ORIANA

"Bastion," I whispered, planting my hands against the glass.

It was a cell with no windows or doors; only smooth crystal with a whitish hue that blurred his edges. He'd reverted to his wolf form and was pacing back and forth, looking especially wraith-like as he dissolved through whorls in the natural grain of the rock.

"How is he breathing?" I asked abruptly. "There aren't any holes. He's going to suffocate —"

"Hush," Sol said sternly, his hand coming down hard on my shoulder. "You will wake the guards."

I snorted, doubting they'd wake anytime soon. Sol had walked ahead and shown them a scroll with 'new orders' — followed by a swift strike under the chin while they squinted at a blank page. Now they lay crumpled like sock puppets pulled off the hand.

"I have to get him out," I hissed, focussing my panic and desperation on my hands. I banged on the glass. I motioned for Sebastian to move, to retreat into the back of the cell, but he was oblivious to my presence and kept pacing.

"Red," Sol warned, forgetting my name again. "What are you d—"

Crystal gave way with a high-pitched squeal; my hands melted through the wall. A sharp, sulphurous smell flooded the hall and I fought the urge to gag as I pushed through the solid rock like it was thick mud, carving a hole and slopping the excess onto the floor.

Sol swore, backing away as molten glass splashed towards him. I didn't care that it was dangerous; I didn't care that I singed my arms as I pushed my hand through the hole, widening it. Using my powers was like lighting a torch on a dark plane, visible from miles away, but I ignored the brilliant pinks and oranges spiking up the walls.

Sebastian was in there. I needed him to be okay. I needed him to —

There was nothing inside.

A flash of silver up the hall had me running again. This time the Wraith was pacing in a new chamber, with even thicker walls than the last; still he paid no heed to me on the other side. I melted through the rock anyway, ignoring Sol's muttered curses and the smell of my own burning flesh. It would heal, but Sebastian could only breathe for so long, and...

The wall gave way, a massive segment flopping forward, like Gretchen's toffee before it set. It wasn't even a chamber that I stumbled into; it was another hall, running parallel to this one.

"I don't understand," I whispered, pulling back with dismay. "I saw..."

Sol grunted. "Such is the way with this place. There is magic in the rock; you will often find things in the walls that defy understanding. Scenes from the past. People from other parts of the temples. Some High Priestesses even claim to scry the future."

"They can manipulate the magic in the walls?" I asked, wondering if I could scry Sebastian's location.

"Those with Rya's Blessing, yes. The temple was forged in the flaming breath of Her holy Messenger; it is a powerful conduit for the Blessed."

The phoenix. I remembered it's call and shivered. "How do I use it?"

"You will learn soon enough," sounded a deep, imperious voice from up the hall. For a split second I thought it was the High Priestess — even Sol stiffened — but my keen eyes were quick to prove otherwise. "Rana? Is that you?"

"Please, call me Priestess." She fit a fist to the heel of her open palm and bowed smoothly, as if she'd practised a hundred times before.

"Priestess?" I echoed dumbly, but it was evidently true. I could scarcely recognise my friend under all the ceremonial garb. White, flowing robes. Hair beaded with gemstones and braided into twin whirlpools on either side of her head. "This is an act, right? You can drop it now; Sol is on our side. We're here to bust you guys out."

"Bust me out?" Rana asked, tilting her head quizzically. "I assure you, I am here of my own volition."

"Since when are you so formal?" The ground felt increasingly unsteady under my feet. "You know what? That doesn't matter. We have to find Sebastian. These cells don't have air, and I can see him in the walls, but —"

Rana's smile was sad and polite — two things she often refused to be with equal vigour. "Let him go. The High Priestess certainly will not."

She might as well have slapped me with that open palm. "Excuse me?"

"Let him go, or you will tear him apart in your tug of war. Someone has to give, and it will not be my mother."

"What is going on with you?" I asked, horrified by her complacency.

"I am simply following the path Rya laid out for me."

