Chapter Eighty-Three
ELARA
‘This can’t be true,’ Elara whispered, her moonlight fading. She heard Enzo gasp behind her.
‘Oh, but it is,’ Sofia said, her voice so much softer than it had been the last time Elara had heard it.
‘Ariete?’ Elara asked, her voice strangled and high as Sofia stood, coolly observing them all, in the centre of the temple.
But Ariete was stricken, looking upon the woman he thought he had killed.
‘You?’ he seethed.
Sofia’s laugh was a tinkling thing. ‘Yes, me. I wondered if you knew what a favour you had done me by slitting my throat in that theatre.’ She chuckled. ‘You helped me shed my mortal prison, breaking your own spell that had bound me to a mortal body with your blade.’
Elara’s vision swam. The pieces weren’t adding up.
‘What the fuck is going on?’ Adrian asked, a hand on his sword.
Sofia flicked her gaze to it in disdain. ‘Sweet, sweet Water. I look forward to killing you one day.’
Adrian paled.
‘Ariete?’ Elara asked again, ignoring her friend’s apparition. Because it was just an apparition—it had to be.
Sofia waited, a small tight-lipped smile on her face.
‘Piscea is tricking me right now. Isn’t she? This is an illusion?’
‘No, Elara,’ Isra replied hoarsely, studying the figure in front of them as her eyes flickered between white and hazel. ‘Piscea is Sofia.’
Elara fell back against Enzo’s chest.
‘Don’t you all like the name?’ Sofia asked, looking between them. ‘You know how I love my games. I thought I’d nearly given it all away when I had my new prayer carved on to the temple.’
Elara let out a harsh breath. ‘So worship her, so fear her. Sofia.’
‘What?’ Sofia said, grinning as she drifted closer to Elara.
‘You don’t find that even a little bit amusing?
It’s a play on words! And you had no idea the whole time.
’ She laughed. ‘Oh, there were times when I thought I’d blown my cover.
When I thought surely, surely, you would guess that your best friend had a dark little secret she was hiding. Lukas did. Even my own mother did.’
Elara closed her eyes as truth after truth began to assault her. ‘Lukas,’ she croaked. ‘Your mother…’
‘Died by my hand the moment she realized that her daughter was never really hers. How she begged and pleaded as I drank her fear, until all that was left was an empty husk.’
Enzo swore behind her. Elara knew why—she’d told him the story of Sofia’s mother’s death, how it seemed as though the woman had died of fright.
‘Lukas was right,’ she whispered. ‘This whole time he was right.’
Sofia smirked. ‘He wasn’t very fond of me, was he? Didn’t you find it odd how quickly he began to change around adolescence? How your sweet childhood love turned into someone so wicked?’
‘It was you. You did that to him?’
‘All it took was a few of my shadows to seep into his own. It was all quite simple from there.’
‘He swore he hadn’t given us away to Ariete,’ Enzo said hoarsely. ‘That night in the theatre. Oh gods. He warned us. And he said, even when he knew he was dying, that it wasn’t him.’
Another memory surfaced, one that usually Elara didn’t ever like to think of.
It was of the zealot who had climbed through her bedroom window as a child.
The crazed look in his eyes. Sofia had been there, had tried to fight him off with her shadows.
But she remembered something Idris had said in the lucirium before he’d died.
How one of his most trusted guards, sent only to kidnap her, had turned mad the moment he’d attacked Elara.
‘You made that zealot attack me,’ she said in a choked voice. ‘All those years ago. Your shadows only spurred him on.’
Sofia’s smile was all teeth. ‘Well, you’d know all about shadows driving you mad, wouldn’t you, Elara?’
The room seemed to dim around Elara, until only Sofia was left. ‘The cut, dirty feet. Waking up in the bog. The murders, the disappearances. Why, you’ve been as much my puppet as the rest of them. My very own little murderess.’
‘Why? What did you do with them?’ Elara replied.
Sofia winked. ‘Oh, you’ll soon find out. My, how your shadow fought me as I enacted my plan, how it begged me not to hurt you.’
Elara tried to fight the tears that rose.
‘And that very plan is falling into place perfectly, one conceived long before you were born in this lifetime,’ Sofia said softly.
‘After all, who do you think stayed purposely at that palace to become Ariete’s captive?
Who do you think fed to him that you’d go to a masquerade ball to save your best friend?
Sweet, stupid Elara. Too lonely and too desperate to see what was right before your very eyes. ’
A tear rolled down Elara’s cheek as Enzo pulled her further into him.
‘But don’t worry. Ariete was as much of a pawn as the rest of you.’
Ariete was seething, chest heaving as he remained still, clutching on to a pew.
‘How did you escape that coffin?’ he growled.
Sofia threw back her head and laughed. ‘I escaped that coffin within my first lifetime. You tied me to a mortal body then shoved me in that tomb. You buried me alive!’ She screamed the last part, and Elara winced at the sheer terror that Sofia stirred in her.
‘I had to lie there and wait for my death. I never slept or slumbered. I was wide awake! Awake, with nothing to do but wait to die and gain my freedom in the next mortal body I was reincarnated into.’
‘I thought you’d slumber forever,’ Ariete snarled. ‘That’s what was supposed to happen.’
‘Unfortunately for you, I am far too powerful for your little spells, you fucking idiot.’ Sofia turned back to Elara.
‘And because of this truth, I hunted you through lifetimes,’ she said.
‘Unlike the rest of you, I retained my memory. I knew exactly who I was. But each time you died, you’d escape me. Until this lifetime, that is.’
