands remained empty, but I was unsurprised. I wasn’t even sure why I wanted her to come. Perhaps I had found her a welcome distraction from the monotony of waiting through the feasting to be awarded the Champion’s circlet. I couldn’t deny any longer that I found her fascinating—a tangled-up knot to be unraveled.

From the one time my bare skin had touched hers, the power inside her, the same power that lived in me, had called to my magic, quieting it. We were the two people possibly most connected to the magic of the desert, and I could feel her life like an echo at the base of my skull. The odd surges of raw power I had felt in the past months were likely shadows of her own loss of control.

The thought soothed me as much as it terrified me.

I shoved that thought away violently as I yanked a knot tight on my packs. Alza snorted in protest, and I breathed a measured breath out through my nose. The Viper did not feel fear.

Keera didn’t speak as she stepped up beside me. I peeked out of the corner of my eyes and nearly snorted to see packs tied to Bloodmoon. He had never suffered such treatment before, carrying only his rider when we moved encampments, while Lord Alasdar’s belongings were carried by another.

“You certainly have an eye for horseflesh,” I commented by way of greeting.

“I think Daiti chose me as much as I chose him.”

“Daiti?” I asked, realizing she must have renamed the stallion.

“He carried me swiftly across the sands and deserved a name that said as much.”

I finished loading my packs and turned to face them fully. “He’s never let anybody mount him besides Lord Alasdar. He was caught wild, and I would say that Lord Alasdar was the one who tamed him, but that would be an overstatement.”

Keera’s narrow eyes widened to an almost comical degree as she looked between me and the fearsome stallion currently nosing at her pockets as if they might contain treats. “Lord Alasdar? Well, that would explain why he nearly took off Kaius’s fingers.”

My spine stiffened as if shocked by lightning at the name of my—at the name of the royal horse master. I squeezed my hands into fists so hard the leather of my gloves creaked. “It’s a miracle he hasn’t taken a bite out of you yet.”

Keera shrugged, patting Daiti’s nose as if she hadn’t noticed my tension at the mention of Kaius. “I like wild things.”

Of course she would. The woman had been half feral when I first came upon her, and even now, clean and well-fed, she had the air of something untamed about her. I looked away.

“I take it you’re coming with me? ”

“Yes.”

I nodded and swung up onto Alza’s back and Keera did the same. Without another word we set off across the moon drenched sands and into the unknown.

Keera was a better travel companion than I had hoped. I had anticipated being irked by having company, accustomed as I was to traveling with only Alza for companionship. Keera didn’t fill the air with chatter though, seeming to be as comfortable with the quiet as I was. Instead, we both surveyed the horizon, taking in the subtle but undeniable life of the landscape.

If one didn’t know better, our surroundings would seem devoid of life, isolated and leeched of color by the harsh sun. The magic around me betrayed the fennec fox in her den and the mice scurrying through the dry looking brush. Zephyr circled overhead, looking for his next meal.

I forced my eyes back between Alza’s midnight ears as I had found them drifting toward my quiet companion again. Keera tipped her head back to watch the falcon wheeling above us, the sun turning her deeply tanned skin golden. Alza’s muscles twitched beneath me, signaling that she could sense my tension.

I just wasn’t used to having company.

Seeing a formation of rocks ahead, I pointed. “We can stop there and wait out the hottest part of the day in the shade of that cliff.”

Keera nodded. “How far of a ride do you think it will be to Clan Otush?”

“The last time I visited, the desert showed me to my destination in four nights. If she is so angry though that lava wyrms have begun to roam, then I wouldn’t be surprised if it took longer.”

“I hope we can make it there in less than that,” Keera admitted. “I wouldn’t want to leave the encampment to face the wyrm alone for so long.”

“You seem awfully keen to defend the clans for an exile,” I pointed out.

“I’m a citizen of Kelvadan now,” she argued.

“And yet here you are, riding into the wilds with one who would see the Great City fall.”

A frown creased her dark brows, accentuating a full lower lip as she glared. I had the urge to make her frown more, the look in her eyes so reminiscent of the wild defiance she wore when we first met.

“Why were you exiled?” I asked, the words out of my mouth before I could ask myself why I cared.

“The same reason you left Kelvadan, I would guess.”

I stiffened in my seat. I had known she knew of my identity after she called me by name that night during the Trials. I shouldn’t have been surprised that Queen Ginevra or Aderyn had told her, but it wasn’t something we had openly acknowledged. Her mentioning my past now was like plucking at a loose string that would unravel the fabric of our tenuous peace.

“The magic of the desert isn’t an easy burden to bear,” I settled on as response. “Still, it must have been useful in keeping you alive when you were in exile.”

