Page 45 of Crown of the Dunes (The Ballan Desert #2)

With a grunt, she shoved his saber to the side, so it stabbed uselessly into the air over her shoulder.

She used the momentum to drive a knee up into his stomach.

It hit Erix squarely beneath the ribs, and I winced as he stumbled back a few steps.

I had unfortunately been on the receiving end of that maneuver before, and I did not envy him as he gulped for breath.

A flash of triumph glimmered in Aderyn’s eyes, but it was short lived as Erix lifted his sword against her again.

Any casualness in his posture was gone, replaced by the poise of a lethal predator.

He advanced so fast that I could barely follow his movements, ducking under Aderyn’s guard.

Aderyn tried to slash at Erix’s unprotected side, but he was quicker.

He lunged, sweeping his leg around to hit her in the back of her knee.

Her leg collapsed under her, and he tackled her down, landing with a knee braced on her chest. Her sword fell from her hand with a clatter as she gasped, the breath knocked clean out of her.

The match lost, Aderyn slumped back against the ground, although I was sure she didn’t miss the way Erix panted in the aftermath as well. She was no easy opponent.

“You are not my favorite person today,” she said as he stood, removing his weight from her chest. Her tone held distinctly less bite than it had before her fight.

“I’m not your favorite person any day,” he quipped, but he held his hand out to her.

She grasped his forearm and let him haul her to her feet.

They paused for a moment, and while Aderyn’s gaze was rarely soft—that privilege seemingly only reserved for Neven—it no longer looked like it might turn him to stone.

Perhaps some of her enmity had been dispelled by her hard-earned blow against him.

She dropped his hand and turned back to me.

“Maybe the two of you should spar. Give my pride a break,” she said, offering me her practice saber.

I took it, and hope blossomed in my chest, bright like the desert sun cresting the horizon after the brutal cold of a rainy season night.

I sat cross legged on the low stool before the vanity table, frowning at my reflection in the mirror. After spending so many years not seeing my face aside from the occasional glimpse in still water of the oasis pool, it seemed silly to be frustrated with my appearance now.

Alone in the desert though, I had nobody counting on me, save myself, and even I sometimes wished I would fail and let myself fade away into nothing, although the desert refused to let me die.

Now, people looked to me for guidance and strength, and I was not sure I had any to offer them.

Neven had told me looking the part was almost as important for making people believe in me as actually doing the job.

Of course, I couldn’t look the part if I couldn’t even get my hair braided properly.

A rustling from the balcony behind me distracted me from my musings. My fingers closed around the dirk laying on the table in front of me as I watched the railing over my shoulder in the mirror.

“Don’t throw anything,” a familiar voice said, just before dark curls became visible over the edge of the balcony.

I sighed, releasing the weapon as Erix hauled himself onto the balcony with a quiet grunt.

“I don’t think you want to explain to your attendants why you keep having to go fetch your knife from the terrace below. ”

I sighed, meeting his luminous gaze in the mirror.

“It doesn’t hurt to be prepared. After all, I wasn’t sure if I should expect you anymore.

You haven’t scaled the side of the palace to see me since that first time, weeks ago.

” My tone was more petulant than I meant it to be, and I jerked my gaze away from his face to look down at my hands. Embarrassment heated my cheeks.

I had pushed aside my disappointment that Erix had not reappeared in my room since that first time, throwing myself into my duties as queen. Sparring with him today though, had reminded me what it was like to be around him, the taste making me crave his presence even more.

Warmth spread across my skin as he approached, stopping just behind me, although the heat of his body seeped through the inches between us and through my robe .

“Aderyn increased the number of riders patrolling the palace since Dravis’s death. It was difficult to find a way here unseen,” he explained.

The words caused a pang in my chest, but I knew why he sought to keep the nighttime visits to the tower a secret.

He feared that the nature of our relationship being discovered might undermine my power.

Even if he was just climbing the tower to search the library for the secrets of blood glass, neither of us were keen for the truth of what lay in Alyx’s tomb to become public.

Too many grasped for power, and the Heart would be tempting to any of them.

“How did you manage it this time, then?” I asked, looking up once more.

