Page 18 of Queen Takes Sunfires 1
"The choice is yours, daughter."
I didn't recognize her voice despite the reference to me as her child. The girl who’d climbed the olive tree tipped her head, listening to the words, and didn't recognize her mother's voice. Her words sparked in the darkness with soft pearly light that didn't harm me at all. Slowly, it dawned on me that this might be a goddess. The wolfman had insisted we were descended from Gaia's daughters.
"Who are you?" I asked softly.
The pearly sparks swirled around me like bright moths dancing in the moonlight. "You know me primarily as Sól, but some know me as Mani. I am both sun and moon."
I'd heard those names before as a child, especially Sól. Everything related to the sun was familiar. The sunfires, the gold palaces, the blazing sun...
WasI descended from that burning madness?
"The god of light ruined many of our ancient lines. You are not only the last Sunna, daughter of my line, but the last queen claiming any drop of solar power. Ra destroyed every other solar house in existence."
I shuddered. Ra. Yes. I remembered. No wonder my prison had been a golden pyramid with an open roof so his blazing symbol in the sky could perpetually punish all of the people living in his city.
"The choice is yours," She repeated in the same gentle, soothing voice. "Embrace my sun, or my moon, or neither. You will still have great gifts. You are still my daughter."
"What gifts?" I asked hoarsely. "I don't have any power left. It was burned out of me long ago."
"The magic still lives in you, daughter. The power has always been yours. You only have to take it back."
I closed my eyes and swallowed hard. I didn't deserve power. I didn't deserve gifts from a goddess. Not me.
"Wolves chased me across the sky." Her voice tinkled like musical chimes, floating through the night. "According to legend, they devoured me in the end. This wolf beside you fears that you will chain him like Fenrir. He doesn't understand that his fear is the cage, just as it is yours. Ra gave you great blessings, some that you may despise and reject from your life. You may deny your love. Again, it is your choice. Always. I only ask that you consider that a sword is not evil unless it’s wielded by an evil man. Your fires and their swords await you in the burning light of day."
Her words alarmed me so badly that I jerked upright, gasping for air as I forced myself to wake up from the dream.
"What is it?"
The man's clipped, growled voice was actually a relief. I knew him. The wolfman who feared Fenrir's fate. I could understand that dread. I had suffered in captivity far too long to ever force another into such a cage, even to save my own life. I had been forced to agree to Ra's demands to save myself, but this time, I would die before I would ever stand by silently while someone was hurt. Even myself.
"Sunfires," I rasped, swinging my legs off the side of the bed. "She said they waited for me in the daylight."
"She who?"
"My goddess," I replied reluctantly, meeting his gaze. "You were right. My house name is Sunna."
He thought a moment and then shrugged. "Never heard of it, but I suppose with your hair and these sun things that you're afraid of that it's no surprise you're from a solar house."
The room was dark, the same as when I'd gone to sleep, but it didn't feel as safe and comforting any longer. Because the wolf was here too? Or were the sunfires outside? In the darkness, I couldn't tell. They could certainly force their way into a dark room, but it would drain them quickly. It would depend on how many might lurk outside...
Eivind saw me listening and his eyes flashed more golden than brown. For a moment, my heart stopped. Cold sweat broke out on my forehead, my skin clammy. That color was the source of all my nightmares and torture for centuries.
This time, an animal looked back at me, not the crazed eyes of an insatiable god. The wolf blinked, nose and ears working harder than mine could possibly fathom."I don't sense anything."
I shook my head slightly. "They're here. I wish I had some clothing to protect my skin."
He jumped up like the chair had suddenly bitten his ass. "Of course, that's what's different. Your skin. You're healed. The scars are gone."
"What?" I looked down at my hands and arms, expecting to see the discolored, thickened marks and pocked hollows. But I ran my palm over my left forearm and gasped softly. Smooth, unmarred skin. I reached around my waist to my lower back, trying not to remember why that spot had been scarred.
The sunfires dripped boiling, fiery acid that had naturally pooled in the small of my back. The deep finger marks had been Ra's, but the burns and acid marks... Those were the demons. When Ra had been feeling particularly displeased, which was oftentimes, he would allow his sunfires to punish his wives.
Until only I remained.
Had the goddess healed me in the dream? Or was it this world? This realm? I had no idea.
"You've remembered something," Eivind said.
