Page 25 of Fallen Stars

“Stop squirming,” he commanded because he just couldn’t help himself. She did, and he didn’t want to think about why her obeying him like that seemed to make his trousers tighten around his crotch further. “Good girl.” He smirked.

He heard her gulp and grinned. He had won this round.

Enzo’s plan should have been foolproof. As the horse arrived on the top of the cliff, and he drank in the surroundings with a flutter in his stomach, he knew it had been a good choice to bring Elara here.

They trained for hours underneath the burning Light, his hope fading as Elara remained unpetrified and no closer to accessing her gifts. Enzo could almost hear his father behind him, hissing in his ear that time was running out and that ‘the Asterian’ should be further along with her training by now.

Elara dropped her arms, spent as she paced. “This isn’t working,” she sighed.

Enzo dropped to the ground, pulling out his knife to polish it as Elara continued to pace. His eyes caught on a ringlet of hair that had come free of her plait. He scowled, moving his attention back to the blade. She was babbling on about something, and he heard the tail end of it.

“…need a release.”

“I can give you a release, Princess,” he drawled before he had time to think. Images flashed quickly through his mind, imagining how she would look as she ‘released.’ Would those full lips part slightly, those feline silver eyes rolling back as she murmured his name in that low, throaty voice?

She scoffed, and he was brought out of his thoughts. He blinked hard, willing the images of her away. He hadn’t fucked anyone for over a month now. Maybe that was why he was having so many unwanted thoughts anddreamsabout the enemy in front of him.That was it. When they returned to the palace, he’d find Raina, or Cara, or—

He swallowed. The thought of them made his stomach turn—the thought of running his hands through chestnut coloured hair rather than raven or hearing the Helion tongue scream his name instead of the smooth purr of Asterian. He groaned internally.

What was wrong with him?

“I know what I need to do,” Elara was saying, getting worryingly near the cliff’s edge. “I’m not scared of heights, but I’m scared of dying.”

Enzo stilled, raising his eyes to her as he registered exactly what it was she was saying.

“No,” he growled.

There was no way she could do it; the princess wasn’t that unhinged. Yet he was proven wrong as a very unhinged smile painted her features, curling her mouth as her white teeth flashed.

“This will work.”

Enzo scrambled up. “Elara if you go through with this madness, I won’t save you.” His heart was pounding against his chest now as she stepped backwards. One more step, and she would fall to her death.

“Who said anything about saving me, prince?” she smiled, and with her arms elegantly raised, she jumped off the cliff.

Enzo felt a tug at his chest. No… More of a rip, as though a tether inside him had been pulled angrily. He staggered to the edge of the cliff, his breath coming in shallow gasps. Gods, he hated heights. He wrestled with himself for a moment.

“You can’t do this,” he said to himself. “You’ll die too. Leave her to her fate.”

He clenched and unclenched his fists, popping his jaw. And as her beautiful face flashed before his eyes, a scream on her lips as she fell, Enzo felt that insistent tug again, and he paced back a few steps.

“For fuck’s sake,” he muttered before sprinting to the edge and leaping into thin air.

His stomach was in his mouth as he dropped like a lead balloon through the golden skies, his breath leaving his body as he fell. He squinted, seeing Elara ahead of him, screaming at the top of her lungs.

That was it. They were both going to die. Whatever she thought she’d unlock wasn’t working, and he was most definitely going to—

He grunted as he slammed into her, his arms automatically wrapping around her. Elara gaped at him, her silver eyes wide as they continued to spin and spin. Her mouth worked, but she couldn’t speak.

Enzo risked one glance over his shoulder and balked. The vicious waves of the sea thrashed below. He saw the end, saw their bodies ravaged on impact. Turning around, he forced himself to suck in a breath, forced the lethal calm that named him the Lion of Helios into his veins, and gritted out, “You told me you were a dragun, Elara.”

He remembered when she said it that it had surprised and impressed him. The girl was made of more than he had thought.

She opened and closed her mouth, unable to form words. He was going to have to force this into her. He used his most lethal, commanding voice as he growled, “Spread. Your. Fucking. Wings.”

His eyes searched hers, and a passing thought murmured to him that this might not be such a bad way to die, with Elara in his arms. That if her eyes were the last thing he saw, it would be a better death than most.

Before he could explore the thought, he felt a jolt, Elara’s screams mingling with his yells. He looked around him, convinced they were dead, but instead, he saw that they were being catapulted through the air. His mind took a moment to catch up, to realise that there was a fuckingdragununderneath him, made of shadow. Elara had her hands raised and those screams weren’t of terror, but of delight as the dragun stretched its wings and soared through the sky.

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