Heavenly Bodies

Chapter Fifty-Seven

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

The next morning, it was Leo who appeared at her door, and said that he’d be taking over her training rigorously until Ariete arrived in Helios. It felt like she had been taken back months, to the last time she and Enzo had stopped speaking. Elara hated that she was relieved to be with the general, and hated that she was also disappointed. She had no right to be.

She blinked at the brightness of Sol as she rode beside Leo in silence. Enzo’s absence was a cold and empty vacuum, and she had to bite her cheek to quell her welling tears. Leo looked to her as they reached the familiar path that led into the forest, where she had first trained with Enzo.

‘Come,’ he said gently, slowing their horses to a patch of shade among the trees. ‘Elara, Enzo told me what happened last night.’

‘Did you give the order?’ she asked. ‘To kill my border’s army?’

‘No,’ Leo said. ‘I swear I didn’t. Idris gave the order directly to the troops stationed there.’

Elara nodded.

Leo wet his lips. ‘Maybe you’ll think I’m speaking out of turn, but I don’t care—why are you doing this?’ he asked. ‘Pushing Enzo away? A blind man could see that you don’t want this.’

‘It doesn’t matter what I want. It matters what will happen if I ignore sense.’

‘I know for a fact that Enzo does not care about the prophecy,’ Leo said. ‘Nor does he see you as the enemy any more. I see him with you. I know him.’

‘What does it matter? Even without the prophecy, I have a kingdom to try and salvage, people who are dying because of me. Because I ran away.’

‘Well, you were technically kidnapped,’ Leo responded lightly.

Elara made a derisive noise. ‘But I had the chance to return to my people. To run back. Stay. And fight. And I didn’t. Because I’m a fucking coward. And a selfish one at that. I told myself that it was because I must be trained as a weapon. Only then could I return to take back my throne. But I was lying. I wanted to stay.’ She took a deep breath. ‘So you know what? It’s only right that I’m destined for someone else. Enzo’s heart is too good for me anyway.’

Leo let out a slow breath and leaned back to look at her against the Light.

‘Elara, do you know how long I have known Enzo?’

‘Since you were boys,’ she affirmed.

‘Exactly. Since we were boys. I have seen him grow up. I’ve seen him with women. I have seen him get bored week after week with whichever new girl has been on his arm. I’ve also seen the emptiness in his eyes. How no one seemed to possess whatever it is he was looking for.’ He paused then, growing pensive. ‘I’ve heard him speak of love and witnessed him carving it into marble. I’ve seen the need in his eyes for something deeper.’ Leo huffed out a laugh. ‘And then, you whirled in. A storm of smoke and shadows. And I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.’

‘Forget what?’ Elara breathed.

‘The way his eyes lit up that first time you spoke to him, the barb so ready on your tongue.’ He chuckled at the memory. ‘The way he admitted to me not long after that he had never encountered someone that he felt like he knew instantly, deeply. Someone who could see right through him, when usually it was him doing the seeing. Elara, just answer me this. When the world is stripped bare, what is it you seek? Because I know what Enzo seeks. Who Enzo seeks.’

He turned his face to Elara then, his warm brown eyes leaving her soul bare. ‘He looks for you in every room.’

Elara’s stomach plummeted as her mind flew back to when she was lying next to Enzo in the woodlands. She fought to crush the rising in her heart, both panic and elation, the magnanimity of what she had fallen into threatening to overcome her. There was a long silence until she raised her eyes, filled with tears, to look at Leo.

‘I look for him too.’

Elara managed to keep avoiding Enzo. She focused on the impending threat of Ariete, allowing Leo to work her through merciless drills, wielding the duskglass blade like the lethal weapon it was. And still, Leo’s words weighed heavier and heavier on her heart. So Elara did what she did best; she pushed it all down, cramming that box within her shut, feeding her darkness.

When she wasn’t with Leo, Elara pestered Merissa while they worked together in the kitchens, imploring her to show her how she glamoured. Elara wanted to understand every tip and trick Merissa knew for her own illusions.

It was on one of those days that Leo barrelled into the kitchen, eyes wild. Elara’s hands froze in the dough she was kneading as Merissa sifted flour over it.

