5. Raelyna
RAELYNA
The heat from the twin suns beat down on us, my golden, bronzed skin glistening even in the mid-morning heat.
The towering skyscrapers we passed as we began making our way through the inner districts of Solis Quarter did little to block the sweltering blaze of the summer.
I prayed to the gods that we would approach some canopied streets sooner rather than later.
A shadow brushed over us, and my gaze darted up, watching a trio of angels fly by. I shook my head, shocked they decided to fly in the summer winds. The rev of an engine roared on the street before a car shot past us and we cursed at the proximity.
“The Eternal will come for us!” a voice shouted from the next intersection, and my head turned toward the sound. “Turn away from the gods you’ve chosen to worship. Turn from the darkness while you still have a chance!”
My eyes narrowed in on the male shouting across the street.
“Go back to where you came from!” another angel shouted as he brushed past the male. A chorus of laughter followed as yet another group of angels brushed past the male, disregarding his words.
“It’s bold of them.” Finn’s voice was low as he looked over at me. “To be speaking against the gods so close to the temples.”
My head nodded, but no words left my lips as I studied the male who had continued shouting warnings on the street corner.
I didn’t have any reason to doubt the gods, but I also had no reason to worship them the way so many did.
Not after everything that had happened between the royal family and my father.
“Faster,” Kira whined from ahead of us as she walked quicker through the Temple District of the Quarter, narrowly dodging other angels to get to her Marking Day ceremony.
“You do know that walking quickly isn’t going to make the ceremony start any faster, right?” I teased as Finn and I sped up, keeping pace with my sister as we drew closer to the temples.
“Well, at least I will be able to fly after the Marking Day ceremony.” She grinned widely. “And then, I won’t ever walk again. I will fly everywhere.”
I sighed, casting a knowing glance at Finn as we both remembered having a similar conversation when we reached our own markings.
“Flying isn’t always faster,” I replied.
“Of course it’s faster.” Kira sighed with exasperation. “Tell her she’s wrong, Finn,” she said, her sea-glass eyes turning on my best friend, who dramatically whirled toward me as we walked through the street.
“Yes, come on, Rae,” Finn teased, his green eyes aglow with amusement as we ducked under the covered awning. “Faster is always better.”
“Really?” I mocked. “Is that what you tell the females you take to—”
Finn glowered, his eyes narrowing on me as he cut me off. “You dare to insult my—”
“For the love of the gods,” Kira muttered as she spun on her heel to stare at us. “Would the two of you just—” She motioned a seal across her lips and whirled back toward the temples, quickening her footsteps as Finn chuckled.
Smiling, I stared into the distance as we drew closer to the temple circle.
My eyes tracked over each of the structures.
The dark blue hues of the first building, with celestial designs carved into the very structure.
The temple for Astara, the Goddess of Night and Stars.
Then over to the sunburnt orange tones of the temple dedicated to Vulcan, the God of Fire.
Following the circle, I noted the ever-present beige structure that spun in weaved spirals toward the sky—the Temple of Cato, God of the All-Knowing.
The next two temples were less vibrant in color, resembling the setting of the sun—being the temple for Solis, Goddess of the Sun—and then a light, silvery-colored structure for Brumalis, God of Seasons (not that we had many seasons, living in the middle of an infernal desert).
In the center of the circle sat the High Temple.
This was also the building where the Marking Day ceremony took place each year.
My eyes scanned each glass column surrounding the front doors, the spirals reaching toward the heavens, with black-and-gold designs carved into them.
I stared at each element, each shape intricately embedded into the smooth surface.
Yet, just like every time I passed the temples, my skin crawled—a faint prickling that itched from my neck and spread across my body.
I shivered, shaking off the chill that swept across my skin as I turned toward Kira and pasted a smile on my face.
“You ready?” My voice carried over the growing chatter surrounding us as we stopped by the temple gates.
“Should I be?” Kira questioned nervously, her eyes flooding with concern as she glanced between Finn and me.
“You’re ready. There’s nothing to worry about, buttercup.” Finn grinned as he pulled her into a hug. I smiled softly as Kira nodded against Finn before pulling back, only to yank me into a hug of my own.
I wrapped my arms tight around my youngest sister, squeezing her with everything in me as she clung to me like I was her lifeline.
