“Scheming,” Dav interjects. “Plotting. Sabotaging.”
“Taking a break,” I bite out. “As Tarek said.”
“In the dunes, under cover of night?” Dav’s lip curls in a slow sneer.
“Ohhhh,” Tarek breathes. His eyebrows shoot up, and he elbows Dav with a ridiculous grin. “They weretaking a break.”
The words punch the air out of me, sadness pressing down until it’s hard to breathe. The moment we shared in the Tower felt like everything, and it all shattered so quickly.
Push it down. I’m fine. I’mfine.
Behind me, Declan clears his throat in a way that promises trouble.
Dav’s gaze lifts over my shoulder. “What’s the matter? Can’t find your tongue without your handler’s permission?”
Declan steps forward, fists clenched. “You don’t want to fuck with me right now.”
With a smirk, Dav tightens his grip on the hilt of his sword and starts to close the distance up the slope like he’s been itching for an excuse. “It’s in this very moment I should most delight in crossing you.”
The guards flanking Tarek draw their swords with a sharp hiss of steel as Declan takes another step forward, sand shifting under his feet. The air crackles with the tension between Dav and Declan. One spark and the whole dune will ignite.
Declan’s mouth curls into a cold smile. “If you want a fight, Dav, you’ll get one.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. You two want to whip out your dicks and measure them? Better yet, maim each other. Prove which one’s the biggest through violence. I’ll wait.” I throw my hands up and step back, giving them plenty of space to square off.
The tension holds, the guards’ torches snapping light across steel, every man waiting for the first strike.
“Most convenient,” Dav drawls, circling Declan, “that you slipped away just before your performance.”
Declan squares his shoulders, eyes fixed on Dav. “We didn’t run. We don’t need to.”
“We were going to come back!” I shout, my voice carrying down the slope. “But then we got held up. Not by some espionage mission. Bythat.” I stab a finger toward the Tower looming just beyond the lip of the dune. From a distance it could be mistaken for the slope of a collapsed ridge, the shadow of a cloud pressed into the sand. It’s easy to mistake unless someone knows what they’re looking for. “Your kingdom is rotten with secrets, and you’re too stubborn to see them.”
“A convenient tale,” Dav sneers. “Or a trick.”
Tarek bounds the few paces up the ridge to the edge where the Tower plunges into the earth.
“Tarek!” Dav’s smirk breaks as he points his sword up the dune. “Get away from there. This reeks of ambush.”
Eyes wide, Tarek drops to his knees, leaning over the rim, torchlight painting his face burnished gold. He’s silent save for the breath whooshing from his lungs, and then he presses one hand to his heart like he feels the same magick that’s been beating in mine.
“It’s not a trap,” he says, voice soft enough that the wind almost swallows it. “’Tis a legend risen. The Tower of Fire, called back from the sand. The very thing the old songs sing of.”
The guards murmur, shifting uneasily, their blades wavering in the firelight. One even lowers his torch, craning to glimpse what Tarek sees.
“Enough,” Dav snarls. In two strides he’s beside me, his hand lashing out. He seizes my arm and yanks it behind my back, pulling until pain sparks up my shoulder.
“Ow!” I twist against his grip, teeth gritted. “What the hell are you—”
“By decree of the Queens of Wands, you are under arrest for defiance of the Festival of the First Flame.” A cold cuff snaps shut around my wrist, the metal biting into my skin.
“Get your hands off her!” Declan roars, his voice ripping through the night.
“Cuff him,” Dav barks. “Before he injures himself on my sword.”
I wrench around in time to see Declan meet one of the guards with a brutal right hook that cracks loud enough to echo across the sand. The man crumples,and another lunges. Declan catches him by the throat, slamming him backward into the slope.
He looks unstoppable—rage and muscle and sheer will. But there are too many.
