Page 10 of Heavenly Bodies

‘Your reputation precedes you,’ she said in a bored tone, looking away.

‘Does it now? All good things, I hope.’

‘Quite the opposite.’ She turned back to him, and her smile was razor sharp. ‘Unless you count the stories of you burning, whoring and killing your way through my kingdom as “good things”. Your reputation is that of a wicked rake. Nothing more.’

He turned in his seat so he was fully facing her, elbow on the table, leaning his fist against his temple as though he had all the time in the world to look at her. She bristled at his arrogance. Already she could see the entitlement etched into every line of his face. But still, she did not break from his gaze.

‘I’m flattered that you already know so much about me when I hardly know a thing about you,’ he said. A grin slowly formed, along with a dangerous light in his golden eyes. Elara’s attention caught on them, noticing that they were flecked with bronze.

‘If you ever want to pay homage to the man who you’reclearly so fascinated by,’ he continued, ‘my room is across the garden from yours.’

‘What did you just say?’ She was unable to keep the bite out of her voice.

He shrugged. ‘I can show you just how “wicked and rakish” I can be.’

She summoned every drop of disgust on to her face as she looked down her nose at him. Then, with a small smirk that she knew drove men mad with anger, she flicked her hair over her shoulder and ignored him.

She felt him shift in his seat.

‘You scrub up well, you know?’ he persisted. She exhaled loudly. He leaned back, taking a sip of peach wine. ‘Bedraggled, in that tattered undergown, you couldn’t have looked further from a princess.’ He chuckled low as her temper flared. ‘But now, I can see that you are royalty.’ His eyes remained on the starflowers of her hair.

‘My title is “Queen”, actually,’ she said yet again. ‘And do you always charm strangers with such compliments?’ His easy smile faltered. ‘Probably the same way you charm poor maidens by shoving them off your lap. I’d rather let a winged lion maul me to death than ever set foot in your bedroom.’

She heard a splutter and peered to see Leonardo coughing into his wine, his shoulders shaking.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, when the two looked at him. ‘It’s just, I’ve never heard anyone talk to Enzo like that.’

‘Maybe if someone had already, he wouldn’t be such an egotistical bastard.’

Leonardo gaped as Lorenzo bent forwards, blocking the general from view.

‘Watch your tongue, darkwitch.’

‘Or what? You’ll burn me on a pyre? I thought you needed me for your father’s go at world domination.’

A nerve ticked in Lorenzo’s jaw, and Elara took it as a victory, settling back into her chair. She took a sip of wine, her nerves jangling. The honeyed sweetness of the wine dissolved on her tongue, as she waited for the prince’s fury to explode. But instead he said, in a voice lethally quiet, ‘Unfortunately, he does need you. Which means that I, by some terrible fate, am charged with training you. If you insult me again, our training together won’t be pleasant.’

‘I wasn’t under any illusion that it would be anyway,’ she replied to him. ‘And what couldyoupossibly teachme?’

He laughed then out of the side of his mouth, as a server started to lay plates filled with food before them. He waited until she had left, before replying. ‘I possess the Three, ignorant woman.’

Elara’s eyes flew to his.

‘Yes,’ he continued on, smiling with clear delight. ‘What are the chances? I am sure you know how rare it is to possess all three of your kingdom’s gifts. So it turns out,princess, that I’ll be able to help you quite a bit.’

It was said that when each Star had fallen to Celestia, they had gifted a drop of their magick to their patron kingdoms—enough to create three powers in each one.

She didn’t reply for a moment, instead yanking a platter of rice jewelled with pomegranates that had just been set down, to her. No wonder the prince had been able to dole out so much destruction to her kingdom. The thought of what he, his father and their entire sorry kingdom had done to Asteria reignited the fury within her.

‘What exactly are the Three in Helios?’ she asked tightly, vowing there and then that she would learn everything she could about this man, and then destroy him.

‘I can wield the Light,’ he replied, and the finger he hadwrapped around his goblet began to glow. Elara winced, and Lorenzo’s eyes narrowed.

‘I abhor the Light,’ she snapped. ‘The Stars-damned entirety of Celestia revels in the Light and curses the Dark, thanks to you and your family.’

‘Good,’ he replied. ‘Then you probably won’t like my next power much either.’

He lifted his hand and, as his fingers danced, a small flame fluttered between them. This time, Elara didn’t wince. The flames, she did not fear. They weren’t what had shoved down her throat, cutting off her scream when—

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