Page 229 of Fallen Stars

“How does a reader bare their soul, if not through which parts of a book moved them? You always wished to know what went on in my mind. Now you do.”

She beamed as he squeezed her hands. “And I took the liberty of writing something else at the very end.”

Enzo frowned as he fluttered the pages to the last ones.

The chapter heading was titled in a curling script—in Elara’s own hand.

“The Sun and the Moon.”

“I wrote our story,” she whispered. “Eli helped fill in any gaps. I felt it was only right that ours be included. Itisone for the ages.”

“I love you,” Enzo breathed, wiping his eyes.

“I love you,” she whispered back.

“And now for Enzo’s gifts and promises.” Adrian sniffled, still dabbing at his eyes.

Enzo fidgeted with his hands, looking at them for a moment before clearing his throat.

“Elara, I believed when I was born that love was never something my soul would feel. I was convinced over time that I didn’t deserve it, that the Stars hadn’t written it in my fate. And then I met you. And the feeling was so foreign to me that at first, I thought it was hate.”

Elara laughed through her tears. “Likewise.”

Enzo’s face turned earnest. “But I got to know you, got to see your heart. And I thought I was dying when I realised that I was in love with you. I thought my heart was going to burst. And I’ve felt that every day since, El. Because you consume me. You are my reason for fighting, my reason for living.”

The tears flowed freely from Elara’s eyes as she trembled. Enzo regarded her, eyes shining as he reached into his pocket.

“Thank you for being kind to me, when all I’d known was cruelty.” He pulled his hand out of his pocket, the fist closed.

He swallowed, clenching his jaw. “Thank you for saving me when I was damned.”

He opened his palm, and sitting in the centre was a carved dragun. The detail was so beautiful, its rendering exactly like that of her shadow dragun, its webbed wings looking ready to take flight, its tail snaking and mouth open in a roar.

“Thank you for teaching me what love is,” he whispered.

Elara couldn’t take her eyes off Enzo’s beautiful art, and the fact that he had carved it himself, had used wonderful light to create this, made it even more precious.

“Enzo, it’s beaut—”

“I’m not done yet,” he grinned.

A wisp of shadow curled from his palm, and Elara gasped.

“How?” she cried.

“Your shadow gifted me one last part of herself before she disappeared and told me to hold it close. Now…”

He raised his other hand above the dragun, and sunlight began to stream off him as it fell onto the little carving.

“I know how much you must miss your shadows and your dragun, and although I can’t bring them back, I knew that I was saving this wisp for something special.”

There was a movement amongst the shadows, the mass seeming to grow and grow. Enzo placed the mass of shadows between them on the ground as he continued to douse it in sunlight.

“We learned on this journey that one of my powers is bringing things to life. So, Elara, though you may not be able to wield your shadows, I gift you your shadow dragun.”

The crowd gasped around her.

To Elara’s utter disbelief, Enzo’s magick ceased, his sunlight dimming, and only a few precious shadows drifted off the creature that lay before her.

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