Liora swept the sword in an arc, and the light trailed after it. “That was a different beast. One we did away with, thank the gods.”
“Why—”
“We’re here to learn of solaire, not antiquity.” Liora turned toward me. “Seelie magic works through growth. We bring light and life. Like your Unseelie magic, too much of it overwhelms us.”
“What happens?”
Her free hand rose, fingers playing under the light. “We join nature. We sprout with blooms, with branches and leaves. If you ever visit the spring court, you must stand before the Everbloom. A thousand years ago, Queen Thessane sacrificed herself to save her court, and in doing so, her arms became branches, and her legs became the trunk of the greatest tree in Aurelia.”
Beautiful. Terrifying.
“Come forward,” Liora said. “I’ll show you the power of light.”
I did, boots crunching over gravel. I held my sword low, approaching with sidesteps.
“Block my blow,” the summer queen said. “As best you can.”
I set my free hand to the grip of my sword and held it before me.
Liora didn’t move. Her eyes narrowed, and I struggled to keep my eyes on hers and not the glowing miracle in her hand.
Then, a flash. Her boots crunched, her sword arced, and I raised mine to meet it. A clean block. Yet?—
My blade whiffed through air. Hers tapped my jerkin over my ribs.
She stepped back, out of range. “And so the changeling queen falls.”
Adrenaline tingled in my veins. “I don’t understand.”
She lifted her sword, set her fingertips underneath the flat of the blade. “Look for the movement.”
Light blazed bright along its length, forcing me to squint, but—at the edges, it didn’t hold steady. It shimmered.
“Solaire superheats the air around the weapon.” Liora’s lip curled. “I’m not striking where you see the glow—I’m striking where the air is still. By the time you see the true blade, you’re bleeding.”
Incredible. So different from feralis.
“Now that you’ve seen it,” Liora said, “look around you. Do your eyes perceive our magic in this room?”
There, limning the stone bench, a line of silver-gold sunlight shimmered almost violently. Along the columns where the sun touched, solaire from top to base. It rose in sinuous waves like steam.
“I see it.”
“Set your finger to it. That’s how summer children begin their training. Set one finger to the pool of light like water. Taste of it. The magic must live inside you in order to control it.”
At the nearest column, I lifted my hand, touched the stone; its warmth made me shut my eyes. Not too hot, just pleasantly warm, the magic vibrating under my fingertip.
I drew my finger over the stone, pulled it away. Solaire like water—solaire like melted golden chocolate.
Behind me, Liora said, “Know your birthright, child of summer.”
My finger found my lips, and I laved my tongue over the tip. Solaire, warm and sweet. Its honey spread through my mouth, down my throat, into my chest. Light clinging, heating, growing?—
The warmth curdled, turned sharp, turned to a hiss I felt more than heard. The solaire dissolved on my tongue, replaced by the taste of burnt metal. My stomach lurched. I doubled over, hands on my knees, and spat onto the gravel. The saliva that hit the ground steamed.
“Eurydice?”
My throat burned where the warmth had been. The solaire… it felt like it’d beeneaten. Gone—every trace of it, as quickly as it had come.