Page 57 of Heavenly Bodies

‘I let myself forget who you were,’ she said quietly. Then laughed dully. ‘It’s too easy when you charm—when you smile. Easy to not remember that you’re a lion in lamb’s clothing.’ She saw his jaw clench and his eyes flash.Good, she thought. ‘And then I saw him. That man, tied there. Who I’d told you about in confidence, who you knew I’d handled. And a part of my mind still wanted to believe it was a coincidence. That there was no way that myallywould have gone searching for him. No way that it would be by his handthat the guard would burn.’ She raised her eyes to the canopy above them.

‘But there you were. Like Death itself, not a flicker of emotion as you burned them all.’ She closed her eyes, shaking her head. ‘Do you have any idea what you’ve done? This is on my head, my burden to bear now. What about the men with him, too? It’s my fault that they’re all dead. Because I told you, trusted you.’

There was only silence as she took a shuddering breath. ‘Don’t you have anything to say?’

He stood then, his face a mask in the gloom.

‘Yes, I have something to say. Not one of them was innocent. They fuckingtouchedyou, Elara. Isawthem—looked into their very souls, before I tied them to posts. They’d all done it before. To women who couldn’t fight back. You weren’t the first and you wouldn’t be the last.’

He paced the ground like a wild cat. ‘And this happened to you inmykingdom.’ His voice broke then, ragged. ‘Do you have any idea how that felt? That you were hurt under my protection, when you weremyresponsibility?’

He clamped his jaw shut. Elara opened her mouth to retort, but he silenced her.

‘You sit here, angry that I was too merciless, too cruel in my punishments.’ He circled back to her, crouching before her again. ‘You ask me what I have to say,’ he growled, his voice so low that she felt a fire ignite in the pit of her stomach. ‘I say it was my choice, my burden to bear, and don’t you dare for a second take it as your own. I have to say that I would fucking do it again and enjoy watching every last one of them suffer for what they tried to do to you.’

Then he let out a long breath. ‘But Iamsorry that I upset you. That’s the last thing that I wanted to do, El. They just…they deserved it. So I won’t once regret ending their lives.’

There was such an earnest look within his gaze that her anger began to sputter.

‘You don’t just get to decide something like that, Enzo. You could have told me your plans, at least warned me.’

‘You’re right,’ he said softly. ‘I didn’t think about how it would make you feel.’

She looked at him, searching his eyes. She tracked the golden glimmers shining within them, but deeper than that, some of the chestnut warmth she had come to know.

Against her will, almost without thinking, she raised a hand, brushing a curl out of his eyes. Her hand rested then on the side of his head. Enzo closed his eyes, exhaling slowly.

Emotions warred within her—anger, betrayal, pride, understanding. She exhaled deeply, deciding on which to pick. But she was so tired of battling her own mind. And here was one person in her corner, someone who had carried out his own retribution—albeit extreme and bloodthirsty—for her.

‘You owe me a secret.’ She finally decided on forgiveness, a tentative smile on her face. He opened his eyes, a startled laugh escaping him.

‘I do,’ he said, pulling her down on the soft moss. She propped herself up by her elbows. He stared at the dense canopy above them, arms behind his head. She roamed her eyes over his broad chest and arms.

Without looking at her, he said, ‘I created the fountain.’

Her eyes flew to his face. ‘What?!’

He smiled at her disbelief, still staring up. ‘I’m not just beauty and brawn, princess.’ He laughed. ‘It’s my gift,’ he explained as shimmering white ribbons cascaded from his fingers, glowing faintly. They reached out to the trunk of a nearby tree, and Elara watched in awe as his magick carved a letter into the bark.

‘E?’ she said. ‘For Enzo, or Elara?’

Enzo only winked in reply, before he cast the light up towards the canopy, and Elara gasped, lying on her back beside him as they watched together. He dispersed the light so it looked like a thousand stars across the covering of leaves, dancing in slow patterns.

More splendid than stars, she thought to herself, smiling.

‘Creating art calms me.’

Elara let his words sink in, still mesmerized by the gentle flashes playing above them.

‘You take this big ugly lump of stone, and you chip and chip at it with the Light until this beautiful thing is revealed underneath.’ He shrugged.

Elara’s thoughts flew back to their conversation and what he had said about the art as they’d sat in the maze.

‘So, if I’m to remember correctly,’ she asked, eyes still glued to the dancing glimmers above, ‘you’ve never been in love?’

His lip quirked. ‘Ah, a secret for a secret.’

They sat in silence as he created rainbows and patterns with his powers, the colours vibrant, reflecting on their faces in the darkness. How had she ever been terrified ofthislight? How had she seen it as anything other than beautiful?

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