Page 3 of Wrath Of Suns And Shadows (The Osparia #2)

Chapter Two

Emelyn

D ear sister,

If you get this, attach a response to the bird and send him back to the west. Let me know you’re safe.

All my love, Ace.

The letter was brief and to the point, and it was the first time I had heard anything from Ace since I had been on the island.

My heart fluttered in my chest as relieved tears pricked behind my eyes.

Knowing he was safe made my cheeks hurt with a smile.

I grabbed something to write with and a small piece of parchment and responded to his letter quickly.

Dear brother,

This is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. It’s warmer here now that spring will soon arrive. I miss you. I can’t remember a time where we’ve been apart for longer than a week. I hope things are well with everyone, including a certain someone. I can’t wait to hear about everything.

Stay safe. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Mai lao kahi.

I couldn’t help but tease Ace about Luana.

I wanted to tell him more, but I thought it safer to be vague.

I walked down to the beach from the camp we had set up next to the library with a smile curved on my lips as I rolled up the terse letter and whistled for the bird that had delivered Ace’s.

He swooped down from the trees, and I tied it to him with some twine before I sent him into the sky. I watched him as he flew to the west.

Today marked a week since we had made it to the island.

A week of nothing but grueling training and studying.

But now, as the sun crept higher, gilding the sea with its radiance, I allowed myself this moment. I breathed deeply, inhaling the scent of the salt and wildflowers.

I dusted my pants off as I rose to my feet on the beach. Watching the sunrise before my training sessions had become the highlight of my days. It was something I had done every morning since arriving here.

A small, wispy orb of shadows grazed against my chin, turning my focus to them as they crawled up my neck and behind my ear. The sensation was delicate yet deliberate, akin to the touch of silk. The shadows caressed me with an intimacy that sent shivers cascading down my spine.

“I miss you,” I whispered into the void between us, my voice barely louder than the lapping waves at my feet. I didn’t know if Crow could hear me, but his shadows had been visiting me since the day after we arrived here.

“ Mei wynsoara .” His words were barely a caress in my mind, coating me with warmth as they answered my question, but they sounded so distant.

I couldn’t imagine the power it took to bend his shadows at such distances without Hollowing through them.

I imagined it would be like trying to bend water on the shore on the opposite side of the ocean.

His shadows kissed my cheek before they dissipated to nothing.

I knew he had work to do for Atreya, but I wished he would’ve gotten the chance to tell me goodbye.

But his little flirts for shadows coming to visit me made me feel as though he were here with me, and it brought me comfort.

I turned away from the open waters of Draynua and started the walk to the library. Today was going to be another brutal day. Each step was an act of defiance against the dread of what awaited me—another day of relentless training under Shay’s command.

My pulse quickened as I broke into a jog through the woods, the rhythm of my feet on the forest floor grounding me. My breath flowed in measured gasps as I pushed myself harder. Muscles warmed and flexed, preparing for the ordeal ahead. I pumped my blood quicker through my veins.

Shay’s prowess with a blade was legendary. She might not bend, but the woman could wield a sword better than any opponent I'd ever met in my life.

I approached the library where Shay was waiting for me.

“You’re late, Em,” she said as she sharpened her blade, leaning against the wall of vines.

“Only a minute. Come on, Shay, don’t make me do it.” I huffed like a child.

“Now drop and give me a hundred. I’m being lenient,” she ordered, never looking up from the sheen of her blade. She was right. A few days ago, she’d made me do five hundred, and I’d thought I was going to die.

“Fine,” I conceded as I dropped to the ground, the cool earth pressing against my palms as I began the punishing count of repetitions.

By the time I finished, my arms felt like jelly and sweat had formed beads across my forehead before streaming down my face.

Draken emerged from the roof of the library, from the golden-winged beast he transformed mid-descent, limbs retracting and wings folding into the figure of a man.

His feet touched the ground in barely a whisper.

“Now, time for your training, and since you put us behind, we’re going to go even harder today,” he said, and I almost wanted to cry. The training over the past week had been excruciatingly brutal. Even worse than some of the relentless training days with my father. Or Ace.

