Chapter Twenty-Six
ELARA
When their carriage came to a standstill, Elara began to panic as she saw the usually quiet port—one that she and Enzo had swum near only a month or so before—filled with people, the uproar no longer contained to the inner city, or the palace, but now reaching all the way to the sea.
Guards, to her dismay, prominent in their goldcloaks, were also patrolling the harbour. ‘These are your men?’ she asked Leo.
He clenched his jaw. ‘Not any more. They’re the King’s Guard. Their interest is to protect the king. So they won’t listen to me—believe me, or I’d have already tried to defend you.’
‘Do they have brains?’ she hissed. ‘I saved Enzo. I woke him. If I’d wanted to kill him, why would I have gone to the trouble?’
Leo shook his head. ‘Unfortunately, they don’t have brains and see it as our word against theirs. Especially since you were nowhere near him as he woke. Stay here.’
He dipped out of the carriage, slamming the door firmly behind him.
Elara waited, her thick black dress to ward off Castor’s chill now suffocating in the dry Helion heat.
There was a knock on the door—three raps in quick succession, a knock Elara knew—and Merissa slipped her head around the door, followed by Leo once more.
‘Oh, thank the Stars,’ she breathed upon seeing Elara conscious. She scrambled in as Leo shut the door. ‘El, Leo told us what happened—’
‘We can discuss it later,’ Leo said firmly. ‘Mer, please glamour her. As quickly as you can. And be sure to add a double veil.’
Merissa nodded, the familiar magick emanating from her hands and coating Elara.
‘Where’s Enzo?’ Elara asked, throat dry.
‘He’s already been glamoured,’ Merissa said quietly. ‘He’s currently going up and down the harbour searching for passage out of here.’
‘I can’t believe this is happening,’ Elara whispered, burying her face in her hands once Merissa had finished. ‘I’ve dreamed of reuniting with Enzo. Being in his arms was the only vision that got me through each day, that made me fight. And now…’
‘We should go,’ Leo said gently, a shimmering glamour placed over his face.
Usually, if Elara squinted just right, she had been able to see through Merissa’s past glamours.
But this one was impenetrable, the usual spell that she’d used on Elara all summer now more potent.
‘And get off this starsforsaken continent.’
Elara followed her friends down the promenade, past the majestic ships moored there, all with eye-catching names like Scorpius’s Revenge, Sapphire of the Ocean and Starred Siren. She admired the figurehead on the last ship, a beautiful rendering that looked like Cancia.
On she went, until Leo ushered her into a tavern, eyes darting to and fro for any sign of danger.
When she entered, the scent of ale and raucous music greeted her. She observed the place, overwhelmed and still off balance.
Until she saw Enzo.
Despite Merissa’s double veil, she would have known him anywhere; she had learned the very language of his soul.
When his eyes finally landed on her, the thud of his glass upon the table was loud enough for more than one punter to turn.
Elara suddenly felt a sharp pain in her chest that had her pressing her hand to it in shock. She stumbled forwards, her body ordering her even as her mind told her to stop.
He shot up, the chair clattering as it fell.
Elara began to rapidly blink away the tears forming. Their reunion should have been perfect: the beginning of their lives together.
He cut through the crowd as though it wasn’t there, his eyes on her, only on her.
The ache in her chest began to grow, began to travel south, to her stomach, lower. She gripped the edge of the table. What in the Stars was happening?
When he was in reaching distance, he abruptly stopped.
‘El?’ he breathed, eyes searching hers. He was panting as though he’d just finished climbing a mountain.
‘Enzo,’ she replied, trying to do everything to stop the hunger that seemed to envelop her at the sight of him.
‘Oh, thank the gods, you’re back,’ he said. He reached out a hand, but she pulled back, even as her body tried to drag her forwards into his arms. She dug her nails into her arms so deeply that she feared her skin would split.
‘Don’t,’ she said hoarsely. ‘I don’t…I don’t trust myself.’
It was then that he blinked down at the shadowsbane ropes still around her wrists, though they were no longer bound together, the skin beneath red and raw and beginning to blister. His face twisted. ‘Was this Leo?’
She nodded. ‘But I think it’s best I keep them on. When I touched you, I lost all control of my magick,’ she whispered. His brow furrowed, eyes pained.
‘Then, for now, we will make sure to have no contact,’ he said quietly. ‘I’d rather that, El, than see you hurt like this.’
