ORIANA

My rescue mission was short lived. The moment I slipped through the beaded curtain an enormous hand darted out to bite my wrist, crushing it in a python's grip.

Rana's lessons flowed through me. When one branch snaps, another lashes out to avenge it.

I reached for a weapon that wasn't there. All I'd practiced with were wooden sticks; despite Rana's cajoling, Sebastian never did end up trusting me with one of his knives. Like Gretchen, he'd urged me to spend my time focusing solely on magic, learning to control the fire burning a hole in my heart.

I reached for it now, flames sparking at my fingertips where once there only shone light. The anger came so easily in this place; it felt like I was brimming with heat and light, fit to burst from it all. The floor beneath my bare feet started to glow, much to my consternation; it was basically broadcasting my position to the temple guards.

"Easy, girl," my assailant said. "It's just me."

I yanked on the reins of my power, holding back the fiery blast I'd summoned to scorch his face. "Sol?"

"The one and only," he said, flashing me a wide, easy grin. "Not a morning person, I take it?"

My heart plummeted. "I was out for a whole night?"

"Yes. That's generally how sleeping works."

A burning word dropped from my tongue, sizzling like a coal. Sol flinched from the sound, his thick brows drawing together. "What language was that?"

"Does it matter?" All curses were designed to express frustration; they only deviated in crudeness, and that was always dependent on the listener's propriety. "Sol, listen to me. You have to take me to Rana. She's the High Priestess's daughter. She can help me get Sebastian out —"

He chuckled. "Slow down, little one."

I scowled. "Stop that."

"Stop what?"

"Infantilising me," I snapped. "I'm a grown woman, Sol."

His eyelashes sank, that tawny gaze scraping along my nerves from head to toe. "I'm well aware."

I shuddered. For the first time I felt something off about the man I'd come to consider a friend. It was a harsh truth to confront, but what did I know of such things? My friendships were all rushed affairs and forged in the heart of danger, though I'd had the luxury of learning about the others through our travels. Gretchen, for instance, took care to relocate any bugs she found in her vegetables when preparing them, as opposed to boiling them alive. Rana planted every acorn she found, and Sebastian held back every branch that might dare to cross my path. And when he did kill, he killed quickly and cleanly, sparing his prey whatever pain he could.

It was the little things that told me who they were. All I knew of Sol was that he didn't believe me when I told him I sensed light at the end of the tunnel. That he'd thrown a stick at Sebastian and told him to fetch it, like a dog.

"Don't look at me like that," he said softly. "I'm here to help, Red."

My old name sounded alien, dropping heavily into the space between us.

"Actually, it's Oriana," I said, resisting the urge to wring my hands. If I was going to order people around, I had to look confident. Composed. "And there's a lot more you don't know about me and what's going on. War is coming. For all of us."

"You will come to no harm in these walls," he said gently. "I will protect —"

"Shut up and listen to me!"

The words exploded from my mouth in a fierce rush. Sol cocked his head. "The fire in you burns hotter here."

"What?"

His tawny brows pulled together. "The temple is evidently a conduit for your power. I suspect you will channel energy the likes of which you have never experienced throughout your stay. Take care that you do not let it consume you."

"Why do you even care?" I asked, crossing my arms. "You don't even know me."

"I don't let just anyone ride on my back," he said gruffly.

I was momentarily floored, but how could I forget the perfect hour I'd spent soaring through the sky on the topaz wyvern's back, a scorching sun prickling the back of my neck as I scried the land from above? Clouds were made from water, I'd swiftly learned, after asking him to take me through the fluffiest of them. It was the first time I'd felt like I belonged to a place.

I wasn't sure what it meant for that place to be a void.

"Besides," Sol added, "Rana has also been confined to the dungeons for the remainder of her recovery. She can't help you."

Red bled into my vision. "I'm sorry, I must have misheard you."

"You heard correct. She committed the highest treason when she left," Sol explained, his mouth twisting down with regret.

"What?" My voice jumped a notch.

Sol looked both ways, as if worried about being overheard. Oddly, there was nobody else standing guard in the hall, but still he ushered me inside and closed the door behind us, his voice dropping to a whisper. "During the High Priestess's pregnancy, she performed a forbidden rite in an attempt to contact the Sun Goddess. It was banned because of the danger it involved, but Kyara — the High Priestess," he amended hastily, "— was desperate. Rya's influence had been waning with each generation, you see; Her Blessing was manifesting less and less amongst hatchlings, and our people were suffering as a result."

