Page 99 of Beneath the Desert Bloom
Kneeling naked in the sand, mouth open in ecstasy or pain. Nora couldn’t tell which.
Asher was there too.
But not her Asher. This one was younger. Softer. His hair was shorter. His eyes were wide with something like fear.
Then her chest opened.
Literally.
It cracked down the center, not blood, but light unfolding from the inside out. She disintegrated into dust and wind and memory.
Asher screamed and changed.
Transformed.
His skin split, revealing veins of amber and stone. His spine rippled into knots of muscle and root. His mouth stretched in agony. His eyes turned molten.
And when he stood again, he was the Guardian.
Bound. Alone.
Nora sobbed as the vision shattered.
The sound never reached her throat.
She was back on the ground. Flat. Writhing. Glowing too hard to hold herself together.
A new pulse slammed through her core, low and ancient.
The desert was not killing her.
It was trying to finish what she’d started.
Her transformation had begun. But without him, without the balance, it was warping her.
A fresh crack split the earth beside her, this one wide enough to see the shadows swirling below. Her body pitched toward it. The sand sloped under her spine, cradling her like an altar.
The ground was offering her.
The wind hissed against her ear:
You are not enough.
Her thighs clamped together against the pull. Her hips bucked. Her arms spasmed. Her bones hurt, not from pain, but from becoming.
She felt her teeth change shape.
Her jaw stretch.
Her breath come in bursts like howling.
Her heart pounded so hard she thought it would burst. Not from panic.
From wanting.
The desert had awakened something inside her and was feeding it.
And if Asher didn’t come—
