Page 6 of Of Stars and Lightning (Sun and Shadows #1)

Sol’s head spun, and she tried not to fall as she swayed forward. Sensing her disorientation, Cas scooped her into his arms.

She tried to say she didn’t have magic, but her mouth wouldn’t move.

“Please don’t fight me this time,” he mumbled.

While they slid along buildings and alleys, the pain slowly subsided. Sol tried to process the night’s events.

Magic.

Magic.

When she was a child, Sol would pretend to have magic.

She would dance all around the outskirts of Yavenharrow, holding red and orange scarves that would be her fire, carrying around jugs of water she would toss in the air, then try to control the splatters.

Irene found it heartwarming, but Lora always complained she stained their rugs.

Sol never cared about the stains or the stares she would get when she and Leo chased each other around the yard, pretending the breeze came from their palms and the flowers grew at their touch.

All she knew was how her mother’s eyes brightened when she spoke of magic, and Sol believed every word Irene spoke of it—until the very day she died, when that piece of Sol died with her.

That younger version of her would have been elated. She would have stayed on the docks to at least kick rocks at the Jinn if it meant helping the Wielders. But she wasn’t young anymore, and the odds of the night being anything other than a terrible omen were slim.

Additionally, Irene always mused about how the Wielders remained around Rimemere and the deep south, since their deities' temples stood within the kingdom. It made no sense for any to be so far from their home.

Or wanting anything from her.

“Stop,” she said, kicking against her captor until her feet were firmly on the ground.

They were in an alley behind the jewelry and dress shops, a district she often frequented with Leo’s sister. A solitary chimney huffed smoke into the air, hazing the corridor and the storefronts beyond.

Sol blew out a shaky breath and whispered, “What is happening?”

Running a hand through his wet, ebony hair, Cas sighed and leaned on the wall beside her. “We planned on easing you in, but I guess there’s no better way of understanding a threat than for it to try to kill you.”

“Are those really Jinn?” Sol breathed, bracing a hand against the stone wall. “How did they know my surname? No one knows it.”

Her mother had made sure of that. Irene never had so much as Sol’s full name printed anywhere, and she never uttered it herself.

Protecting their names was the sacred rule amongst their family, and though Sol had wondered why, the look Lora and Irene would give when she asked would make Sol not question it too long.

She had only heard her full name once, without her paternal surname, since she might as well have sprouted from Irene alone.

She shook her head. Not the time to curse her absent father.

“You know what they are?” Cas asked, intrigued.

She looked up at him, stifling a flinch at his silver eyes. “I’ve heard of them.”

“From your mother?”

Sol narrowed her eyes. “How do you know so much about me?” Screeches pierced through the moment of silence, prompting the man to turn his attention toward the beginning of the alley where chaos surely unfolded beyond.

Curiosity, and perhaps impulsiveness, getting the better of her, Sol jogged to it, looking over the edge of the half-wall separating them from the way they came.

How the town remained dead was beyond her.

She would’ve run out into the night to see what the commotion was as soon as it reached her, and it was that same thirst for adventure and knowledge that gnawed at her in that moment.

She felt her chest tighten slightly at the thought of the people she had left behind to fight.

Flashes of amber shone in the distance, as well as the splash of waves. The ground beneath them shook, even the dirt seemed to drag toward the tide.

Accepting these people would have already killed her if they truly wanted to, she dared ask, “Why are they here?”

“Who?”

“You people and those demons.”

Cas let out a small laugh but looked to the commotion as well, leaning over the wall. “We are here for you. I don’t have an answer for your second question.”

“Why are you so vague—”

Cas slammed his arm against her chest, crushing the wind from her lungs as she collided against the wall to their backs. Sol shut her eyes and groaned at the impact before she clung to his arm when she realized why.

The Jinn were even more terrifying up close.

This one’s hair fell out in chunks, leaving spots of oozing, scabbing tissue around its head.

Its blue skin was oily and seemed to melt from its very bones like a candle’s wax.

It only had a split moment to smile from ear to ear before Cas impaled it with a dagger to the forehead.

But the thing didn’t move. In fact, Cas's hand seemed to suspend within it as if the dagger had met jelly instead of skull. He groaned and attempted to dig the knife deeper, but it only sliced further into nothing. The thing did, however, move its black eyes from Sol to something beside her.

“Sol—” He tightened his arm around her torso too late, a second too slow to save her from the putrid, pointed claws that grabbed her.

They pulled her from Cas, and she let out the loudest scream she had as the talons stroked her hair and neck. If she hadn’t been so petrified, Sol was sure she would have vomited at the smell.

“I’d recognize the Yarrow stench anywhere,” the creature purred behind her, its hot breath slicing across her cheek. “My master will be so pleased to know we finally found Irene’s daughter hiding in this filth of a town.”

“Release her.” Cas's voice was low and full of deathly promise as he angled his sword toward them. “Now.”

“I’m quite surprised you didn’t recognize my illusion, Casimir.” Sol whimpered as the Jinn cackled. “Distracted by the Princess?”

“Your kind’s biggest downfall is how much you fucking talk.”

Sol was torn from the creature's grasp as a ray of fire catapulted their way, colliding straight into the Jinn’s face. It shrieked, lunging at Sawyer, who swiftly pulled a sword from the sheath on her back and sliced the thing’s head clean off its grotesque neck.

This time, Sol did vomit.

She slumped over arms and hurled on the sidewalk, trying to purge the Jinn’s smell and words, and face from her body.

“We all reacted the same way at first,” Nina said calmly, rubbing circles on her back.

Sol coughed and nearly hurled again at the sight of the gooey black liquid oozing from the creature’s unmoving body.

“Up until a year ago, I distinctly remember you throwing up every single time we killed these things, Nins.” Through teary eyes, Sol looked up to find Sawyer standing over them. “I think she only stopped doing it because she drinks anti-nausea teas weekly.”

“Their blood smells disgusting. I don’t know how any of you stand it,” Nina countered, helping Sol to her feet. “Are you alright? Are you hurt?”

Sol shivered, then angled her head to look past Nina. Cas knelt by the alley wall, his hands tracing something on the ground. He held up his fingers, a translucent substance clinging to them.

“Cas?” Alix strode past to stand next to him. “What happened?”

“I’ve never seen a Mind Slayer play with tangible illusions,” Cas said, a muscle in his jaw twitching. “But this one managed to construct one.”

Behind her, Sawyer said, “They don’t. Their illusions are only visual.”

Standing, Cas wiggled his fingers, the substance he retrieved from the floor shimmering in the moonlight. “Apparently not.”