Heavenly Bodies

Chapter Sixty-Nine

CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE

‘This is your story, Elara.’

Elara could hear Merissa’s voice faintly as she swam through the darkness.

‘You are a queen, from a place long forgotten. You ruled the very heavens long before the Stars, with your soulmate. The Sun and the Moon, they called you. The very first soulmates in the world. Beloved by all, we would worship the Sun by day, basking in his rays and thanking him for making the crops grow and the flowers bloom. He could shine his rays to the depth of someone’s very soul, could heal and warm.

‘Under the cover of dark, we would pray to you. You wielded light in the darkness and cast illusions—you could walk through dreams, blessing or cursing them. You watched over lovers as you flew your dragun across the sky and blessed us under your silver light, allowing those who could not be together during the day to be together at night, keeping the rest of the world dreaming.

‘Yours was a tragic love story. Two lovers destined to watch each other from across the skies, never able to touch, never able to meet.’

Merissa sighed deeply. ‘You ruled in companionship with other titans. The Celestes. Until the Stars fell to this world. They were jealous of your power, of your love, and on one fateful night they tricked you. Any who have heard the stories think the Stars slaughtered you all, but the Stars know the truth. Ariete could not kill you. Instead he bound you and the other Celestes to mortal bodies, so that you’d be cast from the Heavens to Celestia.’

Elara heard faint cold laughter at that, and a scoff as Merissa continued. ‘But you were cunning. You cloaked yourself and your allies in an illusion so the Stars would not recognize you in human form. Ever since, you have been wandering through Celestia, reborn again and again, searching for your Sun.’

Elara was weightless. Ancient. Godly.

She felt the Stars’ magick unravel around her like a thread, releasing her as the duskglass worked its magick.

‘It turns out,’ Merissa continued, ‘that all you needed, was to find him. And finally, in this lifetime, you did. For it was always your powers together that could defeat a Star’s magick, that could unbind even the most powerful of spells.’

There was a horrible, painful movement in her chest, that she knew was the duskglass blade being pulled out of her. And then, a blaze of light, as magick forced its way out of her, making and unmaking her, fixing her bones and healing her wounds while she screamed. Blazing silver coated the room as her eyes opened. She saw , for a moment, the ropes of magick that had wrapped around her for centuries—glittering red and imprinted with symbols and blood, shining as red as Ariete’s furious eyes beyond.

Elara sat as the ropes withered and vanished, feeling the thick muscle of her heart stitching itself back together.

‘Oh, thank the skies,’ she heard Merissa breathe. ‘I was right.’

‘ You ,’ Ariete said, livid. ‘ You promised. ’ He tried to move, but the shards of duskglass held him in place.

‘What’s happening to me?’ Elara whispered, wildly looking for Enzo, still behind her in the pool, still lifeless. ‘Who am I?’

Ariete let his head fall back to the marble, his anger momentarily eclipsed by glee.

‘You’re the Moon ,’ he crooned. ‘And I just killed your precious Sun. ’

Elara began to crawl towards Enzo.

‘It’s no use,’ Ariete called as she dragged herself back into the pool, next to his body. ‘There’s nothing that you can do for him. Your special powers may have protected you from my killing blow, Queen Moon. But Lorenzo’s couldn’t.’

‘He can’t die!’ Elara shouted. ‘Merissa, you told me yourself that the Stars could not kill us.’

Merissa’s eyes were filled with tears. ‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘But unlike you, Enzo’s human body can be killed by a Star. He will be reborn again, but he will not remember you. You would have to spend another lifetime searching for him.’

Elara cursed the both of them as she finally reached Enzo, and latched on to him. Gripping his wrists she felt a weak flutter there, barely a pulse at all.

‘Please,’ she begged. And she knew that this time, she was not praying to a Star, or the sky. She was praying to herself, to the duskglass that now swam in her veins. ‘Please,’ she begged, closing her eyes, ‘save him.’

