Celestial Monsters (The Sunbearer Duology #2)

by Aiden Thomas

“Dammit, Teo!” Niya barked. “Don’t try to make friends with evil roosters!” “I wasn’t, it was monologuing!”

“Do you have enough emergency supplies?” “Uh, yeah, Teo,” she said, annoyed. “What do you think the Takis are for?”

“What’s he wearing?!” Auristela demanded from her cell. “I can’t see! Xochi! Describe it to me! I want to picture how stupid he looks in my head!” “Okay, so from this angle,” Xochi said. “It looks like a tiara—” “It’s not a tiara!” Xio snapped.

Xochi ignored him. “It’s kind of like the Sunbearer crown, but way uglier—”

So you pushed everyone away, Teo thought, and suddenly, hundreds of little moments over the years began to piece themselves together.

It struck Teo that, of all the gods he’d met, Mala Suerte was the most human.

It wasn’t like a kiss in the movies. It was awkward and clumsy, and Teo could feel Aurelio’s tense lips tremble against his own. But it was soft and warm, and it tasted like sweet mazapan. To be honest, Aurelio could’ve drooled on him, stepped on his foot, or even sneezed directly into his mouth and it wouldn’t have mattered because he was kissing Aurelio for the first time after dreaming about it for so painfully long.

“I wanna take him, and I wanna put him in a jar,” Niya said, enunciating every word. “And then I wanna take that jar and shake it.” Niya violently pantomimed the motion for emphasis.

“Oh, I don’t know, probably because you’re all cosplaying as glowsticks right now?” Xio said sarcastically.

“My sister always made me brave,” he confessed, looking into Teo’s eyes. “But you, Teo … you make me fearless.”

Renewed energy shot through the group as Dezi worked his magic. Love, unity, and strength.

“Xio,” Suerte whispered, his breaths growing shallow and weak. “You’re not alone.” His dark eyes slid past them.

As the pain threatened to overwhelm them, Xio found solace in the love of their friends and clung to the hope that somewhere out there, Suerte still watched over them, as he’d promised.

The dioses had allowed the Sunbearer Trials to continue, placing the fate of the world on their children’s shoulders, when all this time any one of them could have made the same sacrifice as Suerte.

“This is the problem!” he shouted, looking around at the gathered gods. “You all think you know what’s best for everyone in Reino del Sol, when you don’t know anything!”

There was still beauty in the world, even after everything they’d seen.