Heavenly Bodies

Chapter Twenty-Eight

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

The moment Elara saw the split in the sky, from bright orange crimson to dark periwinkle twilight, she knew she was nearly home.

As they crossed the border between Helios and Asteria, their carriage barely halted with the number of guests pouring into Asteria—for the first time in decades. And when that shroud of twilight fell over her, the familiar sounds and scents of her kingdom, the writhing worry within her eased a little.

After a few hours trundling through the lush lands of Asteria, indigo grass lining the silverspun roads, they reached the outskirts of Phantome. The carriage weaved through the cobblestone streets until they reached the grand gates of the Palace of Darkness. Elara’s eyes welled to see them open for the first time in her life, a line of carriages filing through them.

They were encouraged to dismount and were guided by a footman towards the small lake that connected the grassy banks to the palace. Lanterns that glowed in varying shades of blue and purple floated through the night, and music was already drifting towards them as they descended the slight bank to where gondolas waited.

Enzo extended his hand to Elara and she took it, sparks thrumming within her at his touch, as he helped her into the boat. Moments later it began to drift towards the palace, steered by an invisible magick, and Elara peered over the side, her throat clogging with emotion at the recognizable silver dreamfish that swirled in pairs through the water. How many times had she swam with them when escaping the palace grounds with Sofia?

As she looked past the fish, she saw her reflection, and Enzo’s beside her. The black mask around his eyes deepened their gold and brown, and his earring glimmered in the starlight. His jaw was freshly shaven, and her eyes caught on the set of it, clenched with tension. It was his only tell. Enzo was so at home in any room, any kingdom. And here he was, gliding into the court of his enemy, looking as though he could command it. She noticed up close that the navy blue tuxedo he wore was sewn with intricate silver stars to complement her gown. She hid a smile at the sight of him in the attire of the Asterian court. He looked back at her, his eyes unreadable as they settled on her glossed lips.

They’d barely spoken since he had helped her with her corset, and she found herself missing their sniping. As the gondola neared the mouth of the cove that provided an entrance to her palace, the familiar music of a waltz billowed from up ahead. She sighed to herself, and Enzo turned to her.

‘Are you okay?’ he asked quietly. She fidgeted with her silver mask, a twin to Enzo’s black.

‘Yes, I’m just trying to prepare myself. For whatever I may see in there.’ She took a readying breath, gazing ahead. ‘It’s so strange. Everything looks the same, but so much has changed.’

Enzo nodded, looking forwards. ‘I’ve never been this far into Asteria before,’ he whispered, turning back to her. ‘It’s beautiful.’ His eyes roamed over her face as he said it, and she swallowed.

‘Now can you see why I miss it so much?’ she murmured back.

He paused for a moment, and thinking the conversation over, Elara turned in her seat to watch the guests in boats behind her.

‘I do,’ he said suddenly. ‘I would never want to part with it, if this was my home.’

As they entered the cove, Elara bent closer to him. ‘We should probably decide on aliases now.’

Enzo nodded, extending his hand. ‘The name’s Alec. Enchanted to meet you.’

Elara smiled, shaking it. ‘I’m Nova, and the pleasure is all mine.’

Enzo’s grip tightened, just a little. ‘For the record,’ he murmured, ‘Elara is much prettier.’

Before she could respond, there was a jolt as the gondola came to a halt at a small dock at the side of the cove. A servant wearing a hook-nosed mask and lavender wig extended his hand as Elara rose from the gondola. Having disembarked, they produced their carefully forged invitations, which thanks to Merissa showed the names of the Argentes—a wealthy and sprawling Asterian family—and were led up hewn stone steps and through a door smattered with stars, into one of the main palace hallways. The grand ballroom doors were flung open, right ahead, music booming out from the space beyond.

Elara took a steadying breath as they approached, clutching Enzo’s arm, and walked through them.

She swallowed down the anger writhing in her veins as memories flooded her of the last time she was here. The room was still grand, with arching ceilings whose colour seemed to hold the night sky. Thankfully, some things had changed. The floor had been cleaned, leaving no trace of her parents’ blood. No screams rang out across the marble. In fact, there was no marble on the floor at all. Grass cloaked it, turning the room into a magickal woodland. As Elara walked tentatively through, she saw the touches that turned it into a dusk-kissed paradise. Twisted trees rose through the room, their midnight blue branches adorned with lavender-scented and coloured leaves. Candles floated through the air, and at the back of the room lay a small pond adorned with dark-roses and starflowers. Indigo swans floated in the pool, serene and graceful, and vines of fragrant night-jasmine climbed up the walls, creating a canopy of lilac upon the whole ballroom. And stars. Stars everywhere. Constellations lit up the roof as if the ceiling were the night sky itself.

Elara did a quick scan of the room, her eyes looking for any hint of red or black. Her heart calmed slightly. Wherever Ariete was, he wasn’t here. But a pulsing energy made her still, the air heavy with charm. Her gaze caught on a figure, the magnetic pulsing air around him catching her attention instantly. Sat at a table, surrounded by adoring devotees, was the Star Scorpius. His charm felt like drowning, intense and roiling, with a faint waft of a salted sea breeze. Despite his intimidating presence, Scorpius looked bored, nursing a cup of what she presumed was ambrosia, his deep-sea green eyes dull, his light brown, waist-length locks glowing in the magickal starlight.

Elara whipped around to Enzo. ‘The other Stars are here,’ she breathed as panic seized her. ‘Oh gods, oh gods. I don’t think I thought this through, I—’

‘Nova, Nova ,’ Enzo hushed, clamping down on her hand as he searched the room.

‘Yes, Alec ,’ she retorted.