Keera’s frown deepened, taking on a puzzled cast. She shook her head. “It didn’t. All the years I spent alone it just… slept. I thought the desert had abandoned me as punishment for what I’d done, for losing control. It didn’t wake again until… Until you.”

She looked over at me, dark gaze boring into me as if it could penetrate the protective shield of metal on my face. I looked away.

By now, we had reached the short cliff of jagged rock, sticking up from the otherwise flat landscape as if a giant piece of stoneware had fallen from the sky to shatter on the ground.

We both dismounted in the shade, the slightly cooler air a welcome respite from the baking sun. Sweat collected between the fingers of my gloves and at the nape of my neck, but I dared not take them off. Something about being around Keera left me exposed, no matter how many layers I covered myself in. It was as if the title of Viper wouldn’t quite settle right when she looked at me. She had seen under the mask.

“My horse died.”

I blinked, confused by her sudden statement. She kept her eyes on Daiti’s golden mane, weaving her fingers through it absently as she spoke.

“After she broke her leg, our horse master slit her throat. I felt her slip away, and the next thing I knew, everybody that stood within twenty paces of me was dead. Swallowed whole by the ground splitting open.” Her shoulders rose up toward her ears, as if in protection. I was struck by the momentary urge to rest a hand between her shoulder blades, to soothe the ache I knew she harbored deep in her chest as I felt it echoed in my own.

I balled my hands into fists instead and offered the only sentiment that seemed to fit. The motto that carried me through many fitful nights. “The desert gives, and it takes.”

“What did it take from you?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder.

“Everything.”

We made camp that night out in the open. Fresh water had not presented itself to us. Tomorrow, we would have to hope for better luck.

As I set up my tent, Keera rolled out a sleeping mat on a soft patch of earth.

“You didn’t bring a tent?”

She shook her head. “I prefer to sleep where I can see the stars.”

I nodded before looking back at my tent, considering joining her, even if it meant I would have to sleep with a mask on. Looking back at her, setting sun glimmering off her skin, dark hair curling around her heart-shaped face, I shook myself. I already felt unbalanced enough around her, I did not need to give my mind over to unconsciousness with no semblance of a barrier between us.

I would need to exhaust myself thoroughly to find any sleep tonight.

“The horses need to rest, but it’s still early. Do you want to train?” I offered.

Keera narrowed her eyes at me, and I shrugged. “It’s what we were going to be doing if we were still at Kelvadan. And I think we might be more productive without such a raucous party happening over the next ridge. ”

Sucking on her cheek in contemplation, Keera looked around. “I don’t see any rocks around for us to practice with.”

“You call down storms when you’re upset, and you think your magic is only good for… throwing rocks?” I quirked my brow at her in incredulity, even though I knew she couldn’t see it.

“Well, it’s what we had been working on,” she defended, a flush rising in her cheeks. I found myself mesmerized by the fact that I had pulled such an expression from her.

I turned away, surveying our surroundings. “It can be convenient, but it’s hardly the most advantageous use of magic anyway. Why throw rocks at an opponent when you can slice off their head?”

“Maybe I’d rather knock my opponents down than kill them,” Keera argued, folding her arms.

I huffed. “That’s not how you fight.”

Her brows drew down, and she bared her teeth, rewarding me with another one of her many expressions.

“And how do I fight?” she demanded.

“Like me.”

In truth, I had been testing her when she faced me in the Trials. I had planned to dispatch all my opponents as neatly and efficiently as possible, becoming Champion with as little opposition as possible. But watching Keera with saber in hand, striking out at her opponents like a snake defending her nest, I had grown curious. When she came at me with her opening flurry, reckless but somehow deadly precise, I wanted to see more. For once, I faced an opponent who matched me in ferocity, even if her skill hadn’t caught up yet.

Not even Izumi gave me a fight like that. Where Izumi was all technical precision, Keera was a force of nature, unshaped but powerful.

“If I fought like you, you wouldn’t have been able to toy with me.” Keera was clearly unhappy with my answer.

“Like me doesn’t mean better than me.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Well, if we’re not going to throw rocks, what are we going to do?”

“How about fire?”

Her eyes widened .

“Being able to light a fire with nothing more than your hands is a good skill for survival,” I pointed out.

Keera chewed her lip. “You’ve seen what happens when I lose control. I’m not sure fire is the best idea.”

And all of a sudden, the warrior that came with me a snarl on her face wore the face of vulnerability I recognized all too well.

