Page 52 of Of Stars and Lightning (Sun and Shadows #1)

Aquarene’s Trial: Part II

CATTYA TENSED FOR only a second before slumping into Sol’s arms. Sol didn’t hold her. She released the woman and let her slide into the ocean, devoured by the waves within moments. The ocean was stained crimson from her blood.

Sol couldn't breathe. Why should she, if she had taken the ability for yet another person to? Why should her blood remain inside her if all her victims had ended in it splattered over walls, stones, and now oceans?

She stood frozen as Cas pulled the key from his side, then tossed it into the sea.

“Phil, sink them,” Jonah said, pointing at the ship. “They’ll want to avenge—”

“No.” Sol’s voice was foreign in her own ears. “No more killing.”

Jonah blinked at her with an unreadable expression, his lips tight in contemplation.

“I will change their course,” Phil said. “I will send them North.”

Sol didn’t wait to watch the boy work. She wordlessly sank to her knees beside Cas, searching for his wound.

“Cas,” she said softly, pressing the pulsing gash on his side. It nearly missed his reinforced suit. Cattya knew just where to strike.

Behind them, Jonah continued his attempts to Earth Call, reciting sermons for forgiveness from his goddess.

“Out of all the ways we could have died, I truly didn’t think copper poisoning and Jinn dessert would be one,” Cas said, frowning slightly at the wound. “Very anticlimactic if you ask me.”

“We aren’t dying,” Sol said dryly. “How do I fix it?”

His gaze flicked up to meet hers. “You don’t. Copper poisoning is fatal.”

“There has to be a way.”

“There is not.”

“There must—” Sol didn't realize she was yelling until he placed a hand over her own, the other on her shoulder. She shook him off. “There must.”

This couldn’t be it. After everything.

The sounds of the ship faded with a caress of the wind, the residue of it accelerating the raft’s demise. Sol felt Jonah and Phil’s utter panic as they treaded water. Cade’s body, still strung to the post, sank into the waves with it.

Sol sobbed. She pulled Cas into her arms and collapsed against him as he held her gently, his blood already spilling into the sea around them, making the already scarlet water darker. She kicked into the ocean to keep afloat, Cas doing the same.

“It’s only copper,” she sobbed. “It’ll be okay, right?”

Cas laughed slightly against her, pulling back to peer at her. “It’s our only tangible weakness as Wielders.”

“It’s a stupid one!” Sol whined, struggling to keep herself afloat while still clinging to him, unwilling to let him go.

Jonah and Phil swam to their side.

“Not to alarm anyone, but...” Phil’s words trailed off as motion resumed beneath them.

Sol shut her eyes.

Would they kill him first now that they’ve tasted his blood?

Cattya’s body was nowhere in sight, did they drag her to their lair?

She sobbed harder.

“I must admit, although you look nothing like Irene, you’re just as skilled with a blade, Yarrow.”

Cas held her tighter, unsheathing his sword with a free hand between the crashing current. Sol didn't miss his grimace, or how the color quickly drained from his skin.

Jonah did the same, shielding Phil.

The Mind Slayer let out a caw of laughter as it floated before them. “Oh, please, you’d be no fun to kill right now.” It angled its head, its shorter black hair dipping into the water. “I like my prey to have a fighting chance.”

“Speak for yourself, Silas.” Another Jinn peeked through the current. “I’ll take them all if you want.”

Sol wasn’t sure how quickly the copper would dull Cas’s magic, or how instantly it worked in his system, but the remnants of a Ward flickered around Cas’s wrists just enough to make the Jinn flinch.

“Relax, Prince of Shadows,” The Mind Slayer—Silas—said. “We aren’t going to harm anyone the Yarrow heir is allied with.”

The second Jinn swam around them in a circle. “That’s a sure way to anger our Mother.”

Cas spat as his kicking slowed, the water pulling him under more often than it didn’t. Sol wrapped her arms around him with Jonah doing the same, her heartbeat near an impossible speed.

“Just kill us and be done with it!” Sol yelled.

End all this suffering.

“Again, we aren’t going to hurt you.” Silas reached into the ocean, retrieving a plank of wood just big enough for them to hold. It tossed it their way. “I cannot guarantee the ones on land will be so generous, though. They mostly answer to Lorkin.”

Sol barely registered the words as she swam forward toward the piece of wood. She held it beneath Cas.

“Earth Caller,” the second Jinn hissed as it returned to the other’s side. “Flora will take the tainted offering from your wrist.” Before sinking into the waves, it grinned.

