Page 103 of The Sunlit Man

An awesome, familiar power welled up inside him. As the sun finally broke the horizon—causing the forest to burst into flame—armor formed around Zellion.

And his eyes came alight.

Elegy walked afterthe Cinder King as he stepped to the edge of Union, flying in an imperious way above the landscape, watching over the fallen people of Beacon.

Several men in white coats dragged Rebeke over as well. She was the only person of Beacon other than Elegy that the Charred had recovered. Elegy hadn’t initially been certain why he’d picked Rebeke to spare. Now, however, she could feel his emotions, and she understood. Heboiledwith satisfaction. With the thrill of having such power over so many people.

His cinderheart glowed fiercely beneath his shirt, and he smiled with unbridled glee at the horror in Rebeke’s expression. She fell to her knees at the side of the flying city, looking down at the huddled remnants of Beacon, gathered on the ground. Fewer than one hundred and thirty-five souls, surrounding the ruins of their once proud, rebellious town.

Yes, that was it. He was happy to have a deliberate kind of power over Elegy’s family line, and its last living member.

In the distance, the sun rose. Light moved across the land as a sheet of flame.

Elegy stood with six other Charred. She was too new to understanding people to know for certain, but she thought that maybe she’d fooled the Cinder King. When the Beaconites had decided to surrender, she’d made a good show of lashing out at them too—in full sight of the other Charred who came to secure the place. They’d delivered her up to the Cinder King, who had touched her cinderheart with his fingers and spoken some words.

That hadn’t done anything, but she’d pretended it had. She’d calmed, because she could still feel what hewantedof her, even if she didn’t have todoit. She’d felt his pleasure at her immediate obedience, and she now stood quietly—as if completely under his control.

They hadn’t searched her. Why would they?

So they didn’t know about the sliver of a sunheart that Zellion had given her. She wouldn’t, it turned out, need it for herself.

Rebeke knelt at the edge of the city, shaking. Elegy continued to find her weakness curious. Before being taken as a Charred, had Elegy been similarly fragile? Though she would not say it aloud, she was glad for what had been done to her. For the strength she now had.

“Please,” Rebeke said, turning a tear-streaked face toward the Cinder King. “There’s no need to do this. They can serve you well, great king.”

“Theywillserve me,” he said, oozing with self-satisfaction. “Your people will be the flames that carry my ships to conquer and uniteeven the farthest corridors. Once the other towns know the price of rebellion—once my people spread word of an entire city fallen to the sun—all will shrink and cower before me.” He nodded, speaking as if only to himself. “This is how I will unify the world.”

Rebeke slumped. Then curiously something changed about her posture. The Cinder King wasn’t watching, but Elegy saw it. Saw the younger woman’s hands ball to fists, her chin rise. She was going to attack him, wasn’t she? Elegy nodded in approval. Though the act would be futile, it was bold. A better way to die.

Strangely, instead of attacking, Rebekespoke.

“How did you know?” she asked.

Confusion from the Cinder King—Elegy could feel it.

“Know?” he asked.

“Know that I’d been leading Beacon all this time,” she said. Then she pointed down to the rest of her people. The three old women knelt in the center of the group, deep in prayer before the advancing sunlight. “How did you know those three were puppets, used to distract you? After you took Elegy, we knew we needed to hide what I was. Yet you’ve obviously seen through the ruse.”

“Yes, well,” the Cinder King said. “It was obvious.”

A lie? Why did he care to lie?

He doesn’t want to be seen as ignorant,Elegy realized. How curious. But why was Rebeke lying? What was she hoping to accomplish? Now he’d bemorelikely to kill her, not less.

Rebeke stood up and turned away from the people to meet his eyes. “You’ve made your point, Cinder King,” she said. “You have me, and you know what I am. I have bent before you. Collect the others, and I will tell them that I serve you.”

He paused, cocking his head.

“What’s better?” Rebeke asked. “The world knowing you can kill a city? Please—anyone could take the sunhearts from a group of straggling ships with no warriors. But if the world knew that even your greatest detractor—the leader who sought to overthrow you—eventually realized her power was nothing compared to yours… If they knew evensheagreed to follow you, then nobody else would ever rebel.”

What was this ruse? Rebeke was no leader; she was weak and soft. Wasn’t she? Yet the Cinder King believed Rebeke’s lies. Elegy could feel it.

And…and Elegy found that she believed them a little herself.

“No,” the Cinder King said.

“Then kill me!” Rebeke said, stepping forward. “Bring the others here and make them watch me die! Think of the power you’ll feel, holding my throat in your hands, crushing the life from me as my people watch. Is that not the ultimate show of strength? Why kill them when you can make themsuffer?”

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