Page 21 of Fading Sun

I just have no idea what she’s talking about.

“The Solar Scepter,” she repeats. “A powerful weapon I created and hid away a long time ago that embodies the essence of the sun’s power. It’s a beacon of hope and a protection against despair, designed to tip the scales in favor of light in times of darkness. I designed it specifically for the one I’d star touch someday. For you.”

I take a moment to process her words, a weight of responsibility settling over me as I realize how much is at stake.

The entire balance of light and dark.

All in my hands.

Well, my hands when they’re holding this mystical weapon that a goddess designed for me. One that embodies light itself.

Which means…

“It’s the weapon the Shadow Lord told me about,” I say, dread pooling in my stomach. “The one that can kill him.”

“It is,” she confirms, and the dread grows even more.

Can I really do it?

Can I kill him? After I’m starting to see a sliver of humanity in the monster I believed he was? After sharing his dreams and feeling his touch?

Damien steps forward, eyeing Sunneva with caution, his voice pulling me back into focus on the issue at hand. “Where, exactly, is this scepter?” he asks, and she nods, seemingly pleased by his question.

“It’s at the Cradle of the First Dawn,” she replies. “A sacred site hidden high above the clouds in the Himalayas, where the first rays of sunlight grace the earth each morning.”

“Oh.” He frowns, unhappy with her answer.

I immediately realize why.

Because Sunneva said I need to find and claim the scepter.

I can’t exactly take a trip to the Himalayas with the duskberry binding me inside the borders of Manhattan.

“You’ll start your journey at the Monastery of Shadows and Light,” she says, and she rattles off instructions of how to get there, even though I’m too caught up in thoughts of the duskberry issue—and of killing Astrophel—to fully listen. “From there, you’ll face tests that will push you to the brink of your mental, emotional, physical, and magical limits. I wish you the best of luck, and urge you to remember—everyone shines the brightest when they have faith and trust in each other.”

Then, in a burst of golden light, she’s gone, leaving only the echo of her words and her unmistakable warmth on my skin.

“Well,” Blaze breaks the silence. “She really knows how to make an exit.”

None of us reply.

Our minds are all somewhere else.

“We have to break the duskberry bond,” Damien says, not looking at me as he does.

I can’t look at him, either. Because there’s only one way he’s told me I can break the bond before its year’s hold on me is up.

Blaze looks to Morgan as if he assumes she has all the answers—which makes sense, given her ability to see the future.

“How do we break the bond?” he asks, and the first thing I feel is relief that Morgan’s apparently caught him up on the entire situation.

This way, I don’t have to rehash my stupid decision to eat fae fruit enspelled to bind my soul to Damien’s and my body to Manhattan, without even asking what it was.

Damien rubs the back of his neck, focused on Blaze, not sparing a single glance at me. “The duskberry bond can be broken if Amber accepts my proposal and becomes my queen,” he says, and his words hang in the air, the weight of the decision slamming down on me at once.

“There has to be another way.” I take a few steps back, since I’m not going to make this decision right here, right now, with all their eyes on me.

Especially since Damien seems as detached from the whole thing as ever, as if my decision should be a strategic arrangement instead of a romantic commitment to become his wife.

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