Page 36 of Solar Shadows

“The tides are turning. I can feel it. I can feel the becoming, I smell the flood of death and change. But where isshehiding, the one who piques my interest the most? She speaks to me in my dreams. She whispers of her greatness. Her voice slipped in, carried by the wind. Too late. Too late to act.”

A wave of goosebumps passed over my body. Another potential threat? She? I asked who the hag was talking about, only to be met with her menacing glare.

She licked her lips again. “Cower in your bubble. Fight on, be brave, try to stop the coming storm. You will not stop me. You will not stop the march. For greatness is rising, and you will fall from your skies like delicate flakes of nothing.”

My brain throbbed. “I guess you won’t be giving us any more than that, eh?”

She turned her back on us and walked toward the cottage. “No. I will wait to taste you and—” A scream tore from her body. She grabbed at her hair, thrashing about angrily. “No! Not again! Not again!”

“Someone’s not happy,” I drawled.

Another scream, this one so vicious I covered one ear with my free hand, holding tighter to Riley. If I let go, this bubble would burst.

The fae woman shuffled her body around to face us. “Slippery fish only get so far. Slippery fish will be mine.”

Her jaw dislocated, her hair withering into dust.

What the fuck?

Her eyes burst, the skin melting off her face. The rest of her body collapsed in on itself until she was nothing but a pile of bones, her liquid flesh oozing across the snow.

I looked to Riley. “I guess she won’t be tasting us tonight.”

We returned to the mansion driveway, hands no longer joined, Aaron’s voice coming at us with constant pleas for us to wake up.

“You’re back!” Aaron cried, bending over to catch his breath.

“What—”

He straightened, pointing over to the fence. “It’s Ollie. He’s badly hurt. An ambulance is coming but?—”

Without a second thought or listening to anotherword, I tore across the grass, vaulting over the fence and landed on a small patch of grass beside Ollie.

He was unconscious, his mum holding his hand, Jake’s hands over a wound to the stanch the bleeding. A deathly pale sheen infected his lovely face, the rise and fall of his chest indicating his lungs were doing the bare minimum.

Absolutely not. He wasn’t dying today.

I called to my Healing Light, golden sunlight sparkling in my hands. I pressed them to his body, feeling his lifeforce like a gentle caress on my palms. He was still here, tethered to life. He hadn’t crossed the line yet, so I didn’t need Riley’s help like when I’d saved Erin.

No dying for Ollie today, his body bathed in golden light, putting him back together again.

Whenever I healed, my body flushed with warmth like I was spending a lazy day laid out on a sun lounger. Pleasant but tiring. It drained my energy levels quickly.

When Ollie gasped, his body arching as he drew in a sharp breath, those lovely hazel eyes open again, I took a tumble onto my backside.

Phew. Exhausting work.

I wasn’t sure if there was a spell in the celestial room to help with the fatigue. There was for Riley’s Moon Illusion power, which weakened after each use. It required a restoring ritual in the celestial room to recharge it.

Was there a similar thing waiting for me behind that locked door?

“Ollie?” Erin whispered, grabbing his shoulders. “Son?”

“I… I…” His eyes met mine. “I…”

I yawned and fell backward, body going limp.

“Isaac?” Riley said.