Ardenti
The world reappeared around us, far from the forest we had just been in. The entirety of Melisande’s cottage and garden had been transported to the middle of an expansive sandy desert. The sun beat down on us with impossible heat, its rays reaching out mercilessly and burning everything they touched.
The wind whipped hard across the tear-stained planes of my cheeks drying them, just for the moisture to pour over them again. Sand swirled in great clouds around us filling my lungs, ripped up from the impact of our landing. I could barely see through my stinging eyes, not sure which hurt more the tears or the sand.
Valerian’s blood leaked onto the pale sand that the garden now grew from. The wound in his stomach gaped, the blood was so thick it shone red in his b
