Page 26 of Fallen Stars

“I think I left my balls back there,” he panted.He heard her laugh. “You’re fucking crazy, you know that?”

She turned in her seat then, and his body went slack. She was glowing, her hair wild in the wind, and the most beautiful look of freedom adorned her face. He felt that tug in his chest again—his heart he realised—and an absolute overwhelming urge to sob took over him as he felt himself drowning. It was terrifying, this ache that encompassed him as he looked at her.

“I know,” she replied before turning back around. Her hair rippled past him, and he caught her scent—vanilla and something as smoky as her voice and eyes. He inhaled it deeply, tightening his arms around her waist as they soared. He had no idea what was happening, what transcendental experience he was having, other than the fact that it felt right. That for the first time in twenty-six years he felt like he belonged, and that he was exactly where he should be, soaring through the air on the back of a dragun, his hands around a shadow princess’s waist.

That feeling didn’t leave him until they flew back over the palace, the sky red with lightdown as Elara guided them gently to her balcony.

“Your cut needs seeing to,” she said, peering at it with concern. The pang in his heart deepened, and he had to grit his teeth against it.

“It’s fine.”

She gave him only a look and a few words before he followed her reluctantly into her room.

He wasn’t sure what to expect, perhaps a deep cave where the Dark-worshipper would dwell. Instead, the room smelled like her; books were strewn across the place, and a lacy silk nightgown was thrown on the bed. His pulse roared when his gaze fell on it, imagining how she would look in it. If it would graze soft thighs or fall across her elegant decolletage.

He rolled his eyes as he settled gingerly onto the bed. No. Elara was covered in boils or warts or scales underneath her gowns. That was the only thing stopping him from losing his sanity. Because if he allowed himself to think of her soft skin or creamy thighs, then he was fucked.

Elara had disappeared into the bathroom, and he heard the clink of bottles as he surveyed the space warily. She was everywhere she coated the room, adding touches of her darkness all over the space.

She returned, a smile on her lips that hadn’t wavered since she had unlocked her powers. It made her look so beautiful in such a soft way. When she wanted to be, Elara looked striking. Terrifying and intimidating. But right now, her features softened, eyes trusting and opened. Gods…

She squeezed herself between his thighs and Enzo’s breathing hitched as his hands brushed the back of her legs through her skirt. They had never been so close before; that was the only thought that circled through his brain as she dabbed the cloth in some ointment and brought it to his face. He wasn’t sure how Elara wasn’t hearing the desperate drum of his heart against his chest, as though his very soul was trying to escape his ribcage.

She raised a delicate hand to press around the cut on his cheek. As her soft, cool fingers touched it, his heart stopped.

Actually stopped.

For a millisecond he was gasping, wordless as he registered that perhaps he was dying. Then it started again, a jolt like lightning streaking through him. He jerked, his body catching up with him as Elara stilled.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” she said.

It struck such a deep chord within him that even the voice of truth inside him, which was always quiet when she was around and never told him a damn thing about her, spoke.

‘She is who you’ve been looking for,’ it said. It was only a sentence. Seven words. And it was enough to scare him shitless.

He gritted his teeth, willing a semblance of normality into his voice as he replied, not as himself, but as though someone was speaking through him, “That’s not what I’m afraid of.”

“What are you afraid of?” she asked, her eyes twinkling.

This feeling, as though I’ve been searching for something through lifetimes and found it right here. Like we’ve met before. Like you have consumed my every moment, both waking and asleep, and I barely even know you, but it feels like I do. I’m afraid of what it means, that someone who I’ve been taught is the enemy my whole life is good and kind and makes me laugh against my will. That I think I’m falling in l—

Shut the fuck up, he hissed to the voice. He took a deep breath, summoning a smirk.

“Saving careless princesses for one,” he drawled.

It seemed to satisfy Elara, who laughed softly before cleaning his cut. Every single time her hands brushed his skin, he ached, his body tense and rigid as he begged internally for her to finish quickly.

What the fuck was going on? Had she not felt it? He was used to the heat that stoked in his chest, his gifts lent of the Light keeping an ember burning in there always, but now he felt unwell, as though his powers were consuming him from the inside out. He thought he felt a droplet of sweat trickle down his back as Elara finished dabbing, though he may have imagined it. He swallowed, his mouth dry as he risked a glance at her.

He shouldn’t have.

The look of concentration and…concern on her face was enough to throw another hot flash over him, light sparking behind his eyes.

Finally, she stepped back, happy with her work. He inhaled deeply, still unsure how she couldn’t read the emotions plain across his face. But she only continued to talk, chuckling at something he had said. He couldn’t even remember the words he had uttered, so preoccupied with the burning flame threatening to tear out of his chest. He had to get out of this room. Had to get away from her.

He rose, his hands betraying a slight tremor as he said some other quip that seemed to make her laugh. He felt as though he was outside his body, watching it in some sort of automatic hold, going through the motions as he himself screamed.

He followed her to the open doors, his eyes flicking over her from head to toe against his will. Her hair fell to her tailbone, and his hand twitched as it moved to run it through her locks. He curled it into a fist, squeezing his eyes shut as Elara continued to the balcony.

---