Chapter Twenty-Three
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Enzo once again assumed his position of begrudging teacher. Over the next few days, they fell into an easy routine of training, followed by lunch, which, true to Enzo’s remark in the markets, always seemed to put Elara in better spirits. In the afternoon, she helped Kalinda in the gardens, or Merissa in the kitchens. Sometimes Isra would stop by to see Enzo, and she’d drop by the kitchen to gobble down a fresh cake or pastry with Elara and Merissa on her way out.
Her latest morning session was giving her a chance to display her improvements with her shadows. She could manipulate them with just a thought now, though they still lacked substance. Testing herself again, she threw one in the form of a shadow wraith at Enzo.
Light whizzed past and whipped her arm.
‘ Ow! ’ She shook off the smarting pain.
Enzo tutted at the red welt forming on it. ‘You’ll get a lot worse than that from Ariete if you don’t put your shield up.’
She adjusted her shadows, packing in the darkness until it was a wicked, absorbing force.
‘Now just imagine this is Ariete’s starlight,’ he said, and launched another ray of light at her.
At the last moment, she pulled her dagger from her thigh and channelled her shadows through it, swallowing his light.
‘Good. But that’s becoming a crutch. You rely on it too heavily. You need to wield your shadows on their own.’
‘I do not,’ she retorted. ‘My technique works perfectly well. Or do you forget how I had you on your back and between my legs not so long ago?’
‘Trust me, El. I’ve not forgotten. Although the next time you have me on my back and between your legs, I’m hoping there will be fewer clothes involved.’
‘Brute!’ She threw a shadow at him, her cheeks flushing as he dispersed it idly with a quick flick of his fingers. She ignored the curl of heat in her stomach at his words, focusing on the shadows playing at her fingertips.
‘I don’t remember saying you could call me El,’ she mused.
His smile deepened. ‘Precisely why I began calling you that.’
She shrugged her shoulders in exasperation. ‘Must this torture never end? I prefer Leo’s drills to this.’
With a broad laugh, he sat on the hard stone of the pavilion, the taut muscles of his bared stomach rippling.
‘ I don’t remember,’ he said, fire dancing between his hands, ‘you ever explaining the fact that you have a dagger. Or how you wield it nearly as well as I wield a sword.’
She gave a mock bow.
‘Now where would an Asterian princess learn to use a knife like that? Not that I’m complaining,’ he added. ‘It’s one of the few things that makes you more tolerable.’
She refrained from throwing another shadow his way in a very vulgar shape, instead collapsing next to him with a sigh, feeling the soft rays of mid-afternoon beating down on her back. She wrestled with herself, before nodding with resolve.
‘A secret for a secret?’
He looked at her uncertainly then finally nodded. ‘Go on.’
‘Sofia,’ she began. ‘Her mother, Juliette, was the captain of my father’s guard. It’s why we grew up together.’ Sadness passed over Elara’s face. ‘She was found dead a few years ago.’
‘What happened?’ Enzo frowned.
Elara shrugged. ‘We never found out. There were no wounds, so the healers put it down to an ailment of the heart. But I saw her before she was buried…’ Elara shook her head against the image. ‘She looked like she had died of fright. One of the most formidable warriors in Asteria, who had never shown an inch of fear. Petrified. I’ll never forget the look in her eyes. It was as though she had seen pure evil.’
Elara shook her head, clearing it. ‘By then, Juliette had taught me and Sofia everything she knew. We would train every day. My parents willed it so, after the…incident with the lightwielder. They already knew the prophecy, and without my shadows, I see now they wanted me to be able to defend myself however I could.’
She held the dagger between them. ‘Sofia gifted me this one on my sixteenth birthday. See those obsidians? She said her shadows would always be with me, so long as I had the dagger.’ Elara smiled. ‘The silverstone, she said it reminded her of my eyes.’ She stroked the hilt, and the dragun carved into it.
‘So that’s why the princess has a dagger and knows how to use it,’ she finished. ‘To defend myself when my gifts couldn’t.’
She took a gulp of water, hands shaky.
‘What?’ she asked, taking in his stare.
‘Have you ever used your gifts?’ he asked quietly. ‘I mean…to harm?’
She nodded. ‘A couple of times, yes. The most recent one was here in Helios.’
Enzo slowly sat up. ‘When?’
Elara froze, suddenly feeling like she shouldn’t have answered. His piercing, bronze-flecked gaze burned right into her very soul.
‘It was when I first arrived.’ She saw Enzo’s jaw clench. ‘The moment we got into Sol, I tried to escape your guards. Some…found me.’
Enzo shifted imperceptibly, his eyes still on her. ‘Who?’ he asked coolly. Light, hard and frigid, caught her eye as it moved between his fingers, itching to shine.
‘You think I was on a first name basis with them?’
‘Description, Elara. Hair, eyes, what did they look like?’
‘Does it matter?’ She huffed out a nervous laugh.
‘Yes,’ he snapped.
‘The ringleader was about forty. Sandy hair, scar across his temple?’
He thought a moment. ‘Barric,’ he nodded. There was a pause, and she let the sounds of the birds chirping in the branches of the jasmine trees wash over her as she pulled blades of grass through her fingers.
‘Did they touch you?’
Elara stilled at the ice in his voice. This wasn’t the drunken, charming prince, or the teasing ally. This was the voice of the most lethal warrior to grace Celestia. She didn’t reply.
‘Did they fucking touch you?’ he asked again.
A shiver ran down her spine. Enzo’s voice was usually lilting and warm, filled with fire. Now it was cool. Calm. Far too calm.
‘Barric did,’ she whispered. The memory that she’d worked to push down, to forget, rose unbidden, and panic gripped her. ‘He made others hold me as he tore my gown. Kissed my neck. That’s as far as he got before I brought his nightmares to life.’
She felt a rough hand raise her chin and Enzo’s eyes searched hers. Some warmth had returned to his gaze, but ice still glittered underneath. He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, his jaw tensing before he finally spoke.
‘That will never happen to you again.’
‘I know. I can handle myself.’ She raised an eyebrow.
‘Yes. But in my kingdom, you are under my protection.’
He stroked her cheek once, the gentle gesture turned her breathing shallow. At the last moment he stood and turned, his tall shadow cutting through the training ground to the palace. It was only once he’d left that she saw it. Scorched, blackened earth where he had sat, smoking madly in the afternoon rays.