I squared my shoulders, ignoring the tremors that danced through my muscles, and met his piercing gaze.

His arms burst to life with fire roiling up to his shoulders before he stepped forward, and I took a step back.

Water whipped around me. It was so natural that my body wielded it without me having to focus at all.

“Try again, Emelyn,” he said as he shot balls of fire at me. I leaped to the side, my heart pounding against my ribcage, and rolled across the ground. The moisture that had been my shield dispersed in wisps of steam as it met the heat, leaving me exposed.

I stood. I needed fire, not water. My breaths came in shallow gasps, feeding the burgeoning resolve within me. I narrowed my eyes, focusing on the searing energy emanating from Draken’s form.

I focused so hard, my head started pounding as I waited for the moment he would send another attack my way. Time stretched, taut as a drawn bowstring, until Draken unleashed another wave of fire.

When he did, I shifted on my feet, catching it—controlling it. As the flames met my outstretched palms, something miraculous occurred. They did not scorch or sear; instead, they coated my hands like a second skin, flickering and wild, yet somehow a part of me.

I could only hold it for a few moments before it dissipated to nothing and left shimmery golden embers behind, and then nothing at all. Damn it.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t just pull fire from thin air like normal fire fae could. I only wielded whatever Draken sent to me, and even then I could only keep it going for a few moments. I needed to start my fire without him.

Wield it—control it.

“You held it longer today than yesterday,” he offered, trying to be encouraging before he bent an even bigger fireball than before.

“Now again.” He sent another blazing sphere racing toward me.

I braced myself, reaching deep within to grasp at the elusive threads of power that seemed to dance just beyond my reach.

But when the flames hit, they took my breath away.

I bit back a scream, focusing all my will on bending, shaping, controlling the unforgiving element.

The heat rushed over my body, making it hard to breathe. I wanted to scream as I tried to wield the scorching flames.

I couldn’t do it.

“Emelyn!” Shay’s voice reached me, tinged with concern.

The fire blasted me back into a tree as I lost all control of it.

My hands were stained black and trembled.

They were covered in blisters from how much heat they had been put under this week.

Shay and Draken rushed over to me, trying to help me to my feet, but I pushed them off of me in my frustrations.

“Get off,” I spat, shifting on my heel and turning away from them. The searing pain in my hands fought for dominance over the sting of failure that lashed at my heart.

“Emelyn, I know this is hard, but you will get it, I promise,” Draken said as Shay placed a hand on my shoulder.

“Why don’t we do some hand-to-hand combat today?

We can try fire again tomorrow,” Shay murmured, and I had to swallow back my emotion.

I knew how many people counted on me, and I couldn’t even start my own flame.

I nodded, unable to form words, but I knew I couldn’t give up.

Shay and I walked to the beach wordlessly, the forest gradually giving way to the open expanse of the beach.

The crash of waves against the shore echoed the turmoil inside me before Shay finally broke the silence.

“You can talk to me, you know,” she said, and it brought a semblance of relief. Normally, I’d talk to Ace about my internal struggles, but since being here, it had been hard without him by my side. His absence plagued me more than I let on.

“I’m worried I won’t get it down,” I admitted. “The world is counting on me, and the weight of it is crushing me, but I have to carry on with my life as if it’s not.”

“It’s alright to be scared. Long ago, when I had lost everything and feared what was to come, my mate told me, we never lose.

We either win or we learn. This is no different.

The power of the Peacebringer flows through your veins.

I know, without a shadow of a doubt, you’ll bring peace again.

But until then, we’ll learn from our mistakes along the way and celebrate the wins when they come.

” She smiled, and it was like she’d lifted a small weight off my shoulders.

“Thank you, Shay.”

“Anytime,” she said as the ground slowly changed from soil to sand and the trees became sparse.

I took a deep breath through my nose and blew it out.

We made it to the beach. Unsheathing my axe, I took a few steps away from Shay.

“You ready?” she asked as she unsheathed her sword.

The metal sang as if it were excited for blood.

The sound was terrifying. A sound that promised pain and precision.