We’ve looked for days now, without success. The only thing Isla has managed to do is get on my last nerve.
I let out a sigh as I sink into my chair on our preferred floor of the castle, and Enya looks up from the orange she’s peeling. “The Wildling can’t be that bad,” she says.
“Whatever you’re thinking, she’s worse,” I reply.
She looks at me strangely but stays quiet.
“What?”
“Oh, nothing.” She goes back to her peeling, uncharacteristically quiet.
Zed snorts. “You’ve faced rebellions, deadly creatures, uprisings, and curses, but one tiny Wildling is giving you trouble?”
I shoot him a look. I might tower over her, but there doesn’t seem to be anything tiny about the Wildling. Including her attitude.
“It is strange,” Calder says pensively, reaching to take a slice of orange Enya has offered. “I haven’t seen you this ... worked up in a while.”
“I’m not worked up,” I say tersely. Bitterness fills my mouth. I am not a liar. I do notmake a habit of lying.
But clearly, I am now constantly lying to myself.
“Once again, I plead with you all to talk about anything but the Wildling,” I groan, rubbing my temples. It’s enough that I must think about her, and work with her, and dream of her. The last thing I want is her being a regular topic of conversation with my friends.
Enya gets to her feet at once, clasping her hands together. “It’s settled, then. We didn’t think you’d be in the mood, what with the island dying and all, but since you are clearly in need of a distraction ...”
Her words are light, but I know her well. The island’s fate weighs heavily on her—on all of us—but it won’t be figured out tonight.
I know exactly what she means. Knowing someone this long is its own form of telepathy. “I thought we weren’t doing it this decade.”
Calder blinks. “When did we say that?”
“Thekingsaid that,” Zed replies in a piercing tone. I scowl at him, and he just grins, knowing how I hate the title. “You know, wecould take a page out of my realm’s values. Enact a democracy. Voting. Like civil beings.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Fine. A vote. Who would like to—” Enya, Zed, and Calder’s hands all shoot up.
“Children, all of you,” I mutter. “Five-hundred-year-old children.”
Enya grins as she passes me by, on her way out the door. “And you, Oro, are the whiniest among us.”
Fireball is a game we made as teenagers. Every decade, fireflies fill a forest on Sun Isle. They burn bright—and follow movement. The gleam they create in packs is so thick they block our vision when we run, so we made a contest of it. Two against two. One person on offense, one on defense, with the goal of getting a glass orb across the other side of the forest.
One team member tries to distract the swarm of fireflies, while the other races across to the other side. Distractions must be complex to get the fireflies’ attention, and over the centuries, techniques have gotten wilder. Games have left their marks on this stretch of land, changing the landscape completely. They have ended with the forest ablaze, flooded from nearby streams and full of tornadoes (one time when Zed was especially set on winning). Mostly, though, games end in broken bones.
“Teams?” I ask, as we approach the forest. The fireflies fill every gap in the brush like living flames. Their speckled lights make a second, blazing night sky.
“This time, I get Calder,” Zed says. Back when he could fly, Zed was the undisputed champion of the game. He’s the self-declared “fastest Skyling in existence.” Now Calder’s the best partner, given his sheer size and ability to whip water around him in waves, which the fireflies seem to like.
“I guess we’re stuck together,” Enya says, leaning against me.
I smile for the first time in a while. “No, I guess you’re stuck withme.” According to my friends I’m the worst partner, because I’m the only one who refuses to cheat.
I remember what Enya said about breaking the rules. About loosening my morality.
I whisper something into Enya’s ear, and watch a slow grin overtake her freckled face. She clicks her tongue. “I knew there was corruption in you yet.”
Zed and I take our marks, on opposite ends of our clearing. The orb sits in the middle. The first to capture it, then get it to the other side, wins.
The fireflies have already started circling, curious. Enya and Calder face each other down, ready to provide distraction. Ready to lead the bright creatures toward the other side, and to block their opponents from making it across with the orb.
