The Radiant King (Astral Kingdoms #1)

Prologue Sariel

Prologue

SARIEL

D eep within a forgotten cave, Sariel’s brother knelt in the heart of an unlit pyre. Sariel stood before him, an oil-skin in hand.

“Are you certain of this?” he asked.

“I am,” Faron said. Though he was a kind soul, his voice was firm, and it reverberated throughout the cave.

So pure , thought Sariel. So foolish. So broken.

Sariel poured the oil across Faron’s brow. It flowed through his brother’s short black hair. Rivulets continued along the sides of Faron’s handsome face and then splashed across his muscled chest and back. The drops continued down to the eulmore logs, stacked in preparation for the coming fire.

“You’ll forget things,” said their sister Calluna. She sat some distance away, her back pressed to the cave wall. She wrapped her pale arms around her legs and pressed her knees to her chest. Her long black hair formed a blanket around her. Protecting her. Hiding her. “It’s been getting worse.”

“It’s what Faron wants,” Sariel said, his voice soft and nothing like his brother’s. He dropped the empty oil-skin on the logs. “To forget.”

“Will you judge me for it?” Faron asked.

“No judgments, not for my kin.” Sariel lifted his hand, summoning the innate power of radiance he and his five siblings all possessed. A blue flame burst to life in his open palm.

“Eder will be angry,” Calluna said, referring to their absent brother. The flame’s blue light flickered off the faint tears in her eyes, adding depth to the cold starlight that forever shone within her irises. Eyes they all shared. The mark of radiance.

“Let him be angry,” Faron said.

“I’ll miss you,” she insisted.

Faron smiled, so warmly, so miserably.

“I know. Be well, Calluna. I’ll see you soon.”

Sariel almost extinguished the fire in his hand.

He didn’t have to do this. He need not participate in his brother’s attempts to forget those he’d loved and lost. The idea faded as instantly as it had come.

No, he would be here for his family, whatever the cost. He looked down at Faron and saw his brother’s head tilted away from Calluna so she could not see his own tears.

“You’re too soft for this world,” Sariel said as the fire grew stronger in his palm.

“Then do it,” Faron commanded with a tone that had rallied armies and frightened kings.

Not yet. Not until he checked with Calluna, who looked ready to shrivel into herself. His sister sensed his unspoken question.

“I’m here to the end,” she said, her will strong despite the timidity of her voice.

Then let the damned deed be done , thought Sariel.

He tilted his hand. The fire flowed like liquid from his palm and fell to the stacked logs below. The oil caught. The fire spread. Smoke filled the cave as flesh began to blacken and peel.

“Until we meet again,” Sariel said as, for the third time in his agonizingly long life, he burned his brother alive.