With a flash of its lightless eyes, Silas did the same. Then they were gone.

The sea became still around them, no Jinn, no ships, no hope around.

“What the fuck,” Sol whispered, breathlessly grabbing on to the wood for a repose.

“Do you think what it said is true?” Phil asked.

“Which part?”

Jonah wasted no time in testing the important part out. He took his hand out of the ocean, slashing his right wrist. His jaw tensed as the blood bubbled into the ocean. Sol looked away from it, unable to stomach any more blood.

She smoothed Cas’s hair away from his face as they waited. “You better not die out here.”

Her panic only increased when his only response was a slow blink.

Jonah gave a small laugh. “It’s working.”

His blood evaporated into golden shimmers into the air, forming a quick circle before dispersing.

Jonah exhaled, closed his eyes, and began to work.

The land beneath them, deep beneath the sea shook and shivered for moments, all which passed with excruciating slowness as Sol tried to keep Cas awake.

His skin was ghastly white, his lips violet and breathing shallow.

She pressed her forehead to his. “Please.”

The water rippled open, revealing patchy paths of stony hills.

Jonah shook his head, his breath quickening as he continued trying to Call more to the surface. “The rest is too deep.”

The ocean around them was so red. It was as if they floated not in water, but in a cauldron of blood. And within the sea somewhere were two people who were alive, then weren't, and— “Hey,” Cas said softly. “Don’t think about that right now.”

“We must hurry.” Phil began swimming to the first slope of land. “The Jinn are surely calling others so they may all feast on us.”

Jonah nodded slightly to Sol as he pulled Cas forward, helping her. “We must get to land quickly,” he said.

Sol’s feet touched beautiful, glorious stone. She stood, dragging Cas up with Jonah’s help. “I have to save you.”

Cas coughed, “Sol, let it go. Leave me here. Copper poisoning takes maybe half an hour at the latest.” Despite the obvious weakness, he stood, looking from his wound then back out into the distance. “I won't make it to the shore.”

Sol followed his line of vision. She recognized that roof, the color of the architecture. About half an hour’s swim away, the peaks of the Gods’ Villa were clear, emerging as if from the ocean itself.

“I don't know how much land I can Call, Princess,” Jonah braced his hands on his knees. “I—It's too much blood.” Phil ripped a sleeve of his shirt, wrapping it around his brother’s wounds. “I’m afraid my wind won't do much either.”

“I am not moving from this spot until we all agree we move together,” Sol said tensely, adrenaline spreading through her.

Her birthmark pulsed with it, the scar along her palm seeming to beckon her forward.

She met each of their gazes, ignoring how her limbs begged her for rest or how her mind tore itself apart with the events of the last week.

“We go together, or not at all.” She looked at Cas as she finished the sentence. “No room for discussion.”

Cas was able to walk on his own for only five minutes.

Sol and Jonah took turns holding him while still trying to maintain as much momentum as possible.

His wound had stopped bleeding, but for once it seemed the remedy was for it to continue.

Sol begged for antidotes, anything that might help them.

The only thing Jonah offered was a total blood replacement, which would require care from healers at the Scholar Towers themselves, weeks away.

He didn't have weeks.

But Sol didn’t think about that. They would get to land, and everything would be okay somehow. There was no other option, she wasn’t entertaining the notion of there being another.

Fifteen minutes into their walk, Jonah was spent.

They had reached the end of the makeshift path, and although it had been unruly and splotchy, it was better than having to swim while pulling Cas.

They stood at the edge of the final stepping-stone.

Ten minutes. That’s how far was left. Sol had spent all her summers and free time swimming in Yavenharrow—she would make it.

Swimming.

Water.

Phil seemed to have the same thought at that moment as he glanced down into the water. “This is Aquarene’s Trial,” he said. “Perhaps an offering for her will help?”

“Even if we have no Water Dancers?” Sol tightened her grip on Cas’s waist.

Jonah shook his head. “Wielders can pray to any god—but praying to one that hasn’t blessed them won't provide magical benefit.”

“Maybe it will bring us luck.” Phil shrugged and looked at Sol. “I will do it.”

Sol had the instinct to intervene. But Jonah was spent, Cas’s blood was poisoned and hers was, as of now, useless.

Solemnly, she gave the boy a tight nod.

The more Sol observed the offerings, the more she admired them. Even through chattering teeth and a staccato heartbeat, she watched Phil work in wonder. The boy’s expression was fierce with each movement and chant, truly highlighting the warrior he had been trained to be, even at his young age.