Page 138 of Of Stars and Lightning
A series of knocks from on top of the carriage signaled it was time to exit and brace the second-to-last trial. Sol felt her nerves spike and her palms begin to sweat as Cas clicked the door open.
He grinned at her, but his eyes still held a whisper of reservation. “Look at you giving orders.”
They stepped into the village with a puff of dirt beneath their feet. Almost immediately after she and Cas were out of the carriage, the guards kicked their horses into a gallop, swirling out of the village and into the forest. Unease cut through her like a blade. The silence was thick, palpable, as she looked around the ghost town. Not a single soul wandered. Even the air stilled, like the calm before a mighty thunderclap.
With a sudden infamy, everything exploded.
The blast was deafening. Disorienting. Sol was standing and thenshe wasn’t, thrown to the ground by a second explosion. The cobblestone street splintered and dug into all her exposed skin. Unlike the homes they had seen on their way, the structures around them smelled of scalding wood, giving away the unlikely survival of any as the heat grew, the sound of sizzling flames merging with her breathing. Smoke and the heat of burning air blew around her face as she struggled onto her palms.
“Easy.” Hands held her shoulders. “Don’t get up too fast.”
Sol shook with adrenaline as Cas gripped her against his chest, easing them both into a crouch. As her vision adjusted, her mind raced.
Jonah. Phil. The tunnels. The plan??—
Cas coughed. “We have to get out of here—the smoke.”
Sol nodded and trailed after him as he navigated them through the compact streets.
As they evaded flames and billows of smoke, Sol looked around for the signal that would mark the start of the trial. But through the haze, she saw nothing, not until they finally reached the edge of the village. Within a cluster of evergreens, a lone arrow marked a path inward, the kind expected to mark the exit.
But no trial, nothing to complete before getting to it.
Sol panted, bracing her hands on her knees as they stopped in front of it. “Where is the trial?”
“I don’t think we should question it,” Cas breathed. “Let’s just get out of here.”
The crackling of the raging fire grew closer. “I—I can’t leave yet.”
Cas met her gaze, his Wards sparking at his fingertips. “Sol, think logically for a second.”
“I am.”
“You’re being emotional.”
Sol straightened, narrowing her eyes. “I will not leave them, Cas.”
“The point is for us to survive, Sol!” His silver eyes were wild, pleading, as he grabbed her by the shoulders. “Get out of your head!”
She ripped herself from his grasp. “I’m not just leaving, Cas!” she cried. “They’re people. Phil is a child!”
“You have to learn to leave people behind in battle, Sol.” His eyes blazed silver, the flames surrounding them reflecting back the panic his voice gave away. “You can’t save everyone. There comes a time when you have to save yourself.”
Sol took a moment to step closer, to breathe out the motivation for enduring the trials and the weight of her identity, and everything else that had been thrown at her in a few weeks.
She inhaled a breath, hot and heavy, then spoke. “When my mother was murdered, she told me to save myself. I got home to her yelling for me to run, to find Lora, and get as far away from the house as I could.” Her hands trembled. “So, I did. I did, Cas, and guess what? If I had stayed, I might have been able to save her. I still don’t know what happened, and I probably never will, but I will never—ever—abandon someone I care for again. Even if it kills me.”
Her chest heaved with revelation, adrenaline spiking and begging for more, more truth, more pain to seep from within to cleanse the oozing wounds she had only lazily patched over.
The crackling of buildings crescendoed, and the air scathed, but neither of them moved. Cas watched her as if suspended in the moment, his gaze roving over her. She wondered what he saw looking back at him—did she look as horrible as she felt? Could he see her skin bubbling with the heat, her hair singeing? Could he see how truly broken she felt over that night, how it haunted her every waking moment and influenced her decisions? She was a marionette tethered to the fear of failing someone else she loved.
She hoped he saw her plea to somehow help her cut those strings.
He ran a gentle caress over the side of her cheek, his thumb stroking down to her jaw and said, “We will search for them together, then.”
Time raced as they weaved through the streets and buildings, plunging back into the village and leaving the exit behind. The heat of the flames squeezed and blurred Sol’s vision. The bells bythe cathedral rang and pounded, a beating reminder of where she needed to be, where she needed to take Phil and Jonah.
All at once, panic set in. She ripped her hand from Cas and bent over, breath fast, heavy, and scarce.
