Heavenly Bodies

Chapter Twelve

CHAPTER TWELVE

When Elara stepped back out into the light-drenched street, Enzo was adjusting the saddle on a glossy palomino horse, another one waiting patiently beside it as Rico stroked its muzzle.

‘I’ll have the horses back tonight,’ Enzo was saying to the little boy, and tossed him a bag of coins.

‘I love it when you come to visit,’ Rico breathed, and Enzo chuckled, tousling his hair.

The boy ran off towards the stables, as Elara cleared her throat.

Enzo’s eyes darkened as he turned. ‘You lied to me,’ he said, his voice low, dangerously soft.

Elara folded her arms. ‘About what?’ she asked sweetly.

‘I swear to the fucking Stars,’ he muttered. ‘This whole time, you knew what was stopping your shadows. Tell me why.’

‘Or what?’ she seethed, placing her foot in a stirrup. In a deft move, muscle memory kicking in, she was mounted on the horse. ‘Are you going to force it out of me the way you forced me to go to Isra’s? The way you forced Isra to pry my most vulnerable memory from me against both of our wills?’

She clicked her tongue, and her horse began to walk.

‘Where are you going?’ Enzo called.

‘ I’m going back to the palace. You can go wherever you please. Perhaps to one of those delightful pleasure houses we just passed. Or maybe that bridge up ahead so you can jump off it.’ She continued onwards as Enzo cursed.

‘So help me gods, Elara, do not test me,’ he shouted as she trotted further down the street, away from him.

‘What was that? Sorry, I can’t hear you!’ she called back, finally losing him around the corner.

Footsteps thundered behind her and she let out a frustrated sound as he reached her. He yanked her horse’s reins, bringing it to a halt. ‘Let go of my horse,’ she said, her tone deathly low.

‘Actually, it’s my horse. I paid for it.’ He gave a sarcastic smile as he grabbed on to the saddle behind Elara, and swung himself on.

‘What are you doing?’ she spluttered.

‘Something I should have done the first time I met you. Putting you in your place.’

The horse trotted through Sol until the paths began to widen, the hustle and bustle quietening. Rather than taking a right in the direction of the palace, Enzo continued on straight ahead.

‘Where are you taking me?’ Elara demanded.

When Enzo replied with only a dark laugh, she lashed out for the third time, struggling to get off the horse as she cursed foully.

Enzo swore in turn, the arm he’d looped around her tightening. ‘You’re a brat ,’ he hissed. ‘The most ungrateful creature I have ever met.’

‘ Ungrateful ? What in the skies do I have to thank you for?’

‘I’m trying to help you. If you won’t tell me what happened to your shadows, then I will force you to.’

He kicked the horse’s shanks, and it set off into a faster trot as the ground beneath Elara began to tilt upwards. The buildings became sparser as Enzo urged the horse up the hill. The milled stones made way for grass as the buildings disappeared entirely. His arm around Elara still clenched her in a vice-like grip that she couldn’t shake, as much as she squirmed against it. She cursed again.

‘You have a filthy mouth for a princess.’

‘Oh, wouldn’t you like to know?’ she snapped, looking for any way to get under his skin.

He pulled her, so that her back was entirely flush to his front. Elara had never been so close to him, amber enveloping her senses as he leaned in. She felt his warm breath on her neck.

‘Is that an invitation?’ he murmured.

Well, damn it all. If he didn’t meet her every taunt with one better. Her mind emptied as every jolt of the horse brought their bodies sliding together. She opened her mouth to retort, but came up short, and instead shifted in the saddle.

‘Stop squirming,’ he commanded. She stopped resisting him, allowing her body to relax. ‘Good girl. You can take orders.’

She glared ahead, and Enzo made a smug sound as she gripped the front of the saddle.

‘Can you please tell me where we’re going now?’ she asked, as the hill steepened, and the horse began to slow its pace.

‘Someplace where you’ll have no choice but to speak the truth.’

She could feel every vibration in his chest as he spoke, his deep voice humming against her skin.

‘Sounds ominous.’

He laughed then, which didn’t help. Elara held her posture rigid, trying to brush against him as little as possible. She could taste salt in the air, the path now starting to flatten out.