“That’s why you have me to help. I’m as powerful as you, and I can reign it in if things go awry.” It was potentially an exaggeration. From what I had seen, Keera was the only person I had met whose power was my equal. My own magic might not be able to negate hers, but I had pulled her back to herself once before. The more accustomed I became to her magic, the ebb and flow working into my mind with each hour we spent together, the more convinced I was I could lead her back to the center of her power once more.

“We’ll start with just controlling the fire, not lighting it.”

We combed the area for dry brush to fuel the fire, arranging it into a small pile that wouldn’t burn too intensely but would give Keera enough to work with.

“I’m going to light the fire. See if you can feel my magic as I do it, so you’ll be able to emulate it yourself later,” I instructed.

I held my hand over the fuel, reaching into the knot of threads at the base of my skull, preparing to pull one loose and unleash a lick of power to initiate the flames. As I did, a flow, like a trickle of water, poured over my mind as Keera reached out hesitantly. At the cool touch, caressing a part of me that most people couldn’t even see, I shuddered.

Lord Alasdar, with his gift for sensing magic and touching others’ minds, reached into my power often, but it didn’t feel like this. Where his touch was clinical, running hard fingers over the knots of power in my mind, Keera was curious, testing them with a flow of magic that held hidden depths.

I ignored her, pulling on a string and letting fire flare to life under my palm. The brush caught instantly, building to a small but merry crackle.

“Now, see if you can push and pull the fire a little,” I instructed.

Keera reached out a hand, and I didn’t miss the way it trembled. I clenched my fists. Fear of oneself was something I understood all too well.

I opened my mouth, ready to tell her to bite her tongue to ground her if she needed to, but the words stuck in my throat. There was another way to ground her that I knew would work for her from experience.

“Here,” I laid a still-gloved hand on her outstretched forearm. She jumped but didn’t pull away. Even through her sleeve and my leather gloves I could feel her warmth. My head felt light at the contact—a being that wasn’t my horse not recoiling from my touch—but I pulled my attention back to the rushing current of power that Keera’s skin failed to contain completely.

“Pull the fire to you.”

Taking a deep breath, Keera did as I asked. A gasp escaped her as a tendril pulled toward her fingertips, like a snake charmed by a melody.

“This is easier than rocks,” she murmured.

“It’s because fire is almost alive, just like the desert,” I explained. “See if you can shape it into a ball.”

Keera turned her palm upwards, twisting her forearm under my touch. Eagerly, the fire jumped toward her waiting hand, the tendril starting to curl up into an orb. I chanced a glance at Keera’s face. Her brow furrowed in concentration, and a hint of pink tongue poked between her lips. Warmth swept through my traitorous body—probably from the fire—and I turned my attention back to her handful of flames.

A perfect ball of fire now hovered a few inches above her fingers.

“Good. Now, see if you can make it ebb and flow with your breath.”

She took a deep breath in, holding it for a few seconds before releasing it. The flame didn’t respond. She shook her head, and a few tendrils of hair brushed against my shoulder. I hadn’t realized I had moved so close, my body nearly encircling hers, although our only point of contact was still my hand on her arm.

“It’s not working.”

“You only tried once,” I pointed out, nearly smiling at her desire to master this right away. Still, I sent a tendril of my power to brush against hers. “Try again, and I’ll help.”

Keera took another breath, ribs expanding to nearly brush my own chest. I breathed with her, letting my mind meld into her power. Tracing up the stream of her essence, I encountered the problem nearly immediately. A dam held the majority of the limitless well of her magic back, keeping it from fueling the fire she held further.

Matching my breathing to her own, I prodded at it gently, trying to allow her to let more of her power through. I realized my mistake immediately.

Keera shuddered, and her even breaths cut off in a sharp gasp. Instead of widening the gap, her magic flowed through, and the entire dam fractured under the light pressure of my touch. Unthinking, I threw my body on top of Keera, throwing both hands out toward the sudden tower of flames where our small campfire had just been. My shield of power flew up just in time to protect us from the worst of the explosion, a roar of flames rushing over us without touching us.

It died out just as quickly as it had come, and I opened my eyes to find Keera staring up at me with wide eyes. I laid over her, every inch of my body pressed against hers as I had shielded us from the flame. My mind stuttered, and I felt clearly how she was no longer the skin and bones creature I had thrown over the back of my horse, despite the layers of fabric between us. This time, I knew the heat that washed through me was not just from the fire.

I scrabbled backward on the ground, ripping my attention away from Keera to where the fire had been. The fuel we had collected was no more than a pile of fine ash dusting over the pit of sand we had dug. However, fire still crackled merrily where my tent had once stood.

“Sorry,” Keera said quietly.

