We had set out after eating and only stopped once so far to drink some water, I decided to keep the canteens on me as the twins were drinking too fast. I understand though, the heat was not normal, it felt like it was sucking the life and all moisture out of our bodies. I can only imagine what the two young bodies were going through.
By midday according to my watch, the desert seemed to throb with heat, each step a test of will. My throat was dry, my lips cracked and though I knew I had a lip balm somewhere in my bag, the hassle to stop and fish it out made me leave it for worst situations.
The twins had stopped talking entirely as if feeling my urgency. Only the sound of our boots scuffing against sand and grit filled the air.
Then the wind shifted, sudden, sharp, like the sky itself had inhaled. The air prickled against my skin even though I was covered head to toe with robes and scarves.
I looked up.
There were two suns. Two flaming orbs in the sky. Two freaking suns! 'Wasn't this damn desert hot enough?'
One, bright and white-gold, was the one I'd grown used to all my life. But now beside it, as if mirroring it was a second, a deep burnished red, its surface swirling like molten metal. The two hung in the sky like eyes, watching.
Energy flares streaked between them, fiery ribbons that painted the horizon with colours I'd never seen before crimson bleeding into copper, streaks of molten orange burning into the air as if someone had taken a brush soaked in flame and swept it across the heavens.
The twins gasped, Ayesha who was usually more reserved clinging to my arm.
"Mia… what's happening?" She whispered. Abu was also clinging to my other side but for once he was shocked into silence.
"I don't know," I admitted, my voice low. "But keep walking."
I pushed harder to get to our destination. I know it was rough on their nine-year-old bodies but the quicker we get to some shelter the better for us. I wish I could pick them up and carry them in my arms.
It wasn't just heat pressing against my skin now there was a weight, like the air itself had grown thicker, making each breath feel like dragging in warm water. The energy in my chest, that strange, wild energy that was still unfamiliar in my veins stirred on its own, responding to whatever this phenomenon was.
The desert ahead shimmered like a mirage. Far off, the bleached rib-like structures that looked like they were taken from some massive beast jutted from the sand, marking the way toward the City of Bones.
I didn't know if there being two suns in the sky was an omen or something. But I could feel it deep in my bones that the world had shifted again, and the path ahead was about to change.