Page 87 of Fallen Stars

The woman’s eyes softened as she raised a hand to his cheek. “My son,” she whispered. “My brave lion.”

Enzo closed his eyes, a tear spilling down his cheek as he felt his mother’s touch. It was this voice that he’d heard in the deadlands forest, this scent that had haunted him through life.

“I missed you,” he said. “My whole life I have missed you.”

“It’s all right,” she hushed, wrapping her arms around him. “We’re together now. Though it isn’t your time my little love.”

Enzo screwed his eyes shut, holding her tighter. “I’ve fought so hard. I can’t anymore.”

“But she is waiting for you.”

“Who?”

His mother looked up to the sky and nodded to the silver moon, a soft smile on her face. “You know who.”

“Enzo!” A voice echoed, distorted as it reached the two.

“That’s her,” Enzo whispered hoarsely. “She came.”

“Enzo!” The cry came again.

“I told you,” his mother said, letting him go as she held his hand.

“She came,” Enzo whispered. He looked down at his hands, no skin left on them, only light. “But Mother—”

“Go to her,” his mother said. “Say goodbye.”

Dreams and reality mingled as Enzo was brought out of the memory, dream, whatever place it was that he had gone to. The river’s current still washed him gently. And he was done. Content with his decision. His angel had arrived, just as he’d wished it, kneeling by him. She was too late, but none of that mattered. He was ready for the water to take him, to be with his mother—was so tired of fighting against death.

It was peaceful, and his love was with him. His eyes flickered open to see her silver ones, wild, and she was talking—lips moving, but the words didn’t reach him.

“Come back to me,” she seemed to mouth. “Please come back to me.” He tried to bring a hand up to stroke her face, but he was only light and fire now.

She was crying, and he didn’t want it to end this way, so he tried to speak. He wanted to explain that it was too late, that his mind was already lost, his soul nearly gone too. But he couldn’t find the words, could only say, “I love you. My angel, I love you.”

He didn’t know if she’d heard him, and his eyes were so heavy that he had to close them again. Death was rushing him, and he wanted this final moment with his Moon.

He could have sworn she was singing their lullaby as his eyes shut, the tone mingling with his mother’s, which still called to him from the deadlands. Perhaps this was another dream, a lovely death. Elara’s sweet voice wrapped around him as he drifted. He could let the river take him in peace with her near.

He no longer had a corporeal form. He could feel sunlight beneath his skin and around him, orange beneath his eyelids as a gentle wave washed over him. It didn’t feel like water; it didn’t drown him. It felt like Elara, soft and powerful, and he breathed it in as velvet touches caressed him. He let out a contented sigh as he felt his heart warm, Elara’s hands over it. He let out what he knew with certainty was his last breath and said with it everything he had wanted to. And finally, finally, after what felt like eons trapped here, he felt her. Felt her hands brush something around his neck.

And then there was only light.

Chapter Thirty

“No!” Elara whispered and lookedwildly around herself as her eyes finally opened against the blinding light that had forced them shut.

“Enzo?” she asked, her voice high as she whirled around. His presence had been faint, nothing but light, but she had time, she was convinced of it. She’d had an hour at least to find him and tie the tether to him. She looked down at her shaking hands. The tether was gone.

Oh gods. Ohgods.No, she couldn’t have lost him. Elara refused to believe it, stumbling away from the river.

“Enzo?” she cried, running back through the forest and to the small clearing by her dream’s entrance, praying his soul had simply wandered there, waiting at the door for her. But it was empty, quiet.

“Wake up, Elara.Wake up,”she screamed, sobbing as she pressed her palms to the indigo door, pushing it open. She yanked on her own tether, feeling blindly back into her real body, her eyes too clouded with tears, and woke up viciously.

Elara fell forward, clutching her stomach, the tether gone before her. The sound that tore from her throat was not human.

“No,” she wailed as she bent forward, Eli’s dark room suffocating her. “Please, gods, no,” she begged, her mouth contorted in agony as she pressed her forehead to the floor.

---