Page 83 of A Sun Scorched Bloom

Chapter 55

Lea

Leawaslyingonher bed, staring up at the ceiling and wondering if there was any way she could get out of tomorrow’s training, when there was a soft knock on the door.

"Come in," Lea moaned, absolutely positive that there was no way that her legs would be able to support her weight to get her to the door. After the jog, they’d done squats. Thousands of them. At least, it had felt like thousands. Followed by push-ups and pull-ups—even though what Lea and Janelle did definitely could not be considered a pull-up. To top it off, Erik had then asked Tanad for several of his best stallions, on which Janelle and Lea were forced to practice their riding skills, despite the fact that their legs were so overworked they could barely make it into the saddle. She’d healed herself as much as she could, and while the fatigue had eased significantly, she was sosore.

"It’s your muscles rebuilding. Even magic can’t get rid of that." Erik had laughed, ensuring her that it would still ease sooner than if she didn’t heal herself.

He’d lied.

The door didn’t open, and Lea called out again, assuming it was Erik or Emma being too polite to enter without her explicitly allowing them in. "I can’t get up and let you in. I'm dying."

"Um," a male voice she didn’t recognize cleared his throat. "I’m looking for Azalea?"

Heat crept up Lea’s neck as her cheeks colored. "One minute!" Lea tried not to sound embarrassed as she forced herself to her feet, hissing as her sore legs attempted to carry her forward. Opening the door, Lea placed a confident smile on her face. One of King Tanad’s soldiers, a tall man with deep brown skin and a dimple in his chin, stood behind the door with his hands behind his back. He peeked into the room as if looking for danger.

"I wasn’t actually dying. I mean, obviously." Lea laughed nervously. "I had to train today, and everything hurts. Did you know your toes could hurt?" They did. Her poor toes were just as tired as the rest of her body from running barefoot through the sand, as well as the hour of trying to grip into the mat as they’d performed balance exercises.

"I can’t say I did," he pressed his lips together, trying not to smile.

"Oh. Well, they can… Anyway, how can I help you?" Lea tried desperately to change the subject.

"I was instructed to summon you. The moonflower seeds you requested have arrived." He held up a satchel with a twisted, green-black vine peeking out of the top.

"Already? That’s amazing!" Lea would have jumped for joy if her quads could have handled it, but instead she cringed in pain at the thought.

"If you follow me, I’ll show you where you can plant them." The soldier turned and walked away without waiting for a response, his leather sandals slapping against the floor. Lea hobbled after him, wincing with every step. Nothing else could have convinced her to leave her room. But for the moonflowers? It was worth the pain.

The soldier led her outside through the same back exit they’d left through to run this morning, but instead of going straight toward the ocean, they turned left down a thin sidewalk with chipped and broken seashells embedded within. They ducked beneath a trellis with odd, deep purple vines climbing up and across it, providing shade.

"This shed isn’t locked, so you can enter any time you want," the soldier said as he led her to a squat, round stone structure with a wooden roof and several arched windows, pushing open the door and beckoning her inside.

Several more sacks of vines sat beneath a cracked window, all with dark tendrils peeking out from the cinched tops. Hanging on the wall beside the vines were an assortment of gardening tools: shears, shovels, watering cans, trowels, and spades.

Lea’s heart skipped at the sight. "You said I can come here anytime I want?"

"Day or night," he confirmed.

"Thank you…"

"Andy." The soldier smiled broadly.

"Andy." Lea returned the smile. "Were you the one who retrieved them?"

"I was," he confirmed, puffing out his chest proudly.

"I can’t thank you enough. You’ve a brave man, entering the Wicked Wood."

The soldier was silent for a moment, crossing his arms and chewing on his lip before speaking. "I fled here with my mother, years ago. The Lonely Death had come to my village. We gathered our things and fled in the night. She was so afraid we would be exposed to the disease, she uprooted our entire lives. King Tanad accepted us with open arms. If he’s committed to stopping the Black King’s rule, then I will doanythingto help him."

"That’s admirable." Lea could feel Andy’s passion filling the shed, kicking her heart into a faster rhythm. So many people wanted change, all across the continent.

"I guess that also means," he interrupted her thoughts, "that I would do anything to help you, Daughter of the Sun and Stars. It’s an honor." Andy finally met her gaze, some long-ingrained emotional pain shining in his eyes.

"The honor is mine." It felt ridiculous hearing a stranger call her a queen and look at her with so much hope and desperation, and yet to tell him that felt cruel. "Now, if you’d really like to help me," Lea said kindly, "then will you please show me to the gardens and help me with these bags?"

Chapter 56

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