Chapter Fifteen
Elara kept to the walls of the smoke-filled room as she waited—aphrosmoke, just as she’d requested.
She heard the door creak open and held her breath. Though the smoke was too thick to see through, she heard Ariete murmur something in that low, lilting voice that haunted her nightmares. The door closed with a soft thud. There was no turning back now. She was trapped in a room with Ariete.
She heard Merissa’s responding giggle, and when the smoke finally parted, the scene before her made Elara desperate to kill.
Ariete was reclined on a deep-red velvet chair, Merissa swaying between his spread legs.
‘I was hoping for a private audience with you, my lord,’ she said. ‘I’m so honoured that you allowed it.’
Ariete sucked on a pipe filled with more aphrosmoke, the back of his tattooed knuckles grazing Merissa’s arm. It took every ounce of strength in Elara not to lunge her shadows at that hand and stop it in its tracks. The last time a friend of hers had been so close to Ariete, she had died.
For only a second, the scene before her shimmered, and it was Sofia between his legs, her throat slit from ear to ear.
Bile rose in Elara’s throat, and she squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them, Merissa was in front of her once more.
Merissa is not Sofia. And Merissa will succeed in what she needs to do, she affirmed to herself, the words keeping her calm as she waited for the right moment.
‘The pleasure’s all mine.’
Merissa swung herself on to the Star’s lap, straddling him. Elara grimaced as Ariete’s hands ran down her friend’s curves.
‘It’s been my dream since I was a little girl to kiss a Star and make a wish.’
Elara had never seen Merissa like this, but the woman was a natural, as though a part of her that had been hiding this whole time had finally been allowed to shine.
Merissa leaned in, angling her head to kiss Ariete, but his hands whipped out, grasping her wrists as he stilled her. Elara stepped forwards, but Merissa’s smile turned seductive.
‘I don’t kiss,’ Ariete murmured, his lips a hair’s breadth from Merissa’s. Merissa’s smile turned positively feline.
‘Ah, you’re one of those men. Anything but the lips.’ Her nose grazed his neck as his head fell back, the seductive drug well and truly taking hold.
Ariete’s mouth twitched. ‘You could say that.’
‘Can I not even have a peck?’ Merissa sighed, pushing herself into him. Elara saw Ariete’s inked hands move to Merissa’s hips and tighten. ‘I want to know what wishes taste like.’ Elara saw her friend flick her tongue out, lapping it over the ink on his neck.
‘It’s dangerous to wish upon a Star. I’m sure your parents warned you of that, growing up.’ Ariete’s voice was like gravel, rumbling down Elara’s spine. It sounded like a warning. Come on, Merissa. Time is running out.
‘I’ve never cared much for playing safe.’
Ariete’s head lifted, and he studied Merissa for a moment. His eyes narrowed. ‘You’re different,’ he slurred, his hands running up to her collarbones. A knuckle brushed the hollow of her throat. ‘Braver than the others.’
Merissa sat up straighter, then seemed to relax once more, playing the part of adoring devotee so well.
‘Long ago, in a different time, we had a name for women like you. Bravina. Fearless.’
‘Perhaps I should be rewarded for my courage,’ Merissa purred.
Elara saw Ariete’s red eyes search Merissa’s face as her friend nodded, biting her lip.
‘Fine, Bravina. I’ll grant you one kiss, one wish.’
‘At what cost?’ Merissa breathed.
Ariete shrugged. ‘No cost. It’s been a while since a mortal has piqued my interest.’
Elara nearly scoffed. His brother, Leyon, had said something similar to her.
Merissa sighed, pliable in his arms. Elara took a step closer.
Ariete raised Merissa’s chin, angling her head as his eyes fluttered shut.
Elara watched as Merissa took her chance, reaching into her cleavage and placing the hypnom petal hidden there beneath her tongue.
Ariete slanted his mouth and brushed it against hers.
The kiss was tentative, searching—too intimate for Elara’s liking. She grimaced.
Merissa moaned, deepening the kiss as her tongue slipped into Ariete’s mouth. Gods, she was a good actress. Elara wanted to vomit. But this was the only way to make Ariete ingest the sleeping drug in one full dose.
Ariete’s hands ran up to her hair, threading through the red silken strands as he sucked on her lower lip.
‘There,’ he said raggedly, finally pulling away. ‘You may make your wish.’
‘I wish—’ Merissa started, before leaning into Ariete’s ear. Elara didn’t hear the rest and frowned, wondering what Merissa could possibly be saying that needed to be whispered.
Her eyes narrowed as Merissa finished, sitting up straighter. Ariete’s chuckle was cut short. Just like that, his body had gone limp, his head lolling back in his seat. Merissa peered at him.
‘Out cold,’ she whispered, not daring to move. Elara whipped the illusion off herself, striding up behind Ariete.
‘Are you all right?’ she asked, stroking Merissa’s hair. The demi-Star nodded, the hand she brought to her lip trembling slightly.
‘Fine,’ she replied. ‘It really wasn’t that bad, not at all.’
‘Keep watch over us both and stay where you are. Eli is on the other side of the door. Throw a thought out to him if you notice Ariete beginning to stir before I wake.’
Merissa nodded, still straddling the unconscious Ariete. Elara took the snakestone out of her brassiere, clutching it in one hand before lying down on one of the couches next to Ariete.
‘Just like walking through any other dream, Elara,’ she muttered to herself, controlling her breathing. With a last breath out, she secured her tether, its midnight-blue cords anchored to the earth, and with a second inhalation, she felt the drop.
She rose from her body, seeing the top of Merissa’s glamoured red head, Ariete’s burgundy and black striped one, and the pulsing, angry starlight bursting from the dreamscape floating above his head.
She took a step towards it, then another, every instinct in her screaming and begging her to turn back.
But Enzo’s salvation lay beyond that cloud, and, with a last I love you sent to him with such force that she was sure it would reach him in the Dreamlands, Elara entered Ariete’s dreams.