Again, his hands reached out before he stopped himself, a grunt of frustration on his breath.
No contact? Elara didn’t know how her body would survive it, every nerve ending standing to attention in his presence. She knew it as something ancient, something that had lain dormant in her chest, waiting for the other half of itself to awaken.
‘Get these off her now. She’s not a fucking animal,’ he said to his general in a lethally low tone.
Leo nodded. ‘Sorry, brother. It was only until I could be sure it was really Elara.’
Enzo blinked, raking a hand through his curls—a gesture that nearly made Elara’s knees buckle with the familiarity of it.
She wet her lips, looking away. ‘It is,’ he said quietly.
‘Skies, El, I want to…’ He looked up to the ceiling of the rowdy tavern, veins straining in his neck as he let out a long breath, before bringing his attention back to her.
‘As soon as I find us safe passage out of here, we need to speak.’
She ignored the somersault in her stomach, only nodding as every single part of her body tried to drive her towards her soulmate. She fought it with every fibre of her being and felt sweat trickle down her forehead. ‘Can I get some air?’ she rasped.
Enzo nodded, and Leo tentatively reached for her arm. To her relief once more, no shadows came when it was the general touching her, even with the shadowsbane ropes off.
It was Enzo they wanted.
Leo led her outside and she managed to hold it together until they’d rounded the corner of the tavern to the small adjoining back alley, where she crumbled, heaving deep breaths.
‘What’s wrong?’ Leo asked in alarm.
She braced herself upon her knees as she waited for the racking pain—so acute it nearly verged on pleasure—to subside.
‘Seeing Enzo. I think…I think it’s the soul tie.
’ She pressed her eyes closed as Leo rubbed circles on her back.
‘It wants us to be together—my body was literally trying to drive me to him—and since I can’t touch him, well—’ She flourished a hand over herself before patting her damp skin.
‘Why don’t you come with me down the promenade for a distraction?
’ Leo offered. ‘Enzo said he tried nearly all the ships before he went to the Lion’s Maw.
Apparently, they’re all so wary of strangers now that they know you’re free and can illusion, that they don’t dare risk giving anyone safe passage.
But perhaps we just need a woman’s charm. ’
‘Don’t sailors think women aboard ships are bad luck?’ Elara said.
Leo frowned. ‘That’s true,’ he mused. ‘Where’s Merissa?’
A few moments later, Elara’s face had changed once more, and her poor friend looked a little pale from such exertion of her magick.
‘Go and get some food,’ Leo suggested. ‘We won’t be long.’ He ran his eyes over Elara in amusement. ‘How handsome you are.’
Elara tugged at the hat that Merissa had glamoured on top of her hair, and patted the itchy beard she could feel had sprouted out of her chin. ‘It’s a good thing I’m not a man, or I’d be giving you and Enzo a run for your money.’
Leo chuckled as they walked side by side, Elara trying to mimic Leo’s stride. ‘Yes, please leave some women for me.’
‘Ah, so I take it you and Mer still haven’t made up?
’ She was desperate for any topic of conversation to distract her from Enzo.
As she waited for Leo to reply, she bent down, scooping up a handful of the pebbles that were scattered at the edges of the promenade.
He frowned, but didn’t ask what she was doing.
That was what Elara liked about Leo. He always seemed to trust that she had a plan.
His face darkened as they began walking again. ‘She made it abundantly clear that we aren’t suited for each other, despite my protests. What more can I do?’
‘Well, Enzo certainly didn’t take no for an answer,’ she remarked, then cursed herself as she felt a strike of pain through her heart. She was supposed to not be thinking about him. She reached for a couple more stones until a small bag was full.
‘Yes, but the two of you are soulmates. It seems the magick between you couldn’t take no for an answer.’
‘And you don’t think you and Merissa are? Soulmates, that is.’
Leo sighed and shook his head. ‘I heard talk earlier of soulmate magick awakening, from some sailors waiting for ale at the tavern. I assume it’s since the sun rose, now that the two of you are back in the sky. Or at least, that’s according to Merissa’s story.’
They began to slow as they reached the first gangplank.
‘One of the sailors explained how he’d felt, and it was just like what you described: a visceral pull to the other person.
Though his, mind you, was to his brother’s wife…
but that’s another story. Anyway, my point is, I don’t feel that for Merissa.
And she certainly doesn’t feel it for me. ’