"Suffering?" I asked with a frown.

"We rely on Her Blessing to calm the Flaming Waters that roil below the mountains. It has ever been the High Priestess's duty to prevent the Earth Goddess, Gaia, from rising up against us."

Water? On fire? I couldn't picture such a thing, but I believed him nonetheless.

A few weeks ago, I would have defended Gaia. Her voice had guided me through many a dangerous situation — only to land me in a crystal prison leagues under the ground, where She tortured me, plundered my mind and tried to force me into servitude. I'd never been a person in Her eyes. Only a valuable hostage.

My friend Gretchen, the Witch of the East, had sacrificed herself so that the rest of us might escape. I shuddered at the memory of her cat's eyes turning blood red as the Earth Goddess took over, making a puppet of her flesh. Gaia's raw power had spilled through Gretchen, too much for even her magically fortified body to hold, warping it on the way out.

Scales for skin. Snakes for hair. Bees for breath.

I felt a pang in my jaw as I ground my teeth, so hard it tweaked a nerve. I have to find a way to save her, too.

But what could I do to help any of my friends? I'd spent my entire life on the verge of passing out, fighting off the effects of the poison the Blood Moon wolves had been slipping into heart medication tonics I apparently didn't need, but was stupid enough to take without question.

My friends were the warriors, the scholars and hunters and mages. I was just... me. A tool, if no longer a burden. The vessel for a power somebody else was supposed to control, because I sure as stars wasn't qualified to handle it.

"Why would Gaia attack?" I asked eventually, stalling as my confidence flagged. "Aren't you Her children, too?"

"She is a jealous mother. Gaia does not like that we favour Her fiery sister, and the border skirmishes with the Kirin have long stoked Her anger."

I let out a long sigh. His story wasn't surprising, truth be told, but the unnecessary in-fighting was disappointing nonetheless. It was going to be even more difficult than I anticipated to muster a unified force to combat the Nightfall legion.

A legion that was already marching. They would be upon us before the moon finished its cycle, if Gordon's warning was accurate. Two weeks. Even less, now.

I really needed to find my friends. They always knew what to do.

"Did Rana agree to serve her people as High Priestess? Did she make any vows?" I asked, circling back to the cave bear in the room. Treason.

Unless she was fleeing some other crime. She had mentioned accidentally committing arson at one point.

Sol frowned. "She was born into her duties. There was no choice to be had."

"You can't really believe that." I paused, searching his expression. There was something like hurt in his eyes, but a steely resolve wiped it clean before I could puzzle out the cause. "Why can't somebody else take up the role of High Priestess? Someone who's actually passionate about the role?"

"Because Rana inherited the power to save us, not her mother. She is the only one — save you — who has received Rya's full Blessing in centuries, but for whatever reason she chooses to repress it. And the undermountain grows ever more volatile."

"Then move," I snapped. "You have wings; let them carry you elsewhere."

"Our hearts will always long for home."

"Deal with it. Rana didn't consent to carry this power. She doesn't owe anyone anything."

"She owes us a child," Sol said, just as firmly. "So that the Blessing she received may be passed onto another. I imagine that is why the High Priestess arranged for her to be wed, though that was... after my time."

After he was trapped by a river nymph under the mountain, I thought. Not for the first time, I wondered how he'd ended up there. Why nobody found him.

Had they even sent anyone to look?

"How do you know all of this?" I asked.

That muscle in his temple flexed again. "I was there. Every High Priestess is assigned a Sun Warrior on the day of their ascension. I was Kyara's."

I blinked. Wyverns lived for centuries, and I realised I'd just been assuming Rana's age was similar to mine this whole time. "How old are you?"

He simply smiled, a tight-lipped gesture that had nothing to do with his eyes.

"Fine. Don't tell me. But I'm going to get my friends out with or without you. Are you coming or not?"

Sol let out a ragged breath. "You ask me to forsake my oath."

"To whom? Kyara?" I made a derisive sound in the back of my throat. "She left you to rot, Sol."

"She did." Sol paused, looking at something over my shoulder. I suspected it was a figment of memory. "I spent every minute of that tortured existence waiting for Kyara to save me. She never did."

"But you were her Sun Warrior," I protested. "Why leave you behind?"

"Everyone is replaceable," he said gruffly, true pain in his eyes. "Though I shouldn't complain too much. It is why I have the freedom to watch over you now."

His fingers tightened on the pommel of his sword.

"Are you going to be my jailor or my accomplice?" I dared to ask.

Sol's answer sent a shiver down my spine.