Children of the Sun

Children of the Sun

By: Shannon K. O’Brien & Cari D. Missan

I don’t think I can run anymore, even though all of our lives depend on making it out of this cave. I trip, but Lucian’s hand whips out, grasping my arm and wrenching me to my feet before I can fall face first onto the unforgiving, jagged stone ground.

“Come on, Ari. We’re almost there. You can do this. I believe in you.” His amber eyes radiate such utter faith, they’re all the strength I need to push forward.

When we started this journey I had no idea I’d find my other half, but I have. He’s it, and now I’m moments away from losing him and myself forever.

“There’s light up ahead!” Xavian shouts over his heaving shoulders. Though he wipes off the sweat that drips down his dark face, he never stops running. He can’t.

What little light there is streams in through a narrow slit in the tan rocks about fifty-feet in front of us. And though fifty-feet doesn’t sound like much, when you’ve been running for your life for the last six months, on a mission to save your planet, fifty-feet might as well be fifty miles. I’m tired, very tired, but we’re so close to our goal, sacrificed so much to get here, none of us can stop now.

An explosion of light splinters the rock to our right, sharp pieces scratching and sticking in our skin. I shouldn’t glance behind, but I can’t help it. Members of the Children of the Sun, the faction, who’ve been on our tails for the last day, have finally closed in. If they have their way, no other type of magic will exist except theirs, and it’s their magic that’s like a plague, already damaging the world more than it can recover from unless we succeed.

“Get down!” Xavion spins on his heels, throwing out his arms until he’s facing the soldiers.

We all halt and immediately drop to the ground, the pebbles there poking me, making it uncomfortable to stay down for long. Beside me, Celeste and Lucian lay in similar positions.

Even though it’s not the same kind of magic I possess, I feel Xavian call his forth, gathering it around him. With a thought from his mind, the air blasts past me, hurling the Children of the Sun back into the rocky wall of the cave. Most are knocked unconscious, but one is impaled on a jagged rock sticking out from the middle of the wall.

Xavion puts his hands down. “Let’s go!”

Without a moment's hesitation, we’re up and running toward the dim light at the end of the tunnel. Out of the corner of my eye, Celeste turns her head around, her blonde braid whipping around to smack her face as she checks to make sure the soldiers are still down.

We burst from the cave, then take a minute to catch our breaths. Celeste collapses on the ground in exhaustion, while Lucian and I are doubled over, taking great, gasping breaths, my lungs burning from the exertion. Xavian is the only one still standing. Somehow, despite using his magic, he’s less winded than the rest of us.

I clutch the red gem locket around my neck to make sure it’s still there and hasn’t been lost. This one little thing has caused us so much strife, but very soon it will end. The weight of the necklace is heavier than it should be. I feel the gravity of it on my shoulders. It’s the only thing that can save our world from what The Children of the Sun have done and are still trying to do.

Xavian pulls Celeste to her feet. “You have to block the cave.”

She takes a deep breath to steady herself, then turns to him with wide, uncomprehending eyes. “What?”

He spins her so she’s facing the cave. “Earthquake!”

His words must have sunk in, because Celeste spreads her feet and digs them into the sand as her magic pools around her, flowing from her into the mountain itself. Within mere seconds, boulders and other loose rocks tumble down, piling on top of each other in front of the exit we’ve just come through. If The Children of the Sun want to continue to chase us, they’ll have to get past the rock pile first.

Celeste just bought us more time to complete our mission, more time to revert the world to one without magic.

When the solar storms started almost one hundred years ago people thought it was the end of mankind, wiping out all technology, decimating most of the planet and our way of life. But the storms did something else. They unleashed the magic in all of us and, for a while, we had dreams of rebuilding a much better world. Those dreams have turned to ash around us.

Lucian points to the darkening sky. “It’s almost fully eclipsed!”

My heart, already thundering, kicks into a frantic gear. We were in the caves far longer than I thought. If we don’t complete the spell exactly when the sun is eclipsed by the moon, everything we’ve fought for these last months, all the lives lost, will be for nothing.

