Page 156 of Of Stars and Lightning
As soon as Cas turned away and made his way to the castle, Sawyer went after him.
Shadows spilled from his footsteps, leaving sparks of violet in their wake. She ducked around servants heading to assist the Semmena court, shouldering past the students who had gathered by the courtyards to watch the commotion.
As Cas took the final step into the foyer, Sawyer slammed a hand to his shoulder, whirling him around to face her. “Hey, what was…”
His eyes were bleak. Lifeless. She knew the amount of times he’d been forced to choose between Eswin and Rimemere—between Eswin and the Yarrows—weighed on him. She also knew her father did it on purpose, the horrible, Jinn-loving asshole.
She dropped her hand. “You look troubled.”
“I’m not in the mood, Sawyer.”
“I have things to tell you, so get in the mood and follow me.”
Sawyer didn’t wait to see if he complied, only smiled in relief asfootsteps and Shadows followed her up to the third floor.
She hurried past the libraries and the lingering courtiers, all surely eyeing how Casimir Xanthos and Sawyerlynn Yarrow entered her rooms just after he returned from Sol Yarrow’s vows.
Scandalous.
Giving the remaining audience a charged glare, she shouldered the door open and pulled Cas inside.
She regretted not cleaning, but she didn’t do it for herself, and she had no visitors. So, Cas would have to find a spot in the sea of orange peels, blades, and ashes to sit before she spoke.
Because he had to be sitting for it.
Her oldest friend ran a hand through his hair, pulling at the band that tied it back to let it loose. “I want to go give an offering to Warren, Sawyer.”
“The god of Souls can wait, Cas.” She signaled to her bed, which was an unmade mess but at least had no residue of burnt paper or clothes. When he arched a brow at her, she sighed. “Just sit. I will stand.”
When he finally did, Sawyer told him everything. Telling Nina in the pantheon had been a solace she hadn't realized she needed, and now that the truth about her survival in Melisandre was in one of her friend’s memories, the others needed to have it too—especially the one who had been plummeted with Dark Magic.
Sawyer recalled the encounter at the third legion’s base, introduced him to Morna, then had to go back to the beginning when he looked at her like she had gone mad. As her story progressed, his eyes softened, and by the time she finished telling him about her father and Lorkin, he was standing directly in front of her.
A beat of silence passed through them as she chewed on her nails.
“Does Nina know?” Cas asked.
Sawyer nodded.
“Does Alix?”
“I haven’t had the chance to tell him. He’s been dealing with Jeriyah. The High Scribe has been draining.”
Cas hummed, thrumming his fingers at his chin. “Well, Sawyer, it’s your turn to sit down.”
Sawyer expected Cas to tell her about the Vows. He did—but, to her horror, they had not been the worst thing he and Sol faced at the Gods’ Villa. She had a sense he skipped through a lot of it, but when he got to Aquarene’s Trial, he went into quieter detail. As if it was a fragile memory, one he didn’t want to rouse.
By the end of his story, Sawyer had accidentally burned a hole in her duvet. “Okay, but Sol told you a Jinn told her how to save you from copper poisoning?”
He nodded, kicking aside a clean spot on the floor to sit on. He sank into her orange carpet.
“Is it possible my sweet, fragile cousin was in a state of shock? Or that the key wasn’t copper, since the only proven cure for it is a total blood replacement?”
There was just no way. Nothing on this dimensional plane could purify Wielder blood tainted by copper. The metal clung to the magic in the blood, eating and eroding it until the Wielder quite literally died.
“No, Sawyer. To both of your questions.”
She blinked at him. “What was the antidote, then?”
