Page 9 of Of Stars and Lightning (Sun and Shadows #1)

Six

BARMAIDS DON’T MAKE GOOD TEA

THE FOUR WIELDERS were already in the tavern, Sawyer being the last to enter. She gave Sol a smirk as she made her way down the stairs to join them.

They all wore similar armor, thin enough to keep their agility but reinforced with something like scales, the type of thing Sol had seen merchants marketing for hundreds of coins.

The tavern wasn’t open to the public yet, available only to guests before noon. But besides them, no other guests were in sight.

Sol would have walked herself right back into her room if she had seen the people before her too.

“Who…” Leo stepped closer, gently tugging Sol behind him as he surveyed the Wielders.

Nina was the first to stand from her seat, her hands clasped in front of her, a small smile pulling at her lips. “Hello,” she said.

“We are…”

“Friends,” Lora interjected, saving Nina from coming up with anything.

Sol scoffed.

She would not call these people her friends. Perhaps not enemies…but definitely not friends either.

Leo sensed the word was too casual and gave Sol a side glance.

“Friends?”

Sol shuddered. “Let’s talk in the kitchen.”

Without waiting for permission, she tugged Leo to the right toward the kitchen, painfully aware of the eyes that followed.

And as soon as they were behind the swinging door, Sol told him.

Everything Lora had said, everything she had pieced together, she told him.

Every single, life-shattering bit. By the end of it, he was silent.

Sol wasn’t even sure he was breathing. He gazed ahead, eyes glazed.

But his breathing eventually evened out.

Sol was messing with a cluster of tea leaves on the counter when she finally whispered, “Please say something.”

He cleared his throat and inhaled deeply. “I don’t have much to say, Sunny.”

“I should run, right? Get on a ship and sail far, far away?”

Leo huffed a small laugh and leaned over the counter, scooping Sol’s hand into his. “I—I think you should go with them.”

She cut her gaze to him, dropping the leaves. “What?”

“I think you should go with them,” he repeated.

“You believe all this?”

“You don’t?”

Sol blinked at him. At the question. Did she? It was something she couldn't quite answer for herself, much less for someone else. Perhaps she was just afraid to say what she truly thought—that a great part of her did believe it, despite the other part wanting so hard not to.

“What’s stopping you, Sunny?” Leo ran a thumb over her palm. “What’s making you afraid?”

“I don’t know these people, Leo. I don’t know them or where they’re from or what they do, I—” Sol took a deep breath, daring a second of vulnerability. “I don’t know my own mother.”

Instantly, she was in Leo’s embrace, his strong arms wrapping around her tenderly. Sol hugged him back, her eyes burning with tears. “I don’t want to leave all I know. I don’t want to leave you or Mina.”

Gently, Leo pulled back and brushed a stray tear from her cheek. “Growing pains hurt, Sol. There’s a reason why they came to find you. Staying comfortable doesn’t change the world.”

You’re needed to restore balance in Rimemere.

“I’ll be no good as Queen. That’s not me, Leo. I know nothing of that life. I don't want that life.”

He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “You can’t know that if you don’t see what it offers first.”

“Why are you being so uncharacteristically calm about this?”

Leo shrugged. “Because my best friend being the heir to a magical kingdom sounds really fucking cool.”

“You’re insane.” Sol rolled her eyes, but the knot in her chest had eased slightly.

“Sol!” Lora’s voice sang through the closed doors, then her head peaked through an open sliver. “Will you fix us some tea, dear?”

“They can get tea themselves.”

“Great, herbal if you can!” She shut the door, completely ignoring Sol’s defiance, and went back to chattering in the foyer.

Leo patted her shoulder and motioned behind him to the door leading to the back alley of the Hound. “I’m going to get something from home for you. Don’t leave without saying goodbye.”

Sol nodded meekly, then turned to the pantries to search for tea as Leo slipped into the back roads.

NINA

“SHE HATES US,” Nina sobbed, slumping into a wobbling wooden chair. “I knew we should have approached things differently.”

“I think any way we would’ve done this would have resulted in her feeling betrayed, Nins.” Alix slid an arm over her shoulders, warming her chilled skin.

The Inn was cold and humid, nothing like the castle in Rimemere. Nina sighed at the thought of a warm bath, of her bed after years of traveling and searching for the Yarrow heir—who was finally here in front of them.

And she hated them.

“Maybe if we give her a gift…” Nina frowned.

Sawyer laughed, leaning back to sprawl on a dusty crimson loveseat. “Like what, Nina? What gift could possibly convey the sentiment of ‘sorry we’re about to kidnap you and make you leave your life behind?’”

Tapping the table, Nina offered, “Flowers?”

She would have brought the stars down for their Princess if it meant having her trust them.

Nina had heard stories—rumors of her mother’s friendship with Irene Yarrow.

The Rimemere castle libraries still had portraits Irene painted of them strung around the shelves.

Nina admired them any time she could. She had dreamed of having that same sort of friendship with Irene’s child.

Up until a month ago, the existence of that child had been a mere rumor.

But then that note found them in Graniela, leading them to Lady Lora and Yavenharrow. Whoever had sent them that letter with the Princess’s location had been right indeed.

“It will take time for her to trust you,” Lora said, walking toward them.

The woman radiated poise and knowledge, reflective of her previous position in Irene’s court.

The Royal Advisor, responsible for political relations and second only to her mother Clarisse, Irene’s Royal Hand.

Lora Yarrow had been the only human to ever hold a position of power in Rimemere.

She and Axel Yarrow had taken the Southern Continent by storm with their unprecedented union.

Nina read their history as a bedtime story through the years, praying to Flora she would one day have a love as great and unabridged as theirs.

