Suns and Shadows

Hold On To Me

With the flood of people leaving the library, I can barely walk fast enough, let alone look for the familiar silver eyes in a crowd. I spot Joshua walking towards a staircase and I run after him. "Joshua!" I shout.

He stops momentarily and looks at me, his eyes are glassy, the silver irises shining look moons. He waits for me to climb the staircase. We go up the stairs slowly and I don't know where I'm going. I'm just trusting Joshua will know the way.

Slowly, the hallways start to look familiar. I realize this is where he took me. This is where we had our picnic under the stars. He opens up a hatch and I feel a slight breeze come to my face. It prickles against my skin, feeling like pins and needles.

Joshua climbs  up and reaches out his hand to help me up. It's funny how much I trust him, despite the fact I've only known him for around two weeks.

And the fact that he's a Sun.

There's no picnic blanket waiting for me this time I sit on the roof. There isn't anything except for the stars twinkling in the sky. But the stars are enough for me. I sit down and let myself lie on the cold roof, chilling me to my spine. Joshua lies down next to me.

Very slowly and very carefully, I take one of his fingers and wrap them around one of my own. "Why can't we just stay here?" He asks. "With you. Because up here, sometimes it's like the world isn't calling me for help all the time."

"You don't have to be the hero." I reply, surprised at the words that come from my own throat.

He stays silent for a moment. "I think I do sometimes. And it's not because anyone is forcing me. It's that I can't sit back and watch the world crumble if I have what it takes to fix it. I remember everyday sitting in my father's lap at Councillor Hall, seeing the destruction, the chaos, the death and...not doing anything. I wanted to speak up, but ?I didn't and I regret it everyday."

"You were just a kid."

He laughs with a bitter tone. "You know what you were doing as a kid? You were the only thing that kept your sister alive while I had everything. My father was sick too, but I had my mother to take care of him with me. You only had yourself."

"Look Sun boy, we don't choose how we're born. You curse yourself for living in luxury when you didn't choose that. It's our choices that show us who we are. We decide who we're going to be and in the end, look around. This-this chance you given us is because you made the right choices." My throat becomes too dry to speak.

His head tilts toward me and we're close. So close I can feel his breath stirring against my cheek. I feel everything, more vivid, more colorful than I ever have before. I feel the sweat on his palms. I see the stormy darker gray flecks in his eyes. I feel my own chest rising and falling rapidly as he leans in closer to me.

"Ebony...?" He whispers.

It's a question. I know it is, but I don't what the question is but a feeling deep inside of me has an answer.

Slowly, so painstakingly slow, I lean in close to him until our lips brush ever so slightly, the light brush of lip on lip. And I lean in for more-

"High Commander." A voice calls from the hatch. It's Zillah, her strawberry hair a little brighter looking like a torch that lights up the sky. "You're needed inside for clearance and assignments for the scouting mission."

Joshua springs up, flushed as red as her hair. "I, um did you see anything...?"

Zillah's face grows colder, malicious even. "No, sir. Nothing at all." She gives me a pointed glance, no, not a glance. Zillah glares at me, her eyes ablaze with hate, directed at me. I gulp down a lump in my throat.

What have we done?

A/N: First of all, thank you for 500 reads!! Your support in reading this book has helped me out so much that you wouldn't believe it. Please comment and vote if you like this (which i assume you do since you've read 23 chapters so far...). Also, do you like Jebony? Comment below!!