“Oh—” I clear my throat. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t need it anyway.”
I trip over my feet as I walk up to him, letting him grab the bag from my hand and he tosses it back into his satchel. “How could you not need water out here in this heat?”
“As you heard the elder back there,” he pauses, avoiding my eyes, “I am from the Ice Nation.”
“Yeah. I don’t understand.” My eyes narrow.
“You never will.” He clears his throat before throwing one leg over his horse's body. He grabs the reins into his hands and adjusts his body in the seat.
“Make me understand!” I plead out. “If I have no way of getting home, back to Seattle, tell me your ways here. What is an Ice Nation? Why can’t you return?”
“Why the hell does it matter to you?” he snarls, looking down over his shoulder at me.
His hair catches a slight breeze, swaying across his face gently and catching me off guard. I go silent. He is right, it doesn’t matter. None of this matters to me, besides finding Tilly.
“You are going to make me walk still?” I toss my hands to the side.
“You lost my h—”
“I lost your damn horse. Get over it!” I shout at him, my mouth already drying out once more. “Put me on this horse with you, or I am walking back.”
He drops his head back, tilting his chin high as he closes his eyes. A deep sigh escapes his lip before he shakes his head. “You can’t go back.”
“I can. AndI will. Unless you put me on your horse because I am not walking like this anymore.” My chest heaves. Not only is my body burning from the heat but my insides are raging withanger. “Are you actually taking me to this so-calledIce Nation, or are you trying to get me killed?”
“I told you beforehand, I cannot kill you. Or I will be...”
I roll my eyes, cutting him off. “Or you will be cursed. I know,I know. I heard you the first time.”
We glare at each other, our eyes lingering longer than they should before I clear my throat. “I’ll walk.” I force a sarcastic smirk along my lips before walking ahead of him. As I step, the ground beneath us rumbles like an earthquake, almost tossing my weak body over. Dust soars in the sky ahead of us, like a tunnel of wind howling through the crust of this land. The blue sky is slowly being replaced by rust and the rocks beneath my feet bounce along the ground, rattling uncontrollably.
“What… Florian? What is this?” My bottom lip drops as my eyes trace the ground around me.
“Get on the damn horse!” he orders, dropping his hand for me to grab ahold of.
“Oh…” My eyebrows lift high. “Now you want me to get on the horse?”
“Not now, Serene!” he hisses, his eyes widening. “Grab my hand, now!”
A thick cloud of dust and debris fills the air, obscuring the sun above and casting a red haze overeverything.
I can feel every breath clogging my lungs as I desperately try to cover my mouth with my arm. My eyes squint as everything around us blurs into a red glow. But despite the hatred between us, I reach for his hand with a shaky grip. With a firm tug, he pulls me up onto the horse with him and I cautiously wrap my arms around his sturdy frame, feeling his muscles tense under my touch.
“Tighter!” His large hands grip my small ones, fingers intertwining as he pulls my arms tighter around his waist. My fingers dig into the fabric of his shirt as I press closer to him. Mychest tightens upright against his broad back and I can feel the heat of his body radiating through his clothes as I press against him.
His head tilts towards me as his eyes hold my gaze. “Hold tight.Or you fall.Do you understand, Serene?”
My breath hitches, and I pull my body even closer to him. Barely an inch of space is left between us. My grip tightens, feeling the ridges of his muscles under my fingers shift as he turns the horse around. The reins fly in the air as he yanks,hard. His heel digs into the side of the horse and we take off. However, the trembling of the ground beneath us only strengthens and follows us. Swirls of dirt move behind us as if a moving tunnel is coming to eat us both.
The land trying to swallow us in.
“What is this!” I screech out, my eyes fixed on whatever the hell is following us. Between my strands of hair I see the ground rise and fall, pebbles tossing in the dusty air before falling to the rumbling ground just to be thrown once more.
“You really are clueless!” Instead of focusing on the land in front of us, to escape whatever is underneath the ground beneath us, his eyes lock onto mine. They soften, his brows gently narrowing, and time slows down. Just for a brief second before he looks over me, staring out into the dust storm behind us.
“It’s a sand dragon.” His voice drops to a deep growl. “They curse the lands here, preventing most people from passing through to get to the Ice Nation.”
