When Copper Suns Fall (35 page)

“He killed Muriel and her oath sister,
Teulah. There’s nothing respectable about him,” I said, making sure
I stared straight at Seth.

Scoffing, she said, “You’re one to scold me.
She who kisses and doesn’t tell.” My cheeks burned like fire. I
didn’t dare glance at Faris.

“You’ll regret being too weak to kill me,”
Seth said, wiping away his tears and grinning.

“Maybe. But you might want to go ahead and
use this opportunity to leave before I change my mind,” Faris said.
Seth gave Faris a look rotating between curiosity and disgust.

Pulling Teulah to him, he lifted his black
wings, raised his left hand, balled it into a shaking fist, and
shouted in Dcarsii. Then he bent down and pulled the sickle chain
out of the ground with a force that rumbled it. The black metal
links disappeared behind him. His wings thinned and widened until
they covered the entire area in Seth’s shadow.

The ruhk with a flaming heart had
returned.

As if he’d waited for this final dramatic
moment, Seth lifted himself and Teulah, gliding upward, until both
were swallowed by the clouds.

Chapter Twenty Seven – Silver Moons

“Go after him, Faris. He knows how to help
Micah,” I said, pounding his chest with my fists. “Do we just let
him get away?”

“Should I let my brother go instead of
killing him, you mean?” He grabbed my wrists and held them down by
my sides. “What can he do, now? I took his ability to bond. His
crew is finished. He doesn’t know how to help Micah. I didn’t see
it in his memories.” I considered what he said, still uncertain of
whether I trusted Faris as much as I did before.

“Another secret. I bet we have more of those
than all eight Essential Archives put together,” I said.

“No more secrets. I promise.”

“How can you have a brother like Seth Alton?
And why didn’t you tell me?” I said.

“I put out an application for a different
one, but sometimes you get what you get. I don’t mean to be a
jerk,” he said with a sigh. “Seth’s mother was a Tainted named
Jezebelle. My father, Zanas Indrail, met her sometime before Asa
was born. Saving Jezebelle from herself became an obsession for our
father. He reminded me of you, always looking for the good even
when it wasn’t ever there. But Tainteds can’t be saved. The memory
of my life before I came here sixty years ago was gone. Everything
except the one of my sister. When we bonded in the cave, it all
started to come back. All the memories of home, my brother and
sister, my fears, including the darkest one.”

“What happened to your father?” I said,
remembering what Seth had revealed about his mother sacrificing
herself for him.

He gave me a wry grin on a face filled with
unreadable emotions. “You heard Seth. She sacrificed herself.”

“Then maybe she wasn’t all bad.” Faris was
right. I still wanted to see the good somewhere in this story.

“Don’t pedestal ride the Tainted. She made a
deal with someone powerful enough to curse my father, and his
children. It backfired on her, though. The rest, well, you heard
him. He blames me.”

“What about your mother?” I said.

“She doesn’t remember anything, or any of us.
She lives in her own world, now.”

I considered asking him about the
unspeakable, the Beast, but decided against it. He already had
enough of a bad experience with his brother, and he was losing
blood by the second.

“Forgive me for keeping secrets. I will never
keep anything from you, ever again. I give you my word,” he
said.

My heart was a mixture of joy and sorrow and
anger, the recipe of a life filled with unpredictable people. I put
my arms around him, supporting the arm he held up to his wound. His
body stiffened at first, but after a bit of hesitation, he eased
his good arm around me, touching the place where my wings had
disappeared. After a long moment, I pulled back and stared into the
eyes of my Protector, the boy who took poison out of my blood and
into his own. To forgive him should come to me as easily as my
elemental powers, right? My lips didn’t form the words, though.
Instead, I said, “Is this over?”

“The Tainted’s secret is out. Nina knows what
they’re doing. Seth can’t return to Castle Hayne. The Tribunal
would be all over him.”

“Nina made the call for Lexa and the others
to be taken. How can you still trust her?” I said.

“She wanted to flush out the Tainted’s
leader,” he said, eyes flickering to the ground. It bothered him,
too.

“So she decides to use my friends and me as
bait?”

