Page 45 of Fallen Stars

The blonde woman writhed under him. “Mercy please,” she begged as he continued to kiss up and down the length of her neck. Elara’s eyes widened as she saw blue iridescent wings, like those of a butterfly, fluttering from the shoulder-blades of the female’s back. She got a hand free, and with surprise, Elara saw her conjure wind effortlessly, the gusts of it pushing Eli back.

“Cheat!”he said, making to tickle her. The Star looked sohappy, his cheeks flushed. Elara’s heart stopped as she realised the way he looked at this woman was the way she looked at Enzo. The laughter died down as the blonde woman gently stroked Eli’s cheek.

“I love you,” he whispered onto her lips before drawing her into a deep kiss. Elara ached to look at them, thinking of Enzo. How she wished she could kiss him, touch him. The wave of missing him threatened to drown her whole as she watched the couple in front of her. She went to close the door, but just as her hand touched the knob, she heard a gasp. Eli looked straight at her, and her heart stopped, his soft look transforming into something poisonous.

You shouldn’t be here,” he snarled at her, jumping off the bed onto the pavilion as he paced to her.

She grabbed the door handle, slamming the door shut as she heard Eli pounding on the other side, roaring with anger.

Breathless, she ran ahead, pushing her sadness and shock down as the stones materialized faster and faster.

Stars did not love. Stars did not have hearts to love.

Her heart drummed at what she had witnessed, at the tenderness she had seen between Eli and this woman, a woman who so effortlessly wielded wind. She slowed as a stitch formed in her side from running. A steady, insistent tug in her gut led her to a door right at the end of the corridor. This was it, the one with the prize behind it—it had to be. The doorknob glowed—this one golden—and with a triumphant cry, Elara yanked it open.

A library stood before her. Beautiful floor to ceiling shelves filled the space, ladders stretching to the highest ones. There was a cosy looking armchair in the centre of the room with a small side table, a steaming mug of tea by it, and a book.

Hurry, hurry,that insistent tug seemed to whisper, and with a deep breath, she jumped over the door’s threshold. Her feet hit the floor with a thunk, worn oak floorboards creaking as she made her way through the library’s hush to the table. She was fearful to disturb the silence, tiptoeing as she looked around in panic, still reeling from what she had just witnessed.

The ceilings were formed from sculpted reliefs of deities, but as she looked closer, she didn’t recognise any stars. She saw a woman blowing wind, another with a flower in her palm. She craned her neck up, seeing a man holding out water and finally, above them all, a crescent shape—theMoon,she now knew. And right beside it, flames licking off the circle, what must be theSun. Enzo.

This was not like any library she had seen before. She turned her full attention to the bookshelves, walking purposefully towards them. These books… She hadn’t heard of them either. On just one shelf was contained a multitude of knowledge she had never heard of in her twenty-three years. Not a breath spoken of it in Celestia.

‘A Brief History of Worldwalking,’read one. She ran her hands along other titles; ‘The Stars and their Hearts,’ ‘Darkness: Mother of All,’ ‘Soulmates—the unbreakable bond,’ ‘The Theory of Fallen Stars,’ ‘The Titonomy: elemental rulers.’

She frowned at the titles, each spine holding a promise of answers to the lives she’d led. That’s when Elara remembered the reason she was here.

“Shit,” she muttered to herself, turning around and scanning the room for any other clue. A table caught her eye, beckoning her in the same way the doorknobs had. And there, embossed in silver and gold, the metals blending in curling patterns, lay everything she had been searching for.

The book was closed, the title reading simply, ‘Your Story.’

Elara’s hands shook, and she realised she wasn’t breathing.

Was this it? Her lives contained between these pages, the answers to all the questions she sought?

Her fingers stroked the silver words. Hadn’t the vision she had just seen earlier been enough? Did she want to know who she had been before? What she had done as the Moon?

She nodded. Yes, she did.

Without another moment’s hesitation, she opened it.

In neat handwriting was written a note.

‘All that stands between life and death is dusk.’

She frowned. What kind of nonsense was this?

Elara assumed the book was her and Enzo’s history. Why else would Eli leave a book entitled ‘Your Story’ here?

She frowned, flicking through the pages. Perhaps there was an explanation. Maybe the titles were metaphors of some kind.

She tripped over certain words—eclipse, union, creators. And again, her eyes found the words before she knew why.

‘Dark.’

She read the sentence quickly.

‘And the Dark. The Dark promised that she would find them, no matter how far they ran. And she made a vow that she would swallow their light whole.’

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