‘You’re going to take a deep breath. We are two excited courtiers of Asteria. We have masks on, the entire palace is packed with people and you have lived inside the castle walls most of your life. No one apart from Ariete and Lukas—and Leyon, I suppose—knows what you look like. You are going to pull yourself together and play your part.’

He pulled her to the large grassy clearing that acted as a dance floor in the centre of the room.

‘Now, you’re going to smile and look at me adoringly as we dance.’ In the dim shimmering ballroom, Enzo took Elara’s hands in his, an arrogant smile on his lips.

‘You have to be joking.’ She cast him a frown. ‘We have to find Sofia.’

Enzo mastered an easy smile as he pulled her in closer. ‘We have to blend in. To act like guests. If we begin sneaking around the moment we enter the ball, we’ll be caught.’

A familiar tune started to pick up from the band hidden between the trees. The Celestian Waltz. Elara remembered her mother sweeping her around the room to its gentle rhythmic sway, her father then taking over and Elara watching as her parents drifted in each other’s arms. She forced her rising panic down. Enzo was right.

‘Stars above,’ she muttered, her heart still hammering, as she held him more tightly.

‘Scared?’ he taunted, his hand still around hers.

She placed it hard on her waist as she determinedly pressed her other hand to his shoulder.

‘Hardly.’ With one more breath, her worries were locked into her box, and she flashed a winning smile as they began to spin. His grip on her waist tightened a fraction and a wave of heat overpowered her. His arrogant smile faltered, that cool composure slipping, before returning so quickly, she wondered if she’d imagined it. Before she could ponder it for too long, she was dipped towards the floor by Enzo.

Elara had always loved dancing, and she had always been good at it. But this felt…different.

‘Now this is the part where you laugh delicately and tell me you’ve never danced with such a handsome, charismatic man.’ He lifted her effortlessly by her waist then dropped her back down, not missing a beat as they continued to spin. They rose and fell, lost in their own world underneath the twilight and the stars.

‘Then,’ he said, ‘you add that you can just tell by how I dance that I’m a ravishing lover.’

Elara scoffed. ‘You’re an average dancer,’ she lied. ‘So what does that say of your skills in the bedroom?’

A gleam came into Enzo’s eyes as they both clapped twice, before joining hands again.

His mouth came to her ear. ‘You lie so prettily,’ he murmured, brushing her ear with his lips. ‘Though I’d be more than happy to show you my talents, princess.’

Elara’s eyes fluttered shut, if only for a moment.

Whatever Enzo was doing, it was working, distracting her from the thought of just how wrong her plan could go.

As the flute joined in, so came the next part of the waltz. Twirled and passed between partners, palms outstretched, Elara weaved through the masked men, her neck craning to find Enzo, smiling as she saw his eyes still locked on her even as he spun with other women. Her hand brushed a stranger’s, and she stopped herself, only just, from sucking in a breath.

A Star’s charm was coating her, the bare contact of a god’s skin on hers, electric. The charm felt like storm clouds and solving puzzles; smelled like rain and cedar. Her stomach turned as she pretended to peer up shyly behind her mask, an abashed courtier overwhelmed by a Star’s presence. The pale, dark-haired god glanced down at her, his cunning coal eyes fixed on Elara as he tilted his head, intrigued. Elara took in any detail she could. A black pinstriped suit, the shirt beneath unbuttoned low to show a row of silver necklaces. One with a key hung between his collarbones, another with a blade on it hung low by his sternum. She folded away the details, nodding her head demurely as his brow furrowed. Then before she knew it, Elara was whisked back into the dance.

She made her way back to Enzo as the music picked up pace, the orchestra a frenzy of violins, flutes and cymbals.

Enzo grabbed her with ferocity as she reached him, hunger in his movements dominating her as he pulled her flush to him, leading them to the demanding beat.

‘Eli certainly seemed to like the look of you,’ Enzo murmured, picking up his pace as the music became deafening.

‘Holy shit, that was Eli? One of the twins?’

‘The very same,’ Enzo replied, his head whipping to where the Star was now dancing with a ravishing redhead, though his eyes were still pinned upon Elara.

Enzo smoothly moved her towards the edge of the ballroom and out of the Star’s sightline as she shivered.

The melody followed them, rising when Enzo lifted her, speeding when he spun her. She could feel a frisson in the air like the raw power he wielded between his hands, crackling with energy. Her heart raced as the signal for the final steps of the Celestian Waltz sang to her. His fire fed into her, and she shot him a smile. Matching it with one of his own, he lifted her arm, spinning her with vigour. One, two, three, four …

Then mustering all her focus, she took three strides back and darted, leaping into his outstretched arms. He pushed her up, his muscles corded behind his jacket as he stretched her above him, holding her. Dizzy with euphoria, the world that surrounded Elara was left behind. She hung among the stars, envisioning plucking them with vengeance one by one, her body weightless. She barely noticed the other guests suspended around her. Then Enzo lowered her gently to the ground as the refrain stopped and they both snapped out of it, looking around the room.

Noise that had seemed distant was now loud and close—the crowd laughing and clapping as they dispersed, the music shifting into a new song. She blinked.

They made their way off the dance floor as Enzo led her to the shadowed wall nearby.

‘Perhaps it’s best we find other dancing partners now, mingle, and see what we can discover.’ His eyes were pensive as they searched the room. ‘Do you see Lukas anywhere?’

She shook her head, too out of breath to reply as she followed his gaze. Her eyes had been peeled for her pale-skinned, midnight-haired ex-lover, but by some mercy, she hadn’t seen him yet.

Enzo nodded. ‘Just don’t stray too far,’ he warned.

‘I won’t,’ she said softly, turning, her skirts swirling behind her, the imprint of his hands still burning her waist.