Heavenly Bodies

Chapter Sixty-Five

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

Enzo lay gasping in a pool of his own blood, his hands shaking as he tried to staunch the flow seeping from his chest. The colour of it began to shift, glittering. Elara looked over him, her face devoid of feeling.

‘A little advice from an angel,’ she said, crouching down before him. ‘Call it woman’s intuition.’

She ran her finger over the protruding knife sticking out from his chest as he panted. ‘You hid the truth from us for all these years. The ways we could destroy you.’ She looked in disdain to the colour leaching from Enzo’s face, his eyes. ‘Isn’t that true, Enzo?’

She paused, raising a hand to her lips in mock apology.

‘Or should I say—Gem?’

A snarl painted white lips as Enzo’s image slowly transformed into the pale Star, her white hair soaked with her glittering blood, her colourless eyes filled with hatred as she convulsed.

‘How did you know?’ she gritted out.

‘Your mind games are sloppy,’ Elara sighed. ‘Star of trickery, and you can’t even get that right. I’ll admit you had me fooled at first. And after Celine warned me to keep the duskglass blade, I knew I had to hide it in an illusion. But there was something that nagged away at me, a feeling I couldn’t shake about the wrongness of it all. You see, I couldn’t for the life of me understand why I kept smelling godslilies. And then when you walked back in, it clicked.’ She grinned to Gem. ‘Details are important, and I’d memorized every one of Enzo’s. No freckle. No frown. And your earring was silver, not gold.’

She sighed, standing up, and looked pitifully down at Gem. ‘The blade didn’t touch your heart, I made sure of that. I can spare your life if you tell me where he is.’

Gem laughed weakly. ‘Not a chance.’

Elara’s face turned solemn. ‘I give you my word, Gem, that you will leave here free if you tell me where you’re keeping Enzo.’

Gem’s eyes narrowed as she coughed, wheezing. ‘Why would you help me?’ She grimaced. ‘After what I did to you?’

‘Because I am not like you.’

Gem observed her a moment. ‘Fine,’ she hissed.

Elara pulled the blade free and Gem cried in pain. ‘He’s being held in Idris’s lucirium. I charmed the guards there,’ she panted.

Elara smiled coldly, flexing her fingers around the Starkiller’s hilt. ‘You helped kill Sofia. I want you to know that I would have made your death agony for that—let alone for what you did to me.’

Her shadows lunged, billowing down Gem’s throat. Gem’s eyes widened as Elara plunged the blade back in, this time right through the Star’s heart.

‘You gave your word.’

Black tendrils snaked out of Gem’s nostrils as Elara continued to choke her, a thrill drumming through her. The light in Gem’s pale blue eyes began to dim, her face turning grey as she clawed at her throat.

‘No. I said that I wasn’t like you.’ Elara drove her blade further through the god’s chest. ‘I’m worse.’

The moment Elara killed Gem, the Star’s spell over the guards broke. She saw them both slump to the floor as they were finally released from the goddess’s torment. But Elara had bigger things to worry about. She wrapped her shadows around the bars to her cell and pulled. It was delight she felt coursing through her veins as the bars bent and twisted under the pressure from her shadows, now utterly free.

When the guards finally awoke, she knew it would be to the corpse of the Star. But even if they sounded an alarm, it would be too late.

She side-stepped their bodies, summoning an illusion as she turned herself into nothing and strode out of the dungeons.

Mercifully, the corridors were still empty. She wondered where all those who lived in the palace had gone—hoping that they had fled the moment Ariete arrived. She sent up a prayer for Merissa, before sprinting towards the lucirium.

She thought it strange that there were no guards stationed outside. A rattle of the doorknob told her the door was locked, but locks couldn’t stop her now. She pushed her shadows into the seam of the door until the lock clicked, and then shoved the door open.

Slumped on the floor, on the other side of the door, was Leo, unconscious.

And beyond him were Enzo and Idris, Enzo turning towards her in shock, while Idris remained slumped in a chair. One of the king’s eyes was swollen shut, his nose coated in dried blood. And the soverin behind them was cracked.

‘What happened?’ Elara breathed.

Enzo said nothing, pacing towards Elara and crushing his lips to hers. She nearly sobbed, to be held in his arms once more. But she forced herself to remain focused, as she pulled away gently.

‘Well, well,’ came a sneer behind them. ‘It seems I was right.’

Enzo turned slowly to his father, who was looking at the two in disgust from his one good eye.

‘You stupid, stupid boy.’

‘Careful, Father,’ he warned softly.

Idris hauled himself up. ‘What did I tell you about your soft, foolish heart? All these years, wasted, trying to train you into a warrior. And the first glimpse of some Asterian cunt , you betray your kingdom.’

Light—a bolt of it so strong—slammed into Idris. The king flew back, crashing into one of the mirrors that lined the room, and glass shattered.

‘Say one more word,’ Enzo whispered.

The shock upon Idris’s face was quickly mastered as he laughed weakly. Before his own light flared to life, a terrible, snaking whip, and struck Enzo across the face.

Elara cried out as Enzo grunted, clutching his face. With a growl, she summoned her shadows, but Enzo held out his hand. ‘This is my fight,’ he said and, reluctantly, she stepped back, though her heart hammered.

Enzo conjured his own light—a wall of it—and blasted it into Idris, whose head cracked back against the mirror. The king hissed in pain, before he sent another whip of light, which this time struck Enzo’s knees.

‘Enzo,’ Elara pleaded.

‘No, Elara,’ Enzo replied sharply. He panted, eyes fixed on his father.

