Ristriel groped at his leg, gasping. The shadows began to shift around him, but Shu mercilessly pulled on the rope, dragging Ristriel forward another foot. “None of that.”
“Unhand him!” I cried, rushing to his side. I burned brighter than ever before, casting new light in the grove. Ristriel’s face was pale and wan, and he shook his head and pushed at me, trying to get me to escape.
But I would not leave him.
Yar came around behind me, stirring old foliage beneath him. If he recognized me, if he knew I had lied to him before, he made no mention. “You know not what you protect.” He drew an ivory net from his belt. “Get back, or you will answer for his crimes.”
I looked back at the great brute with the blue-striped horns, my hands shaking, my skin burning with starlight I couldn’t control. I was angry, I was afraid, and I was hurting Ristriel. I had to be, for he was of shadow, and this power was not.
I was staring at the heartless Yar when I saw a bit of debris pass by him, as though caught on a strong wind. But there was no wind tonight.
I remembered Surril and the halo surrounding her.
Their power attracts the unmade things of the universe.
Yar neared, and I pushed into the starlight instead of restraining it, stoking its heat like I would a fire. I poured myself into my anger, my fear, my need, and it brightened more than my eyes should have been able to bear. It lit the grove as if it were noonday. Foliage, debris, and dirt flew around me in a perfect circle, gaining in speed. Pieces of bark tore from the trees to join the fray. Plants uprooted themselves as the tumult gained strength.
Shu lost a spear to the spinning. Yar had to grip his net with both hands. The gremlin flew until his body hit a tree.
“Stop this at once!” Yar bellowed.
But one cannot simply command the stars to stop shining.
I stood in the midst of my tornado and screamed, “You will not have him!”
And then my starlight grew so bright I could see nothing else.
CHAPTER 15
I started awake, splayed across the forest floor like a fallen doll, and jerked upright into a sitting position. My breathing was heavy; a few leaves drifted to the Earth. I had not been out long. A smattering of metallic dust covered half of one of the trees hit by the gremlin, and I wasn’t sure if it was some sort of godly blood or if the small godling had perished. I saw no signs of Yar or Shu. Even Shu’s harpoon was gone. That hungry sensation, not quite fatigue, buzzed through my body.
Ristriel lay in the shadows, still as a corpse. The tree closest to him appeared to be rotting, its branches drooping downward as if to point to the place he had fallen.
“Ris!” I cried, crawling to him. I blinked, trying to see better. My starlight had winked out, and only the light of the sleeping heavens guided me. I took Ristriel’s head into my lap. He was cool to the touch, but he always was. His chest still rose and fell beneath the semblance of his clothing.
Panicked, I grabbed one of my fallen bags, looking through it for medicine, bandages, my needles and thread—anything that would help him. In doing so, I noticed a sliver of moonlight across the back of my hand.
Moonlight. I had always thought it weakened him, but did it not also ignite his ability to change? And if he could reorder his body, perhaps he could close the wound in his leg.
I had to try.
Abandoning my things, I rushed to Ristriel and grabbed him under the shoulders. For a being seemingly made of shade and pixie dust, he was heavy as any mortal. I searched our grove, finding moonlight just at the edge of it, where the trees thinned. Above us, a narrow cloud loomed close to the waning moon. I glared at it, daring it to pass over the light.
It took several ungraceful jerks, my feet occasionally slipping on the recently remade forest floor, before I managed to drag Ristriel into the moonlight. The moment the light fell over his shoulders, my hands passed through him, and I had to push him in instead. I managed it, and he turned shades of purple and blue, glimmering like an early night sky.
He gasped and sat up, and I dropped against the roots of the tree, fatigue finally smothering me. I looked at his leg, but it was the same ethereal substance as the rest of him, as though the injury had never been.
His dark eyes found mine. “Ceris.”
I breathed hard, letting my body relax. “They’re gone.”
Shaking his head, he came to my side. “You have made enemies of them.”
“I hardly care.” My ring was still black. Sun would not know unless Yar and Shu told Him, and they did not seem the kind to readily admit their mistakes.
Ristriel paused, staring at me like I’d spoken another language. He lifted a hand, but it was spirit, and it passed through my cheek.