Chapter Six
An eerie silence holds the tips of our tongues hostage.
The rising and falling of our breaths in the quiet of the archives is now painstakingly evident, like a timer that could go off at any minute; we don’t know which breath could be our last. The very foundation we have built our lives on, that laid every single brick of this castle, is now crumbling down.
The Suns are trying to keep calm, many of them refusing to surrender to the bleak truth of losing our sun.
But though they may look aloof, they are stoic with anxiety.
They walk around in a castle almost made up entirely of windows, refusing to look out of them.
The Sun Gods are plastered in portraits watching them from every room, unable to escape their gaze.
The Sun is their identity, their religion, the only reason they walk these very halls. I know they are scared. I am too.
Who are we without our power?
River’s words slice through the tension, making me jump.
“Have you noticed anything strange on your side?” He directs to Ryder with a small gulp following his words.
“Nothing yet.” Ryder replies, his jaw tense.
“But that’s not to say there won’t be. There’s been talk of unrest on the Other Side for a while now.
The spirits have been, let’s just say, a little louder than usual.
” River and I exchange confused glances from each end of the burgundy sofa.
Ryder is sitting on one of the armchairs opposite us, his choice, to adhere to our agreement.
“What have they been talking about?” I ask as talk of the other side sends a shudder down my spine.
“It’s hard to make out because there’s so many souls all trying to make contact.
From what I gathered from the Mourna’s, the veil is overcrowded with way more souls than usual crossing over.
” His eyes make contact with mine, and I sink deeper into their depths, knowing this is just about the closest contact we will have for a while.
“Well, do you know why there are so many of them?” River asks, he relaxes back into his chair, but his muscles betray him by tensing slightly. Ryder shrugs his shoulders.
“It happens, natural disasters can wipe out a whole village in one swoop.” He pauses. “But it’s usually in short bursts, never this long.”
“When did it start?” The lines on River’s brow harshen as he questions Ryder deep in thought.
Ryder pauses for a moment before answering. “Around three weeks ago.” He leans in and rests his elbows on his knees, interlocking his fingers.
“The same time we freed the Moons.” I go a little paler as River says what we are all thinking. Surely that does not have anything to do with it? The door slams, suddenly making us jump.
“Sorry, I’m late, guys. Trina wouldn’t stop talking to me.” Nala’s voice interrupts us from our thoughts as she enters the archives and plonks herself between River and me on the sofa. “What’d I miss?” She senses the tension in the room.
“There’s something strange happening on the Other Side.” River fills her in as she fidgets in her seat.
“Do you think it’s linked?” Nala says, worry lines forming on her brow.
“We’re not sure.” River answers her before looking at me. “Have you heard anything from Oriah?”
“Still nothing, I’m getting worried,” I answer with regret. She has never left me in the dark for this long.
“Nothing from me either.” Ryder shakes his head and begins pacing the room. The stomping of his boots in tandem with the beating of our hearts. “Didn’t you say she was having a meeting with the Gods the last time she spoke to you?” I nod my head in his direction.
“And how did she seem?” Nala asks.
“Fine, I suppose.” I shrug my shoulders. “She’s had hundreds of meetings with them since I met her, so I didn’t think anything of it. But now with everything that’s happening with the sun, and the garden dying—”
“I don’t think that was an ordinary meeting.” River interrupts and fills in the blanks of my mind. The silence that follows is eerie. If the Gods were at a meeting to talk about everything that’s going on, why hadn’t they returned?
“I can’t shake the feeling that something really bad is coming.” Nala stands up and looks at us all, then bites the skin around her fingernails in anticipation. “Like end of the world bad.” She says, and an overwhelming sense of guilt heavies my limbs as I hold my head in my hands.
The war that The General said was coming.
Maybe this is just the start.
“There’s something I haven’t told you guys,” I admit with a shaky breath, tears threatening to fall from my eyes. Everyone looks at me with concern.
“What is it?” River says.
“The General said something to me before he died.” I pause and watch as they all tense at the sound of his name.
“He said that the world is going to burn, and I will watch knowing I could’ve stopped it.
” I recite, my voice cracking slightly. “That his army was going to be the only one capable of defeating the war that is coming.” I shudder at the thought of his words.
His last dying breath an oath to keep me up at night.
Ryder walks over to me and crouches in front of me, placing a hand on my chin despite our agreement.
“You take no notice of anything that man said; he’s delusional.” His eyes hold mine, and I surrender to his touch. “You understand?” I nod my head at him, trying to make out like his words register in my brain, but they don’t.
Not really.
This is too much to be a coincidence.
“What else did he say?” River asks, his face a few shades paler than it was a minute ago.
“River!” Ryder warns him not to take this any further, sending him a glare that could freeze molten lava.
“What if he’s right? He said the world is going to end, and now the sun is fucking dimming, that seems a lot like the end of the world to me.” River matches his glare and stands up fast out of his chair; tensions started rising the minute the General’s name left my lips.
“HE’S NOT!” Ryder raises his voice, and I can see his anger start to reach the surface. My muscles tense involuntarily as I watch him carefully, like a china plate edging towards the table end moments before it is about to smash.
“The Sun is dying, Ryder, what don’t you get about that?” River says. “Don’t you think we should at least consider that maybe The General was right—”
“Say his name again. I fucking dare you!” Ryder spits as his body erupts with the emotion he has been holding in.
Although the sun had affected our Gifts, it is clear Ryder’s remain uncorrupted by its dimming.
His breath is heavy as his shadows bleed out of him, looking for something to take his anger out on.
“Ryder!” I say aloud, my tone enough to tell him to calm down.
His eyes dance over mine intensely, then to each of us in the room.
Our shocked faces sober him, making his shadows quickly retreat.
The air feels tense, thicker, like the dust particles that have been accumulating down here for hundreds of years are now airborne, suffocating us from the inside out.
My eyes are still on him, and I watch him like a hawk—his eyes narrow slightly, and his knuckles turn white.
“Would everybody stop treating me like I’m some kind of fucking monster.” Ryder snaps, landing a hit on the surface of the desk, making us all jump.
“Maybe keep your emotions in check, and we wouldn’t have to.” River pokes the bees’ nest, and I find myself wedged in between them again. River’s eyes are tainted with the same fury that grips Ryder, and I know their emotions are entangled.
“You think I’m a monster. Trust me, you haven’t seen a monster.
” Ryder says, his teeth gritted, hidden behind his pursed lips.
“The General is the fucking monster, and I refuse to believe that a man so wrong about everything could ever be right.” His words emanate the fire within him, like they could singe our eyebrows if we got too close.
“So you can ask your questions if you want, but fuck if I am going to be here when you do it.” He tenses and storms towards the door that leads to Moon Castle.
“Asha, meet me here at eight p.m.” And with that, he leaves.
Taking only a part of the tension in this room with him.
The rest still lingers in the air between us, clinging to the ceiling, watching us.
Waiting.
River and I stand for a moment, the silence that loomed over us when we first entered this room has reclaimed this space. His lips part as if he is about to speak, but I stop him.
“Don’t.” My words catch in my throat. I’m too emotionally exhausted to have this discussion. I know what he is going to say—that Ryder can’t control himself, and I am in danger.
“But Asha.” He exclaims, desperation clenching his jaws.
“I don’t wanna hear it. I’m going tonight, and you can’t stop me.” My words compel River to stand down. He knows this is a fight he cannot win. But after what I have just witnessed, the fight within me to find this cure is fiercer than ever.
Because I know Ryder is dangerous, but with their emotions entangled, maybe River is too.