Page 26 of Of Stars and Lightning (Sun and Shadows #1)

Nineteen

CORONATION VOWS

SOL STARED AT the prospects.

By the foot of the stairs, all eyes shifted from her to Semmena, the silence so thick it felt as if she struggled against it as she stalked forward.

The eight of them immediately bowed and parted for her, and Sol’s blood roared in her ears. Semmena wore a careless smirk. Beside him, Hand Gina batted her lashes calmly, waving at a nearby servant to bring her another pitcher of wine.

Samara seemed impatient, her nails tapping on the throne’s armrest. When she met Sol’s gaze, she rolled her eyes.

It was perhaps a combination of all those little things that made Sol continue walking until she was at the foot of the dais.

A combination of those mundane gestures, of the disinterest with which the Rimemere officials regarded the occasion.

Behind her, Nina’s soft gait followed, the only sound other than the howling of the wind against the castle walls. Sol looked up at Semmena, tears of pure rage burning in her eyelids. It struck her then, Gaven had mentioned this tradition briefly when they spoke about Cas and his sentence.

Rimemere tradition has a sort of tournament to see who the Queens marry.

Screw this man.

And screw traditions.

She knew she needed to be here, to continue her mother’s work, but gods be damned if she was going down without a fight.

“I’m not marrying any of those people,” she breathed, halting in front of the King. “I don’t agree to this.”

He shrugged, his crown—her crown—shifting atop his black curls. “It’s mandatory for rulers to take a partner through the Coronation Vows. You cannot Awaken, therefore take the throne, without it.”

“Where is your partner, Majesty?” Sol crossed her arms over her chest. “You rule alone.”

Gasps fluttered through the room. Clearly, the crowd was appalled at her outburst, but she didn’t care. Even Hand Gina gave her a stern glare, but as soon as Sawyer stepped up next to Sol, even Samara seemed to tense.

“I can argue that was the plan all along,” her cousin said.

“Keep your theories out of facts, Sawyerlyn,” Gina sneered.

“Your mother befell a great tragedy.”

Sawyer scoffed. “Yeah, she befell, alright.”

“If you aren’t in agreement with the way we do things here, Princess, you are free to return to your life in Graniela and let us continue to prosper.” Semmena raised a brow. “You have my blessing to relinquish your right to rule.”

Sol let a small smile spread across her lips, fueled by the challenge. “Convenient.”

“We are wasting time. Leave or be fine with this, Yarrow,” Samara said, waving a hand. “If we don’t have to host the Vows, it gives us more time to do what actually matters, like kill the Jinn and all. Something your mother should’ve done.”

“Watch it, Samara.” Nina warned, stepping to her other side.

The whispers and gasps dwindled into silence again, but this time even the soft sounds of the birds and the wind from beyond the walls seemed to halt.

As if the gods themselves were listening.

Nina cleared her throat. “If we may, your Majesty? Alix or I will join the Vows.”

Sol snapped her gaze to her. “You will not—”

“You can’t anyway,” Gina said. “None of you are noble. Amana, your mother was a servant. Alix, your family is made of commoners. Incredibly intelligent, but not noble.”

Sol narrowed her eyes at them. Semmena had planned this. Although he didn’t truly know her, his gamble was well organized. He gave her a way out, which for a second, she contemplated.

A way out. Back to Yavenharrow without needing to worry about any of this anymore.

If you don’t succeed, Sol, nothing will matter. There will be nothing left to love if you don’t continue what I started.

Sol sighed. And all logic left her as she said, “I’ll join then. If I win, I don’t marry.”

There was a beat of silence then Samara laughed. “You’re out of your gods-damned mind.”

Smoke curled on Semmena’s shoulders as he raked his gaze over Sol. He angled his head.

“If I win, this tradition is done. Southern rulers won’t be shackled to people they don’t know,” Sol continued.

Murmurs sounded from around them, and she briefly registered the Ladies of Niome smile from the corner of her vision. Beside them, another couple looked at each other, then back to Sol with furrowed brows. Then gave her a small nod.

It made her wonder how many of the nobles were together under free will, or if they had also been thrown into lives they had no control over.