Lora smiled at her. “I promise my niece is a kind soul. She is just…”

“Distrustful?” Sawyer scoffed. “Family trait, I guess.”

“She might warm up to you first, Sawyer,” Lora said, taking a seat on a chair beside Cas, who gave her a polite nod. “Family…it’s important to her.”

“You truly will not travel with us, Lady Lora?” Alix asked from beside Sawyer. “Yavenharrow is not safe any longer.”

Lora shook her head. “I must reinforce the spells to protect the people. I cannot leave while Irene’s protections here deteriorate.”

“Will you be able to do those alone?” Nina asked. “Dark Magic is… unforgiving, I’ve heard.”

Looking out toward the window, Lora seemed lost in thought for a moment before responding. “I’ll be fine. You all take care of her.”

“King Semmena will want her to follow Rimemere traditions,” Alix said, standing. “All of them.”

Anger flickered through Lora’s features. “Let Arnold do what he wants while he still can.”

“Please boot him off the throne soon,” Sawyer pleaded with a whine. “My father has become insufferable.”

“He always has been,” Cas muttered, breaking his silence.

Nina angled her head at him. “What happened last night?”

He looked over at her. “Which part?”

“How did you two end up in the Helian Ocean?”

Amusement danced in his eyes. “She took me off guard and threw us in.”

“The great Cas Xanthos, Prince of Eswin and Royal Guard, bested by a girl with zero combat training.” Sawyer gestured in front of her with each word, exaggerating motions. “When the cadets get wind of that, they’ll never let you live it down.”

Lora chuckled. “Someone go back there to check on them. I’m afraid Sol will persuade the boy to jump on a ship with her to avoid this.”

SOL

AS SOON AS Leo was out of sight, Sol regretted not dragging him to the docks with her and onto a ship.

When they were seventeen, Leo had traveled to the Scholar Towers to receive his formal diploma for finishing the fourteen levels of school.

Sol had always dreamed of doing the same, of studying and one day receiving her recognition as Scholar.

Leo tried to persuade her to go with him, using the excuse she deserved celebration too, since she always stole and studied his notes.

But Sol stayed behind, taking care of Mina, counting down the twelve days it would take him to come back.

It had actually taken him twenty days to return. When Sol had spotted him walking toward her after her shift at the Hound, she sobbed and clung to him the whole way home. They had made a pact that day to only sail together from then on.

Sol poured steaming water into a mug, sighing as the herbal scents caressed her.

Where would they go if she fled right now? Graniela?

The town was rich in exports, primarily woods and jewels. Or perhaps Hillarcliff, where Lora was born.

She threw a leaf of mint into the mix.

Maybe Rimemere wouldn’t be terrible. Sol cursed the small spark of excitement that brewed within her. She had to get Lora to go with her. It was either travel with her, or not at all.

The worn hinges of the kitchen door creaked, prompting Sol to look up. She didn’t think she would ever get used to the man’s eyes. The kitchen suddenly felt too small as he stepped closer, those tendrils of shadows swirling around his ankles. Sol’s gaze flickered to them as they spread toward her.

“They don’t bite,” he said, stopping in front of the counter where she lazily prepared a pot of tea.

She eyed the dark clouds. “They clearly do something.”

Cas laughed, bracing an elbow on the countertop. “Well, they won’t do anything to you.”

“Why are you back here?” Sol tapped a foot on the floor, still eyeing the dancing smoke.

“Is it employees only?”

“You can stay if you answer more of my questions.”

He bit on his lip, as if pondering it. “Depends on the questions.”

Sol dropped the spoon on the table and thought through the billions of things she needed to know.

Lora had told her some of Nina’s history, but she hadn’t been able to say much about anyone else. And if Sol would eventually have to travel with them, she would need to know who she would be traveling with.

“Who are you?” She locked her gaze on him, unwilling to seem small.

A smile pulled at the corner of his lip. “Cas.”

“Cas what?”

“Cas Xanthos. Or Morozov, depending on who you ask.”

“And what is your...position in this group?”

He arched a brow and pulled the empty cup toward him, then the mug of hot tea. “That also depends on who you ask.”

Peeking from the sleeves of his scaled suit, what looked like a tattoo snaked around his right wrist, all the way down to his fingertips. And as he stretched his arm to grab the spoon from the table, the suit shifted, revealing his forearm, where a fresh, circular wound swelled with—

“Did… was that me?” Sol stammered, reaching to grab his arm out of instinct. Lora had always instructed her to inspect wounds first, to better determine what remedies might soothe them.

Cas pulled his arm back, and Sol instantly withdrew her hands. “Sorry.”

“Yes, this was you. You have quite a bite.” He held his arm between them and tugged his sleeve to his elbow, revealing the teeth marks already bruising.

Her face heated. “I… It was a reaction.”

Cas poured the tea into a cup, gently stirring the leaves aside. His black, wavy hair fell forward, shielding his face as he took a sip.

“I’m not going back with all of you, you know,” Sol said, crossing her arms tight across her chest. “Especially with your incredibly vague answers.”

He looked at her over the rim of his cup, brows scrunching as he set it down. “That… is terrible tea.”

Sol scoffed and walked toward the kitchen door, deciding this man was not the one to have this conversation with. She was just about to push it open when Cas said, “You are. You have to—”

Slowly, she looked back at him. “I don’t.”

“It’s already been decided, Princess.”

“Not by me, it hasn’t.”

He gave her a slow smile, crossing his ankles as he leaned his back on the counter. Those silver eyes shining, he said, “Your aunt did warn us you were stubborn.”

Without another word, Sol stomped back into the tavern.