Page 141 of Heavenly Bodies

‘Princess Elara,’ Enzo mocked. ‘Did you really think I would ever be your ally?’

‘I don’t understand.’ The closed box within her, which had been quiet these last few weeks, was beginning to rattle.

Enzo exchanged a glance with Ariete, who let out a peal of glee.

‘My father wanted his alliance. Wanted you as a weapon.’ He threw a contemptuous look to the bound king, who tried to shout again. ‘But I saw you for what you really were. A bargaining chip. So I let my father carry on with his little plan, as I plotted. A fair trade, with our esteemed King of Stars. Your life, and my father’s, for the Helion throne.’

‘No,’ Elara said scathingly. ‘It’s not possible. The last few months—’

‘Ah, yes.’ A small smile played on the prince’s lips. ‘Tomake you believe, to make you all believe. It was fun to toy with you, I’ll admit. She’s a good fuck,’ he added to Ariete.

Elara lunged as Ariete cackled, but her shield wasn’t raised, all her training forgotten, and the god whipped out starlight, binding her wrists and feet as she fell to the floor.

‘Why?’ The word broke from her lips.

‘You’re not the only one good at illusions, Elara,’ Enzo crooned. ‘It was easy to pretend, easier still to get you to trust me.’ He chuckled. ‘You’re weak.’

As she searched his face, she found herself looking at a stranger’s. A thousand memories flitted behind her eyes, each one a lie.

Ariete stood. ‘You can acquaint yourself with the dungeons this time while I make preparations. I won’t let you escape again, Elara. You will come to the Heavens with me. And while I may not be able to kill you, I’ll make sure to lock you in a pocket of darkness, until the lost princess of Asteria is a mere memory in this world.’

He was upon her in two strides, patting over her body roughly as he checked for weapons. When he reached the tops of her thighs she hissed, and he grinned as he hitched her dress up, tutting when he found them both bare.

He hauled her up, propelling her towards the doors as she struggled. Idris tried to fight, to move, to shout.

‘Silence,’ Ariete roared, and Idris cowered.

Elara was hauled along the length of the throne room, and it was only when she reached the doors that she wrestled out of Ariete’s grasp and turned, head held high, shoulders thrown back.

She gathered as many nightmares as she could from her broken heart, and fixed on Enzo’s cold, empty gaze.

‘I surviveddivinitas,’ she said. ‘I’ll survive you too.’

CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

Ariete dragged her down the dungeon steps, past blank-eyed guards and into a grim cell. She landed hard on the hay-strewn stone.

‘Just a few hours, darling, and you’ll be soaring to your new home.’ He grinned as he clanged the bars of her cell gate shut. ‘I’ve mapped out a perfect part of the sky for you, one where no one will find you.’

He cackled as he left her there, promising that he would be back by lightdown. She crumpled to the floor, forcing herself to breathe as the walls sealed her in. Grief clawed at her throat, a dull pain drumming in her skull. Her thoughts were too overwhelming, too much. The reality so inconceivable that it was all she could do not to unravel.

Sobs racked her body, her breath becoming shallow. Memories assaulted her. Enzo by the fountain, Enzo kissing her goodnight, Enzo dancing her through the clouds, gently washing her hair, piecing her back together, making love to her. They seared her one by one, lashes on her heart until she could feel an almost physical ache. Her shadows reared inside her, growing darker and darker. The locked box within her,already rattling, now began to shake, its lid opening inch by inch until the shadows broke it apart. And all those emotions that she had pushed deep, deep, deep into the Dark pulled her into the blackness with them.

The sky was ink, the kind of darkness that appeared the deepest blue. There wasn’t a star in the sky. Not a breeze or an echo. That’s what first struck Elara as strange about the place she found herself. Yet the land that sprawled before her was wide open, and she took a deep, shuddering breath, and began to walk.

The grove grew and shifted around her, filling with ancient trees, their age shown by the gnarls and whorls on their trunk. As she looked up to the leaves, she saw images playing out on them—of memories that she had stifled.

The branches began to distort, to writhe out into spindly claws that grabbed her as she walked. She tore away from them, but more loomed to her other side, snatching at her dress, her hair. She started to run, though each step was like wading through mud. She fought, and ducked, but they were too strong, these trees, these memories. She saw the zealot with the light, saw herself being held against a tree by Enzo, her parents’ deaths, Sofia’s, Lukas’s betrayal, Enzo handing the duskglass to Ariete. She sobbed and sobbed as she stopped fighting, sinking into the centre of the grove, the dress she’d been wearing now in tatters.

But the moment she sank into the soft grass, the trees abated, righting themselves as she curled in on herself. The silence was so complete it almost became a sound itself, until it was disturbed by a faint splash as rain began to fall.Droplets of iridescent silver poured down, falling harder and faster, plastering her ebony locks to her forehead, removing the remnants of her dress, mixing with her tears until she didn’t know which was which.

She lay back and let it in. She took a breath. Felt the pressure rise in her chest, felt a dull ache, and then let it crack her open, a wordless scream tearing from her. In this surreal place between life and death that she had landed in, where her body was in another world, and her soul was scattered here, the rain seemed to enter her. It spoke of grief. Of sorrow. Of unkept promises and lies, of what had made her a coward, what had made her a fool. The pain was sharp, the words tooth and claw, ripping her to ribbons. But it was real. And so, she welcomed it. She saw the fragments of her shadows in the lightless night. The horror, the disgust, the parts of herself that she’d been running from for so long.

Shadows poured from her, dancing around the grove until they convulsed and warped. She watched as they formed a figure. One who drew closer.

‘I’ve been waiting for you,’ the shadow said, its voice a terrifying rustle that crawled over her skin.

Finally, she was confronted by what she’d been avoiding for so long. Everything that she had locked away. And in its own twisted way, it was glorious. She didn’t have to hide. The surrender became exquisite, and she bared her throat to the cut of her darkest thoughts, of the truths. Finally, she didn’t have an excuse to fall on or a reason to keep running. She could simplybe.

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