The air was hot. Not the kind of heat that came from a gentle summer breeze or the warmth of firelight, but a suffocating kind.
Yet, despite the dry sting in the air, the two bodies that lay tied in the middle of the wide, empty expanse shivered with cold.
Sera blinked several times against the harsh sunlight. Her wrists itched where the ropes dug in, and her lips were dry from the unforgiving air.
Slowly, she shifted, letting her sharp gaze sweep the endless landscape around them. Not a tree. Not a rock. Not even the faintest movement on the horizon.
Her eyes narrowed. Strange. No spul. No footsteps. Nothing but them dumped in the middle of nowhere.
She tugged at her ropes with an annoyed grunt, half expecting them to be enchanted, reinforced, or made of some bizarre system-forged material. But when she pushed harder, flexing her arms outward, the ropes snapped apart with a sharp pop.
