The Return to Irithara (Children of the Sun Book 2)

To say that Rayni was furious would be an understatement. She’d gone with Mel on this mission to protect him, and even then, he ended up getting kidnapped somehow. She wasn’t even sure who she was angry with more—the people who’d attacked them, or herself.

The attackers didn’t even bother fighting her once Mel was too weak to get up. Rayni just got hit in her temple with the butt of a gun, and before she could get back up again, the attackers and Mel were gone.

She should have seen it coming, she berated herself as she got into the car. Since she’d been pretty much unconscious during the take-off, she had no idea where those people were taking Mel, but since it had clearly been a trap, someone inside Aren must have been responsible for leading them into it.

So the best lead she had was asking Mereria where she’d gotten her intel.

The car ride stretched infinitely. Never before had Rayni hated the autopilot this much. She usually could let out some of her anger through flying aggressively, but the autopilot had no such setting, and even if it did, it most likely wouldn’t help her.

As soon as she got back to the island, she jumped out of the car and tried to reach Mereria through telepathy. Rayni could quite easily find the other Eternal—Mereria was the most powerful being around here—but when Rayni actually tried talking to her, she only hit some sort of a mental wall.

Gritting her teeth, Rayni suffered through the elevator ride down and pretty much ran towards the building she could feel Mereria was in. Somehow Rayni could easily pinpoint where the Eternal was, which was really handy right now, but it was still weird. Rayni was glad there were so few people around because otherwise, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to handle being aware of so many minds at once.

As Rayni got close to where Mereria was, she noticed that besides her there were also Nef, Alor, and their mother. Rayni wasn’t sure how she’d missed that, maybe Mereria just overshadowed everyone around her.

“No, please, they don’t know the rules. Punish me instead,” Rayni heard Orina say, sounding uncharacteristically emotional. Usually, Rayni would have wondered what was going on, but right now, she didn’t give a damn. Mel was in danger, and that was the priority.

“They knew this one,” Mereria replied coldly as Rayni finally reached them. “And you can’t protect them from the consequences, Orina.”

Orina seemed to want to continue arguing, but Rayni didn’t care. “Everyone, shut the hell up!”

Surprisingly, they did. Then again, she might have sounded much angrier than usual.

“Who told you where that former Umbra was?” Rayni asked, focusing solely on Mereria and pointing her index finger at her. Mereria didn’t answer, and instead she walked towards Rayni with a concerned expression. And then she reached out to touch her temple.

Rayni immediately jerked her head away, glaring. It seemed Mereria wasn’t going to give up, despite what she’d said.

“Who hurt you?” Mereria asked darkly. Rayni frowned, wondering how Mereria had figured that out. She touched her temple and only then realized that there was dried blood where she’d been hit. Rayni hadn’t thought it had torn her skin, and later she’d been too angry to notice.

“We got ambushed. Mel got kidnapped,” Rayni said, glaring once more. “I need to figure out where he was taken.”

Mereria, while still angry, now also looked very annoyed. “You never could get your priorities straight when it came to him.”

Rayni barely understood what Mereria was talking about, but she knew enough to get offended. “Excuse me? What’s more important than saving Mel?”

“Trying to find out where he’s been taken is a waste of resources,” Mereria explained calmly while Rayni felt her blood boil. “Instead, we need to deal with the possible traitor in our midst.”

“Fine,” Rayni spat. “Lead on, then. I have some questions for him.”

Mereria looked unimpressed, but nonetheless complied, turning around and leading them away into another corridor. Thankfully, the walk was very short and soon Mereria stopped in front of a door.

She swung it open, revealing a middle-aged man sitting in a chair in front of a computer. He didn’t even bother looking at them.

“Even you betrayed me, Leon?” Mereria asked, sounding disappointed. Rayni did her best to keep herself from murdering the man immediately.

“Apologies, Commander, but only a fool would stay on your side,” Leon replied, still not looking at any of them. Rayni felt like she knew this guy, but like so many times before, she couldn’t remember anything beyond that.

“Whose side did you choose?”

“Relioth’s,” Leon said, not sounding happy about it at all.

“I see,” Mereria replied, pulling out a dagger. “How much did you tell him?”

“Everything.”

Great. So Relioth knew where this base was. And they were screwed.

