Epilogue

Erix

T he lanterns lining the walls of the tent exploded in unison, glass shattering everywhere as the flames within them flared violently at the force of my anger. I didn’t care.

Keera was gone.

Only an indent in the pillows and a smattering of bloodstains remained to show where she had been. I rounded on Izumi, and she shied away from the force of my rage. The desert chattered in my head, driving me to distraction, but I couldn’t seem to quiet it.

“Where is she?” I demanded.

“She was gone by the time the riders of Kelvadan retreated,” Izumi insisted. “In her state, she couldn’t have gotten out of the encampment on her own that quickly. One of the Kelvadan riders must have taken her.”

Closing my eyes, taking deep measured breaths through my nose. It wasn’t enough. I raised a hand to my chest, digging my nails into the burn on my chest through the layers of my shirt and bandages. The pain granted me enough clarity to reach into the tangled knot of my magic.

There at the base was the invisible tether, binding me to Keera. I still didn’t know what it was, but feeling it intact did something to calm me. If she were dead, surely it would have been severed. Still, the flow of her power was sluggish, like a well clogged with mud and clay.

I opened my eyes to find Izumi staring at me.

“We will get her back.”

Izumi narrowed her eyes at me appraisingly, and I found my skin prickling under her scrutiny. I hadn’t put my mask back on since awakening after the fight and having her read my expressions was new territory.

Seeming satisfied with what she found in my face, Izumi nodded once.

“We’ll take her back from Kelvadan and save her along with the desert.”

I turned back to the pile of cushions and rugs before me. The tent flap rustled as Izumi left, but I didn’t look. Instead, a bent down to pick up a pillow, marked with a bloodstain where Keera’s skin had cracked and bled. Unsheathing my dirk, I cut away the strip of fabric with the crimson splotch.

I contemplated it, plucking at the tether in my mind once more. I might have imagined it, but I thought it shivered in response, as if Keera was trying to tell me she was at the other end of the bond, stretched as it was. I drew my saber—the one I had taken from Lord Alasdar—taking small comfort in the fact that Kelvar’s sword was gone. Keera must have taken it with her.

With an efficient knot, I tied the bloodstained strip of fabric around the hilt of my weapon before sliding it back into the sheath across my back.

The desert gives and it takes, but it had given Keera and me this bond, something in our blood drawing us together. I would continue to serve the desert and undo the damage of my family’s legacy. Kelvar’s love for Alyx had nearly destroyed the desert, and I understood it now. Because I would lay waste to Kelvadan and get the Heart he had stolen away, but only after I had Keera safe in my arms.