Destiny's Blood by Marie Bilodeau (superbooks4u txt) 📕

the First Star, it’s like a warning system. Imagine not drinking water for a long time and then drinking too much. You would make yourself sick. If you drink a bit at first and get used to it, then your body can drink greater portions. That’s what the moon is to Mirial. Small sips of ether before it gets to gulp.”

Yoma looked at the moon. “So that means the sun will rise soon?”

Zortan nodded and stood up, finished with Avienne’s ankle. “Yes. Adina kept the planet safe from the sun with her ether, but without her controlling it, the planet has resumed its normal rotation.”

“Is that so bad?” Yoma looked out at the hills, as dead as everything else on Mirial. “This land looks like it could use some light.”

Zortan sighed. “The sun of Mirial is wild with ether right now, and could flare up at any moment. A flare would wipe out the entire area touched by sun — maybe the whole planet, now that Adina no longer protects it.”

Yoma shook her head. “That’s ridiculous. Why didn’t Adina just reset the sun, or however it works?”

Zortan was very still for a moment, gazing at the moon but not seeing it. He spoke softly. “Because she couldn’t. She would have given her soul to save her people, but only the heirs can actually link with Mirial. All that she could do was channel its ether, not take full control of it. And that wasn’t enough.”

His shoulders squared again, as though shedding the memory, and he looked down and held Yoma’s eyes with his own. “We’re running out of time. If the sun strikes this half of the planet and you lower the shields, the First Star will flare and destroy us. And it might shed its overflow of ether anyway before the next sunset.” He paused, took a deep breath. “If you think this part of the planet is dead, where it has not seen light in almost two decades, then imagine what it will be like after the sun destroys it. At least we’ll probably all be instantly killed, and we won’t have to witness it.”

“Sounds fun,” Avienne mumbled, sitting up. “I like Zortan’s plan better than the death thing, Yoma.”

Yoma cast a glance at Avienne, the smuggler pale and drawn. “I can walk,” Avienne insisted. She clenched her jaw and struggled up, her eyes cold and set. Yoma went to her side, but the woman refused assistance. She hobbled forward. “I can walk.”

“The capital is just beyond these hills.” Zortan said. “Let’s go.”

Avienne hissed and followed after him, limping surprisingly quickly and refusing all help from Yoma.

“Aren’t you just the little stubborn one,” Yoma said, staying near. Avienne didn’t answer, too focused on keeping pace.

A sound caught Yoma’s ears from all sides, odd yet chillingly familiar. Zortan was at their side in a moment. Without a word, he grabbed Avienne and threw her over his shoulders as if she was nothing more than a sack of potatoes. Avienne screamed in protest.

“Blood and bones, what are you doing?”

“We have to move fast.” He broke into a run that left Yoma struggling to keep up with his pace, despite his extra load. Avienne was tossed by his strides, and the repeated collisions of her ribcage with his shoulders pulled short, high pitched swears from her. Around them, the gurgling was closing in.

Yoma pulled her gun free and fired as the first creature moved out of the shadow of the hill beside them. It jerked back, but Yoma doubted it was dead. She didn’t linger around to find out.

She chanced a look back. The creatures were pouring into the path behind them, gaining speed. They looked like a tumbling, thick river of tar filling a dry riverbed.

“They’re gaining!” She screamed ahead as she fired again, the bullet lost in the mass of goo. Zortan stopped and she smashed into him, not fazing him. He dropped Avienne and pulled his sword free, the blade blood-red as it swung at the first creature. He struck it and sliced it, the creature shrieked and evaporated. White smoke rose from its vanishing remains.

Avienne jumped back on her good leg and fired her gun, throwing knives in between shots. Yoma fired as well, but her bullets and Avienne’s knives had very little impact beyond buying them a few more seconds.

Zortan’s thrusts and parries proved so quick that Yoma couldn’t keep up with his movement. The dark-clad warrior blended in with the dark creatures until only the flash of his sword allowed her to see him — and to see that he was losing ground, as well.

Yoma fired again. The creatures were barely two metres from her and Avienne. Her gun choked. No more bullets! She fumbled into her pockets, finding no refills. Why hadn’t she taken the other guard’s gun too?

“I’m out too.” Avienne closed ranks and pulled two more knives free, handing one to Yoma. “Just in case,” she said over the rising gurgling sounds, and Yoma knew what she meant. Just in case they got too close, it was better to die by a blade than to get sucked into the tarry mass.

The land was covered by the dark creatures as far as Yoma’s eyes could see. She clutched the knife and prepared to fight with her bare hands, wondering if the dark flesh would give at all.

Gggrrrrrrrrrggggggggrgbbbbbbbrrrrrrr. The sound washed over them, the ground shaking. The creatures closed in around them, their noise shifting until they almost seemed to be purring in anticipation.

“Let go!” Avienne screamed. Yoma whirled around. Avienne was down, her good leg clutched tightly by the tar.

“Bloody and bones!” She swung the knife at the creature, only to have it absorbed into the mass. The smuggler screamed in anger. It was dragging her in further now. Her fingernails dug into the ground and her leg kicked out, but the creature continued unfazed, ensnaring Avienne’s second leg.

Yoma threw herself to the ground and grabbed Avienne’s hands, pulling her back with all her strength.

“Zortan!” she screamed,