My earbud immediately chirps. “Stone. Takes. Gives back.”
I stare at his claw pressed flat against the rock. Then I stare at the hole full of sand.
“He doesn’t want her in the sand,” I breathe.
Zan just watches my face. I hold my breath. Up close, the energy rolling off his frame feels completely different from Kol. Zan is frantic and wild. It sets every instinct I have on edge. But instead of just plain terror, the only thing my stupid, exhausted body can focus on is to find something steady. The sudden, insane urge to findKoland press myself against his chest.
Dropping my gaze, I reach forward and pull the folded scrap of fabric out of the hole.
The second the fabric clears the sand, Zan exhales. He actually looks relieved, and it’s completely messing with my exhausted brain.
He rises to his full height and walks to a flat rock shelf, pulling his shoulders back before placing his broad palm flat against the stone.
He rumbles a low sequence, the vibration so thick it doesn’t sound like words at all.
“Stone. Takes. Returns,” my earpiece translates.
“What does that even mean?” Lucy whispers nervously from behind me.
“It means we messed up,” Alex murmurs back, her voice shaking. “They don’t bury their people in the sand. They take them back to the stone.”
Lucy drags in a sharp, horrified breath. “Oh my god. So us digging a hole in the sand out here was basically...”
“A massive insult,” Alex whispers. “Yeah.”
I stare down at the shallow hole we just dug, and then back up at Zan. A sick wave of guilt drops into my stomach.
Standing, I walk over to the shelf, and gently lay the folded scrap of Hannah’s fabric flat against the smooth stone.
“Thank you,” I say, looking up at him.
Zan’s ears immediately flatten against his skull. He takes a huge step backward, crossing his arms over his chest and staring rigidly out at the blowing sand.
I sniffle, swiping the back of my dust-caked hand under my nose. Operating on human instinct, I crouch back down. I just want something to mark the spot. I pull three small, flat rocks from the edge of the stone.
Even though Zan is still staring straight out at the dunes, I can see his amber eyes darting sideways, intensely tracking the rocks in my hands, even while he’s pretending he’s not looking.
I quietly stack the three rocks on the edge of the piece of fabric. The moment the last rock balances, every single warrior around the outcropping freezes.
One of the Drakav takes a sharp half-step forward. His ears pin flat as he stares down at the stacked rocks. “Kah.”
I freeze again.
“Erika,” Lucy whispers urgently from behind me. “What did you just do?”
“Nothing,” I whisper back, terrified to even move my lips. “I literally just stacked some rocks.”
“Take them off,” Alex breathes, her voice going incredibly tight. “Erika, take them off right now. They’re all staring at you.”
My gaze shoots across the agitated warriors, blindly searching for an answer. That’s when I catch sight of the tall stone pillars standing out at the far edge of the dunes. The rock markers dictating the physical boundary of the clan’s territory.
Three stones. Stacked.
My stomach drops into my boots.Oh god.
Zan quickly throws his arm out to halt the alarmed warrior.
Panic spikes in my throat as I snatch the top two stones off the stack and hurl them as far away into the dust as I can.
