Page 45 of Joy Guardian
And I continued sinning every moment my tendrils remained attached to her emotions, but to remove them would probably kill her at this point. She needed my magic to survive. And I needed her more than ever.
I needed her light, her humor, and her joy. I needed her to be happy because this world would truly be a dark place without Ciana’s light in it.
I waited for the curse to strike me.
Promise breakers died a slow, torturous death, gradually losing their mind to the curse. But no pain struck me. No madness descended upon me. The world around me hadn’t changed.
The wind still slammed with the ferocity of a wild beast against the rocks of our shelter. The sand pressed heavily on me from all sides. And in my arms, the woman who had become my world was slowly slipping away.
“We’re going to make it.” I got up, taking her with me. “We’re going to have a chance to kiss as much as we want. We’re going to have it all, my treasure. Because you deserve it all.”
I anxiously listened to her senses, but I hardly felt anything. It was like her sensations had already been muted by the eternal darkness of the afterlife. And I had to reclaim her.
I needed to take her out of the desert, even if it killed me.
In the storm where the ground merged with the sky in a dark, endless twister, luck led me to the temple rather than my navigational skills. When the black walls of the temple finally emerged from the wind, I felt just as surprised as relieved.
“We made it, Ciana,” I whispered to her while shoving the door open with my foot.
The front room was empty. No one found refuge from the storm here today. Ciana and I were the only refugees inthese walls with the comforting words of the First Priestess of Joy carved into the rock above the inner doors:
“Don’t be afraid of the dawn. After a storm always comes peace.”
“I’ll need to shift you a little, sweetheart,” I told Ciana, pressing her torso to my chest with one arm to free my other hand. “I need to unlock these.”
She didn’t reply. Didn’t move. Her eyes remained closed. Only from the faint pulsing of life through my tendrils could I still tell she was alive.
The inner doors of the temple remained locked through the day and most of the night. Only the Joy Guardians had the spell to unlock them. I pressed my fingers to the golden protrusions that decorated the stone in a pattern of the spell and whispered the words that unlocked them.
Magic shimmered from under my fingers, spreading along the lines of gold and warming the stone. The locks clinked, pulling on the chains inside, and the doors opened.
“Here we are,” I murmured to Ciana, praying I wasn’t too late.
The golden glow of the Source lit the main room of the temple, warm and welcoming like always. But I had no time to admire it. The barbed wire of worry tightened around my chest, adding urgency to my weary stride as I carried Ciana across the main room.
Water.
She needed water.
I hurried down the stairs that were hidden from view of the general public behind a tall black screen. The stairs led to the floor underground with the sleep chambers and the bathing pool of the Joy Guardians.
“Is anybody here?” I called into the empty space of the lower floor.
No one answered, and I had no time to ponder why. Tossing my bag aside, I marched toward the round pool in the middle ofthe open area. The water in the pool was warm, but a chilled drinking fountain trickled in the wide bowl in the middle, connected to the floor by a stone path.
My throat spasmed at the sound of water. Thirst had crippled my body for so long, I had to restrain my steps, lest I run headfirst into the pool.
Without wasting any time, I waded into the water, fully dressed as I was. Dipping my hand into the bowl of cool water from the drinking fountain, I sprinkled some on Ciana’s face.
“Wake up, sweetheart,” I whispered. “Please, wake up.” I slid my wet finger along her chapped lips. “We have water. As much as you can drink.”
It hurt to move my tongue in my dry mouth. Scooping water with my hand, I drank, hoping that as my thirst diminished, my renewed strength would filter to her through my tendrils too.
Finally, her lips moved.
“Water…” A barely there whisper fluttered on her breath.
“Yes, my darling. We have water. Drink, please.”