“Aderyn may have mentioned what time the guards changed over as I helped her clean and put away the practice weapons,” he shrugged. “I’m sure it was completely unintentional.”

One corner of my lips quirked. “And I’m sure she’ll be very prickly if I bring it up.”

The air shifted around me as Erix sighed heavily. “She did it more for your sake than mine. I know she cares about you, even if she hasn’t completely come around on me quite yet. I’m not sure she even should.”

A pang of unease and guilt that was not mine clenched in my belly. “You’re doing what you can to help me.”

“Am I?” he asked, one hand drifting forward to land on my shoulder.

I tilted my head, relishing the warmth of his touch.

“Or am I only a cause for your enemies to rally around while I delude myself into thinking my presence might be helpful? Am I being selfish trying to stay by your side when my heritage only causes strife? I already almost lost control once, and what if my support of you at the coronation wasn’t enough to placate those who oppose your rule? I wish… I wish I could do more.”

“At this hour, there is not much to be done,” I tried to soothe, even though the weight of healing the desert and feeding Kelvadan’s people waited just over the horizon, ready to hit me with full force the next morning. “Unless you can help me braid my hair, that is,” I teased .

Erix’s hand trailed lightly across my shoulder, to the bare skin where my robe had drifted slightly open. His finger toyed with one of the curls that had eluded me, free at the base of my neck.

“That I could do,” he admitted.

I raised my brows. “Not a talent I expected from you.”

He pulled the tie from the end of my ragged attempt and my curls sprang free. Shivers ran down my spine, and my eyelids fluttered as he ran his fingers gently through the strands to untangle them. I had completely lost the thread of the conversation when he spoke again.

“Then you underestimate how nice it is to braid Alza’s mane.”

I snorted, but my voice was breathy as I responded. “Did you just compare me to your horse?”

“It’s a compliment,” he defended, and I knew it was true.

For a few seconds, I let my mind drift as he separated my hair into sections with heart aching care. My eyes drifted closed, and my world narrowed to the warm touch of his fingers on my scalp.

“My mother used to wear braids.” His voice was so low, I could have convinced myself I imagined it, if not for the twinge of bittersweet pain that echoed through the magic around us.

I did not speak, almost holding my breath as I waited for him to continue.

He rarely referred to Queen Ginevra as his mother, and this moment seemed as ephemeral as the tiny drops of moisture that would gather on leaves at the oasis in the rainy season, only to be burned away by the heat of the midday sun.

“She taught me how to braid her hair,” he admitted. “She could tell that having something to do with my hands helped—that sitting still made everything worse, louder . Like how sharpening my saber always helped me.”

A sharp sensation filled my throat as I tried to swallow, remembering how elaborate Queen Ginevra’s hairstyles had always been. They must have taken a long time to weave together—perhaps devised to offer her son a few extra moments of peace.

“Her hair was always beautiful,” I murmured .

“Yours is even more lovely,” he commented, taking a moment to rub a strand between his fingers. “I like the way you’ve been braiding it to one side. I’m surprised you were having trouble with it tonight.”

I ducked my head in embarrassment. “Well… it’s been longer than I thought since I held a saber for that long. My, ah—my arms are so sore that I was having trouble holding them up long enough to do it.”

He hummed in thought, continuing to methodically weave together the strands of my hair so they draped over one half of my head. Tingles danced over my skin at the sensation of being cared for—cherished.

My eyes burned, and I blinked rapidly as he reached the end of my hair, offering him the length of cord over my shoulder. He plucked it and tied off my braid in a neat knot, but his fingers lingered.

As he draped the finished plait over my shoulder, his warm fingertips danced over the joining between my neck and shoulder. Lightly, he pressed his thumb into the meat of the muscle there, and a half-pained moan escaped me.

After hours of taking turns facing off against Aderyn and him today, soreness had already taken up residence in my muscles.

Erix pressed more firmly, dragging his thumb in a small circle around the hardened knot in my shoulder.

His other hand came up to mirror the action on the other side, and my lashes fluttered under the attention.

The heat from his touch seeped through my skin and spread down to my toes as he coaxed the soreness from my aching limbs.