She hadn’t spoken for anyone else other than herself, but a shimmer of pride settled in her chest. She held her chin high, even more so as Nina grasped her forearm. “Sol, no. These people are—”

“You realize you’d have to kill all prospects to win?” Semmena said. “Have you ever held a sword?”

Sol peered over her shoulder at the prospects.

Five men. Three women. Well, four men and a child.

She’d find a way to spare them. She—she'd go into the Vows and somehow have them survive. There had to be something she could do. What else was she good for if she couldn’t save the lives she left everything to fight for?

Sol looked back at Semmena. “I’ll join.”

Her uncle grinned. “What an interesting turn of events.”

“You can’t be serious,” Sawyer spat at her father. “You cry about traditions then make this exception?”

Semmena stood from his throne, making the audience fall to their knees in a bow. “I’ll allow it.” I’ll allow it. Okay.

Panic swirled in Sol’s stomach, but she kept her jaw shut, unwilling to change her mind. She had to Awaken her magic. She had to get through this.

And she wasn’t going to do it with a stranger shackling her down, observing her every move. She couldn’t have anyone beside her, not for what she was meant to do.

Sol turned to walk back into the shadows of the ballroom, painfully aware of everyone’s attention. The prospects eyed her, most with surprise. Some with fear. Some with a mix of both, laced with a curiosity she had no intention of satisfying.

The room seemed suspended in time. Everyone whispered amongst themselves in between coy glances, and the crowd of Rimemere students that gathered by the open doors dissipated back into the castle hallways as Sol neared the exit.

That was about all she could take for the day.

Sol knew if she focused too much on what she had just done, she would melt with nerves. Run back and beg to rethink her decision.

Arnold hummed pensively, making her stop her escape and look back his way. He crossed an ankle over a knee. “You know, I feel like I am missing something. What could it be?”

Beside him, Gina’s violet eyes sparkled with mischief. “The gift!” She signaled to the mysterious, red-draped crate by the wall, almost directly beside Sol. She took a healthy step away from it.

“The gift!” King Semmena echoed, clapping. “I suppose I should’ve unveiled it prior to your little announcement, niece. My mind wanders lately.”

Nina shifted, grabbing hold of Sawyer and Alix as King Semmena strode down from his dais and onto the floor. Smoke seemed to trail him as he walked toward Sol, toward the eyesore of a decoration.

The crowds that gathered around it parted for him.

Nina met Sol’s gaze from the other side of the room, and Sol dipped her chin, a silent request for them to come to her side.

Perhaps it was a bear. A lion, like Alix had suggested. Something Semmena could unleash, and it would take care of the problem Sol posed to him.

“Before you graced us with your very brave display of defiance, Sol Yarrow,” Semmena said, running his hand across the crimson fabric, “I was actually going to announce one more prospect.”

As the curtain slid to the ground, Sol didn’t know what to focus on first. On the fact that beneath the cloth was a cage made of steel bars and stone. Or on who resided within.

Cas.

“What the fuck.” Sawyer voiced Sol’s thoughts as she raced forward.

Sol stood frozen as her cousin ran past, trying to keep her breathing normal, willing her mind to settle. Cas lay against the far bars, his head limp against them, as if they were the only thing offering support.

Slowly, Sol walked closer.

His skin was smeared with dust and sweat, his hair pressed to his forehead and cheeks. His chest rose and fell in hollow pants, and when he met her gaze, those sterling eyes were as dim as the rusted bars around him.

“What the fuck is this?” Sawyer repeated, pulling at the bars frantically. Her palms flared. “Let him out!”

Beside Sol, Nina fell forward with a sob, pressing her face to the cage while her knees collided with the marble floors. “Cas,” she pleaded. “Cas, are you okay?”

Cas didn’t move, instead giving the Earth Caller a small, gentle smile.

“Casimir Xanthos is hereby sentenced to his participation in the Yarrow Coronation Vows as punishment for the murder of Gerson Xamthee.” Semmena rubbed his palms together, as if the motion would cleanse the filth from them.

“His immediate execution would have been a mercy compared to the terror my kingsmen experienced upon his return.”

