Page 2 of Fallen Stars

A look passed between the two, not that the other Stars noticed.

Eli sighed loudly, sitting up. Elara had done well by cleansing the world of the evil that had been his sister. And he certainly didn’t hold it against her. He pushed his sleeves back, the black snake tattooed on his arm writhing, its silver scales glimmering in the moonlight. “The Moon did us a favour there. Gem was a sadistic bitch, and not my sister by choice, just blood unfortunately. She had grown wild, unmanageable, and just as unpredictable as Ariete.”

There were uneasy murmurs around the table.

“Whether Ariete is here or not, he is still our king,” Cancia said quietly, finally breaking her silence. The whole table turned, a ripple of godly heads looking at the goddess of pain and penance. She glanced warily to her consort, Scorpius, her silver hair glowing softly.

“Forgot you were here for a minute,” Capri scoffed, rubbing two midan coins between his thumb and forefinger. “Look, I make a wager that the girl will be dead in a week. Moon or not, she does not remember her old life, nor her powers or how to control them.” He laughed softly, tossing a coin onto the table. “A midan says she’ll accidentally kill herself with her own magick before any of us can get our hands on her.”

The Stars laughed.

“And what of the Sun?” Cancia asked, her voice soft. The entire table stilled, gods and goddesses alike all frozen as a small gleam of fear shone in their eyes.

“Cancia,” Scorpius growled in warning.

“He’s dead, isn’t he?” Sagitton interrupted.

“No, you idiot. He’s suspended between life and death. In dreams, thanks to her,” Verra replied.

“And Ariete has stolen his tether to this realm. Or so he told me right before he vanished,” Eli added.

Capri guffawed at that. “Another midan says the Sundies before the month is out, in unending pain and misery. If he’s lost in the dreamlands, he doesn’t stand a chance.” The god of greed and merchants tossed his coin on the table.

A hand reached out, catching it in the air before it touched the surface. Eli’s eyes were nearly black, his head shaking slowly as he rose over the other Stars.

“You are all fools,” he said quietly. “You may think the Sun more fearsome, more dangerous. You may be content with the notion he is trapped, for it makes you sleep easier not having to think of the hellfire and blinding light he would reign upon you if he were living. You may be content to letElararun around with her threats, content to seeheras a titan who has lived a silly mortal life, ignorant of just how powerful she is, justwhoshe is. I have met her. Spoken with her. She may not remember her past lives, but she is a reckoning. And I heard the scream that tore from her when Lorenzo was taken from her, a scream that reached all the way to Castor. She obliterated every light in Celestia for gods’ sake.”

He took a deep breath, calming the anger rising in his chest. “You have forgotten one key detail in your arrogance.”

He turned the midan over in his hand, looking at it.

“One of us took the Sun from the Moon. We took the queen of darkness’s hope, her one redeeming quality—the guiding remembrance that she is not all shadow.”

He placed the coin carefully in the centre of the table.

“Elara’s light is gone. She has nothing to save her. Nothing to hold her back. It is not him we should fear. It is her.”

PART ONE

Chapter One

“I found her,” Isra muttered, casting a long look to the building in front of them. Merissa paced up the slick-stoned street to her, bristling with agitation.

“Again?” Merissa hissed. This was the fourth night in a row now.

Isra shrugged, rolling her neck as she looked at the sign in front of them.

‘Morpheus’s Opiates’, the worn curling letters spelled out, the sign swinging gently in the Castorian evening air. A light rain was drizzling, pattering on the cobbles in the dim alley.

“Are you surprised?” Isra drawled, going towards the door. She put the hood of her thin cloak up over her now unbraided hair—a cloud of black curls threaded with gold. The hood fell forward enough that she wouldn’t be recognised as the right hand of the new queen regent of Helios. Atemporarytitle, as Elara had kept reminding them. She hadn’t even been officially coronated. All she had was the crown Enzo had given her.

Merissa followed, pulling up her own dove grey hood to hide a wash of honey curls as they entered.

The den was a shit hole. Half haze-den, half brothel, the sounds of pleasure and bedposts banging permeating the groans of addicts lining the narrow corridor in their stupor. Merissa couldn’t stand the place. It was everything she had come to loathe crammed into one hovel.

“What a symphony,” Isra said. “Always a pleasure.” She flipped a gold coin through the air to the den’s madam, whose eyes widened as she clutched it. The coins that Isra had tossed her each night were probably more than the poor woman had seen in her life.

Merissa sidestepped a body gingerly as they squeezed through the hallway, looking into the rooms they passed and the low dirty cots sunken with bodies. Sweet, perfumed smoke cloyed around them, lanterns with sputtering flames dimly lighting the way. Merissa muttered a filthy curse under her breath.

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