Before anyone could say or do anything, Mereria stabbed the dagger in Leon’s back.

“What the hell?” Rayni exclaimed. She hadn’t thought Mereria had a weapon on her, much less that she would just kill the guy. “We could have questioned him!”

“He wouldn’t have told you anything. And you have your answer—Tharos ordered the capture. I don’t see a reason why he’d be interested in such a lowly soldier, but I never did understand him.”

Rayni had a feeling she knew exactly why Relioth had orchestrated the ambush. Mel would be a good leverage to have over Kaleth if he ever wanted to step out of line. On the other hand, they all assumed that Kaleth had been brainwashed, so why would Relioth need Mel?

Maybe the situation was even more complicated than she’d thought at first.

“Okay, so if you know him so well, tell me where he could have taken Mel.”

“No,” Mereria replied firmly. “You need to learn to see past personal attachment, Rayni. I’ve told you as much many times already.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t remember that, and I don’t see what makes you an authority on seeing past personal attachment.”

“I’m not taking your side. Is that not proof enough?” Mereria asked calmly, but it was clear that wasn’t how she really felt. Rayni had no idea how to react to that. “The best course of action right now is to attack Tharos as soon possible, and by doing so most likely saving Melwynar as well.”

“His full name is Melwynar?” Rayni knew she shouldn’t be focusing on that right now, but it just surprised her so much she couldn’t not comment on it. She hadn’t thought to ask Mel about this because she’d just assumed he either didn’t remember, or his name was just that—Mel.

“I see you forgot that as well,” said Mereria, for some reason sounding disappointed.

“I forgot everything. What part of everything don’t you understand?” Okay, maybe that was a little too harsh, but Rayni was angry and so tired of this conversation. It didn’t matter either way—Mereria was just as cold as ever afterward.

“Given what just happened, I think it would be best to go confront Ikara as soon as possible. I wanted to wait a little longer to regain my power completely, but I suppose we can’t afford to wait anymore,” Mereria said, completely disregarding Rayni’s question. How long could it take to get to full power after being around othrin for a century, anyway?

“We’ll meet on the surface in half an hour. Orina will show you where the equipment is.” Mereria then looked directly at the woman in question. “And your sons are coming with us.”

Rayni expected Nef to be happy about that, but he didn’t look particularly pleased. He mostly seemed suspicious, and when he noticed Rayni was staring at him, he gave her a very awkward smile.

Rayni had no idea what that was about, but she was too preoccupied with other things to worry about that. This wasn’t what Rayni had wanted. She needed to try to figure out where Mel had been taken and get him out before…well, before Relioth did something to him. Like brainwash him, for example. Or torture him for information.

Rayni’s glare dissipated as guilt replaced her anger. She hadn’t even asked if Mel was okay after whatever punishment he’d undergone. She’d been so preoccupied thinking about what Mereria had told her that she’d basically ignored him throughout most of the journey.

Rayni sighed and shut her eyes, just to stop herself from punching a wall in frustration. She knew Mereria was right—there was no way Rayni could search for Mel without being captured herself, so getting an Umbra army and attacking Relioth was a much more logical approach. That didn’t mean Rayni had to like this plan, though.

“Dammit,” Orina whispered, turning quickly to her sons. “Why did you have to do that? Why couldn’t you just—”

“Why what? Why couldn’t we ignore that there’s something going on here that Mereria doesn’t want us to know?” Nef cut in. “Because I can’t do that, and I’m pretty sure Al can’t either.”

“I know she’s hiding something, of course I know,” Orina exclaimed, but she seemed more sad than angry. “But she’s the only way we can take out Relioth. And what do you think would happen if you actually managed to figure out what she doesn’t want us to know?”

Orina let out a shuddering breath. “She’ll kill you, okay? You’re not Eternals, so she won’t hesitate. And I can’t lose you like I lost your father.”

Rayni was relieved that after all that arguing they were finally making some progress because she wasn’t sure how much more of it she could take. Thought it was a bit jarring to see someone as skilled at hiding their emotions as Orina Arithar so close to tears.

“Mom…” Alor said quietly but immediately trailed off, probably having no idea what to say. Understandable.

“Anyway,” Orina said, her voice turning into her usual, perfectly neutral one once more. “We’d better go get that equipment. If this goes sideways, we’ll need all the protection we can get.”