Sawyer narrowed her eyes at her father, tears pooling at the edge of her eyes. “Your kingsmen disrespected the Heiress Apparent.”

“Can you blame them for assuming she wasn’t Irene’s daughter?” Gina eyed Sol. “Not to mention, insults should not result in death.”

Fury coated Sol’s throat. She could feel it heat her face, her chest, her closed fists as she surveyed Cas, as his wrists bled beneath solid cuffs and his exposed skin flecked with bruises.

She turned to her uncle. “Release him.”

Amusement danced in the man’s eyes. He surveyed her with a calculating ferocity, then just shrugged. “He will go to the dungeons until all the prospects depart to the Gods’ Villa tomorrow. Yourself included.”

Sol remained welded to her spot, all too aware of the wandering eyes, the whispers, and the gods-awful sight of the warrior inside the cage. Again, she said, “Open the cage.”

“You don’t order the King—” Semmena held a hand up, interrupting Gina mid-chastise. But Sol didn’t look at the woman. She remained with her attention on the King, on the man she knew was going to be an absolute nightmare to remove from the throne.

Her mother’s throne.

Her family’s throne.

Seconds ticked by, but neither of them budged. Finally, the King motioned a kingsman forward. “Take him to the dungeons. His blood is making the place reek.”

The guards stepped forward, one of them holding a ring of keys.

Sol sidestepped him, outstretching her hand. “Keys.”

“The King ordered us to do it.”

“I heard. Keys.”

The guard swallowed and looked from Semmena to Sol, then surely at Sawyer who stood behind her with the heat of an inferno radiating from her.

As the King turned to walk back into the ballroom, his Court in tow, the guard dropped the keys into Sol’s open hand.

She merely tossed them back to Sawyer.

“Let us gather outdoors, Noblemen and Noblewomen!” King Semmena continued his walk into the crowd, stopping only briefly at the entrance to motion them forward. “We have fantastic antiquities and things to showcase outside.”

“We will come inside for beverages and dancing once the room is cleared.” Gina clipped the last of the words with a glare at Sol.

The clatter of the lock and keys resounded through the room as Sawyer pulled the door of the cage open.

“Cas,” her cousin whispered, followed by a sob from Nina.

Both the women crowded into the cage, Alix full of stone, primal fury beside them.

“Why,” was all the Water Dancer said.

Sol flicked her gaze to him, pursing her lips and shaking her head. She didn’t have an answer for him.

The kingsmen remained in the room as the rest of the people filed out. Penny looked back at her uncle with a tear-stained face, ushered forward by Poppy Niome and the boy she spoke to before—the boy Sol now realized was one of her marriage prospects.

Oh gods.

She willingly signed up to participate in what seemed like a death sentence. Did her rash decision gain her allies? Or enemies?

She traced the scar on her palm, wishing with all of her will that her aunt Lora would walk through the throne room doors and embrace her, tell her all was okay, and she would get them out of this.

No.

No, that didn’t seem likely to happen.

Sol turned around.

Aside from the blood and bruises, Cas seemed slightly better now that Nina and Sawyer were beside him.

Sawyer ran her hands gently over his face, presumably to warm him.

Nina materialized plants—Sol recognized the aloe vera leaf the Earth Caller harvested salve from. She smoothed it over Cas's face.

He met Sol’s gaze and gave her a weak smile. “The one joy of being beaten almost to death is the way it brings out their nurturing side.”

Sol shook her head as Sawyer and Nina protested.

“Is that why you pick fights so often, Cassie?” Sawyer snickered. “To feel the touch of a woman?”

Despite her tears, Nina laughed. “We will hug you more, Cas. I swear it.”

“Why didn’t you call for help?” Alix knelt beside the cage, wrapping a palm around a rusted bar. “Why just lay here?”

Cas shrugged. “I’m tired. Plus, I was very entertained by the Princess’s speech.”

Sol knelt in front of him, her dress spilling around the rusted cage.

She searched his face for a hint of sincerity, or emotion. But it was cold. Vacant.

And she understood. So, she only said, “He will pay.”

The three of them looked at her, the two women cautiously surprised. But Cas grinned. “Welcome to the Yarrow court, Princess.”