“She risks her life for the Caduceans every
day. If the Tribunal ever suspects her, then…Try to understand.” He
gasped, doubled over, and glanced up at the moon. Its silver light
was brighter than it had been earlier.

“You’re hurt,” I said, feeling doubtful about
his words.

“It’s not as bad as it looks.” He bent over,
propping onto his knee, and placed a hand on his wounded shoulder.
“I tend to bounce back pretty quick.”

I moved under his arm and steadied him like a
rag doll supporting an armored knight. “It’s okay to lean on me,
you know.”

“My turn for support?” He gave me a lazy
grin.

“Yeah. This one is the first of my
three.”

We shuffled across the clearing and headed
back toward the fort where we’d left the others. And then someone,
or something, shoved us from behind, hurling us to the ground.
Stars danced in my eyes as I kissed the ground. I sat up, shaking
my head until they cleared. I turned to check on Faris, and gasped.
He was on the ground, spread eagled, as if he’d been attached to an
invisible device holding him down. I ran to him and fell backward
after colliding with the hidden force surrounding his body.

“Stay back, Chela,” he said through gritted
teeth.

“The joys of a paralyzing thrati, no one gets
in, no one gets out. Not without a missing body part or two, that
is,” a laughing hyena said behind me. I turned around to see Camden
standing with his hands cupped as if he held an imaginary ball. He
wore a thick lock of hair twisted up in red ribbon around his neck.
I’d recognize that hair anywhere. Faris’s ponytail.

“Stop it!” I yelled at Camden.

“I don’t understand. It is your job to end
all of this, not mine. Yet, you prefer to watch your friends
suffer.” Camden twisted his hands. Faris’s body flipped twice. His
legs and arms stretched even more. He grunted with each yank.
Silver moonlight eased out from behind the clouds, bathing Faris’s
body in its strange rays until a faint glow covered him.

I blinked twice. Maybe this was a dream, no,
more like a nightmare. I’d wake up at any moment and find myself
safe and secure in my bed with Peanut slobbering all over my
face.

“Don’t listen to his poison, Chela,” Faris
said through grunts. His body jerked upward into an arc so deep I
just knew his back would break. It was the most horrible thing, the
cracks coming from inside his body, the agony distorting his
perfect face. He reached a hand out to me. I couldn’t stand it any
longer. I rushed to his side, cradling his head in my lap. I’d
somehow penetrated Camden’s veil.

Faris’s body was hot, and sweat soaked his
clothes as if he’d taken a shower with them on. Fine black hairs
surfaced on his arms, silver nails extended from his fingertips.
The Beast was clawing its way from inside him.

Soon, they’d all know his secret.

I couldn’t let that happen.

“Hold it in, Faris. Don’t let it out,” I
whispered in his ear. He shivered.

“Blow me under the creator’s shadow,” Camden
said, his eyes wide, his mouth easing into a wicked grin. “How
super attractive, your boyfriend is with his silver nails. In case
you haven’t heard, I specialize in controlling those possessed by
anomalies. Would you like some help with yours?” He made the hyena
laugh and jerked his arms around. Faris made an agonizing wail that
pushed through me as if his pain were mine.

I turned my head to where Camden stood.
“Leave him alone. This is about what you want from me. How can I
give it to you if you keep torturing my friends?”

“Then give me the Grace, or the exiled prince
will die.” Camden shrugged as if this were all a game.

I tried to call up my winds, pushing so hard
from the inside I thought I might wet myself. My wings had
retracted right after I found Faris and Seth fighting. That was the
nature of powers, for you. They never happened when you actually
needed them.

At once, Mabry bounded into the clearing
behind Camden, twirling what looked like a lasso covered in silver
dust. Under the moonlight, its glittery effect was hypnotic. Camden
was too preoccupied with trying to make Faris into a rubber band to
detect the alchemist preparing an attack behind him. He tossed the
lasso over Camden whose smile faded as it tightened around his
arms. Surrounded by the sparkling rope, his shocked expression
turned into a scowl. He dropped to his knees, releasing Faris, or
so I thought.

Faris’s grunts and spasms increased. “I
don’t understand. You’re free,” I said to him, panic gripping my
chest.

“Not yet. It’s the talisman,” Faris said. At
least his bones had stopped making the terrible cracking noises,
but he was shuddering just as badly.

