Page 96 of Heavenly Bodies

‘Merissa has been visiting each night. She’s been making sure it’s intact for any servant or other who may come in.’

Elara fought to quell the lump in her throat at the mention of her friend’s name.

He took her arm and led her outside, his brisk demeanourthe first hint of warrior he’d shown since before the masquerade.

She followed him, her breath coming in gasps. Navigating through the palace, she let him lead her past an atrium trickling with water. Birds chirped outside. Elara hadn’t heard the sound in weeks, between imprisonment and unconsciousness. Enzo continued to guide her until they passed Kalinda’s garden patch. A golden-headed figure was bent in the flowerbeds with a trowel, and Elara’s breath quickened as Merissa turned around.

‘Elara?’ she said hopefully, sticking the trowel in the mud and pulling off her gardening gloves.

The black spots that had been dancing in Elara’s vision grew worse, as her heart pounded.

‘No,’ she said hoarsely, taking a step back. Enzo looked at her in alarm, Merissa’s brow creased with worry.

‘El?’

‘I can’t do this,’ Elara whispered as images of Sofia’s blank, grey stare danced around and around her mind.

She broke away from Enzo, and began to stumble down the path.

‘Elara!’ he shouted after her.

She couldn’t do it—couldn’t be around Merissa, couldn’t call another a friend when her closest had been brutally murdered. The gardens swam before her as she staggered on, the path twisting, trees beginning to crop up. They all passed in a blur, the sound of rushing water growing nearer. Colour and sound flitted by her until sure footsteps caught up with her.

‘El—’

‘Give me more medicine,’ she demanded. ‘I don’t want to feel this, I’ve changed my mind. Let me forget it all, please let me forget it.’

Enzo’s worry smoothed away as he led her down the stone steps before them. ‘No.’

She halted, realizing that they were in the sunken garden where the revel to celebrate the Descent of Leyon had taken place. It was empty of people now.

‘No?’ Perhaps she’d misheard him over the roar of the waterfall.

Enzo tilted his head. ‘That’s what I said.’

She looked to the skies as she tried to process what she had just heard. The sky looked bruised and oppressive, deep burgundy with heavy orange clouds, a tang of metal in the air.

‘Storm’s coming,’ he remarked.

‘Why won’t you give me my potion, Enzo?’ A strange emotion was swirling within her, one she hadn’t felt in a while.

‘Because I can’t see you like this any more. I’ve tried to be patient and slow, but I can’t stand it. This drugged shade of who you are…Running from your pain. It’s not you.’

She frowned, confusion stirring in her. He paced agitatedly.

‘I have had to sit and watch you each night for weeks. Watch you scream and cry from the nightmares that plague you, then have medicine forced down your throat as you’re held down.’

She gazed at him coolly. Words were forming on her lips before she could process them. ‘I’m sorry that my pain bothers you.’

His jaw clenched as he stopped, his gaze flying to her. ‘That’s not what I meant,’ he said, his voice low.

Another emotion flickered in her. It went out before she had time to understand it.

‘The Elara I know is a fighter. A queen.’ Elara blinked. ‘She would face her pain.Sheis not a coward.’

Thunder clapped above them, a booming sound that shook the skies, the clouds roiling.

‘What did you just call me?’ Elara asked quietly. There was a weight building in her. She could feel the darkness that had been protecting her was now writhing and hungry.

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