Chapter 38

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Keera

A strong hand on my shoulder pulled me from the painless release of unconsciousness. I groaned, twitching and trying to tell Erix to stop touching me, even as I wanted him to crush me to his chest and never let go. Every bone ached and every touch felt like a fresh burn across my skin.

Even on my unburned side, everything felt hot. I must have an infection.

“What have they done to you?”

My eyes snapped open at the familiar but unexpected voice.

“Ad—” I choked around the woman’s name, but she shushed me. I had never been so glad to see her, yet so terrified at the same time.

“You’re safe. I’m going to get you out of here,” Aderyn reassured.

I wanted to protest, but I didn’t know what was happening. Where was Erix? Why had he left me?

My hands were still sticky with Lord Alasdar’s blood. My eyes flickered to the huddled corpse on the ground. Aderyn’s gaze followed mine.

“Did you kill him?” she asked.

I swallowed, managing the slightest nod.

“Well done,” Aderyn praised. “Serves him right after what he’s done to you. ”

It wasn’t what he had done to me. It was what he had done to Erix that had given me the strength to lunge forward toward the fallen weapon and drive in through his ribs with every last bit of strength I had in my body. With Erix screaming and twitching on the floor, even the woman ordered to hold me hadn’t seemed intent on stopping me from bringing Lord Alasdar’s life to a swift and satisfying end.

I didn’t have the words to say this to Aderyn, the last of my strength having been spent telling Erix I loved him. I clenched my hands into fists, and my fingers brushed something hard and metallic. I glanced over, finding Erix’s saber next to my outstretched arm.

Seeing where I looked, Aderyn handed me the weapon, and I squeezed so hard that the leather grip was sure to leave an imprint in my hand. Even if Aderyn didn’t know what had happened, she was a warrior enough to understand the comfort of a sword in hand.

“Come on. I have to get you out of here while the riders are distracted. I doubt they’ll leave you alive after killing their leader.” Aderyn gathered me in her arms, lifting me easily despite being shorter than me.

A pained gasp escaped me. I tried to form words around the agony of being moved, but they didn’t come.

“Erix…”

It was all I managed to choke out before darkness took me again.

A stone ceiling greeted my bleary eyes. I tried to remember where I was but the only memories I could locate were agony and the squelch of flesh as I drove a blade through a man’s heart. Erix’s screaming and the smell of burning flesh.

I ran my awareness along my limbs now, finding the agony had dulled to a persistent ache, coating the entire right side of my body, along with a pounding in my broken leg. The shivering heat and delirium that had coursed through my veins before had abated, telling me any infection was likely cleared. I must have been unconscious for a long time.

Chancing to lift my head, I looked around, finding myself in a long stone room filled with empty beds. It was deserted save for the occupant of the chair beside me, bent over a piece of fabric in his hands, embroidering it with intricate patterns.

“Neven,” I choked out.

His head snapped up, and a look of intense relief crossed his face, kind eyes crinkling in a broad smile.

“You’re awake!”

“How long has it been?” My voice was thin from disuse, but still stronger than it had been in my last memories.

“Several days,” he answered. “You woke up almost as soon as you got here, but we had to sedate you. You lashed out and fought at anybody who came near you, shouting about Erix and burning. You nearly brought the palace down with your magic, and we had to force you to drink lyra leaf tea.”

I swallowed, trying to process everything through my sluggish brain. “Erix?”

“You’re safe.” Neven laid his hand on my uninjured shin. “He really did a number on you.”

I tried to shake my head. That wasn’t what I was asking. I needed to know where he was. The tether in my belly was fuzzy, as if my magic was hard to reach, and while I could feel its presence, I couldn’t reach along the bond to find him.

“I’m—I’m sorry I encouraged you to go with him.” Neven’s face crumpled, and he looked shattered. “If I had known he would turn you over to Lord Alasdar, I never would have helped you run away that night. When Aderyn told me who the man in the mask was and what he had promised to do, I thought… But I was wrong. Lord Alasdar’s influence on him was too great.”

“Lord Alasdar… he’s dead.” The words came out more a question than I would have hoped. Everything felt wrong, like a piece was missing from my mind, making the whole thing teeter uncertainly. Maybe the effects of the lyra leaf tea. I wanted to retch.

Neven nodded gravely. “Aderyn told everybody what you did. Even though the attack was a failure, it was worth it as you managed to take out Alasdar.”

“The attack? ”

“An informant told us that the clans were united and about to launch their siege, but it was delayed by the Viper’s absence. Aderyn and the queen decided to attack when they were vulnerable, trying to save the citizens of Kelvadan from a drawn-out siege.

“Unfortunately, the Viper seemed to have returned with you before Aderyn and her riders got there. The element of surprise almost gave them the victory, but he was too powerful.”

My mind spun. “What happened?”

“He ripped the earth open, swallowing dozens of riders. Aderyn barely got you out of the encampment before it happened. You’re lucky she snuck into the lord’s tent to assassinate him and found you, otherwise I’m not sure if we ever would have seen you again.”

“Where is he now?” My stomach sank even as I asked.

“The Viper? He’s claimed leadership over the combined clans. Our intelligence is limited, but it is only a matter of time before they attack Kelvadan.”

No, Erix wouldn’t. He had turned on Lord Alasdar rather than kill me. Half delirious as I had been, I could have sworn he told me he loved me.

Then again, if Neven told the truth, he had led the clans in the fight against the Kelvadan riders. I knew why he wanted to breach the city. The Heart of the Desert still lay locked at the top of the palace, the key to restoring the desert he loved—our home.

My mind ached nearly as hard as my heart at the swirling mass of thoughts in my head. I was still woozy, and the knots of my thoughts seemed loathe to untangle no matter how hard I yanked at them. I reached down to the tether I knew still bound me to Erix, across the desert as he might be. Things had been so simple when it was just the two of us alone in the wilderness. I thought we had avoided standing on opposite sides of an inevitable war, yet here we were. He was the Lord of the combined clans, and I was the hero who’d killed his predecessor. If I could just talk to him, feel him, perhaps I could make sense of this once again.

After all, I hadn’t killed Lord Alasdar for Kelvadan. I had done it for Erix .

Erix, whom I couldn’t even feel through the haziness in my magic caused by the lyra leaf tea.

I squeezed my eyes shut and a few tears escaped, a breath coming out in a shuddering sob.

“I shouldn’t have told you so much—you still must be in so much pain,” Neven comforted, picking up a cup from the table beside my bed. He lifted it to my lips, and I wanted to protest, but I was too weak. Days in bed left me unprepared to fight him on anything, even though I wanted to insist he bring me back to Erix and get me out of this close stone room.

My vision swam as I swallowed the liquid Neven offered me, but I caught sight of something on the stand next to me—something that gave me the barest hint of hope and made me feel like maybe I wasn’t completely alone.

Erix’s saber.

There was so much to explain, and I didn’t know where to start. Not when Neven and the rest of Kelvadan apparently believed that the Viper had brought me to his lord to be tortured before I killed him and narrowly escaped.

The liquid I drank tasted herbal and medicinal on my tongue, and my pain began to dissolve—at least the physical aches. As the pain killers quieted the roar of my mind to nothing more than a dull buzz, one thought floated to the surface.

I would heal, and I would find Erix, and together we would restore the desert.