I grimaced. “I prefer sleeping under the open sky anyway.”

We didn’t practice anymore that night, the furrow of concern between Keera’s brows telling me it would likely be counterproductive to push her any further. When it was time to sleep, I unrolled my sleeping mat as far from Keera’s as I could without looking suspicious, and I kept my mask on. Still, the metal could not protect me from the memory of how her body had felt beneath mine. Where normally I shied away from the touch of others, I hadn’t hated the warmth of Keera’s skin a few layers of fabric away from mine. I might have slept better if I had.

Alza sensed my restlessness as we headed out the next morning, flicking her ears back as if in question. I patted her neck in reassurance. Lord Alasdar had helped me build my control, and I would just have to reinforce it. Despite my initial tension though, I found myself relaxing as the day wore into late afternoon, Keera an easy riding companion.

A freshness on the breeze told me we approached an oasis. Alza’s ears perked up at the promise of fresh water, as she too lifted her face. It was perhaps earlier than I would have liked to make camp, but I wouldn’t pass up the chance to camp near water.

Keera sensed it too. Without warning, she kicked Daiti into a run, dashing toward the patch of brush that was our destination. Before I could settle her, Alza took off after her, taking their sudden acceleration as the sign of a chase.

By the time we arrived at the edge of a small, clear body of water, our mounts panted happily, and a smile split Keera’s serious face. If I had been tempted to make her frown earlier, it was nothing compared to the overwhelming urge I had to see her smile more. With her curls escaping their braid and the slight redness of a sunburn across her cheekbones and nose, she was the picture of freedom.

I busied myself dismounting and relieving Alza of her burdens. It was unlike me to be distracted by such things. Spending this much time alone with a woman was affecting me, that was all.

My brain unhelpfully supplied me with the information that I spent plenty of time around Izumi with no such distractions, but I pushed that thought away.

Placing my belongings on a flat rock, I looked up just in time for Keera to begin unwinding the sash that held her vest closed over her tunic. It fell open, and she hastily shucked her layers, toeing off her boots before her fingers moved to the laces of her flowing pants.

“What are you doing?” I asked, heart leaping into my throat.

“Bathing,” she responded simply, as if it were perfectly normal to disrobe without preamble in front of somebody who, until very recently, and probably still, was an adversary.

I should have looked away as she pushed her pants down her legs, exposing more tanned skin to the sunlight, turning golden in the late afternoon hour. Her tunic came off next, leaving her in nothing but her skin. I swallowed and tore my eyes away, looking down at my own heavy boots and riding pants. Not an inch of my flesh was exposed.

Splashing reached my ears, and I looked up as Keera plunged beneath the water.

“I missed bathing outside,” she admitted, surfacing and dashing the water from her eyes.

I instructed my body to begin setting up camp, but my limbs didn’t cooperate, freezing me on the spot like a boulder.

“The waterfalls in the houses of Kelvadan are certainly fun, but nothing beats the open sky.” Keera leaned back and spread her arms out to float on the glassy surface of the oasis. From this angle, I could just see the outline of the points of her breasts. My limbs only unfroze themselves when I felt an uncomfortable tightness in the front of my pants, allowing me to whirl around and hide my reaction from Keera.

How odd it was that the woman who had grown up shunned from her own tribe eagerly bared herself to the world, free of all sense of embarrassment. I had grown up a prince of my people—had been told every day of the great legacy I was to fulfill—and I hid myself away from the world, too ashamed to let people look into my face unguarded.

“I’m going to scout around for predators,” I said before stalking off. A few hundred yards away stood a pile of boulders. I walked to them without looking back, shoulders hunched.

Once I reached them, I slumped down behind their cover, sitting so I would be out of sight of where Keera swam. I breathed in deeply through my nose and out through my mouth, trying to calm the rushing in my head. It felt like my magic but not—something headier but just as dangerous.

For years now, I had styled myself as a weapon, more monster than man. It served my purpose to be seen as what instead of who I was. Keera had just reminded me in the most visceral of ways though, that I was indeed a man under all the armor.

I hadn’t been able to deny that I found Keera a striking woman since I galloped alongside her in the races at the Trials. Now though, that observation had given way to full-fledged desire, coursing through my body and settling deep in my core.

But lust was just another emotion, one that I would conquer like I did every feeling that was too much, too close, threatening the tight grip of my control. I would master this just like I mastered my magic.

That’s what I told myself as I undid my belt and lifted my cock out of my pants. I hissed at the leather of my glove as I took myself in hand, repeating in my head that I just needed to master my body. If my mind conjured images of Keera gasping beneath me as I stroked myself fast and hard, then that was between the desert and me.