Chapter Twenty-Four
ELARA
Elara felt the rumbling of a carriage beneath her and a pounding in her head as she regained consciousness. She groaned, eyes fluttering open, to feel something pressed to her throat.
When her surroundings came fully into focus, she gasped.
‘Leo!’
Leo wore a grim expression as he kept his sword at her throat. They were the only two in the carriage.
‘What the fuck are you doing?!’
‘Who are you?’ he demanded.
Her mouth worked. Who was she? What was he—?
Suddenly the memory flashed back to her. She’d been holding Enzo, leaning in to kiss him, when her shadows…
‘I’m Elara,’ she said hurriedly. It was then she felt the stinging of her wrists, and looked down, seeing that she’d been incapacitated by ropes dipped in shadowsbane.
‘Where’s Enzo?’ she hissed.
‘Enzo is in the other carriage. Not that you’re getting anywhere close to him until you answer a few questions. You tried to assassinate my king. If you weren’t wearing Elara’s face, I would have killed you right there in the throne room.’
‘I did no such thing,’ she hissed. ‘I love Enzo. This is ridiculous.’
‘I saw it with my own eyes,’ he snapped. ‘Are you an Aphrodean assassin wearing a glamour? Heard our king was in the Dreamlands and thought that it would be the perfect time to stage a coup?’
She couldn’t believe the words coming out of her friend’s mouth. ‘No!’ she spluttered.
He cocked his head, and, gods, he was intimidating.
She’d never quite seen this side to him, even when she’d been kidnapped by him and his men in Asteria.
The ropes, the carriage, his threats…the parallels with their first meeting would have struck her as almost funny, if not for the deep panic her actions had sent her into.
‘Was it in Ariete’s dreams?’ he demanded. ‘Is my queen still trapped in there, while something else travelled back into her body? Or did Ariete do something to your blood? Has he commanded your will, to finish what he started?’
‘No,’ she said with as much fury as she could muster. Though she couldn’t help thinking of the bargain. Was it possible that she could have been controlled without realizing?
‘Then answer me these questions to prove you’re really her. What fruit does my mother grow?’
‘Peaches.’
‘How do you take your tea?’
‘Mint, with two spoons of honey.’
His eyes narrowed, searching hers.
‘When we went to the forest, what did I tell you Enzo does?’
‘You told me he looks for me in every room,’ she replied gently.
He blinked, and the shut-off inquisitor’s gaze shifted, warm brown returning. ‘Gods, it really is you,’ he said, and dropped his sword to the floor. ‘Forgive me, Elara.’ He sank to his knees, going to slice the shadowsbane ropes, but she shook her head.
‘No, leave them on,’ she said hoarsely, even though the sting was beginning to grow as the poison needled up her arms. ‘I…I don’t trust myself.’
A pained look shot across his face before he sat back. ‘What happened, Elara? How could you have—’
‘I think I have the madness,’ she whispered, looking out of the carriage. It was hurtling through the streets of Sol, and her eyes widened as she began to see a crowd, all shouting, though the words were incoherent.
‘What madness?’ Leo asked.
She turned her attention from the crowd back to him.
‘Shadow madness,’ she said. ‘Lukas suffered from it before he…’ She shook her head.
‘It can happen to shadowmancers. If they don’t dominate their shadows, then the shadows can consume them instead.
Rebel against the will of the magi, fulfil their own purpose. ’
There was a jolt against the carriage, and she jumped. Leo peered out of the window, hand immediately on his sword. He cursed. ‘It’s the fucking Stars,’ he spat.
‘What about them?’ Elara demanded.
‘Much happened when you blacked out,’ he sighed, rubbing his temples. It was then that she noticed how tired he looked, how much the last few weeks had taken their toll on him too.
‘Your poster had already been plastered around the city. And once the members of the council and palace staff in the throne room saw you attack Enzo, pandemonium ensued. They smashed the bloody soverin to stop you escaping. It’s a miracle we even got you out of the palace.’
‘And these people now?’ The shouts had grown in volume and number.
‘Are the citizens of Helios wanting your head.’
‘But surely Enzo could set the record straight? Explain to the council and his citizens that I would never harm him.’
‘Elara, they all watched as you wrapped your shadows around his neck. It took a blast of his fire—and a powerful one at that, a flame I’ve never seen before—to knock you out cold and stop the shadows.
Then we were forced to flee. The crowd turned too quickly for Enzo to control.
The council…they’ve dissolved relations with their Asterian counterparts.
They’ve left them to fend for themselves. ’
‘No,’ Elara said hoarsely. It had been her one consolation when in Castor: that her damaged kingdom, trying to survive the ruin Ariete had cursed it with, had support from a powerful kingdom.
That the two could build a bridge, and Helios could help Asteria rebuild until she had woken Enzo and could return.
‘Isra has stayed to try and repair the damage. She has experience managing alliances between rival courts, being part Svetan. She’ll try and sway them, the people too.’
Elara pressed her hands to her eyes as tears began to spill. ‘I barely even got a chance to see Isra. And now she has to try and clean up my mess? Everything I touch dies,’ she whispered.
‘You’re ill, Elara. You can’t help it.’
She took her hands away, looking at the way they trembled. ‘I’ve been seeing things,’ she said. ‘Terrible things. I think…I think I’ve been doing terrible things too. I need help, Leo.’
He hesitantly held out a hand, and she took it. Thank the gods, her shadows didn’t rear at his touch, and he squeezed her hand. ‘That’s where we’re going,’ he said. ‘To find you help. I just had to check it was really you before we did.’
‘And where exactly are we going?’ she asked hoarsely.
‘To the harbour, to find safe passage. Enzo’s taking you to Altalune. He suspected the same thing you did: that your shadows are ill. So we’re going to the Kingdom of Healing for answers.’