Maya Summers's Arc

Chapter 4 of 1

The crack in the ground groaned wider. More gray shapes climbed out, taller than the ratpigs, with long arms and no faces. Maya raised her scepter again. She pulled the light inward like the book taught her. But her arms shook. The warmth in her chest flickered low, like a candle almost out. She had held the wall of light too long already. Zuri crouched beside her, ready to fight, but even he could not stop this many. "I can't," Maya whispered. "I'm too tired." Her purple butterfly landed on her shoulder, then went still. The first gray hunter reached for the crystal's glow. Then a figure stepped between Maya and the crack. She wore a torn gray cloak, and her eyes burned like two small suns. Maya had never seen her before. The girl did not draw a weapon. She only lifted her hands toward the hunters. "Stay back," the girl said. Her voice was flat and plain. "Who ARE you?" Zuri demanded, wings buzzing. "Solara," the girl said. "The sun sages made me. From grief." She did not turn around. "I pull warmth from things. I can pull it from them." The gray hunters lunged. Solara touched the nearest one. The cold in it flowed into her hands, and the hunter froze, then crumbled to ash. But she did not stop in time. The warmth kept coming. The moss under her feet went brown. Maya felt her own light dim further, drawn toward the strange girl. "You're taking mine too," Maya said. "I know." Solara pulled her hands back and pressed them to her chest. "I'm learning to stop." She looked at Maya for the first time. "Give me your light. On purpose. Not by accident. Send it out the way you send the wall." Maya understood. Alone, her light was almost gone. Alone, Solara took warmth she could not control. But together they could aim it. "Zuri, hold them off," Maya said. Zuri dove, striking hunters with buzzing wings, Box screeching at his side. Maya gripped her scepter with both hands. She reached for the last warmth in her chest. She did not grab it. She waited. Then she opened her eyes. "Now," she said. Gold light poured from the crystal into Solara's open hands. Solara did not swallow it. She shaped it. The light bent into a burning wall and rolled down into the crack. The gray hunters shrieked and fell back into the dark. Solara sealed the light across the opening like a lid. The ground sealed shut. Warmth returned to the moss. Maya sank to her knees, empty but safe. Solara stood over the healed ground, breathing hard. "You stopped in time," Maya said. "Once," Solara said. She stared at her own hands. "With your help." She did not smile, but she stayed. The crack was closed. And the meadow had one more guardian than before.