Page 57 of Fallen Stars

Ariete’s eyes were wild, hair mussed as it fell into his eyes. The Star looked insane—more so than usual.

“Let me down,” Eli growled.

Ariete blinked, back in the room. “Oh, it’s you,” he said hoarsely, releasing his grip. Eli adjusted his collar, bewildered as Ariete took a few steps away from him.

“Ariete—”

“You felt her too, didn’t you?”

Eli stilled. Every fear that he had denied to be true had just been confirmed with the one question that had left Ariete’s lips.

“Felt who?” he asked carefully.

“Don’t fucking play with me, Eli. You know who,” Ariete growled, eyes narrowing. “The Dark.”

“How did you know?”

“I can see it in your eyes. Eyes only look like that when they’ve encounteredher.” He spat the last word, slumping onto the fur rug at his feet. The King of Stars was half dressed, a red suit slung upon him as though he’d been in a rush to dress.

“You’re sure it’s her? I felt the magick while I was…dreaming,” he lied. He obviously couldn’t explain that it was when he’d been watching Elara dreamwalk. “But I thought perhaps it had been something else. Because she is gone. You saw to it yourself, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Ariete hissed. “You saw me bind her once the other titans had escaped from us after I tied them to mortal bodies.”

The god flexed and unflexed his hand, and Eli’s eyes narrowed as he caught the gesture. Something was off with Ariete’s reply. Eli wasn’t able to read Ariete’s mind, but his charm made him able to notice every tiny tell and tic that someone gave away when being untruthful. And Ariete was hiding something.

He kept the theory tucked away for now. He’d use it at a later date.

“Then,” he replied evenly, “if P—"

“Don’tsay her fucking name,” Ariete growled, springing up from where he sat.

“Fine,” Eli hissed. “Ifthe Darkis bound and buried, we have nothing to worry about.”

Ariete began to pace. “Unless she woke when the Moon did,” he replied hoarsely. “Unless all the titans have.”

Eli’s mind worked. It didn’t make sense. He would know if one particular titan had awoken; that he was sure of.

“The other titans haven’t,” he said firmly. “And how could the Dark have? I know how your blood magick works. There are only three ways to break that kind of spell. It would require either duskglass, the way Elara awoke, or the Sun and Moon’s magick together—near enough the same thing. But that’s impossible since the Sun is asleep.”

Ariete scoffed then, and Eli had to do everything in his power not to launch himself at his king.

“Or finally,” he continued, willing calm into his veins, “it would take your blade killing her mortal form, thereby breaking your own spell and leaving her soul loose, like you did with Lorenzo. And you haven’t done that, have you?”

“No,” Ariete replied, and the god was telling the truth this time. “I haven’t set foot in The Graveyard since I buried her there.” Ariete was shaking his head. “I thought I was going mad, this last month. But my shadow, it seems darker. When I dream, voices whisper to me. I feel like I’m being watched.”

Now Eli was panicking, as the same feeling Ariete had just described still coated him from the morning.

“We would have known, Ariete.” He didn’t know who he was trying to convince more. “What is she waiting for? If she were awake, she would have killed us all in our sleep by now. She would never wait to strike. And why now? Why here? It doesn’t make sense that it could be her.”

“I swear Eli, I know it’s her. I don’t know how or why, but I know what I feel. I was the first, remember? The first Star.” His eyes grew distant, haunted, as they always did when Ariete spoke of the Dark. “I know her magick,” he murmured. “And if she is awake, then we need to run and hide,” he said, finally looking back at Eli. “Because she already has our hearts, and if she has awoken, she’ll come to collect our heads as well.”

Chapter Eighteen

Enzo stepped onto the forestpath before him and felt an instant shift in the air. The mild warmth of Elara’s dreamscape plummeted, his breath fogging before him.

He looked back to the rolling hills and river behind him, the cottage beyond. It was still all there but it looked…hazy, distorted, as though he was looking at it through glass.

He wavered a moment, but an incessant calling had begun in his chest the moment he had crossed into the forest, a similar song to that the river had sung to him.

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