Chapter 5 The Choice of Ice and Fire

The woman’s arrow was pointed at Solis’s chest, and it was glowing with a cold, blue light. It wasn't the soft glow of my weaving threads. This was a sharp, biting magic that made the air around us turn to frost.

"Step away from the Sun King, Eara," she commanded. Her voice sounded like ice cracking on a lake.

Solis didn't run. He stepped in front of me, his body radiating a desperate heat. But he looked weak. The battle in the palace and the jump through the map had drained him. His skin was pale, and the gold in his eyes was flickering like a dying candle.

"Who are you?" I demanded, stepping out from behind his broad shoulder. "And how do you know my name?"

The woman lowered her bow just an inch, her eyes searching my face. "I am Lyra, the Guardian of the Silver Oath. And I know your name because you are the one we have been waiting for. You are the last daughter of the Moon-Throne. You were stolen from us when you were just a baby."

My heart did a painful somersault. Stolen? I thought of my mother, the woman who had raised me in the dirt, the woman who had taught me to hide my light. Was she even my mother? Or was she just another person keeping a secret?

"She stays with me," Solis growled. He tried to summon a ball of fire, but only a small puff of smoke came out of his hand. He stumbled, his knees buckling.

I caught him, his heavy weight leaning against me. Even now, his skin didn't burn me. It felt like a warm hearth on a winter night.

"Look at him, Eara," Lyra said, her voice full of disgust. "He is the descendant of the men who burned our forests. He is the reason our people live in the shadows. Give him to me. We will use his life to fuel the Moon-Throne and restore our power."

"No," I said, my grip tightening on Solis’s tunic. "He isn't like the others. He protected me."

"He protected a tool!" Lyra stepped forward, the white glass trees crunching under her boots. "He only wants you because you stop his pain. He is using you, just like the Damaris family used you. Why would you choose a King who belongs to the Sun?"

I looked down at Solis. He was looking up at me, his breath coming in ragged gasps. For the first time, he looked truly vulnerable. The ruthless King was gone; there was only a man who was terrified of being alone again.

"Is it true, Solis?" I whispered. "Am I just a tool to you?"

Solis reached up, his fingers trembling as they touched my hand. "At first... maybe," he admitted, his voice a low rasp. "But then I saw your fire. Not the magic, Eara. The way you look at the world. I don't want the Moon-bound bride. I want the girl who told me I was just a man."

My chest ached with a sudden, sharp emotion. For nineteen years, I was invisible. Now, two different worlds want me for my power. But Solis was the only one who saw me.

"I'm not giving him to you," I told Lyra. I stood tall, my silver-blue eyes glowing with a sudden, fierce light. "If you want the king, you have to go through the queen."

Lyra’s face hardened. "Then you are a traitor to your own blood. You will die with him."

She raised her bow again, but before she could release the arrow, the ground began to shake. That oily, black smoke from the palace started to leak through the glass trees.

The Void had followed us.

"They found us!" Lyra screamed, her face turning pale. "The Shadow King is here!"

Out of the darkness, the man who looked like Solis stepped forward. His black eyes were fixed on the locket in my hand. He didn't say a word. He just raised his hand, and a wave of black needles shot toward us.

Lyra fired her arrow, and it exploded against the needles, but there were too many.

"Run!" Solis yelled, finding a sudden burst of strength. He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward a shimmering archway made of bone and silver.

We ran as the black needles turned the glass trees into dust behind us. We dived through the archway just as a black bolt hit the stone, shattering it.

We tumbled down a long, smooth slide of ice, landing in a chamber that smelled of ancient dust and cold water. It was quiet here. Too quiet.

In the center of the room sat a throne made of pure, clear crystal. It was the Moon-Throne.

Solis collapsed at its base, his glow almost gone. He looked like he was fading away.

"Eara," he coughed, blood staining his lip. "The map... it didn't just bring us here to hide. It brought us here to finish it."

I looked at the throne. There was a small hole in the armrest, exactly the size of my locket.

"If I put this in, what happens?" I asked.

"The power of the Moon will return," a voice said.

I spun around. It wasn't Lyra. It wasn't the shadow man.

Standing in the doorway was Lady Seraphine. She wasn't wearing her gold silks anymore. She was wearing black armor, and her hair was stained with the same black oil as the High Priest.

"But you won't live to see it," she sneered. She held up a jagged obsidian blade. "The Council made a deal with the Void. We don't need a king or a queen. We just need a sacrifice."

She lunged at me, the blade aimed straight for my heart. I tried to move, but the shadows on the floor rose like chains, locking my ankles to the ground.

"Solis!" I screamed.

Solis tried to stand, but Seraphine flicked her hand, and a blast of black energy slammed him against the wall. He fell limp.

"He can't save you now, Weaver," Seraphine hissed, her face inches from mine. "Say goodbye to your golden world."

The blade came down.

I closed my eyes and slammed the locket into the throne.

A sound like a thousand bells filled the room. But it wasn't the light that saved me. It was the scream that came from the throne itself.

"That's not the key," the throne whispered in a voice that sounded like a thousand dead queens. "That's the lock."

The ground beneath Seraphine opened up, but she grabbed my hair, pulling me down with her into a pit of swirling black fire.