Page 29 of Of Stars and Lightning
Someone grabbed Sol by the waist and ran, taking her away from her family and friends and everything that mattered. She stared atthe Jinn as they poured into her cottage. Lora stretched her hands in front of her and bellowed a fierce series of chants before she was engulfed in a blinding violet light.
As Sol yearned to see more, to make sure her aunt was alive and okay and this wasn’t history repeating itself, her kidnappers dragged her out the back door and took her away from her home.
Nine
THE JOURNEY AHEAD
IT TOOKSOLa whole hour of traveling on foot to stop trying to escape. Between attempted escapades, she took in the moon’s place in the sky. Sawyer dragged her along at first, when the moon had been near the horizon, then after Sol stomped on her foot in an attempt to flee, she was passed over to Cas.
Sol immediately protested, she wasn’t a rabid dog that needed containment, so she was eventually left in the center of their circle with a bit less restraint as the moon settled a quarter higher.
Apparently, the Wielders’ horses were left on the outskirts of Yavenharrow, tied to a post near a trough of water by a small, abandoned farm. They were to ride through the rest of the night and, hopefully, most of the next day since Rimemere was a week’s ride away.
Sol couldn’t help but constantly look back to Yavenharrow the further away they went, as if waiting for a sign or signal or omen.
But the town was silent.
Eerily so.
She didn’t notice when they finally came before the horses until the Wielders broke their circle to reveal them.
Instantly, Sol shook her head. “There is no way I’m mounting one of those.”
The creatures were massive, daunting things, all staring her down as if she was a plump, juicy apple.
They huffed at her.
“They look scarier than they are,” Sawyer said, stepping up to release one from the wooden fence it was anchored to. “Unless it's Kahaida. She is just as terrible as she looks.”
In response, a horse separated from the others, the color of ashy sand.
“Not true!” Nina whined and strode to it, the horse instantly trying to nibble at her auburn hair. “She is just selective.”
Sol’s head buzzed with a cocktail of feelings. Everything was unfamiliar. She had never felt like running backward but also trudging forward at once, battling the taut string of destiny tugging her onto her mother’s homeland while simultaneously feeling tethered to Yavenharrow.
For a few hours, she remained silent, defeated atop Kahaida with Nina a soft presence behind her. She went back and forth between nostalgia and excitement, finally settling on indifference.
The homesickness would fade—it had to.
Right?
“We will stop for the night soon, Princess.”
Sol flinched at Nina’s voice as it sliced through the night.
“Please don’t call me that.” Sol shifted in the saddle. It was too soon and too unnerving to so willingly sink into that identity.
“What should we call you, then?”
“Just Sol.”
“Typically, royalty is addressed with titles—names are sacred.”
The sentence echoed within Sol, reminding her of the similar things her mother would say. The longer she was with the strangers, the uncanny similarities between them and her mother gave her an odd sense of familiarity.
She fought against it.
“Why is that?” Sol stared at the trees ahead, tugging at her braid. “My mother used to say the same.”
