Chapter Eighty
ELARA
‘What are you doing here?’ she asked.
Ariete chuckled, sidestepping them as he entered the temple, shutting the doors behind him.
Elara brushed out of Enzo’s reach and followed him, her feet unable to ignore her bond to Ariete.
‘Ariete,’ she whispered again, close enough to make out his features in the dusk.
Ariete’s eyes finally met hers.
They were the usual red, as arrogant as ever. But shadows that hadn’t been there before fell under them, and his face was gaunt and pale, the tattoo that read ‘Divine Violence’ stark against his skin.
Her eyes flicked to the crescent moon at his throat, the scar now white and raised.
‘Elara,’ he replied evenly. ‘You look like death warmed up.’ He snorted at his own joke.
‘I’m going to kill you,’ Enzo hissed.
Ariete tipped back his head and laughed at that. ‘And how do you propose to do that when your soulmate’s very blood is tied to mine?’
‘What are you doing here?’ Adrian demanded, eyes flashing.
Ariete’s smile turned feral, eyes lighting as he looked upon him. ‘My, my,’ he said. ‘Another one of you awake. You know, I never dealt with you much in your celestial life. You were always a little too fickle, too changeable for me.’
He turned back to Enzo and Elara before blowing out a long breath. ‘But I won’t keep you all in suspense any longer. I’ve come to seek a truce.’
It was Enzo who laughed now. ‘What?!’ he asked incredulously.
Ariete’s eyes flashed. ‘You know what it costs me to ask, but Elara owes me a favour. And this is my demand.’ He looked at them both. ‘I need your protection. And your magick.’
‘This has to be a joke,’ Elara whispered.
‘You’re delusional,’ Enzo scoffed. ‘As though we would ever help you after you put us both through unending torment. Mere weeks ago, I was trapped in the godsforsaken Dreamlands, thanks to you.’
‘Your lover did that,’ Ariete drawled. ‘You’d be drifting peacefully through the afterlife if she’d allowed me to just kill you.’
Elara lunged, brandishing her dagger, and pressed it to his neck.
‘Go on,’ Ariete crooned as a speck of glittering blood dropped from his throat. Elara’s eyes widened as her whole body began to throb, the feel of a noose tightening around her neck. ‘Can you feel it? Your pulse dulling?’
He brought up a hand below the dagger, brushing his moon scar absentmindedly. ‘The same thing will happen as when you branded me with this little parting gift.’ His eyes latched on to Elara’s throat and the twin scar there. ‘We’ll both bleed.’
Elara choked, gritting her teeth. She heard Enzo mumble a sound behind her and saw him on his knees. ‘Oh, and your Sun will too. Nice trick, that tether was, wasn’t it? It seems we have a little ménage à trois here.’
Elara lessened the pressure, and Enzo righted himself.
‘Your lives are tethered, meaning that if you die, he does too. And conveniently, Elara, you have bound your blood to me until your favour is fulfilled,’ Ariete added.
Elara coughed as Ariete bent closer. ‘I told you before: you can kill me about as much as I can kill you. Which is to say—not at all.’
Elara dimmed her moonlight, breathing heavily as Enzo’s eyes, filled with pure rage, pinned Ariete.
‘Tell me, what could you possibly need?’ Elara hissed.
‘Not what,’ Ariete replied, eyes taking on a haunted look. ‘But who.’
‘Piscea,’ Elara replied grimly.
Ariete nodded.
‘There’s no need for you to make Elara fulfil your bargain,’ Adrian said hotly. ‘Piscea won’t come through into this realm. We won’t allow it. What do you think we’re doing here?’
Leo nodded beside him. ‘We’re here to stop your subjects from opening whatever passage would allow her to step into this realm.’
‘Fools, all of you,’ Ariete said hoarsely.
‘A trick,’ Isra murmured, rocking backwards and forwards on the floor. ‘It was a trick.’
‘Your little seer is right,’ Ariete said. ‘You see, there is no ritual; there are no Stars convening at this temple, no fire or chants or libations. Piscea is already in this realm.’
Elara staggered back. ‘What?’
The terrible feeling in her chest was blooming, spreading out to her limbs so she could feel them no longer.
