Page 82 of Crown of the Dunes (The Ballan Desert #2)
Keera
T he sand squeaked under my bare feet as I trudged up a dune.
Erix sat with his back to the encampment, looking out at the endless darkness of the sands at night.
Zephyr trilled as I approached before fluttering off—likely to see if he could snatch some food away from the clansmen cooking around one of the many fires in the large encampment.
Erix didn’t look up as I reached the crest of the dune and sat down beside him, my shoulder just barely brushing his.
On a night that seemed impossibly long ago, at an encampment just outside the city walls, I had found him in a similar position, but I had left substantial room between us when I sat down that night.
Neither of us had been familiar with the touch of another then, but now, it seemed to be one of the only things we could hold on to.
When Erix lit his father’s funeral pyre two days earlier, he had clasped my hand like it was the only solid thing left in the world.
As Neven screamed in pain when Clan Otush’s healer set the bones in his hand, Erix had pulled me close, as if he could protect me from the guilt that wracked my chest with every pained gasp that passed Neven’s lips.
At night, he clasped me to him with such force I thought my bones would crack, and I didn’t protest. We were alive, but barely, and so much was still uncertain—but the creak of my joints as he squeezed me to him was real .
Lord Dhara and the lords of the other clans at the encampment had welcomed us in, still tapping their brows to Erix deferentially.
Aderyn had tensed at first, but as soon as the healers had begun tending to Neven, all her worry was directed toward him, with none to spare for the thought that she was among those who had recently been enemies.
Luckily, the clans of the desert fought often and forgave as soon as the blood had finished drying in the sand.
For a few days, we had focused only on grieving and healing, and the small lingering effects of Calix’s poison purged themselves from my blood. The tasks before us towered like mountains on the horizon. The desert had to be healed, and the city reclaimed.
Now, Erix’s gaze remained fixed in his lap, and I followed it down to find that he held the two halves of the Heart, one in each hand. Repeatedly, he brought them together, trying to line up the hewn edges so it looked like they had never broken.
“Some things can’t be unbroken,” I pointed out as he let the two halves fall apart with a huff of frustration. “Some things have to heal.”
“Healing has never been my strong suit,” he admitted. “Legend says that Alyx could heal almost any wound with just a touch, but I inherited none of her skill. Only Kelvar’s power—the power to destroy.”
“I’ve never been able to heal anything before either,” I conceded. “But maybe we can figure it out together.”
He finally looked up from the Heart. “Together,” he echoed.
At the sound of the word on his tongue, some of the churning uncertainty that had plagued me for the past days settled.
I tilted my head in contemplation. As the months had passed during my time as Queen in Kelvadan, loneliness had crept up on me—responsibility forcing me further from Erix and Neven and even Aderyn.
Now, I had been cast out into the desert that had been my prison of loneliness for too long—thrown from the city where I was supposed to find home, now as a fallen queen. But I was no longer alone.
I had brought a family with me and stumbled upon new allies .
I had Erix, whose life and magic pulsed within me with every shared breath. The path before us may be changing as constantly as the ever-shifting sands, but I refused for either of us to face it alone anymore.
Rising from my seated position onto my knees, I turned to face Erix. He looked at me curiously as I pulled my dirk from my belt.
“I know in Kelvadan, the archons perform weddings, but out in the clans, there are no such formalities,” I said. “The desert respects blood, so blood is how we bind ourselves to each other.”
Erix’s gaze dropped to my hand, which I held out palm up. I offered him my dirk, hilt first, with the other.
“You’re marrying me?” he asked.
“I’m choosing you,” I said, squaring my jaw. “So many decisions lay before us, and I have very few answers, but I am certain of one thing, and that is my love for you.”
Erix let the heart fall from his lap into the sand with a quiet thud, rising to his knees facing me. Slowly, without breaking eye contact, he took the outstretched dirk from me. I shivered under the heat of his gaze, his silver eyes reflecting the twinkling blanket of stars above.
Finally, he lowered his gaze. I copied him, staring as he pressed the tip of the dirk to my palm and dragged it across my skin. I hissed at the sudden burn, and a line of crimson blood bloomed.
As my blood welled in my hand, he offered the dirk back to me, holding his other hand palm up, just like I did.
My heart thundered in my chest as I slit his palm the same way he had done mine.
He barely let out a sharp inhale of pain at the sensation, and his luminous eyes stayed fixed on my face the entire time.
Once it was done, I let my dirk fall in the sand between us. I met his eyes, and slowly, we clasped hands, our blood mixing and pooling where our skin pressed together.
“Together,” I said. “For better or worse.”
Erix dipped his chin. “My heart is yours, from now until the sands drink my blood. And even then, she will taste it and know that I belong to you. ”
A droplet of our combined blood slipped from between our hands, dripping onto the dune below. A gasp escaped me as colors and sensations filled my mind in a rush. I heard crashing waves and felt the spray of water on my face—the scent of salt that permeated Erix’s skin.
Then I was back in my own body, staring into Erix’s eyes, which were wide as my own.
The desert had taken our blood, and our promises were sealed.
Using the hand he held, Erix pulled me toward him and I fell forward into his chest and raised my face to meet his lips as he lowered them to mine.
Our slippery hands parted and instead, he brought it up to cup my cheek, as his other arm wound around my waist.
His fingers smeared warm blood on my cheek, and I reveled in it. He was mine, and I was his.
The Heart of the Desert might be broken, but for a moment, mine was whole.