The four of us are the last of our lines, descendants of those who first created the locket, who possess each of the four types of magic. There is no one else with the combined powers to stop The Children of the Sun, whose spell will eliminate all magic save their own and, in turn, cause those with high levels of magic to die.

We continue to race down the beach, my feet sinking into the sand with every stride. I fall behind the others, the loose ground tripping me up more than I would like. Lucian hesitates, then turns back so we can run as one. With him by my side, I know I can keep going.

We make it up the beach, putting as much distance between us and the ocean as we can in an effort to be as far away from high tide as possible. The moment we reach the farthest spot, flush against part of the mountains, Celeste and Xavion drop to their knees and begin to draw a protective circle in the sand. They quickly finish, then stand opposite one another. Lucian and I catch up, taking our places across from each other and between them.

We pull the magic around us, forming a sort of bubble to keep us safe while we recite the spell. I step into the center, then take off the locket that’s weighed my spirit down these last six months and place it in the very center.

The locket was created by members of our families when magic came into being after the solar storms were through, made with their blood — our blood. It’s a fail safe, meant to be used if anything like what we’re facing ever came to pass. It has the power to revert the world to one without magic. Life will go on, except for possibly ours, and even if we do survive, we’ll lose our memories, lose who we are. But it’s a small price to pay to right the wrongs that have been done.

I glance up at the sky. The moon is just a hair’s breadth away from completely covering the sun.

It’s time.

Before we can start, a loud crash echoes throughout the cove. Lucian turns to face it, and my heart speeds up again, fueled by the fear coursing through my veins. The Children of the Sun are coming out of the cave, bolting up the beach toward us.

I point to the sky where the moon is completely covering the sun. “Lucian, we need to start the chant!”

Lucian turns around, and we raise our hands, beginning as one.

“Sun, moon, stars, earth . . . we beseech thee. Arianna of the Sun, Lucian of the Moon, Celeste of the Earth, and Xavion of the Stars. . .”

At this point we take out our athames, each having been passed down for generations. We simultaneously slice across our hands, and one by one, step into the center to watch our blood fall onto the locket. Just as I’m about to step in, I hear The Children of the Sun screaming their war cry as they approach.

I step into the center, and everything seems to happen in slow motion; blood spilling from my palm, the last to drop onto the crimson surface of the locket; the men raging toward us; Lucian’s loving gaze as a silent goodbye passes between us. My world is coming to an end. I am coming to an end.

A soldier reaches out his large hand, and I can almost feel his fingers on my flesh, even through the protective bubble, when my blood lands on the locket, sinking into its surface. A huge torrent of energy bursts outward, throwing all those around the locket backward. In the next moment, I’m pulled toward the locket, everything I am, everything I know, is being sucked into it. The last thing I see before all turns black are Lucian’s beautiful amber eyes as his gaze locks with mine, and he mouths, I love you. . .

. . . It’s been a year. One year of being utterly lost. I don’t know who I am, not really. I appeared in what I was told is my home with no memory of anything. The woman who says she is my mother was overjoyed to see me, explaining I’d been missing for six months before I returned out of the blue. Though she looks like me, and obviously loves me, I don’t share her feelings. But I try. Every single day I attempt to reclaim who I was, yet the memories are like minuscule strands of gossamer that slip through my fingers before I can truly grasp them.

The market is crowded today, so many people milling and loitering about, that I’m nearly knocked to the ground by a man who’s hurrying by with a large bundle of clay pots. Before I can smash into the dirt, I’m caught.

It’s a young man, with beautiful mocha skin and the most striking eyes I’ve ever seen. Amber eyes, eyes like living fire.

“Are you all right, miss?” He lets go of my shoulders, those unique eyes scanning me from head to foot, then back again. “Miss?”

That voice. I know that voice.

I shake the feeling away. “Yes, I’m fine. Thank you.”

He cocks his head of thick ebony hair to the side. “Do I know you?”

“I don’t believe so. I’m Arianna.”

“I’m Lucian.”

He offers me his hand, which I take, and the instant his skin meets mine, I am home.