Page 159 of Fallen Stars

“I forgot you have the inability to keep a shirt on,” Elara smirked, trying to stop the heat gathering between her legs.

“Like I told you the last time you mentioned it, you don’t seem to be complaining.” There was an amused challenge in his eye, and Elara understood the game well. He was extending an invitation to her. Who would cave first?

Adrian looked between the two before brandishing his cutlass, swiping it through the air.

“What are you doing?” Merissa yelped.

“Oh, this? This is me cutting the sexual tension in the air with my sword.”

Leo snorted as Adrian sheathed it. “Anyway, Merissa, I believe it was your turn?”

And so, it went on until it came to Elara. She looked down at her cards and smirked. She was actually winning. But rather than skip a go, she wanted to make Enzo sweat. With a surreptitious wave of her magick, she illusioned one of her cards. She saw Eli raise a brow and cut him a death stare.

“Two wands,” she shrugged, throwing the cards on the table.

Leo jostled Enzo. “Seemed like such a good plan, didn’t it, Enz?”

Enzo smiled, raising a brow as he took a sip of rum. But Elara could never be outdone, not even as she looked at his gleaming chest. With triumph on her face, she reached beneath the table.

“Only a shoe, Enzo, don’t worry,” Merissa said. But Elara smirked as she withdrew the silk underwear from beneath her dress and flicked them across the table to Enzo.

The table jolted beneath her as Enzo lunged forward, sweeping them up before anyone could properly see them.

“Ohshit,” Adrian laughed, clapping.

“Something wrong?” Elara asked, pouting. She eased her leg out, stretching it until she felt Enzo’s trousered calf. She ran a foot up it.

“Nothing at all,” he gritted out as the rest of the table continued to play, Adrian dealing out more cards. Eli rolled his eyes.

Her smile turned feline as her foot ran up his inseam. “Sure?” she whispered. She saw Enzo’s hand curl around his glass, fire sparking in his eyes as he smiled.

“Absolutely.”

Her foot finally found its mark, her body heating with satisfaction as she felt him hard beneath her sole. She traced her foot along the line of him, eliciting a hiss of breath as the world fell away.

“Positive?”

“I need some air,” he strangled out, announcing it to the table. “You all play the next round without me.” He gave Elara a pointed look as he stood before walking to the door.

“I think I’ll join him,” she smiled, smoothing her dress as she followed him outside, a thrill of nerves deep in her stomach.

Chapter Fifty-Eight

The ship was anchored bya cove on the coast of Altalune. It had been Eli’s idea, for him to meet them off the coast of Concordia and pass through Altalune to an in-between to Kaos. He still hadn’t told her why they were heading there, and she hadn’t had a moment alone with him to ask.

But something was wrong, she could tell—the already serious Star even graver than usual behind his drunken demeanour.

She tried to shake off her worry—an ever-constant thing—and focus on what a lovely night it had been for the group. Spirits from winning their battle were high, and right now Elara wanted nothing more than to just be with her soulmate.

She took a moment to admire her first view of Altalune as she followed Enzo out onto the deck. The night was dark, the stars clear and the moon above them full and silver. And what lay before her was breathtaking.

The small cove was discreet, a way for the ocean to meet the rivers that flowed and made up the waterfall kingdom. From where the ship was moored, Elara could see a small expanse of sea that led to a glimmering silver beach, curling around a corner out of sight.

The waters looked lit from within, iridescent algae in pastel greens and purples glowing. It reminded Elara of Altalunian hair, and she sighed, turning back to the ship where Enzo waited.

His forearms rested on the ship’s railing as he also looked out, his profile lit by Elara’s heavenly body above.

Sometimes he looked so beautiful that she had to physically catch her breath, and she took a sweet moment to herself to watch the way his breath rose and fell, a thing she had taken for granted before he had died.

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