Page 18 of Of Stars and Lightning
She was a stranger.
Sol met her aunt’s gaze through the haze. “My mother lied to me.”
Lora sighed; the wooden chair she situated in front of Sol groaned as she sat. “She couldn’t tell you, Sol. If she told you, it meant she’d have to Awaken your magic, and she couldn’t do that.”
“She lied to me.”
“She had to.” Her aunt stood, walking to Sol, and kneeling by her side. Gently, she grasped her hands. “I know there are a lot of answers we owe you, dove. I know. We will answer them for you. Your mother loved you more than anything in the world, and she chose to protect you until the very end.” A moment of swollen silence passed.
Then Sol whispered, “Why am I being told this now? What do I have to do withanything?”
That was clearly the question Lora wished to avoid. “I wish I could continue to honor her wish and keep you here, hidden and away from everything she fled. But I cannot. Not with the Jinn in Yavenharrow, not with them and everyone else knowing you exist. You’re the heiress to the throne, Sol. You’re needed to restore balance in Rimemere.” Sol’s breath hitched. She couldn’t focus as she braced herself for what she knew was coming. “And that’s the safest place for you,” Lora finished.
“No.” She felt her body shake, her vision blurring with unwelcome tears.
“I will meet you there, dove.” Lora took her chin in her hand. Her eyes were clear, focused. If she had any fear or reservations about the plan of action, she didn’t show it.
Sol, however, had nothing but reservations. Her disagreement was loud, physically, and mentally.
“Why? Why did you keep this secret from me?” she asked again, as if somehow the right answer would be spoken, one that would ease the sting of betrayal.
Lora pursed her lips and sighed. “Your mother asked me to. I—I didn’t want to intervene with her plans for you. Not until I had no other choice, which now I don’t.”
Through her desire to run, to flee and melt into the grasslands if it meant not dealing with this, Sol said, “I’m not going anywhere without you, Aunt Lora.”
Lora smiled at her, sweet and tender, as she brushed a golden strand behind Sol’s ear. “I will be close behind. I have some things to take care of here. I must make sure these people are protected.”
Sol straightened. “You have magic too?”
Lora eased them from the floor to stand, her hands still grasping Sol’s. “No, dove. But there are things other than a god’s magic at our disposal.”
Before Sol could inquire further, her aunt gently pushed her toward her room, the patter of rain echoing inside the cottage. “Sleep, Sol. We will regroup in the morning.”
Solemnly, mechanically, Sol slid into her room. She didn’t think or change into a nightgown before flopping onto the mattress andclosing her eyes, praying to whatever god would listen that she would wake up and the day would have all been a cruel, insane nightmare.
IRENE’S VOICEWAVEREDas if muffled by water. Words eased in and out of focus, taunting Sol. “What are you so afraid of, Soleil?”
Sol looked around, trying to locate where the achingly familiar voice came from, but her vision was clouded by shadows and mist. There was nothing but darkness beyond her, but she swore the air shimmered with specks of gold.
“Soleil, don’t be afraid.”
She swirled, the voice mere inches from her now. But there was nothing. There was no one.
“Mom?” Sol whispered. She shivered as a blast of cold wrapped around her.
“You’ve always been destined for this. You can’t outsmart destiny, Soleil. Trust me, I tried.”
The voice came from above her now, and when she looked up, she froze.
She recognized her mother’s glacier-blue eyes, her black hair cascading over her face and toward Sol as her figure hovered in the air. But the closer Sol looked, the more Irene distorted into a stranger, something with blue skin and rotting bones. With milky, soulless eyes and sharp, eager teeth.
The thing smiled, and the voice that came out of it was no longer her mother’s. “We can’t wait for the Yarrows to finish what they started.”
Sol jolted awake.
She sat up and wrapped her arms around herself to soothe the shivers, then ran a hand over her sweaty forehead. Nightmares were common. She had always been plagued by them, especially when she slept alone. But that…
“It’s going to be a long day,” she whispered to the air, turning to look out her window. The sun barely peeked from behind the horizon, casting the hills and grasslands in a light pink.
