I clawed at the sand, but my arms were packed against me. The sheets pressed down on my chest, threatening to collapse it. I tried to breathe. Sand rushed in to fill the space when I exhaled, pressing harder and harder until I thought it would break through my skin and fill me up.

The honey glaze before my eyes disappeared. Darkness overtook me.

I hit something hard as the sands shifted again.

CHAPTER

11

I thought I’d hit a cactus, but I was wrong. Cion’s arms wrapped around me.

“Roll,” he shouted. He heaved his body sideways, and I had no choice but to move with him. I gulped in a mixture of sand and air that did little to relieve the aching in my chest.

Sand bucked all around us. A wave rushed toward us, curling in on itself.

“Hang on.” Cion gripped my shoulders and somersaulted us in the wave’s direction. We barely stayed ahead of it. The upsurge was almost ready to collapse when Cion yanked me to my feet and pulled me up a slope toward a stable dune.

I dropped to my knees and ripped off my mask. Coughing, I expelled the rest of the sand from my throat. Grains rattled around my lungs with every breath, but each rush of air calmed my nerves.

Cion shook sand out of his hair and looked unfazed. He stood watching the rippling sand like I might watch the sunset from my balcony window. “Not bad,” he said.

I tightened my grip on my sword, amazed I’d managed to keep ahold of it. “Not bad?” I repeated, forcing myself to stand. “You think intimidating me and showing me how much better you are is a good way to teach me?” I wobbled on my feet as wind tugged at us. “You’re no better than Rodric.”

I kicked sand away as I swayed down the hill. I didn’t care which direction I went. It seemed no matter what I decided, something was waiting to kill me. At least if the desert took my life, it would deprive everyone else of the satisfaction.

Cion skid until he was next to me, sending a small avalanche down the dune. “I didn’t bring you to show you what you couldn’t do,” he said. “I brought you to show you what you could do. Do you think I bring all the boys here to train? Most of them wouldn’t last half as long as you did out there.”

For reasons I couldn’t explain, I blushed. I rubbed my cheeks, pretending to wipe away sand.

“You have good instincts, good natural movement,” he continued. “I’ve seen you fight in the arena before. That’s half the reason I agreed to train you—though Rodric taught you to fight like he does. You’re built differently, and you can use that to your advantage. But you’ll need to be faster, quicker. These hills can help you.”

I stared over his head to where bursts of sand puffed into the air at odd intervals.