Chapter 4 The Assassin’s Grave

The wind rushed past my ears as I plummeted into the dark. Below me, the tips of a dozen spears glinted like hungry teeth. The assassins of the Solar Council were waiting for me to become a pincushion.

I am not dying here, I screamed in my head. Not for a family that threw me away. Not for a Council that fears the moon.

As the first spear tip brushed my silk skirt, my chest felt like it was cracking open. That cold, silver light from earlier didn't just glow it exploded. A wave of blue energy surged from my skin, hitting the ground before I did.

The impact didn't kill me. The air itself seemed to thicken into a cushion of frost. I hit the stone floor with a thud, breathless but alive. Around me, the assassins were screaming. My blast had frozen their spears into useless shards of ice.

"Kill her! Use your fire!" the leader yelled, his voice muffled by his sun-mask.

They dropped their broken spears and drew jagged daggers. The heat they radiated was different from Solis's. His heat felt like a heartbeat; theirs felt like a furnace meant for execution.

I scrambled backward, my hands scraping against the cold stone. I was a Weaver, not a warrior. I knew how to handle a needle, not a blade. But as the first man lunged, my vision shifted. I didn't see a man; I saw the "threads" of his movement. It was just like weaving. Every punch, every step, was just a string of energy.

I ducked under his strike and swept his legs. He went down hard.

"Eara!"

The voice boomed from high above. I looked up. Solis was standing at the edge of the broken floor, sixty feet up. He looked like a fallen star. He didn't hesitate. He jumped.

He hit the ground like a meteor. The shockwave sent the remaining assassins flying against the walls. Solis stood up, his clothes smoking, his eyes burning with a terrifying gold light.

"Touch her again," Solis whispered, his voice vibrating through the floor, "and I will turn this city into a graveyard."

The assassins hesitated. They were trained to kill, but they weren't trained to fight a god who had finally found something worth protecting.

"Your Majesty," the leader gasped, clutching his broken arm. "She is a Moon-witch. The Council has already signed her death warrant. If you stand with her, you are a traitor to the Sun."

"Then I am a traitor," Solis said.

He stepped toward me, his hand reaching out. I took it, and the familiar coolness washed over me, steadying my racing heart.

"Are you hurt?" he asked. His thumb brushed my cheek, checking for blood. The worry in his eyes was so real it made my throat tight.

"I'm fine," I whispered. "But Seraphine... she did this. She tried to kill us both."

"I know," Solis growled. "And she will be the first to burn."

Suddenly, the shadows in the corner of the room began to move. A thick, oily black smoke began to pour out of the vents. It wasn't fire. It wasn't light. It felt like... nothing.

Solis tried to blast it with fire, but the flames just disappeared into the smoke.

"What is this?" I asked, clutching his arm.

"Void magic," Solis hissed, pulling me behind his back. "It hasn't been seen in Helior for a century. The Council isn't just trying to kill you, Eara. They’ve been hiding the very darkness they claim to hate."

A figure stepped out of the black smoke. It was the high priest, but his face was twisted, his eyes leaking that same black oil.

"The Sun King is weak," the priest said, his voice sounding like many people speaking at once. "He needs a Moon to stay cool. But the empire needs a king who can burn the world. If you won't be our weapon, Solis, we will replace you with someone who will."

From the shadows behind the priest, a man stepped out. He looked exactly like Solis, but his hair was black as coal, and his eyes were empty pits of darkness.

"Meet your brother," the priest sneered. "The one we kept in the dark while you sat on the throne. The shadow that will take your crown."

The shadow version of Solis raised a hand, and a bolt of black lightning shot toward us. Solis threw up a shield of fire, but the black energy sliced right through it.

We were thrown backward into the wall. My head hit the stone, and spots danced in my eyes. Through the blur, I saw the shadow-man walking toward us, his hand reaching for Solis’s throat.

"Solis, move!" I screamed.

I tried to call on the silver light again, but my body felt heavy and drained.

"Wait," a new voice whispered. It didn't come from the room. It came from the locket I was still clutching in my hand, the one the priest had used to expose me.

The locket snapped open. Inside wasn't a jewel. It was a small, glowing map made of starlight.

"The curse isn't a punishment," a woman’s voice whispered from the locket. It sounded like my mother, but older. Much older. "It’s a key. Find the Moon-Throne, Eara. Only then can you stop the Void."

The shadow man was inches away from Solis.

I didn't have time to think. I grabbed the locket and slammed it into the floor. A blinding flash of blue light filled the room, making everyone scream.

When the light faded, the priest and the shadow man were gone. But so were the walls.

We weren't under the palace anymore. We were standing in the middle of a forest where the trees were made of white glass and the sky was a deep, permanent midnight.

Solis looked around, his hands still glowing with fading embers. "Where are we?"

I looked at the locket in my hand. The map was moving, pointing deeper into the white trees.

"We're in the moonlands," I said, my voice shaking. "And we aren't alone."

A twig snapped behind us. I turned around and saw a woman who looked exactly like me, except she was wearing a crown made of frozen light.

She wasn't smiling. She was holding a bow made of bone, and the arrow was pointed straight at Solis’s heart.

"Welcome home, little Weaver," she said coldly. "Now, give me the King so I can finish what the Sun started."