Chapter Seventeen
Elara felt Ariete’s charm surround her, the scent of sweet blood coating her as his arms wrapped around her, pressing her close. She fought against him in the darkness, biting and kicking before he finally relinquished his hold. She went to take a step away from him and screamed.
She was suspended on a swing high in the air, a trapeze, with a yawning pit below her.
Surrounding her were rows upon rows of red velvet seats, blank-eyed souls in every one.
She could see faces she recognized—those of her mother’s and father’s courts.
These were the souls of the dead. The ones who Ariete had killed.
As she gripped the ropes on either side of her, she heard a cold chuckle—one that had chased her for months.
‘When, oh when, will you learn, my dear Elara, that you simply cannot dupe me? I have mastered the art of war, of strategy. How arrogant do you have to be to think I wouldn’t know you were in Castor, or what you’d planned to do?’
Elara turned carefully, finally laying eyes once more upon the King of Stars.
His face was mere inches from hers, as beautiful and cold as ever.
His body pressed against her as they stood on the swing together, a black top hat gracing his head.
He wore a red velvet suit with tails, and held a whip in one hand, the other arm hooked around the swing’s rope nonchalantly.
Rage boiled within Elara, and she tried to quell it. Calm, Elara reminded herself. Remain calm.
‘You know what I’m here for. Give me Enzo’s tether before I lock you in your own dreams and watch you die a slow, maddening death.’
Ariete towered above her, and Elara had nowhere to move as he closed the space between them. ‘It’s sweet how you still believe you’re in control of this situation. But I’m the ringmaster. And these are my dreams, after all.’
He peered down to the pit below, and Elara heard an ominous growl drift up to them.
‘I’ve decided that you can have Enzo’s tether.’
Elara’s eyes narrowed. ‘What?’
Ariete shrugged. ‘It’s yours.’
It was a trick. It had to be. ‘On what terms?’ she snarled.
Ariete’s smile was feral. ‘Clever girl. Just one. You strike a bargain with me.’
Elara laughed. ‘Over my dead body. I will kill you and prise the tether from your cold, dead hands.’
Ariete’s voice was soft. ‘We’ll see.’
Another roar sounded from within the pit and Elara flinched.
‘The other option isn’t nearly as appealing. Before you lies your escape.’
At the other side of the ring a small platform appeared with a red door.
‘Get to the other side and through that door, and I’ll give you the tether. I’d be careful, though. That pit below is a trancechasm—if you fall, it will rip your tether from your soul before you can even scream.’
Panic seized Elara, her body going rigid as she peered into the darkness, into a deep cavernous maw that beckoned ominously.
Within it, she could see shadows shifting.
‘What are those?’ she hissed.
‘You see them too,’ Ariete murmured, his eyes fixed on the pit below. ‘Interesting. Very interesting.’
‘This is a dream,’ she reminded him. ‘No matter how you may try to convince me otherwise, I won’t die in here.’
Ariete chuckled. ‘Will you not? You see, we may be in a dream realm, but haven’t you noticed a shadow growing ever closer? Haven’t you noticed your very own defying your will?’
Elara’s heart began to drum.
‘Don’t you see things when you close your eyes—horrors unimaginable? They have weight to them, the nightmares you run through now, don’t they?’
Elara swallowed, trying to tune out his words. Leo had warned her not to listen to anything the god of war said. But Ariete knew he was right.
He cocked his head. ‘Weren’t you responsible for the floating corpses in the Castorian pits?’
She reeled, nearly falling off the trapeze, but Ariete clutched her tightly.
‘Ah,’ he said. ‘It seems you know exactly what I speak of.’
Elara didn’t allow herself to feel anything, channelling Eli as she forced a calm composure over her tumultuous emotions. She understood nightmares, knew that to not become lost in one, you could never bow down to fear.
‘I’ll ask you one last time.’ Ariete’s voice drifted back to her. ‘Are you sure you don’t want to accept my bargain?’
‘If you think I will ever be tied to you in any way, you are further out of your fucking mind than Sagitton.’
‘Always so rash, Elara. Never enough foresight.’
‘Says the god of wrath, the rashest of all Stars. Why would you give me Enzo’s tether willingly?
Why would you want the Sun awake? Aren’t he and I your mortal enemies?
’ Elara made sure her words dripped with derision.
She would not take his bait. She would find another way to get Enzo’s tether back.
Ariete laughed again, this one colder.
‘You think yourself so innocent. You haven’t a clue what you’ve done.’
Elara’s stomach lurched as she thought back to the vision that had been shown to her through his Tarot cards. ‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’
Ariete smirked. ‘Perhaps you have an inkling.’