“The talisman?” I thought about the hair
hanging around Camden’s neck. He’d somehow managed to raise Mabry’s
rope from around his body, balling it up in his hands. He shoved
the lasso toward Mabry who stumbled back toward the cliff’s edge
without falling. Straightening the glistening rope, Mabry hurled it
back at Camden.

It was the moment to make my move.

Running between the two men, I jump-dived,
snapping the ribbon that held Faris’s hair from Camden’s neck. I
dropped and rolled into a ball, dodging Camden’s fist as he swung
at me. Mabry’s lasso tightened around him, again. Felzar—I’d
forgotten about his monster bird—swooped down behind Mabry, talons
forward, eyes locked on his target. With his wings fully spread, he
was more like a pterodactyl instead of a ruhk.

“Look out, Mabry!” I said. But the alchemist
couldn’t loosen his grip on the rope without losing the hold on
Camden.

The bird lunged toward his head.

A blur of blackness leaped over me. In one
fluid motion, the Beast landed between Mabry and Felzar. The Beast
latched on to the bird’s neck and swung it hard enough to land on
the ground near Camden. Wails echoed in the skies.

“By the Fathers of the Light, it is true,”
Mabry said. We exchanged glances. Unspoken words sat in our eyes.
The Beast stalked over to Felzar, standing over him. The bird
cawed, pecked at the air, and shuffled toward Camden.

“Felzar! What gives you the right to do
this?” Camden said and dropped to his knees. He doubled over like
the bird’s wounds were his own. Then he straightened up in the rope
prison, fists clenched at his sides, shoulders hunched. He was more
like a sulking child than a powerful trickster.

“You choose to side with a boy who is nothing
more than a cursed animal,” Camden said to Mabry. “Your poor
decisions will come back to haunt you, and it’ll be too late to
turn back. This story ends with a Tainted victory.”

“My old friend, too bad you won’t get to see
it,” Mabry said, still holding on to the rope tightening around
Camden.

“You won’t bind me, Mabry. Legends always
find a way to achieve immortality,” Camden said, gasping from the
pressure.

“Only if no one edits them out of the story,”
Mabry said.

“You should know better. Being forced out of
something isn’t my style.” Camden poked a hand through a gap in his
rope prison. At once, he leaned over, grabbed Felzar’s foot, and
pulled the bird with him as he hurled backward over the cliff. The
Beast charged and leapt over the side behind them, falling straight
into the river leading out to the ocean.

“Faris, no!” I said. All three of them
disappeared over the ledge. I peered over the side of the cliff,
studying the river below, thousands of heartbeats pounding inside
me at once. Waves thrashed over rocks littering the water. But
there was no bird, no Tainted, and no boy who’d taken my heart with
him over the edge.

“Faris.” I took off running in the direction
the waters were flowing, ignoring Mabry’s voice calling for me to
stop.

My face was covered in dew from the
waterfalls and tears from my pain. I ran along the embankment,
trailing the river beneath me. I passed by endless trees until I
realized the area had silenced. Battle cries no longer carried
across the wind.

How far did I run? Why didn’t Mabry follow
me?

Surely he was as concerned about his master
Caducean as I was.

Water thrashed across the reefs below me. I
was on top of the mountains, standing in a dry place with no
waterfalls. My head felt heavy, my face was wet with tears, the
cursed things. I was alone.

There was one thing, though. The undines, the
daughters of the sea were singing in voices as melodic as my
harp.

I stared at the ocean below the cliff. That’s
when the baby deer—petite, odd, and pale as snow—shuffled up behind
me. After a few moments, the strange creature turned and trotted
through the trees, down a steep hill, and toward the ocean.

Running behind the deer, I paid no mind to
the warning in the glowing footprints it left. Too late, I’d made
my way to the deer, standing where the ocean’s waves met the shore.
I placed a foot into the icy waters and reached out my hand for
just one touch, one feel, because I knew this deer would somehow
lead me to Faris. I inched closer and closer and then everything
vanished.

The waterfalls, Mabry, the fort,
everything…gone.

I reappeared in a new forest lit by a hazy
sun and stood on a cliff situated high over the ocean. I guess fate
wasn’t done with me yet.