Page 116 of Skyshade
Oro cursed beside her.
She opened her eyes the slightest bit, and it looked like...it looked like the desert was rippling.
She squinted, wondering if the heat was making her see things, but no. She couldn’t just see it; she could feel it. The ground trembling, as something like a rogue wave rushed toward them.
It overtook everything in its path, smearing away the sun itself. Distant mountains disappeared. It was swallowing the horizon whole. It kept going. Right toward them.
“What—”
“Sandstorm. We need to get inside now.”
Her voice was crazed. “Inside where?”
Oro didn’t answer, he just took her arm and started running. He had been here before; he had survived this. Her knees nearly buckled as she tried to match his pace.
She was slow, slower than she ever had been, and certainly slower than the storm. Oro didn’t look over his shoulder. He didn’t falter. He dragged her to the right, parallel to the sand whisking around them.
They should be heading away, she thought; but she followed him regardless, not sure if she would be able to move without him helping her. If he let go, she would just sink into the sand. She would die.
She thought of Grim. Nightshade. They were counting on her to survive this.
But the storm had reached them.
The sand hit her like a battering ram, and she would have fallen to the ground if Oro hadn’t kept her steady.
“Keep going,” he yelled over the roar of the wind; and, through sand that nearly blinded her, she saw it. A cluster of dark orange rocks. A hole in one side. Shelter.
Sand grated her skin raw. It was already burned from the sun, and now it stung as if she was being flayed. She gritted her teeth and kept going.
She had survived many storms before. She would survive this one too.
That was when she remembered the stormstone, the second one Azul had given her, the one she wore now.
She didn’t need to track a storm anymore, but Azul had said gales were engorged with power. Ability that could be captured. It could be useful against Lark.
She began to slip the ring off her finger.
“Faster,” Oro said right in front of her, but she couldn’t see him. No, all she could see was golden sand, scraping like teeth against her skin. She could barely breath. It was getting in her throat. “We’re here.” Oro had reached the opening.
She dropped his hand before entering.
He lunged for her, but she planted herself against the wall of sand and faced the storm. It roared like a beast, increasing in power, winds raging, nearly knocking her back, but she stayed firm. She did not fall. She did not falter. She closed her eyes and raised the stone above her head, the same way she had before.
The diamond trembled in her palm. It shook as she captured the storm in her fist, feeling its strength in her bones.
Warm fingers curled around her arm and dragged her into the cave.
She collapsed on the ground, gasping for air, coughing up sand. It had torn up her throat. It had filled her mouth. When she could breathe again, she tried to open her eyes, but they stung too much. Sand was caked on her eyelashes and on every inch of her skin.
“What the hell was that?” Oro demanded.
She said nothing as she slipped the ring back onto her finger, as she scrubbed against her eyelids again. After several minutes, tears washed them clean, and she wondered how she had any liquid left in her body.
The space was small. Sand blasted outside, in a torrent, stronger than before. Without shelter, they would have suffocated in it. She leaned against the stone at her back and flinched. It was hot as coals.
The entire cave was hot, without so much as a breeze from the outside. Heat had been trapped within. They might have been spared the storm, but she could die of dehydration in here.
“How long will the storm last?” she asked, eyes darting to the entry, at the flashing wall of gold.
