Page 62 of Expose Me

“It’s so ...” he looked around and even up to the sky. “Dry,” he finally finished.

“Yeah, well, that’s why they call it the desert. I knew you were going to hate it.” I chuckled.

“Ugh. I don’t like it.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll keep you nice and hydrated.” I took his hand and gave him a reassuring squeeze. At the contact, my power surged through me so strongly that I stumbled. That had never happened to me before. It was like the magic was demanding I pay attention and go get the final Onuei. Touching Zey—and by extension the two Onuei he had stashed away in his pockets—coupled with the fact we were now closer to the last Onuei had made it really easy to find. But my ability had never taken over like that before, had never surged through me without beckoning it.

“It’s like something is forcing me to seek,” I gritted out.

“The Onuei are close to being reunited. What do you see, Sky?” Zey held on to my hand and guided us into an alcove, out of the way of the busy foot traffic. The Onuei were a strange kind of magic, and when I thought about it, it did make sense that they’d have some level of sentience. Forced by inanimate objects to use my ability—rude.

I leaned my forehead against Zey’s chest and focused on following the trail.

A thick, shimmering ribbon unfurled in my mind’s eye, shooting out so fast it almost looked blurry. It traced a path directly into the desert. All I could see for miles and miles was golden sand and bright blue sky. I followed it until it became clear it was just going to keep showing me sand dunes and I got impatient. We needed to head into the desert. That much was very clear.

I looked up at Zey, and he gave me a small smile as he waited patiently for my directions. He’d wrapped his arms around my waist while I’d gone flying in my head. Relaxing into his embrace, I draped my own around his neck.

“We’re gonna need a Jeep,” I said before pulling his head down and kissing him firmly. I was suddenly aware that our time together was extremely limited. We could have the third Onuei by the end of the day. If everything went smoothly, this could all be over within a matter of days.

Nothing had gone smoothly so far though, so it would probably be difficult and frustrating and take forever. For the first time, I wasn’t in a rush to get it all over with.

Digging my fingers into the back of his neck, I kissed him even harder.

He chuckled against my lips and pulled back.

“As much as I enjoy this, we should get going.” He brushed my cheek with his thumb. “Time is—”

“Of the essence.” I cut him off and forced myself to step out of his hold. “I know.”

No point dwelling on it; I ignored the slight frown he gave me as I took off down the street.

It took us less than an hour to buy an old, but reliable vehicle equipped with sand tires and gather some supplies. I could summon most things we needed, but I had no idea how long we were going to be out there, so it was better to be prepared. Most of the back seat was taken up by massive jugs of water, as was the trunk. A small section had some food for me and a first aid kit.

We drove out of Cairo without any issues, and it wasn’t long until the road cutting through the desert became more and more devoid of buildings, people, or animals. Once we’d been driving for a solid fifteen minutes without seeing anyone behind us or passing anyone going in the opposite direction, I pulled off the road.

There was probably a way to get closer to our destination using the roads, but I had a feeling it would end up taking us three times the amount of time to get there, and we’d still have to drive out into the barren landscape. So I decided to take the shortcut and point the vehicle directly towards where my power was pulling me to go.

We drove for hours with nothing but sand in any direction, the horizon constantly looking too far away. If it wasn’t for the pull of my ability telling me we were getting closer to the third Onuei, I would’ve thought we were going around in circles. The heat, the monotone landscape, the absolute stillness of it all, was enough to drive a person crazy.

Zey was quiet, constantly taking small sips of water. I was starting to worry about him. I’d never seen him look so flat, like he wasn’t feeling well. Considering his insatiable need for water, he probably wasn’t.

We stopped only once, sitting in the sand in the shade of the Jeep as I had a quick meal and we both guzzled some water. Then it was more hours and hours of driving.

The sun was low in the sky, painting the vastness before us and the patchy clouds in deep oranges and purples. It was throwing long shadows in the sand, making small sand dunes appear like mountains from far away. I figured we had maybe an hour of daylight left before the temperature plummeted along with the sun.

It felt like we were close, my power practically humming, but there was nothing nearby. I was starting to think the Onuei might be buried in the sand somewhere. It would be just my luck that it was buried deep in some undiscovered ancient tomb.

One problem at a time.

At first, I dismissed the shape in the distance as just another weird shadow and kept driving. But as the shape started to come into focus, I reflexively eased off the gas.

Zey leaned forward, looking intently at the same spot.

We were driving up to some kind of structure—if you could call it that. Even from this distance, it looked half destroyed. There was something white in front of it, flapping in the wind like a sheet drying on the line.

“Sense any of your buddies?” I asked.

“No.” Zey shook his head.

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