Chapter Twelve #2
The Moon scoffed, eyes cold as she looked into the distance. ‘The Dark never rests. I’m a prisoner here as much as I am a queen—chained to obligation.’
‘Don’t say that,’ Eli said softly. ‘There are ways to defeat even the darkest of shadows.’
The Moon shot him a sharp gaze, raising a finger to her lips. ‘Careful, Silvertongue. You know better than most that they have ears.’
Elara looked uneasily between them now. ‘The Dark?’ she asked aloud. But both the Moon and Eli ignored her, looking at one another.
‘Eli…’ Elara said once more, as the talk of the Dark filled her with dread and reminded her of the chasing monster. ‘What did you send after me in your dreams? That nightmare, I—’
Eli bowed his head, still unable to hear her. ‘Call on me when you have a reply for him,’ he said to the Moon. ‘I’ll deliver it with haste.’
Elara wanted to know more, to stay and see how the rest of her and Enzo’s story played out, to see more of who she had been as the Moon, to find out what, exactly, was ‘the Dark’ that had kept them apart.
Despair and longing permeated the dream so much that she could feel it within her—what the Moon must have felt, fated to fall in love with her Sun across a sky with no hope of them ever being able to meet.
She could have stayed…but Eli’s warning rang in her ears: of how easily a dream could lure one in, sink its claws in and never let go.
She stumbled a few steps back as the exchange continued between Eli and the Moon, though her heart begged her to stay.
She took one final look at the scene, at her godly presence—so regal and powerful—and at the Star who knelt before her. Eli had been someone important to her, far more important than he’d let on.
She turned and approached the door with trepidation. But she reminded herself that no matter what waited on the other side, she would vanquish it. She’d have no choice when it came to salvaging Enzo’s tether.
She peered out of the door and into the dark corridor, the shimmering stepping stones still hovering. But as she put a foot upon one, holding out her snakestone to find her way back to her original path, she cried out.
Mere inches from her, a faceless wraith waited. The cloaked figure stared at her before making a terrible rasping sound. Elara conjured shadows without a pause and threw them at the figure, attempting to bind it.
But the figure only began to rasp anew, and her shadows drew towards it—spinning out of her control as though the being was eating them.
She jumped on to the next stone, scrambling as she searched wildly. The next door up waited, and this time, with no weapon to call upon, she admitted her defeat as she tumbled in, praying that the dreams behind this door would save her.
Elara stepped on to something spongy, and looked down at a cloud, tangible underneath her feat.
Ahead lay a plush four-poster bed on a pavilion suspended in the clouds, stars twinkling around it.
The air was balmy with a slight breeze in this floating dream in the night sky.
Her attention was drawn by the sound of laughter—a woman’s, she realized—and she saw there were figures on the bed. Elara could not believe her eyes.
A beautiful woman with white-blonde hair continued to laugh as Eli stamped kisses over her neck, pinning her arms above her.
‘You’re mine,’ he laughed into her. ‘You aren’t going anywhere.’
The blonde woman writhed under him. ‘Mercy, please,’ she begged as he continued to kiss up and down the length of her neck.
Elara’s eyes widened as she saw blue iridescent wings, like those of a butterfly, fluttering from her shoulder blades.
She got a hand free, and, with surprise, Elara saw her conjure wind effortlessly, the gusts of it pushing Eli back.
‘Cheat!’ he crowed, making to tickle her. The Star looked so happy, his cheeks flushed. Elara’s heart stopped as she realized the way he looked at this woman was the way she looked at Enzo. The laughter died down as the blonde woman gently stroked Eli’s cheek.
‘I love you,’ he whispered on to her lips before drawing her into a deep kiss.
Elara ached as she looked at them, thinking of Enzo.
How she wished she could kiss him, touch him.
The wave of missing him threatened to drown her whole as she watched the couple in front of her.
Suddenly they stopped, and Elara watched as Eli raised his head slowly and looked straight at her, his soft look transforming into something poisonous.
‘You shouldn’t be here,’ he snarled, jumping off the bed on to the clouds as he paced towards her.
Elara looked around in panic. She refused to go back into the manor and face whatever waited there. But the Star approaching was not one who had helped her; no, this Eli was unrecognizable, as though another wore his skin.
She stepped back, once, then again, until she reached the edge of the cloud. And though she had been taught never to do this, by her parents and numerous teachers alike, Elara let herself fall.