My heart broke at her worry—the fear I wished she didn’t have at this moment.
A type of fear I hadn’t experienced on my Marking Day.
Her thin body trembled against mine, the slight shake of her limbs warning me of her fear, of the anxiety coursing through her.
I grasped her head, my hand running over her hair as I tugged her closer and then started to pull away.
“Look at me,” I whispered as I pulled back from my embrace with Kira, her eyes swimming with concern. “You’ve got nothing to worry about. The gods are going to bless you with your affinities, and then everything is going to go right back to normal.”
“You promise?” Kira asked, her eyes watering slightly as she nervously glanced toward the temple gates, the bells above the center temple ringing loudly in the distance.
“Absolutely,” I replied as I dropped my arms and gave my sister a nudge. “Now, off you go.”
I didn’t breathe as I watched Kira walk off, making her way toward the temples with all the other unmarked angels.
Her brown curls bobbed in the distance as her figure grew further and further away.
I stared after her, my eyes never leaving her form until she vanished, swallowed by the crowd as she entered the temple’s door.
“What if she’s not okay?” I asked, wringing my hands as I stared anxiously toward the temple’s doors. The intricately carved, dome-shaped buildings formed a circle, one for each of the gods of Aurelia, with the temple for the Marking Day ceremony placed directly in the center of the structure.
“She’s going to be fine.” Finn spoke low, his eyes betraying his words as he stared firmly at the door we’d watched Kira walk through only moments ago.
“If she’s not—” I paused, my throat suddenly feeling increasingly parched. “I don’t know if I can do it again. I don’t know if I can bargain for . . .” I trailed off, my gaze dropping to the mark branded on my skin.
A bargain.
A life for a life.
My freedom for hers.
Not that she would ever know—not that I’d ever let Orela find out. She’d already had so much taken from her, from the moment she’d been marked as a seer.
“Kira will be okay,” Finn replied again, his arms wrapping around my body as he pulled me in for a hug. I breathed in his smoke-and-sand scent, trying to calm the rising panic, the overwhelming feeling of nausea that began to build through my body.
“Don’t lie to me, Finn,” I murmured against his chest. “Not today.”
“It’s not lying, darling,” he replied.
“What do you call it then?” I pulled back slightly as I stared up at my friend. “Wistful thinking? Half-assed positivity? A cheery outlook?”
“Stars-above, woman!” he exclaimed, his eyes lighting with a teasing glint. “Heaven forbid we have a little positivity in our lives—a little hope.”
“Hey! That’s not—I’m just—” I didn’t know what I was trying to say. I was just too worried. I’d been here before, waiting on this side of the door for another sister, and it didn’t end well.
“Come on, let’s wait for her over there.” Finn gestured toward a canopied alcove, away from the crowds gathered for Marking Day. A ceremony that always fell on the Two Suns Solstice.
“Shade,” I nearly groaned in relief as I pressed my back against the sand slab base of the building, feeling the cool material against my skin.
“You’d think you’d spent all day in the sun,” Finn teased as he leaned against the wall as well.
I glanced at my phone, noting the time. It had been half an hour. Thirty minutes had passed since Kira had walked through the security gates. How much longer until she finished her marking? Until she walked out those doors with her affinities marked across her left forearm.
A rolling wave of nausea swept through me, and I leaned more of my weight against the wall, praying to the gods that it was just the sweltering heat.
Another wave, more violently this time, built up, and I closed my eyes, blocking out the noises of the street. Not today. For the love of Astara. Not today. Any day but today.
Only for the next rush of nausea to sweep over me. I tried to swallow back the urge to vomit.
“Rae?” a voice sounded in the distance, but my head felt fuzzy, heavy, as I sank lower against the building, reminding myself to breathe.
“Fuck!” I heard it louder then, my gaze focusing back in as wavy brown hair with sun-touched streaks popped into my vision. “Come on, let’s sit down.”
Finn’s voice.
Another wave of nausea rose, and I groaned. This couldn’t be happening at a worse time.
Pressure began to build in my head, higher and higher.
My vision flickered on the edges, spots dancing in my peripheral vision.
I could feel the tension twist inside my head, and then, right on cue, my nose began bleeding.
I felt warm liquid dripping down against my lips, before droplets fell and splattered, marring the high-end streets of the Temple District.
Then, Finn was pressing something against my nose, holding it firmly.