Idris staggered up from the wall and approached, nothing but contempt painted on his features. ‘You know, you get that weakness from your mother.’

More rays struck, and Enzo stayed kneeling upright, though Elara could see his whole body wanting to buckle.

‘Don’t you dare fucking talk about her,’ Enzo panted. Blood ran down his body, such an awful twin to the image she had seen within his dreams.

‘Do you want to really know why she was killed?’

Elara stilled, and even Enzo seemed to hold his breath.

‘I have searched for as long as I can remember for a way to defeat the Stars. And upon my quest to know, every seer in my employ sought the truth alongside me. Until finally it was spoken to me. The answers came from two seers, each who brought me a vision. The first was of a glass so dark it swallowed even starlight. And the seer called it duskglass. Can you guess who told me that? Which little Svetan girl I allowed to stay in the palace?’

‘Isra,’ Enzo whispered hoarsely.

Idris chuckled. ‘The second vision was of a girl, just born, with a magick so dark she could survive divinitas. A girl who would fall for the King of Stars, and it would kill them both. Two Starkillers. And it was spoken to me. If the King of Stars was killed, so the rest of the Stars would fall.’

‘What does this have to do with Mother?’ Enzo growled, though Elara said nothing, her mouth dry.

‘Because I have held a string of Elara’s fate as much as Piscea has. The seer who brought me the second vision was my wife.’

Elara’s heart turned to lead. ‘What did you just say?’

‘Lorenzo’s mother was one of the most powerful seers in Helios. And when she uttered the prophecy, divined by the Stars or some other fate, I sent her to you. The newborn princess of Asteria. I could hardly believe my luck. I ordered her to take you, to steal you away in the night immediately after your naming ceremony.’

‘No,’ Elara whispered. Enzo raised his head slowly.

‘Yes,’ Idris replied. ‘But it seems my soft-hearted wife had other ideas. To warn your parents of the prophecy, rather than adhere to her king’s command. It didn’t help her in the end. Your parents still killed her, just for knowing what she did.’

Nausea rippled through Elara.

The king spoke in a monotone, as though he had no attachment to the words he was saying.

‘A shame, really.’ He glanced over at her. ‘And so I lost you, your father making Asteria impenetrable, keeping you behind walls, though my men tried to find…ways to reach you.’

Elara’s hand twitched, a spew of shadows flying from them, though Idris only looked to them in amusement.

‘You sent that guard,’ she said hoarsely.

Enzo was fixed on Idris, utter fury writhing in his stare. Fire began to lick the light ropes that bound him.

Idris smiled. ‘One of my most trusted soldiers, and the moment he touched you he turned into a fanatic.’

Elara had always loathed Idris—before she had even met him. But as the king spoke, revealing his hand in every miserable moment in her life, she promised herself that if Enzo didn’t kill him, she would.

‘You’ve played your hand a little too early, Idris,’ she said, forcing her voice steady though barely restrained rage made her shake.

‘I tell you this so that you understand. That all you have ever been, since the day you were born, is a weapon. A weapon that I was destined to wield. You have become brash, disobeying orders, running to Asteria, seducing my son and following your silly little heart. I hope now that you understand your place. Your life is in my hands.’

‘If Ariete couldn’t kill me, then I doubt you can,’ Elara drawled as she composed herself.

‘Perhaps not,’ he said. ‘But I can hurt you, until you stop resisting your destiny.’

Rays of light flew to Elara, but Enzo roared, flames hungrily devouring the light that kept him bound. He leapt in front of her. Fire rippled into a shield against his father’s magick.

‘Your mother’s son indeed, betraying your kingdom.’

The king’s voice had ascended into a roar, and he slammed light into Enzo, knocking him to the floor. Elara’s hands were already raised, but Enzo raised his own, stopping her.

‘You know what I said when Elara’s parents killed your precious mother?’

Idris crouched on his haunches before his son, lifting his chin. ‘?“ Good .” It was what she deserved.’

Elara started to smell smoke. ‘Enzo,’ she said hoarsely.

Enzo’s eyes flicked to her—fire dancing in them, but pain, so much pain, threatening to suffocate those flames.

‘I killed my monster,’ she said. ‘It’s your turn now.’

Flames leapt from Enzo’s body, and Idris hissed as he was pushed back.

Enzo stood slowly, taking step by staggering step as more fire billowed from him, racing around the room.

‘You won’t kill me, Lorenzo. You’re a coward,’ Idris spat, though Elara was satisfied to see a gleam of fear in his eyes as the flames approached.

‘Am I?’ Enzo gave a wry smile as he looked to his magick, towering and dancing around them. ‘Was it cowardly for me to weep as my father struck me over and over again? Or was it cowardly for you to exert your power over a little boy?’

‘Lorenzo,’ Idris warned as the flames began to lick his boots.

‘I was a child.’ Enzo’s voice finally shook. ‘You may have erased the scars from my body, but you couldn’t erase them from my mind.’

Enzo shook his head.

‘But I am not a little boy any more. Nor a prince. I am king,’ the Lion of Helios finished. ‘Long may I reign.’

Fire flared towards Idris, and he summoned light to try and deflect it. But Enzo’s flames were too furious, too powerful, and they ate through the king’s shield, wrapping around his body. The king tried to scream, his mouth opened in agony, but Enzo’s lip curled as he shoved flames down the king’s throat. His father’s body shuddered and convulsed. The flames turned from orange, to blue, to bright white. With a final roar, Enzo pushed his hands out, his voice filled with years of pain wrought upon him. And the almighty King Idris of Helios turned to ash.