Chapter 21 #3
Zosma crouched low as Tarek charged him. At the last moment, Zosma positioned his unequipped shoulder at Tarek’s gut, leveraging him over his shoulder.
“Gods,” Arche cursed.
The resounding crack of Tarek landing on the floor was the only sound in the command center. Zosma turned to face him, stance ready, accepting Tarek’s wrath.
“Arrest him,” Tarek wheezed from the ground. At his words, Zosma’s posture stiffened from its relaxed, lethal stance. Arche moved toward Tarek, incredulous, but Tala stepped between them before his Third could utter a word.
“Of course, brother. Arche, take Zosma into custody. I will be with you in a moment. Proxima, you too.”
Arche glowered at Tala before he swallowed his words and escorted Zosma out of the Core Tower. Proxima cast one worried look at Tala before following Arche.
Tala sat on the glass-strewn floor where Tarek lay, unmoving. The Taureon twins remained silent in the wake of Tarek’s rampage. After several moments, a sentinel came and whispered into Tala’s ear.
Tarek stood abruptly at the intrusion and shouted, “Why hasn’t this been cleaned up yet? Did I give anyone leave? I need an update!”
Tala rose slowly to her feet and nodded her thanks to the sentinel, who quickly left the room. She reached for him, but he spun out of her grasp.
“And you,” he pointed a finger at her.
Tala’s russet eyes widened.
“You’ve been waiting to see me fall, haven’t you? Always lurking, poised to strike when I’m weak.”
“Tarek, anyone in your position would be upset. There’s no need for—”
Tarek backhanded his sister across the face.
A soft gasp escaped her as she brought her hand to her cheek. Silence sundered the room.
“With your leave, Prime Apparent,” Tala murmured. She bowed then fled down the stairs, leaving Tarek alone with his cooling anger.
Aela focused on her need to save at least one life; she clung to Jaelin as they plummeted into the mines. The tragedy and injustice of it all had her cursing and beseeching the Gods and the Fates in the same breath.
Please let this work. Please, please, please.
Jaelin’s body turned to smoke.
Salt rained down.
Flicker.
Arms outstretched from where their embrace ended, Aela thudded onto her back against a polished stone floor, a gut-wrenching cry clawing out of her.
“No!”
The sound echoed throughout a circular chamber with towering columns and high-reaching walls.
As Aela’s scream quieted, she lay motionless, her eyes staring into the cosmic sky above.
Climbing to her feet, she appraised her surroundings.
Constellations were masterfully worked into the natural rose-colored stone walls, and three large archways branched off from the round room, leading elsewhere.
As she finished surveying the water elemental quarters in the Avarice palace, her eyes caught on something small on the floor. Jaelin’s saltbox. Its top was swiveled off but still attached; the coarse pale pink granules lost to the mines on Prente. Aela swallowed a rising sob.
Later. You can fall apart later.
How much more could she submerge inside herself until she overflowed?
Above each of the three archways were symbols of water elemental Houses. Aela’s turquoise eyes sank back to the symbol above an archway she could have drawn with her eyes closed, its prestige faded on the rose-colored stone but not forgotten.
Never forgotten.
Not by her.
Clutching Jaelin’s saltbox to her chest, she moved toward where her Line would stay in Avarice. A slight tremor rumbled through the floor as Aela braced herself against the archway, seeking comfort from the empty guest quarters but strengthened nonetheless by the proximity of a place for her House.
Another tremor shook the palace.
Aela ran around the room rimmed with circular windows until she found it just in time. Amidst the eternal sea of night, the unstable sun above Prente flared bright one last time before its core collapsed in on itself.
In a flash of terrifying light, the sun detonated and eviscerated its neighboring sun and planet. An instant passed and Aela knew that Jaelin, her cave, and all those innocent lives were gone.
Shockwaves of the sun’s dying power and that of Prente’s other sun rocked the ancient Taureon city. Ages worth of dust sifted from the seams of the walls. Graceful sky bridges swayed. Towers groaned as mortar shifted and the cobblestone streets far below cracked.
Aela’s eyes darted down to the streets of Avarice, then raced for the Core Tower.
The replaced crystal bands around the common class stars who tried to escape blazed pale blue.
The rebel stars’ collective scream pervaded into the palace walls.
The emitted energy of the suns pulsed through the cluster of common class stars as they absorbed the brunt of the blast, acting as living conduits—feeding the energy into the Core Tower.
A hum pitched to a painful octave, drowning out the screams of the fracturing stars.
In the next moment, the starcity blurred into a kaleidoscope of color as it traveled.