Page 111 of The Sunlit Man

“All I know is how to break things,” Elegy said. “You’ll have to make the difficult decisions.”

Rebeke grimaced at that, looking overwhelmed.

“Rebeke,” Elegy said. “Zellion is fighting the Cinder King. Before we separated, he asked me to tell you something. He said…there is a way to recharge sunhearts, so people don’t need to die to make more. The Beaconites know about it. He said the more people who know, the better.”

Rebeke’s frown deepened. Then she took a deep breath and stood up with Elegy’s help. “We need to get to Union’s command center.”

Zellion rolled acrossthe deck of Union, face bloody, ribs screaming. The Cinder King had bullied and beaten him all the way back to where he’d started—across the bloodied mess where he’d killed many Charred, to the edge of Union.

He forced himself to his feet once again. But storms, he hadn’t landed a second punch. He couldn’t fight back. How could he beat this man if he couldn’t fight…

Couldn’t fight back?

The absurdity of it struck him, and he found himself laughing—even though it sent a spike of agony through his chest. The Cinder King paused, frowning.

“Don’t mind me,” Zellion said, struggling to lift a hand to wipe his eyes—but failing, letting it flop back to his side. “I just realized something. I’ve been training to beat you this entire time.”

“This is what ‘beating me’ looks like?” the Cinder King said, gesturing.

Zellion shrugged. His Torment, the stupid curse… It couldn’t have beenpreparinghim for this, could it?

He discarded the thought as ridiculous. The Torment wasn’talive; it didn’tplan. It was a coincidence that he found himself in this spot, after being forced to engage enemies time and time again without being able to fight.

Storms. He had to get off this planet, oreverythingwould start looking like part of some nebulous, deific plan. He nodded to the Cinder King, who came in to punch him again. This time, Zellion didn’t try to block or dodge. He fell into the swing, grunting as it connected, but then grabbed the Cinder King by his clothing.

“Grappling,” the man said, trying to pry free Zellion’s fingers. “The coward’s art.”

“I know a few people who’d be seriously offended by that,” Zellion said. Then held on tighter. His body was severely weighed down, but his finger strength had been unaffected, and so he managed to keep hold of the tyrant’s clothing as the man spun them around, working to get free. The Cinder King eventually pushed his bare hand against Zellion’s face and muttered something.

Heat began to flow from Zellion to the Cinder King, who—despite performing the maneuver purposefully—seemed shocked. “Wait. Why does that worknow?”

“Because for some reason,” Zellion said, “people still have faith in me. Thank you for turning us around.”

The Cinder King met his eyes, then Zellion heaved toward him and let his weight topple them both backward. He wasn’t in control. He just fell, using essentially the same maneuver he’d pulled on Elegy in the arena during their initial clash.

It worked just as well now as it had then. The Cinder King couldstruggle all he wanted, but he had made Zellion into a deadweight, four times as heavy as a man. You didn’t simply shove that aside. Their momentum sent them both tumbling off the ship.

A brief fall followed, and then they hit the soft earth.

Zellionsawpain. It flashed across his vision with vibrant, garish colors as his already broken body was subjected to another terrible blow. Fortunately he broke his fall on the Cinder King.

“Idiot,” the man said, shoving Zellion to the side. “What do you think you’ve done? Gotten me muddy?”

Zellion didn’t have the breath to respond. Instead—arduous though the effort was—he stood up. Then raised his fists.

“You know,” the Cinder King said, “I expected this to be a better show.” He decked Zellion again, sending him to the mud.

And with effort, he got up.

“You should be a better fighter,” the Cinder King said, tripping him, then kicking him in the broken ribs.

Zellion gasped, then—slowly—got up.

“This is almostpainfullyanticlimactic,” the Cinder King said, attacking again.

Zellion took the blow.

Then got up.

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