“Come on, darling,” he whispered, his tone far more serious than it had been earlier in the day. “Eyes on me. I need you to lean forward.”
I gave a weak smile, leaning forward as I pinched the bridge of my nose, already knowing that my hands would be coated in blood when I looked.
“You said the episodes were getting further apart.”
“Well,” I replied, my voice sounding far away as I held the cloth over my nose. “They were.”
“Raelyna,” Finn stated, a hard edge to his tone. “This has been the third time in two weeks. That is not even remotely further apart.”
“It’s subjective,” I replied, my voice coming off just as muffled as before while I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to staunch the blood flow.
“In what possible way is it subjective?” he replied, his eyes narrowing as he watched me.
“In the way that I say so,” I answered. “And I don’t need you and Emberly worrying about me. I’ve got this handled.”
“That much is evident,” he said in jest. “You’re sitting like a vagrant on the side of the street in the Temple District with a nosebleed. But yes . . . you’ve most definitely got this handled.”
“Finn,” I huffed in exasperation. “Just . . . I’ve got it covered, okay?” I narrowed my eyes at him as I kept pressure against the bridge of my nose, feeling a wave of exhaustion wash over me.
“You need to go to a doctor. Something, Rae.”
I scoffed, a hollow sound falling from my lips as I stared at my best friend. “You’ve got to be joking, Finn. You know as well as I do that lowers don’t get paid enough to afford luxuries such as doctors.”
His only response was a weary sigh as I continued.
“Just drop it, for now . . . I’ve got enough to worry about between Kira’s Marking”—I gestured toward the temple gates—“and Orela. And my mother, with the tavern.”
My phone vibrated at that moment, and I shifted on the ground, tilting my body to the left as I tugged my phone from my back pocket and unlocked the screen.
“It’s Lucanus.” The two words snagged on my lips as I spoke, before I answered the call.
My face fell with every word mentioned, every sharp command that came through the device.
But it was only on his last words that a sharp chill stabbed through me, a tug of pain stemming from my wrist, commanding me to obey.
He was using the bargain mark to demand my obedience.
“I need to go to the Solis Court,” I said to Finn after I hung up.
“No,” he replied. “You’re in absolutely no condition to travel there. And it’s your sister’s Marking Day. Surely the male is not as daft as that, to force you to attend to him now of all days. Not to mention, it’s only been a day since he interrupted us while leaving the club.”
“What do you want me to say?” I bit out, my eyes cutting toward Finn as weary exhaustion crept its way through my bones, my body weakened from the episode. “A day ago or not, it’s not exactly like I can tell the King of Solis Quarter, no.”
“You have before,” Finn pointed out, his eyes glancing toward the same doorway I’d been monitoring.
I slowly pushed up off the ground, instantly feeling the sweltering heat as I stood up, and a wave of nausea washed over me once more. I swallowed, drawing in a dry breath as I wiped against my face with the back of my arm, satisfied when there was no blood on my skin.
“You know just as well as I do that I can’t say no, Finn.
” I bit the words back in a low tone. “Or did you forget what happened the last time I said ‘no’ to his majesty?” I asked the question with more venom than intended, even as my hand unconsciously drifted to my abdomen, rubbing against the skin there.
Finn’s face blanched as he remembered what Lucanus had done. What he’d done to me the day I’d dared to deny him. “Fuck, darling.” He sighed, rubbing at the spot on the back of his neck. A warm gust of wind rolled across our skin as he continued. “That’s not what I meant. You know that.”
I pasted a false smile across my lips, hating the way my bottom lip quivered ever so slightly—a barely noticeable tremble as I stared at Finnick. I knew he didn’t.
“Just be here for Kira, will you?” I forced the words past my lips. “And text me the moment she completes her Marking Day ceremony. Please.” I turned to head toward the Solis Court, my heart heavy as I stared into the distance.
“I will,” he promised, pulling me into a side hug. “And hey, chin up. It’s all going to be okay.”
“One day, this positivity of yours is going to dry right up,” I answered as I stepped back.
“Oh, I wouldn’t count on it, darling. Solis Quarter would have to freeze over before my positivity disappeared. It’s a safer bet that it will be infectious and rub off on you.”
“Don’t count on it,” I replied as I began walking toward the Solis Court. Toward him.