Page 241 of Fallen Stars

Sofia’s laugh was a tinkling thing. “Yes,me. I wonder if you knew what a favour you had done me by slitting my throat in that theatre.” She chuckled. “You helped me shed my mortal prison, breaking your own spell that bound me to a mortal body with your blade.”

Elara’s vision swam. The pieces weren’t adding up.

“What thefuckis going on?” Adrian asked, a hand on his sword.

Sofia flicked her gaze in disdain to it. “Sweet, sweet Water. I’ll look forward to killing you one day.”

Adrian paled.

“Ariete?” Elara asked again, ignoring her friend’s apparition. Because it was just an apparition—ithadto be.

Sofia waited, a small tight-lipped smile on her face.

“Piscea is tricking me right now.Isn’t she? This is an illusion?”

“No, Elara,” Isra replied hoarsely, studying the figure in front of them as her eyes flicked between white and hazel. “PisceaisSofia.”

Elara fell back against Enzo’s broad chest. Her eyes widened as she heard Isra utter the two names.

“The stories you used to tell me of Piscea,” Elara whispered. “They always ended with that one phrase. ‘So worship her. So fear her.Sofearher.Sofia.”

The group all looked aghast at Sofia.

“What?” Sofia said, grinning as she drifted closer to Elara. “You don’t find that even a little bit amusing? It’s a play on words! And you had no idea the whole time.” She laughed. “Oh, there were times when I thought I’d blown my cover. When I thought surely,surely, you would guess that yourbest friendhad a dark little secret she was hiding. Lukas did. Even my own mother did.”

Elara closed her eyes as truth after truth began to assault her. “Your mother…”

“Died by my hand the moment she realised that the daughter she had born was never really hers. How she begged and pleaded as I drank her fear until all that was left was an empty husk.”

Enzo swore behind her. Elara knew why—she’d told him the story of Sofia’s mother’s death— how it seemed as though the woman had died of fright.

“Lukas was right,” she whispered. “This whole time he was right.”

Sofia smirked. “He wasn’t very fond of me, was he? Didn’t you find it odd how quickly he began to change around adolescence? How your sweet childhood love turned into someone so wicked?”

“It was you. You did that to him?”

“All it took was a few of my shadows to seep into his own. It was all quite simple from there.”

“He swore he hadn’t given us away to Ariete,” Enzo said hoarsely. “That night in the theatre. Oh gods. He warned us. And he said, even when he knew he was dying, that it wasn’t him.”

“And the puzzle falls into place,” Sofia said softly. “Who do you think stayed purposefully at that palace to become Ariete’s captive? Who do you think fed to him that you’d be at a masquerade ball to save your best friend? Sweet, stupid Elara. Too lonely and too desperate for a friend to see what was right before your very eyes.”

A tear rolled down Elara’s cheek as Enzo pulled her further into him.

“But don’t worry. Ariete was as much of a puppet as the rest of you.”

Ariete was seething, chest heaving as he remained kneeling, his hands still bound.

“How did you escape that coffin?” he growled.

Sofia threw back her head and laughed. “I escaped that coffin within my first lifetime. You tied me to a mortal body then shoved me in that tomb. You buried me a-fucking-live!” She screamed the last part, and Elara winced at the sheer terror that Sofia stirred in her. “I had to lie there and wait for my death. I neverslept or slumbered. I was wide awake! Awake, with nothing to do but wait to die and gain my freedom in the next mortal body I was incarnated into.”

“I thought you would live one mortal life and die,” Ariete snarled. “That’s what was supposed to happen.”

“Unfortunately for you, a titan or primordial’s immortal essence can never die, you fucking idiot.” Sofia turned back to Elara. “And because of this truth, I hunted you through lifetimes,” she said. “Unlike the rest of you, I retained my memory. I knew exactly who I was. But each time you’d die, you’d escape me. Until that is, this lifetime.”

“You had years to try and kill mewhenIwas a mortal,” Elara said. “Why here? Why now?”

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