‘Torture me and be done with it,’ she snapped. ‘Whatever little plan you’ve concocted, execute it. Because mark my words, after this I will rip Enzo’s tether from you even if it kills me.’
‘I was hoping you’d say that.’ His grin was wolfish. ‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ he roared, ‘roll up, roll up! The grandest spectacle at my Circus of Dreams is about to begin!’
Elara cursed, forcing herself to still as the crowd around her suddenly roared and cheered from the circus stalls.
She surveyed her options and where she was.
Ariete was at her side. If she tried to attack him, he’d likely push her off the swing and straight into the pit.
She could try to create her shadow dragun and fly out of the place, but the thought of summoning her shadows, of what they might bring, of what they might do, made her reconsider.
She was trapped. Just as Ariete had wanted.
Her hand clenched and unclenched the rope. She felt a hand wrap around hers and instantly jolted as Ariete’s mouth found her ear.
‘We don’t want to keep them waiting,’ he murmured, his breath brushing her cheek. ‘Run along, Elara. Give them the performance of a lifetime.’
He released her, and she felt the weight of him against her disappear, the swing lurching forwards.
She screamed as it swung in a deep arc, reaching all the way to the tent’s ceiling. As she swooped back down, hands gripping on to the ropes for dear life, she turned her head, seeing Ariete now at the forefront of the crowd that circled the pit.
‘Be careful of the distractions,’ Ariete called, grinning.
Elara steeled herself, ignoring his taunt. ‘Enzo, Enzo, Enzo,’ she whispered under her breath, his name a prayer keeping her sane as the swing coursed even higher, the breath leaving her lungs as she was then pulled back down.
Circus music began, a harsh blare that made her almost lose her grip in shock. The swing’s plank below her feet began to zigzag out of control and she cursed, still gripping the ropes as she attempted to right it.
‘Ladies and gentlemen!’ Ariete cried out. ‘Our first act is one that needs no introduction. We all love a father—daughter reunion, do we not?’
The crowd roared in response.
‘So, Elara, let me present you with our first performer. The King of Asteria!’
Elara’s neck snapped up as a looming shadow swung from another trapeze.
‘It’s just a dream,’ she wheezed to herself as the swing hurtled towards her, her father upon it.
He was dressed as a clown, a terrifying mask painted on his face, mouth drooping and a tear beneath one eye.
She screamed as he passed her, and she saw truly what he was.
A corpse, his chest gaping open with the wound Ariete had given him before he’d smitten him with divinitas, his face white, eyes wholly black.
Elara ducked as he whizzed past before coming back towards her, their trapezes crossing one another.
On his way back, his arms reached out, and Elara screamed again as he plucked her from her swing on to his. She landed jarringly, her father’s cold, dead hands grasping hers as he swung them through the air once more.
‘Bravo!’ she heard Ariete shout, a round of applause following as the circus music prattled on.
‘The second act will find that tough to follow, but we have every faith she will! For if you thought the family reunion was over, you’d be mistaken! The Queen of Asteria, ladies and gents!’
Elara squeezed her eyes shut as her mother came into view, her legs hooked around the trapeze as she dangled through the air, breezing past Elara. Her face paint matched Elara’s father’s, eyes just as blank, and a string of blood drooled from the corner of her mouth.
‘Please, no,’ Elara whimpered as her mother wrapped her cold hands around Elara’s ankles and dragged her off the swing.
She couldn’t even scream, the breath knocked from her as she dangled, her mother’s trapeze swinging low enough that Elara nearly touched the trancechasm. She winced as they came back up.
‘And now for the final act. Did someone hear a roar? A love for the ages—the story between Elara and our next performer. Soulmates, they call themselves. Ugh.’ Ariete rolled his eyes. ‘Elara, get ready to see your lover again in three…two…one!’
A spotlight struck out, showing a man suspended on a swing. Her heart raced as she saw Enzo, though it wasn’t her Enzo. His beautiful golden eyes were black, his stare utterly blank as the swing creaked in the air.
Without warning, her mother tossed her across to him, and she somersaulted, screaming, through the air, hands and legs outstretched as Enzo caught her.
His clown mask was the only one grinning, the sight setting Elara trembling.
She looked with wide eyes to his clown costume and the blood pouring from his stomach where Ariete had stabbed him.
Enzo lurched forwards on to Elara, and she gagged as part of his intestine began to fall out of his abdomen. She heard a dull wet thunk as it hit the trapeze’s plank.
‘You could have saved me,’ he wheezed. He didn’t smell like Enzo; he smelled like death, rotten and fetid and too sweet.
It was the last thing she heard as, with a scream, Enzo released her. Elara tumbled, her cry mingling with Ariete’s cackle as she fell, the abyss below waiting.