Page 47 of Fallen Stars

I see. You lost her.

Eli’s face was a mask of composure as he replied tightly.Yes.

And so you wish to join me to wake Enzo so the two of us can help you find her and wake her?

Another pause, Eli’s face betraying the faintest flicker.

Yes.

Elara left it at that. She had a feeling that she was already balancing on a precipice with Eli. Something in her softened slightly towards the Star before her. She was taken aback, that much was certain. A Star who had…feelings.It was near impossible.

Stars did not have hearts, she had known it from an early age—the stories about how a Star became a Star and the price they paid for their immortality. They did not feel the same kind of emotions a human did, the same love and pain. And yet here Eli was, dreaming about a woman whom he looked at the way that she looked at Enzo. She forced herself to take a sip of her cold tea, just for something to do as she searched desperately for something, anything to say.

I’ll help you, Eli. I swear it. If you can truly help me wake Enzo, I will help you find her. Just answer me this, and we will be done with it.

Eli fixed his cold, dark gaze on Elara.Go on.

Do you look for her in every room?

Eli flinched, and it was enough. It was all Elara needed to know. She nodded, flicking her hair behind her shoulders.

Then let’s bring Ariete to his knees.

Chapter Fifteen

“Today we’re going on afield trip.”

Eli and Elara had been practicing with her dreamwalking skills for four days, exploring nearly every part of Eli’s dreamscape as he put riddles and traps in front of her. Elara was doing well, adapting quickly with her awakened powers. So she frowned as Eli buttoned his coat and led her out of the room on their fifth day of training.

“A field trip?”

Eli nodded, holding the door open for her as she stepped out onto the cobbled streets of The Remains. “You’ve explored nearly everything you can within my mind. So now, we’re going to practice on someone else.”

Elara followed him down the quiet street to a main road, one where carriages bustled past, and the sounds of the city grew louder.

Eli raised a hand in the air, a carriage screeching to a halt immediately before them. Eli murmured something to the driver, who nodded, wide-eyed, before he ushered Elara in.

Her curiosity piqued, she sank into the velvet of the carriage seat within as it set off. She knew better than to ask all her questions straight away. After five consecutive days with the god of knowledge and trickery, she’d learned it was best to let Eli show her his plans in his own time. She looked out of the carriage window as the dark buildings of Castor flew past her, the gloom of the ever-present darkness a comfort to her.

She thought of Enzo, as she always did. She’d only been able to visit him once after her first session with Eli, when she had filled him in on everything she had seen, including herself as the Moon. Enzo had sat, wide-eyed, as she’d recounted the events of the day before she’d had to break to him what Eli had told her right as she’d left her first session—that she wouldn’t be able to visit Enzo again until she’d successfully retrieved his tether. Oh, she had nearly choked Eli with shadows when he’d dared suggest it, but as the god had reminded her, all of her energy needed to be conserved for her training so she could be as strong and ready as possible when it came time to walk through Ariete’s dreams.

Enzo hadn’t been happy, to say the least, but he had understood, just as Elara reluctantly had.

“Eleven days,” she’d reminded him. “Eleven days until I can touch you again, until you’re back with me. I won’t allow any other outcome.”

Enzo had held her as closely as he could, Elara willing herself not to cry, not to make this harder than it already was. And soaking up every faint part of him that she could, she’d left.

The carriage began to slow, bringing her out of her thoughts as she squinted through the darkness. They passed through an arch, a grid beneath their feet jolting the carriage as it rumbled over it.

She looked around in alarm as it became clear where Eli was taking her—the high and formidable slate grey walls that rose into the sky, the empty courtyard, and more than that, the insidious energy that seemed to settle over Elara’s shoulders.

The carriage ground to a halt as Eli rose, stepping out and offering a hand to Elara. She ignored it, making her own way out of the carriage as she drank in the building before her. She could already hear faint screams inside, and the sound brought a small smile onto her face.

Eli turned, stamping his feet against the cold as he grinned.

“Welcome to Ravensway Prison.”

Elara had tried not to think much on the strange feeling that had awoken within her after she had massacred the near-hundred in the fighting dens. She had blamed that night on her rage, a rage that still burned within her though it was now controlled—focused on the task at hand. But something else…something that she couldn’t quite put her finger on had opened an eye when she had murdered each soul. A hunger. For more.

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