Less than ten minutes into the flight, I detected a faint rumbling sound over the flap of wings. I craned my neck to look around us, but all I saw was sand. Tucked against Gus’s belly, I couldn’t see much of the sky.
Gus dived suddenly, and my stomach lurched. The ground came up to meet us, and I squeezed my eyes shut for the impact. The crash never came, but he touched down a little less smoothly than normal.
He set me on the hot sand, and I backed up as he began digging. His strange behavior alarmed me, and I turned in a circle to see what could have caused it.
I inhaled sharply when purple and green lightning streaked across the sky. But that wasn’t nearly as frightening as the monstrous sandstorm speeding toward us. The wall of sand had to be one hundred feet tall, and I could already hear the howl of the wind that drove it. It was travelling so fast it would be on us in minutes.
I spun back to Gus, who stood over a large hollow he had dug in the sand. He looked at me expectantly, and I realized he wanted me to get into the hole. I jumped in, and he settled down over me. He wrapped his leathery wings around us with his head tucked beneath one, and we waited.
The storm hit with such force it nearly pushed Gus over. He held fast as the howling wind and sand slammed into him. Some dust blew in under his wings and made me cough, but I was safe in my shelter.
The light grew dim as the storm raged on until I was nearly in darkness. I took out the laevik crystal, thankful I wasn’t claustrophobic. I was more afraid of suffocating as the air got hot and stuffy. To take my mind off it, I thought about Lukas. He would be home tomorrow evening, and as soon as we were alone, I planned to let him know I wanted to be with him in every way. I loved him, and I knew he felt the same for me even if we’d never spoken the words. What were we waiting for?
I didn’t realize the wind had stopped until Gus shifted above me. He grunted as he stood, and I saw the reason when he dumped two feet of sand off his wings.
I sucked in cool air as it hit me that night had fallen. I stared at the dark desert landscape in dismay. It would take us six hours to reach the island and another two to get back to Unseelie after I returned the ke’tain to the temple. If I stayed out all night, someone would notice and there’d be questions I couldn’t answer.
We took off, and this time we made it to the ocean without any problems. It wasn’t until we were an hour out to sea that I wondered if the storm had been caused by the joining of the two ke’tains. It had happened faster than the last one, but that could be because the ke’tain was getting stronger.
I had never been so happy to see the island. It took ten minutes for me to sneak in and return the ke’tain, and then we were on our way again. I was exhausted, but it was impossible to sleep when I still had no clue how to get past the guards at the mountain entrance. I could make myself invisible, but the guards would be suspicious when the door opened and no one was there.
The sun had cleared the horizon by the time we reached the valley. I’d already created a glamour to make us invisible, but that didn’t help with the bigger problem. My stomach was in knots as I tried to figure out how to get inside the mountain without being seen.
“Next time, maybe I should hang a really long rope from my balcony.”
That’s it! Why hadn’t I thought of that all along?
“Gus. I need you to take me to my balcony,” I called, hoping he understood me as well as I thought he did.
He did. As we neared the mountain, he stayed on a straight course instead of turning toward the road where he’d picked me up. It was too early for most court occupants to be up and about, but there were people working on the grounds.
Most of the balconies looked the same from the outside, so I had to figure out which one was mine. Gus surprised me when he headed straight for one of them. Drakkans had a sharp sense of smell, but I had no idea he could detect my living space that easily.
I realized the flaw in my plan when we reached the balcony. There was no easy way for Gus to get close to the rail, and he was far too big to land there. I was trying to think of a solution when he turned and flew away in a downward arc. Several levels down, he changed direction and flew straight up the wall of rock. Before I understood what he was doing, he came abreast of my balcony and tossed me inside.
I landed facedown with my arms protecting my head. The impact knocked the wind out of me for a few seconds, and I lay there gasping for a minute. When I finally managed to stand, Gus was speeding toward the black cliffs.
I stumbled to my bedroom, kicked off my boots, and stripped. I showered away the day’s grime along with some of my aches and pains, and I was half asleep by the time I left the bathroom. My hair was still damp when I crawled into bed and fell into a deep, well-earned sleep.
* * *
“Jesse,” someone called.
I hurried through the short tunnel to the stairs. I placed my foot on the first step as a black claw shot out of the crevice in the wall and grabbed my shoulder. A scream tore from me, and I spun, punching the faceless creature emerging from the hole.
“Disir!” swore a male voice. “Jesse, it’s me, Conlan.”
I came awake with a start and looked up at a frowning Conlan beside my bed, sporting a red welt below his eye. “Conlan, what are you doing here?”
“You didn’t answer your door, and I was concerned, so I let myself in.” He touched his cheek. “I thought you might be ill, but that punch says otherwise.”
I sat up, rubbing my bleary eyes. I couldn’t have gotten more than a few hours of sleep, and I was bone tired. “That’s what you get for coming into my room and waking me up.”
“I wouldn’t have if you’d answered your door.” He gave me an assessing look. “It’s close to midday. Why are you still in bed?”
I scowled at him. “Why are you here and not in Seelie with Lukas?”
“He asked me to come home and make sure you were okay after that storm hit this morning.”
Another storm had hit here? I must have slept through it. Was it connected to the one in the desert or a separate one entirely?
“You haven’t answered my question,” Conlan said. “Why are you still in bed?”
I flopped back on the pillows. “What are you, the sleep police? If you must know, I couldn’t sleep last night, and I didn’t doze off until this morning.”
Conlan’s shrewd gaze swept the room and landed on the boots and clothes I’d worn yesterday and left in a pile on my floor. My mouth went dry, and I cursed myself for being so careless. If he checked them, there would be no explaining away the fact that my pockets and boots had sand in them from a desert across the ocean.
“If I’d known someone would barge into my bedroom, I would have tidied up,” I quipped in a tone snarky enough to draw his attention back to me.
He arched his eyebrows. “Have you always been this grouchy in the morning?”
“Only when I don’t get enough sleep.”
“Then by all means, go back to sleep.” He smirked. “We wouldn’t want you grumpy when Vaerik returns today.”
My heart leapt at the reminder I’d see Lukas in a few hours. My face must have betrayed me because Conlan chuckled softly.
“I apologize for waking you, and I’m glad you are well…if not in the best mood. I’ll leave you to your rest.”