It beckons again.What if I do not want to fall?
And this time, a voice answers. One familiar echo.
Then, little sun…don’t.
CHAPTER 62
AUREN TURLEY
I hatched out of a star.
I blinked away death because he called to me. I didn’t want to fall. Didn’t want to drift down to that place where I would forever hover above the waters in divinity.
I wanted to goback.
So I had to burst free.
I was in the core of a burning light. Except, Iwasthe light. Golden and shining. Pure life and warmth. I didn’t need to descend, just as I didn’t have to stay dark and dead, hanging forlorn in the void. This light that I burned with, it had always been in me.
The gilded light of a goddess-touched.
So I used that power and I gave up the gift of the stars.
Because some are not meant to burn in the dark.
With a push of my will, I cracked the star open. Its splintered shell fell away, and I spilled out from the light.
I knew where to go, even there, in the abyss. Because that root—the one still caught in my core, itreached. Pointing the way toward its other half. Towardmyother half.
I passed by the other stars, saw the goddesses’ faces, and I smiled. Then I leaped into the river’s current, and I let it sweep me away toward my home.
Towardhim.
And though I couldn’t see, one of those stars smiled back. Then it tossed in a droplet of light to follow after me.
I went through the river and I became myself again. Healed from the cruelty of living, restored from the thievery of death.
I went through the river in the void, and I was reborn.
CHAPTER 63
AUREN TURLEY
A flare of breath burnsaway the cold as life pours back into me. I’m dropped down from the river, past soil and air, and then contained in the confines of my familiar body. Gold drips down my figure and gilds every thread on the fabric of my clothes as I suck in a gasp.
Slade is holding me.
Wind blowing around us, fog so thick I can hardly see.
Only, it’s not wind. We’re plummeting through the air.
Slade’s clutching me tightly with his hand on the back of my head, keeping me tucked against his neck while his other arm is banded around my waist. My ribbons are snapping in the air as we free-fall.
There’s a flash of fear that goes through me, but then warmth sparks down my spine.
What if I do not want to fall?
Then, little sun…don’t.
