Chapter Thirty-Two
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Pain. Immeasurable, indescribable pain. Elara fought to wake up and thrashed her body, trying to force the magick of Ariete’s venom out of her veins, to no avail.
Her eyes fluttered open, enough to see that she was in her old bedroom. The heavy indigo curtains were drawn, familiar books lining her bookshelves, the paintings of her favourite draguns upon her ceiling. She choked a sob and tried to sit up, tried to move.
But the venom rendered her immobile, as a figure slithered forwards, an aura of white starlight around her becoming visible with every step.
‘The promised Starkiller,’ came a breathy, high voice. Elara tried to drag lungfuls of air into her body, though fear was making that near-impossible as a goddess was illuminated before her.
Gem. Star of spite and trickery.
Elara had been brought up on frightening stories of this very Star and her twin, Eli. They were two halves, but together they were more powerful than almost any one star. They could cleave minds, could make the sanest man go mad. Could command a mortal like a puppet master.
Elara tried to squirm away from Gem’s approach, but the Star only smiled faintly as she panted, unable to even lift herself off the bed. Like Ariete, Gem was stunning, the faint glow and porcelain perfection of her countenance ethereal. She flicked hair as white as snow off her shoulder, scanning Elara from head to toe with eyes so pale a blue they looked almost blank.
‘Where’s Sofia?’ Elara rasped. Her throat was throbbing with pain—Stars, almost as much as when she’d had the Light forced down it. Was it from the venom? From screaming?
‘Elsewhere,’ Gem said airily. ‘My king isn’t so cruel, you know. If you comply, he’ll allow her to stay with you, here.’
She knelt by Elara’s bedside and brushed a stray hair from her face. Elara flinched, though her head barely moved.
‘You could be content here, as long as you do as I say.’
From her touch, Elara felt wisps of white starlight creep like mist into her mind. The scent of godslilies was strong enough to make her gag, as Gem searched.
Elara squeezed her eyes shut, and with gritted teeth commanded her shadows to take the box—the one with all her secrets, all her true thoughts—and push it deeper into her consciousness.
Who are you?
The voice sounded inside and outside Elara, as Gem’s blank gaze continued to pin her to the bed.
‘I am Elara Bellereve. The rightful queen of Asteria,’ she snarled.
A soft chuckle echoed through her mind. Elara Bellereve. I did not ask you your name.
‘I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.’ Elara heaved, gritting her teeth against the pain in her body.
How did an insignificant little princess survive the deathblow of a Star?
‘Because of the prophecy,’ she snapped.
Gem’s magick paused, pulsing, waiting, as she replied. What are you hiding, Elara Bellereve?
And before Elara could take another breath, the tendrils of starlight attacked. Spears of it lanced through Elara’s mind as she screamed—hard, cold, terrifying light. The tendrils pried and forced, scurrying and chasing the shadows as they ran, as they swirled together and hid. Blades swiped across her mind, cutting and slicing it as she bucked, determined to not cry out, to not give Gem the satisfaction. In her mind, she saw Gem standing in front of her, as her voice softly ordered: You will show me what you’re hiding.
Elara fought, trying to claw herself off the bed, but the pain in her muscles protested, and another blow of light seared through her brain.
Gem’s voice was as calm as a still pond when she spoke again. Who is Alec?
‘Fuck you,’ Elara gasped, disguising every thought of Enzo, every picture. The memories of them training, flying, dancing. She locked each one away.
But where was he? What had happened to him?
Finally something, Gem murmured, as she read the questions that Elara had just asked herself.
Gem laughed softly as an image was now fed into Elara’s mind. It was hazy, showing Enzo hanging from a ceiling, blood pouring from gashes in his skin, his mask still on.
Elara frowned. Why was his mask still on? But she cried out as another vicious burst of pain cut through her mind, blurring the image. When it became sharper again, Ariete was there, red starlight lancing over Enzo’s body for every time he refused to answer the Star’s relentless interrogation.
She fought back a sob, gritting her teeth as her magick tried to fight past the venom. A wisp of her shadows swirled out of her, and lashed around Gem’s neck, though it did little.
The goddess growled in frustration, before Elara was hit again by stabbing needles of light, piercing hot, the pain nearly making her black out. But the claws that sank into her brain wouldn’t relent, wouldn’t let her sink into oblivion. An inhuman sound escaped her, and she clenched her jaw, shaking.
I will sweep your mind to find everything you love, and then I’ll destroy it, Gem’s voice whispered.
Elara lay, panting raggedly.
She didn’t know if what happened next went on for hours, or days. All she did know was that it was the most acute pain she had ever felt. Again and again, Gem’s claws raked her mind, searching for information of the last months. Elara’s willpower was slipping slowly, her mouth fixed in a soundless scream as Gem silenced her cries. She sat there suspended in agony.
Finally, she heard the chair drag back.
‘Your mind will be mine before the end of this,’ Gem snarled. Elara felt the Star grip her mind so tightly that she began to convulse. Then finally, Gem left her in the dark.
When Elara next woke, it was to warm liquid seeping down her throat. Her eyes fluttered, to Ariete perched on her bed, his wrist at her mouth, as she drank greedily. Blissful numbness swept through the pain.
The moment Elara realized who he was, she yanked away, spluttering up blood. His blood.
‘Hush,’ he said as she wretched. ‘I need you lucid for this conversation.’
‘Why are you doing this?’ she whispered, forcing her sob down as she wiped her mouth, staining her hand scarlet. ‘If our fates have been tied, then we can do nothing about it. If I’m to fall in love with you and be your death, why not just accept it?’
Ariete tipped back his head and laughed, a manic gleam shining in his eyes. ‘Let me ask you, Elara. Do you accept it?’
She thought of Enzo. Of what he’d said in the forest. You deserve to feel true love.
‘No,’ she replied.
‘Our fates are tied. But I am the god of war. If you are to be my death, then I will go down in battle.’
The room spun as the Star’s raw, unfiltered magick from his blood worked its way into her system. Her eyelids fluttered as euphoria pumped through her. His blood was better than ambrosia. Utter bliss and divinity.
‘Who is Alec?’
The bliss stuttered. ‘Where is he?’ she demanded.
‘That’s what I’d like to know,’ he murmured back. Everything within Elara abated a moment. The visions from Gem, they weren’t true. Ariete had lost him.
‘Tell me everything, Elara, and I can stop your pain.’
But Elara had latched on to it now, that one ray of light shining in the night. Enzo was safe. So she only smiled at Ariete.
His face contorted in rage, the indifferent, immortal mask shattered. ‘So be it,’ he said, before he plunged his fangs back into her throat.
This time, when the pain came, blissful darkness was already there to eat it whole.