‘It’s Ariete, isn’t it?’ she breathed, her hands going slack.

Leo nodded. ‘He held the Star’s Summit. The Stars refused to bend their rule—Leyon staunchly. So Ariete told them that he would enter Helios, whether it started a celestial war or not. He marches for Helios tomorrow.’

‘And where is Leyon now?’

‘Screaming bloody murder in the Heavens. He’s demanding the Stars commit a coup against their king. He wouldn’t dare try to fight his brother alone.’

‘Training, now ,’ Elara said, brushing her hands on her apron as she stalked out of the kitchens. ‘Merissa, I need you there too.’

Merissa frowned as she hurried after Leo and Elara.

They walked down a quiet corridor. ‘Does Enzo know?’ Elara asked Leo.

‘Yes, and he’s hunting for you. I saw him storming down the great hallway moments before I found you.’

‘Then we need to train outside of the palace.’

‘Elara, we have just received word that Ariete will be here tomorrow. Enzo is going to be incensed if we leave and he can’t find you.’

Elara let out a long breath. ‘I know. I know this isn’t fair to him. Or you. Or anyone. But if I see him, I am going to be distracted, and I can’t be when I meet my fate with Ariete. Please tell me you understand?’

Leo rubbed a hand over his face. ‘Fine. But if I see him before we leave, I won’t lie to him, Elara.’

They made their way swiftly through the palace, Elara taking routes now familiar to her as they finally reached the path that would lead to the forest.

‘Merissa, I want you to watch,’ she said as they climbed. ‘Keep an eye out for any spots I leave open, any places that Ariete could strike.’

And then, as they reached flat ground, she drew her dagger from its familiar place by her thigh, struck out at Leo, and they began to dance.

Once they’d finished, Elara traipsed straight to her rooms, welcoming the ache of her muscles and the pounding of her head. The hour was late upon her return, the palace quiet with sleep. As she made to turn the corner of the corridor, she halted. Enzo was slumped against her door, a weary look on his face. She bit her lip, retreating as quietly as she could.

She couldn’t do this.

His face alone set her heart thundering, the pure despair that was engraved on it—the worry. Coward , a voice in her head whispered. It was right; she was.

Tiptoeing away, she circled back around to a corridor that led to the palace gardens, crimson-tinted by the Helion night sky.

She eased herself up the rose trellis that crawled up her side of the palace—thinking of the times she would sneak back to her room in Asteria. She scaled the wall with ease, landing softly on her balcony.

But as she crossed her bedroom floor she hesitated. Elara knew that Enzo was still on the other side, the usual candlelight that seeped through the small gap at the foot of her door obscured by a shadow. She knew she shouldn’t. That any thought of him was bound to open the floodgates that she had worked very hard to force shut over the last few days. And yet, her heart sighed as she made her way to the door. She sank against it, sliding to the floor, closing her eyes as her back pressed against the wood. Perhaps, just this once, she would allow herself this weakness. A tear rolled from her closed eyes of its own volition. Perhaps just this once, she would allow herself to be close to him, only a door between them.

As sleep gently embraced Elara, she fell into her own dreams. She was in Enzo’s studio. Yet in the usual, peacefully white calm of the space, there lay a gaping hole in the floor. She walked towards the yawning chasm, a storm raging in the dark depths below it, an abyss that seemed endless.

A ball of fire, hotter and brighter than even the Light, burned from across the chasm, and she felt with an icy certainty that there was another, shining silver, behind her. Then she heard screaming—ragged and desperate cries, shouted across the void. And there, hanging from the lip of the abyss, trying to claw his way out of it, was Enzo, his fingers slipping inch by inch.

Elara woke up dripping in cold sweat, her back and neck stiff against the door. She took a few deep breaths, reminding herself that her dream had been one of her own creation. She rose shakily, squinting over at the open balcony doors. The deep red gloom filtering through confirmed that it was the darkest part of the night. She looked over at the door, but strong yellow candlelight was again seeping unhindered through the gap. Enzo was gone.

Pacing the room and peeling her sticking gown from her clammy body, she decided to head to the palace baths, craving the calm of the peace, the water and the darkness.