‘Bullshit,’ Enzo snapped. ‘El, he’s trying to get into our heads. If she was already here, she would have struck by now.’
Ariete shook his head. ‘I know what I feel. Piscea has already found a way back into this world. She’s no longer trapped in a coffin or a deep sleep, in the Graveyard or the afterlife. She walks among us now. It’s what I came here to warn you of. And it’s why I need your help.’
‘Then why did Isra receive a vision? Stars in Piscea’s temple, beckoning her through?’ Merissa asked.
Ariete’s smile was almost sad. ‘Piscea’s the goddess of fate. You don’t think she has power over the seers of Celestia now? To make them see what she wants them to?’
‘But why trick us?’ Elara insisted as Isra’s warning began to make sense, the blocks in her vision. ‘Why are we all gathered here?’
‘That, I don’t know,’ Ariete said.
‘He’s lying,’ Enzo said, ‘about all of this. Ariete, tell her you’re lying.’
‘I wish I was. I wish we could return to our little tiffs and say I’m just a vengeful Star looking to kill my rivals. But this is far, far greater than all of us.’
‘Say I was to believe you. Say I was to bend to you as per our…pact.’ Elara spat the last word out. ‘If Piscea truly is a reckoning, if even you—god of war and wrath—fear her, then how exactly can we help?’
‘There is a reason she hates you, a reason the Dark has always tried to separate you from the Sun. And though it pains me to tell you, what I’m about to say is true. The two of you together are the only thing that will be able to subdue her. The two of you are the only threat to her.’
Elara looked at Enzo. Unspoken words passed between them, Elara understanding her soulmate’s every mannerism, every expression. Ariete wasn’t lying. It had all been too easy, she realized. Again.
And as much as she hated the god in front of her, would have killed him in a blink if he hadn’t been tied to her, she knew she didn’t have a choice but to accept.
‘Fine,’ she said, straightening her shoulders. ‘Beg.’
Ariete laughed. Enzo, however, narrowed his eyes, glancing at Elara only once before fixing his gaze back on the god.
‘What?’
Elara raised her chin, a cruel smile curling on her face. ‘Get on your knees and beg.’
The smirk slipped off Ariete’s face. ‘You’re not in a position to give orders, Elara,’ he snarled. ‘As of right now, I control your blood. You have no choice but to accept my request.’
Elara nodded. ‘I certainly don’t have a choice.’ The smile toyed with the corners of her mouth. ‘But Enzo does. And you need both of us to defeat Piscea, no?’
The muscles in Ariete’s neck strained, jaw clenching as he realized that Elara was right.
‘I have to accept your truce and give you my help because we struck a bargain. But Enzo did no such thing. His life may be tethered to mine, but his will isn’t, so if you want our help,’ she continued, ‘if you want our magick, if you want to vanquish Piscea, then beg.’
Ariete glared at Enzo.
‘You heard Her Majesty,’ the Lion crooned. ‘On your knees.’
Ariete seemed to war with himself, clenching and unclenching his fists. He spun on his heels, paced a step, then halted. Turned back around.
And with a tremble, as though his very body was fighting it, he bent a knee, his eyes to the floor.
Elara tutted. ‘Look at me.’
Ariete did, his red stare filled with hatred.
‘Now, what are the magic words?’
‘Please, Elara.’
Enzo made a warning sound in his throat. Red starlight crackled around Ariete as the Star seethed, every muscle in his body trembling and tense as he fought against his pride.
‘Please, Your Majesty, help me.’
Elara’s smile crept further up her face, a gleam of triumph in her silver eyes.
‘It is done.’ She took a step closer to Ariete, her fear of him having dissipated with every second he had knelt on the floor at her feet.
She crouched over him. ‘We will work together.’ Her mouth was by his ear now as he jerked, her long nails digging into the back of his neck.
‘But don’t for a second think this means I’ve forgotten what you’ve done.
You killed my parents, my best friend, and nearly my soulmate.
You destroyed my home. The minute Piscea is no longer a threat, the moment the Dark is at rest, I will hunt you and kill you. ’
Ariete’s lips twitched as she pulled away. ‘I look forward to the fight.’