‘Decided to trust me yet?’

‘This is hardly giving me cause to—’

Enzo clicked his teeth again and the horse began to gallop.

‘Ready to tell me?’ he shouted over the winds. On either side, Elara could only see dense shrubbery. She didn’t respond, jaw welded shut, though her stomach lurched at the speed that the horse was racing along.

The only thing keeping her on the saddle was Enzo’s arm around her waist. One more click of his teeth, and impossibly, the horse went even faster.

It was then, to Elara’s absolute horror, that she saw exactly what they were racing towards as the shrubbery thinned out. The edge of a cliff.

‘Enzo, this isn’t funny!’ she screamed, as she understood now why she tasted salt in the air. Waves crashed far below on either side off the cliff. The end of the path waited.

‘Do you see me laughing?’

She craned her neck for a split second, seeing a glimpse of his expression—brow furrowed and eyes flashing. ‘Stop right now.’

‘Tell me why you can’t use your shadows.’

She screamed as the horse careened, the edge approaching. The unforgiving ocean glinted as it reflected the afternoon Light. They were so high that the impact would be fatal.

‘One last chance, Elara, or I swear to the Stars I’m taking us all off this cliff.’

‘Fine!’ she screamed, right as the lip of the cliff came up. The next words garbled out of her. ‘I’m scared of the Light because of what happened to me as a child!’

Enzo twitched his hands, and the horse drove to a stop, neighing. Small pebbles kicked off its hoof, bouncing over the cliff edge, as Elara tried not to vomit. He clicked once more, and the horse paced backwards.

‘You fucking lunatic !’ she seethed. ‘You would have killed us all!’

Enzo dismounted, and did a terrible job at hiding his amusement. ‘You’re alive, aren’t you?’

She dropped off the horse, bounded towards him and tried to shove him. It had absolutely no effect. ‘You cunt !’ she seethed.

One hand flew out to grapple her wrists together as she raised them to push him again. His other gripped her jaw tightly. ‘Keep using that filthy mouth and I’ll wash it out with soap.’

She stayed still in his grip, chest heaving. His eyes flicked to her lips, squished between his hold, then back to her eyes.

‘What happened to make you scared of the Light?’ he asked more quietly.

She ripped herself from his grasp, and sat on the warm grass, her legs wobbling. She took a deep breath of the salt-laden ocean air. Being near the water was calming her, now that she wasn’t about to plunge into it.

‘I was seven,’ she said. ‘And one of your father’s precious Helion soldiers broke into my room. Killed three guards and climbed up my balcony. He—’ A knot worked in her throat. But Isra’s ice must have worked, because the usual panic wasn’t quite so all-encompassing as she continued. ‘He was a lightwielder. My shadows tried to protect me. But I was a child.’ She hated how her voice broke. ‘They were no match for him. He pinned me down and told me to repent. To repent my worship of the Dark. When I couldn’t speak he shoved his light down my throat. Told me he’d cleanse me from the inside out. It scorched all the way to my lungs. I couldn’t even scream. If it wasn’t for Sofia, I’d have died. She fought him. Tried to pull him off with her shadows, until my father arrived and killed him on the spot.’

She pulled some blades of grass between her fingers.

‘It took months for the healers to repair the damage. Took a year for me to speak again. And even then I didn’t recognize my own voice.’ She cleared her throat.

‘That man was a fucking fanatic. Thanks to your father. Thanks to the propaganda he spread about our kingdom.’

Enzo had gone pale, but she couldn’t stand to look at him for a moment longer.

‘So there,’ she said, staring out at the ocean. ‘There’s your truth. My shadows sealed themselves inside me that night. Whenever I try to call them again, I remember the Light. How it felt. What it did. Are you happy now?’

‘I’m sorry,’ the prince said quietly. ‘I had no idea.’

‘I don’t need your pity,’ she spat, as she stood up. ‘And I’m done here. If you don’t take me back to the palace, I’ll walk.’

Enzo said nothing as she mounted the horse, then climbed carefully on to it behind her, leaving Elara as much space as he could, and guided them silently back to the palace.