Page 115 of Heavenly Bodies

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

Silence. Utter silence.

She saw Alfonso look around in confusion, saw the queens stand. Her eyes flicked to Idris, who was watching with a cold amusement, as he nodded to her.

She took a deep breath, anchoring herself in Enzo’s grip.

‘The Stars could not kill me,’ she continued, her voice carrying clearly. ‘I am here tonight to show my alliance to Helios. And to tell you that the Stars are not who we think they are. They are not benevolent gods.’

Uneasy murmurs, shouts and some jeers began in the crowd.

‘Ariete descended to kill my parents for hiding my truth—that I was destined to fall for him, and that it would kill us both.’

Gasps, and boos of disbelief. Elara pressed on. ‘He killed my best friend, anyone I loved and touched. For something that was thrust upon me.’

She turned. ‘King Idris and Prince Lorenzo took me into their home and sheltered me.’ She recited the words Idris had told her to say. ‘And I now stand with them—as theirweapon.’ She forced herself to say the words. ‘Tonight, we declare it. We declare war upon Ariete.’

The crowd erupted. More gasps, louder booing, a shout of ‘Lies!’ and calls for Elara’s head all reached her. But among it all, murmurs of concern, the smallest smattering of applause.

Idris stood. The queens were shouting animatedly to him, but he only nodded, extracting himself from them.

‘I think it’s high time we leave,’ he drawled as he approached, and Leo led them through the crowd, unsheathing his sword as the crowd pressed closer. Elara craned her neck, seeing Merissa and Isra ahead of them, hurrying out of the room.

Still the crowd bayed, Alfonso completely silent now, the queens trying to barge through the swarm of people towards them.

They hurried down the grand hallway, following Merissa and Isra, who slipped through a pair of ornate doors up ahead.

When Elara ran through them, she found herself in a room with a grand rose-gold statue of a bull in its centre—another animal associated with the Star Torra. It looked like a library, the walls lined with shelves that stretched from floor to ceiling, all filled with foiled spines in different hues of pink.

‘Merissa,’ Idris called.

Merissa waited up ahead, turning as the king called for her. ‘Now,’ he said.

Merissa understood immediately, rosy magick flowing from her fingers and over Idris as she glamoured him. His clothes became less refined, his hair growing, nose and mouth shifting, eyes darkening. The glamour was heavy—heavier than the one that Merissa put over Elara daily. She couldn’t see a trace of who Idris was beneath it.

‘Outcomes, Isra?’ Enzo asked, as he let Merissa do the same to him. She noticed that although the glamour laid overhim was heavy too, if she focused hard enough, she could see the Enzo she knew beneath it.

Isra’s eyes flashed white, as she forced herself into a brief trance, before returning to normal moments later. ‘Fine, so long as we split up. The best path is for you head back to thesoverinnow with Leo and Paolo, Your Majesty. Merissa and I will then go through, and Enzo and Elara last.’

Idris nodded, looking to Elara as Merissa began to glamour her. Elara saw her own hair change colour, her dress transform.

‘You did well, Elara,’ he said. ‘There is no doubt in my mind that Ariete will come.’

Elara barely acknowledged Idris, her heart racing.

Merissa glamoured the rest of the group as quickly as possible, while the sound of the crowd swelled beyond the doors.

‘Now,’ Isra said, and the glamoured king walked away with Leo and Paolo, sauntering out of the throne room doors.

When he was out of sight, Isra turned. ‘You’re welcome,’ she said to Enzo, as she linked arms with Merissa. With a final smile, they both turned and left the throne room together.

‘For what?’ Elara asked, as he set off towards a set of doors opposite the ones they’d entered from.

Enzo only smiled.

Elara had to hand it to them—the Aphrodeans were known as a people of beauty for a reason.

Candles floated through the sugar-pink sky as Enzo pulled her down a path that snaked out from the library. Clouds surrounded them as they descended, and Elara was struck by how surreal they looked.

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