"Bullshit," I snarled. "I had a dream, Rana. The phoenix came to me. It said we have to travel deep into—"

"It was just a dream," she said sharply. "Blessed you may be, but I've been running long enough, Oriana. Now that my brother is safe..." Rana trailed off, and for a split second, I saw my friend in the watery depths of her eyes. Terrified. Furious. Brave. But then she blinked, and bleak despair settled in again. "I must stay and perform my duty."

Marry someone she barely even knew? Pop out children just to pass down her powers? "They can't force you," I snarled. "It's not right."

"There is no right and wrong," Rana chided. "Only Divine Will."

Dread coiled in the pit of my stomach. I started backing away, but Rana's Sun Warriors — she had two of them, apparently — stepped forward.

Then another peeled away from the wall, and another. Ugh, I was sick of them standing so still. There were so many decorative suits of armour punctuating the halls that it was impossible to tell at a glance which ones had people in them.

Sol reached for the sword on his hip and I felt a stab of shame. He was defending me from my friend — my very first. And he was willing to go against his brothers in arms to do it.

Perhaps I'd been too swift in my judgement earlier. He'd been stuck in a cave as a river monster for the last Goddess-knows how many years, abandoned by the woman he'd dedicated his life to. Sol's social skills were a little rusty, and he was slow to trust, but he wasn't bad. He always pulled through when it counted.

And so did Rana, usually. Which meant something was wrong. If I could just figure out what...

"Can't you dedicate yourself to martyrdom after we get Sebastian out?" I asked, eyeing the guards standing at her shoulders. Was that it? Was she under duress?

"Ori," she said again, in that gratingly calm voice. "This is the Sun Temple. He's night-born. Sebastian isn't leaving here alive."

Sol shielded his eyes just in time. I roared my displeasure, the walls flashing white. Leather blistered and burned the sole of my right foot as I stomped, cracking the floor and sending fissures up through the walls.

"He is my mate," I snarled. "You cannot keep him away from me!"

"Calm down," Rana cried, throwing up her hands.

Calm down? They were going to kill my mate and they wanted me to calm down?

I stomped again, flame streaming from my nostrils and blackening the rock. A section of the wall collapsed and suddenly there was open air, none of the distorted madness of layers upon layers of crystal. I watched with a smug sort of horror as several floors of the temple slid down the mountainside, gouging into the snowy peak that formed the thumbnail of the Great Grey Fist. People cried out, shifting mid-air to flee the crashing boulders on dragon wing.

"Give him back, or the whole temple goes down," I said, seething with power, with rage. I didn't care if it was wrong. If I endangered myself or others. Sebastian was mine and I was always going to put him first — especially because nobody else ever had.

More Sun Warriors rushed around the corner, creating a living shield in front of the ones I'd blinded. Those were clawing at their smoking faces, groaning in agony... and Rana was among them.

"I can't see," she cried hysterically. "I can't see!"

Guilt punched through my rage. I rushed forward to help her, but the wall of warriors lowered their spears, leveraging the pointy ends at my heart. More crystal, I noted warily, pushing onward despite my trepidation. Rana was sobbing in big, wretched heaves. Her fingers shook as they came away from her face, soot-stained and bloodied. My fault.

I had to make it right.

Sol grabbed my shoulder, hauling me back. I lost my footing and skidded across the gravelly floor, losing skin in the process. I looked up in anger — just in time to see the tip of a spear punch through his back, armour and all.

That wasn't all it did. Electricity sparked where the crystal tip pierced skin, all the energy stored in the quartz leaping at the chance to work its way through his flesh and back into the ground. "No!" I screamed as his spine contorted. The great warrior staggered to one knee, barely held up by the grip on his own spear, head jolting as the current seized him and whipped him back and forth, making his amber blood sizzle and boil.

I staggered to my feet, rushing forward again. Sol heard me coming and snarled. "Stay back, you fool!"

He was right. The others were forming a semi-circle now, pressing deeper into the hall — trying to flank me. I froze, torn between helping and the fear of making things worse. Two warriors were towing Rana away, her feet limp and dragging.

Wrong. Everything was wrong.

And it was all my fault.

"Run!" Sol roared.