Blood of the Sands (The Ballan Desert Book 1) by S.C. Grayson

Author:S.C. Grayson [Grayson, S.C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-09-17T00:00:00+00:00

Drumbeats filled the air outside the city walls, pounding into my skull and forcing my heart to beat in time. Although tonight’s celebrations spilled between the tents and into the large open area in the center of the encampments, making it considerably less crowded, more people danced and drank than had been present at the Kelvadan festival months before.

I could still taste the bitterness of the lyra leaf tea on my tongue that I had swallowed hastily before heading out, and I let it reassure me that all would be well. My magic twirled sleepily in my gut, hazy and distant.

For now, I stood at the edges of the circle of tents, watching both competitors celebrating their victory and those drinking to forget their elimination. No other members of the green team had been successful in capturing a flag, and so their time in the Trials was over. The next event wouldn’t begin until the day after tomorrow, and so people threw themselves into the only logical pastime: drinking laka.

As if summoned by the thought, a brimming glass was shoved against my palm with such enthusiasm that some of the laka within spilled over my fingertips. I looked up to meet a friendly grin on a handsome face. Hadeon’s eyes looked oddly flat as he handed me the beverage, but I blamed it on the backlighting of the braziers and lanterns at the angle we stood. I shook off the cold shiver that washed over me at his expression, blaming it on the difficulty I still tended to have reading people’s expressions. He had never given me any indication of anything but kindness and warmth.

“You live to fight another day!” Hadeon congratulated as he raised his glass to me.

“And so does the Viper,” I added silently, but I peeled my lips into a smile and toasted back.

“It was a close call,” I admitted as I drained half my glass in a single gulp. The burn of alcohol crawled down my throat as I swallowed back a wince. Drinking too fast was a habit I had yet to break after a lifetime of scarce liquids.

“Well, I do appreciate a flare for the dramatic, and you easily stomping the competition wouldn’t be good entertainment,” Hadeon said. “Besides, I dare say it’s given you a little adrenaline to work off at tonight’s festivities.”

“More like too much sand to wash off before I was in any shape to show up,” I grumbled. I had stood under the trickle of water in Aderyn and Neven’s bathroom for what felt like hours, until my teeth chattered from the cold, but the rough chafe of sand still lingered on my skin. A buried part of me rejoiced at the feeling after months of relative cleanliness in a world of polished stone. Some twisted part of me missed the constant grit and the headachy feeling from squinting too long in the sun.

“Well, you cleaned up more than admirably.” Hadeon’s eyes drifted appraisingly over my outfit, my current posture

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