Page 64 of A Kingdom of Wild and Power
Dawn muttered a string of curses under her breath, but she climbed all the same, a reluctant smile curving her lips. When they finally hauled themselves onto the top of the wall, they collapsed side by side, breathless and laughing, the sheer absurdity of it all ringing brighter than any alarm.
‘We can see the sun fall from here,’ Alina said softly. ‘I love it. The whole sky burns bright orange, just before the sun decides to disappear.’
‘All of this just to watch the sunset?’ Dawn asked.
Alina shrugged, unbothered. ‘Some things are simply worth it.’
‘Not if your family catches us,’ Dawn muttered under her breath. Still, she did not want to dull Alina’s joy. Instead, she leaned closer and reached out, carefully fixing a loose strand of her friend’s hair. Alina let her, as she did with only a handful of people, those she trusted without question.
Lately, Alina’s brown eyes had held a constant sheen, often reddened, as though she lived on the edge of tears. Dawn suspected she knew why. Hagan had left in the dead of night to train with the Red Guard, vanishing without a word. He had told Dawn of his plans beforehand, and of his intention notto tell Alina at all. It had been deliberate, meant to wound, to make her ache. He had always been capable of such cruelty, of small, precise acts designed to make Alina cry.
Once, Dawn had taken a bitter satisfaction in it, watching from the shadows as Hagan chipped away at the princess piece by piece. But time had changed her. Years among them had softened something she had not realised could soften. Alina was no longer just a target. She was her best friend.
And Ash…
Dawn’s chest tightened at the thought of him.
She was hopelessly, irrevocably in love.
Dawn had toyed with the temptation of keeping this life, of shedding her past as a witch and wearing this drakonian face forever. She could marry Ash, she could stay, she could pretend that happiness was something meant for her. The fantasy was sweet, fragile, and utterly impossible. Hagan would never allow it. He would tear such a future apart long before it had the chance to breathe.
And so Dawn had resolved to tell Ash the truth.
He loved her. Of that, she was certain. And surely,surely,if love was real enough, strong enough, it could survive a lie. He would forgive her. He would still choose her.
Wouldn’t he?
‘We won’t ever let anything come between our friendship, will we?’ Dawn asked suddenly, the words tumbling out before she could stop them. Fear clenched around her heart, sharp and suffocating. Lately, the thought of confession had made her feel ill, haunted by endless what-ifs. What if she was wrong? What if they could not forgive her? What if love, once tested, proved too fragile to endure the truth?
What if she truly was unworthy of being loved at all?
‘Of course not,’ Alina replied without hesitation. Shereached for Dawn’s hand and squeezed it, warm and certain. ‘We are sisters, Adara. Nothing will ever change that.’
Dawn jerked upright, her skin slick with sweat, her heart still racing from the remnants of the dream, or perhaps the nightmare. Something struck her face with a soft slap. She swore under her breath and glanced down to find a length of cloth crumpled in her lap.
Lifting her gaze, she spotted Alina standing at the entrance of the tent, already half-turned away.
‘Cover your face with that. It’ll keep you from breathing in the sand. Follow me,’ Alina said briskly, offering no explanation before disappearing into the darkness beyond.
Dawn sat there for a moment, blinking, her thoughts sluggish and tangled. Then she rolled her purple eyes and did as she was told. She didn’t want to. A part of her longed to storm out of the tent and hurl the cloth straight back at the princess’s head. But she had made a promise. A foolish one, perhaps, but a promise all the same. She had agreed to help Alina learn how to fight blood magic, no matter how dangerous the path ahead might be.
They had decided to keep it from Kai. So they would slip away in silence, seeking solitude in the hours before sunrise while he slept. Dawn didn’t know how long it would take him to notice their absence, but she knew without doubt that when he did, chaos would follow.
She wrapped the cloth tightly over her mouth and nose and followed Alina out into the desert. The safety of the caves had been left behind two days earlier, traded for endless dunes and unforgiving wind. They were now deep in the twelfth region of the Desert Kingdom.
Soon, far too soon, they would stand face to face with King Siroc.
As they marched on, Dawn’s gaze drifted to the far distance, where faint figures moved across the dunes like mirages given form. A chill crept beneath her skin.
‘Ignore them,’ Alina said without breaking stride. ‘They’re ghulas.’
‘Ghulas?’ Dawn echoed, unease tightening her chest.
‘Ghosts of the desert,’ Alina explained calmly. ‘Souls trapped here, doomed to wander. They lure others into joining them by wearing the faces of those you love, whispering familiar words, until you’re lost with no water and no way back.’
Dawn stiffened, her eyes flicking towards one lone figure staggering through the sands as though marching towards nothing at all. When the man suddenly turned, his attention snapping to her, she hurried forward and dropped her gaze to the ground, her pulse hammering.
Alina stopped at last and sank down onto the sand with deliberate ease. Dawn turned, only to realise she could no longer see their camp, nothing but endless dunes stretched behind them.