Enzo was in her blood, and it was their magick that could defy the Stars. She felt the power there, and dragged it to her, though her body protested, though her mind tried to give up. Yet with a will born only of an entity that shone brighter, the darker the night, she gripped on to it, teeth bared, and with a final cry she pressed her lips to Enzo, as their shared magick poured back into him. Then, holding on to her tether, she dragged both herself and Enzo into her dreams.

Enzo rose, gasping for breath, his eyes bewildered as he took in their surroundings. Elara’s dreamscape was made of twilight, deep violet rolling hills and an indigo sky. Still holding Enzo, her focus split between reality and the dream, she watched the red ropes, the same type that had bound her, break from his body and wither away.

‘Enzo?’ Elara whispered, cradling him, looking upon his face. He glanced around, terrified, before his eyes fell on her.

‘El? Are we dead?’

‘No,’ she sobbed. ‘No, we are very much alive.’

‘I found you. Through all these lifetimes, I found you,’ he whispered, his lips close to hers. She pulled away from him, wiping her eyes.

‘You remember?’

‘I had one foot in the Deadlands when I saw us in our original forms—shining across the sky from one another.’ He looked around the dusk-tinted landscape. ‘Where are we?’

‘We’re in my dreamscape,’ Elara replied, steadying her voice. She choked down another sob as he frowned at her. ‘Our powers…they saved you. They stopped a Star’s magick. You aren’t dying any more, only dreaming.’

‘Then we must wake,’ he said. ‘And finish Ariete once and for all.’

She smiled, gazing at him. The Sun. So bright and golden that her eyes burned, so glorious that she could not bear to turn away.

‘I defy the Stars,’ she whispered.

‘I defy the Stars,’ he echoed.

And tumbling, Elara reached for her tether and fell back into her body.

Ariete’s red gaze was fastened on Elara, fury writhing in his stare. Merissa was kneeling near him, her eyes troubled as she looked to Elara.

Elara instantly looked for Enzo. He was still, but his pulse was steady, the wound in his stomach healed. In moments, he would wake and—

‘You stole another death from me,’ Ariete raged, still pinned where he lay. An errant strand of hair fell in his face, blood and sweat dripping as he seethed.

‘What?’ she snapped, gripping on to Enzo’s hand.

‘You tampered with the fucking law of nature ! He was meant to die!’ he bellowed.

‘Elara, you did it,’ Merissa whispered, running over towards her and Enzo.

The Star growled, incensed. ‘She stole from me. So now, I’m going to steal from her.’

With gritted teeth, Elara watched in horror as he pulled his arm through the duskglass pinning it down, tearing through muscle and sinew as he stretched his hand out, his fingers curling as he yanked.

Golden thread spun through the air, pouring from Enzo’s chest, right above his heart as it coiled into Ariete’s outstretched palm. The Star held it above himself, spooling it into a ball.

‘What have you taken from him? What have you done?’ Elara screamed, lunging towards him.

‘No, Ariete. No ,’ Merissa pleaded. She swiped, snatching for the glowing ball, but Ariete closed his eyes, and it disappeared.

‘Good luck waking him without a tether , Elara. I hope he doesn’t lose himself to the Dreamlands while you try.’ He licked the blood from his teeth, smiling. ‘Time’s ticking. Until we meet again, Your Majesty .’

Elara watched in horror as Ariete pulled the rest of his body through the duskglass blades with gritted teeth, the same way he had his arm. Red starlight gathered around him. And with a triumphant, ragged cackle he snapped his fingers, soaring back on to the rooftop.

A roar of rage tore from her.

‘ Coward! ’ she shrieked to the opening in the ceiling, watching as his running figure disappeared from sight. Then with a shuddering breath, she ran back to Enzo’s body. He was breathing evenly, his face peaceful, an ethereal glow surrounding him. She shook him, trying to wake him as she screamed his name over and over. But Enzo remained asleep, lost within Elara’s dreams.