Page 91 of Heavenly Bodies

Safe, the darkness whispered again.

‘Elara, I’m going to need you to wake up so I can get you clean.’

She clutched his neck and kept her eyes squeezed shut. She didn’t want to break the spell just yet. The darkness was so soft, and the world beyond the darkness just seemed so…

‘Shit,’ he muttered, and she felt herself being carried somewhere else. The darkness changed, faint colours and patterns intruding from somewhere. Light behind her eyelids. She was somewhere bright. She squeezed her eyelids tighter. ‘I’m going to put you here as we run a bath, okay?’

She felt softness underneath her—a chair—and the sound of water.

When hands touched her again, she flinched.

‘It’s me, El. It’s Enzo.’

Enzo. That name. She liked that name. She liked him. A lot. The darkness smiled.Safe. Home.

‘It’s just you and me and the warm water.’

Her eyes still closed, she nodded once, her lips trembling, tears threatening to spill from behind her lids.

When arms took her gently again, she melted into them.

‘I’m going to put you in the bath now,’ he said, and she nodded again. Those sure hands lifted her, cradling her, and placed her in the warm water.

Calloused hands, sure and steady, loosened dirty, pitted clips from her hair. She could feel the weight of herundergown against her in the water—clothing that still bore the memories of her friend’s death.

‘I want it off,’ she croaked, the first words she’d uttered, though they crackled, her throat dry from disuse. She yanked at the strap on her shoulder.

Enzo’s hands paused in her hair. ‘Okay,’ he said softly. She felt the horrid fabric slip off her, and sank further beneath the water as she let it cleanse her.

He seemed to disappear momentarily, before returning, and she heard a bottle clinking against the tiles.

‘I need you to drink this now, El.’ She tried to pull away. ‘It’s a Star’s blood. It’s going to hurt—because Ariete only gave you small amounts. This is a lot of it. You need a large amount to cure his venom entirely.’

She began to shake her head, and Enzo stilled her gently. ‘Please, El. I need you to get better.’

Something about the desperation in his voice made her relax, and she parted her lips. A bottle was pressed to them, and she slowly drank.

After a few gulps, she gagged, but Enzo kept the bottle firm. ‘All of it, princess. You can do it.’ She sputtered, but continued to drink. The blood was rich, decadent and sweet—too sweet—and she gagged briefly. But Enzo didn’t let up until she swallowed the last mouthful, as pain lanced through her.

She cried out, bending over in the water as she felt the blood working inside her, felt it fighting against the venom lodged within her body.

The pain was all-encompassing, and she couldn’t stand it, couldn’t grit her teeth through it any more. As she writhed, she felt Enzo step into the bath, his bare skin touching her back as he held her. She convulsed as he stroked her, and she pleaded to the darkness, asking it to stop her feeling. It tookher hand and whisked her away from the agony so that she was merely observing.

Finally, the darkness nudged her back towards the world. The pain was beginning to subside. And Enzo was there. And Enzo was home. And she was safe.

She felt warm light sweeping through her, cocooning her and keeping her warm as he hummed a string of soothing notes. She recognized the tune faintly but couldn’t grasp it. His light felt beautiful and warm, like him.

She was back in her body now, Enzo’s voice murmuring to her. She caught words. ‘So brave…you’re doing so well, princess.’

She was panting heavily, her eyelids fluttering as the last shocks of pain left her. She heard the water swirl noisily down a drain, leaving her cold. But then the tap ran again, and her mind eased as warm water filled the small pool back up again. She felt Enzo’s body move behind her, and his hands started to wash her, the scent of eucalyptus soap around them.

‘Now this hair,’ he said, and she could hear the smile in his voice.

Whatever it was about that smile became her undoing, and the darkness gave her another nudge.Safe to see, it whispered. And so, as water ran down her hair, wiping away the horrors, the poison and the dirt, she took another breath and opened her eyes, turning around.

Enzo stilled.

She searched his face, seeing every feature she’d held on to when Gem had torn her mind apart. Hoop. Freckle. Frown. Finally, she looked into his eyes, the flecked gold warmth that she’d locked eyes with first in the throne room, what seemed like a lifetime ago. He was kneeling in front of her in the small pool, shirtless. He brought his wet hand to her face, behind her ear, stroked his thumb over her temple.

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