‘It was you,’ Elara said faintly. Images were flickering to her, ones from Ariete’s dreams. On the carousel she had seen lives play out, someone always with her, always in the background. ‘You had years to try to kill me when I was a mortal,’ Elara said. ‘Why here? Why now?’
Sofia clicked her tongue. ‘In mortal bonds you were nothing,’ she replied.
‘I could kill you, and you’d simply be reborn again.
What I needed was for you to awaken, to become the Moon once more, so that I could awaken into my celestial form.
After I was killed at the ballet, I waited in the Graveyard for my plan to come to fruition.
And oh, was it a fantastic plan.’ Her smile crept up her face.
‘After all, why do you think I made you get a love reading on your birthday?’
The world spun.
‘For those of you who are a little slow,’ Sofia said, flicking her gaze to the rest of the group, ‘I tried when Elara was first born to feed a prophecy into the world. But I underestimated just how ruthless Elara’s parents would be upon hearing it.
So I tried again, many years later. And this time, Ariete finally heard it, and killed everything Elara loved. Pushing her right into Enzo’s arms.’
‘I thought you forbade Enzo and Elara to be together. The Sun and the Moon, banished to either end of the skies,’ Leo said, his stare levelled at her with icy fury.
‘I did, handsome. But the only way to cut the noxthread Ariete had used in his spell and loosen Elara and the rest of the Celestes from their mortal form was duskglass. And who could help create it but her perfect soulmate?’ She spat the last word out.
‘Then, of course, I planned his death, wove the threads of fate to ensure Ariete would kill him.’ She turned back to Elara.
‘I accepted a long time ago that you will always find each other, no matter how I try to keep you apart. I knew you would do anything, without thinking, to save your Sun.’ She scoffed.
‘Even if it meant sending him to the Dreamlands where he would waste away. But the thing is,’ she said, turning to Ariete, ‘Enzo was never supposed to make it out of that realm. You see, what I hadn’t anticipated was a spineless fucking coward to hand Elara Enzo’s tether, all for protection from me. ’
Ariete’s eyes were blazing with hatred as he looked upon Sofia.
Elara let Sofia’s words pelt her, make her bleed. And she realized that, true to her name—Lady Fate—Piscea, or Sofia, had been weaving their fates all along.
It was Sofia who had urged Elara to give Enzo a chance when they were imprisoned together. Sofia who had died and brought the two closer. Sofia who had forced her into the love priestess’s tent.
A conversation swam forwards, one with Enzo many months before, when Elara had demanded they go and save Sofia.
You think the wolf is a sign? It means many things. It’s a symbol of Piscea, for gods’ sakes, and do you see her around anywhere?
The wolves, the shadows…they had been right before Elara’s eyes the whole time. It starts with the wolves. It had always been Sofia.
Elara was shaking with anger and shock, and she hated herself for trembling. Enzo’s hand stroked soothing circles around her waist.
‘How did you know our movements?’ Elara said. ‘Know we’d be here? You can’t have been following us the entire time. We were at sea.’
Sofia began to drift towards Elara, and she struggled out of Enzo’s hold, dagger already levelled at her. Sofia gave a nasty laugh as she snatched it from her, then turned the dagger on Elara.
‘With my gift to you, of course.’
Elara tried to fight down bile as she looked upon the weapon she had revered, had always kept safe because she thought it tied her to Sofia. It had.
‘That’s why Oceanne thought the Dark was aboard my ship,’ Adrian said hoarsely.
Elara shook her head. ‘You pretended to love me,’ she whispered.
Sofia clicked her tongue. ‘Did I ever say the words?’
Elara stood stock-still. She hadn’t. Elara had told Sofia time and time over how much she loved her. She realized only now that Sofia had never said the words back.
‘How did you find me in this life? We were children in the palace together.’
‘Fate,’ Sofia said simply. ‘Two threads woven together in one lifetime. See, we were always meant to be together, you and I. My soul found yours.’ Her tone was terrifyingly gentle.
‘We are a tale as old as time, Elara. Perhaps older. And you were at home in the darkness once, with me, until your precious Sun came and stole you away,’ she spat, her face contorting in anger as she looked at Enzo.
‘When did you get back into this world?’
‘Tonight, of course. My shadows were able to start planting their terror. But you, beautiful Moon, I could always reach through dreams and the dagger. Through your shadows, before your Sun exorcized them,’ she hissed.
‘Tonight was just another layer to my plan. I needed you here, at the temple, so I created the ruse that the Stars were gathering. They were around, my favourite ones, trying to confound all your little friends and stop them reaching you at the temple. I even fed the dream to your seer.’ She turned to Isra, who had been silent for some time.
Sofia tilted her head, raking her gaze over the seer.
She grinned before turning back to Elara.
‘All I needed was your presence, fully awakened as the Moon, to open the door to the Graveyard. You did the moment you set foot in here. It was all a trick.’
Elara had no power to call forth, shock rendering her body useless. Enzo braced her, holding her as he watched the goddess’s every movement.
She had played them all like puppets, Elara realized.
Lady Fate herself, tying their paths to each other, exploiting their flaws, their weaknesses.
Elara had thought she was defying the Stars by joining with Enzo, defying fate.
But the whole time all she had been doing was walking into the trap that Piscea had laid long ago.
‘So what do you want?’ Enzo asked, his voice filled with venom. She could feel him shaking with restrained anger behind her.
‘What I want,’ Sofia said, sneering as she looked at Enzo, ‘is either vengeance for what you all did to me, to corrupt the world you all adore and turn it to dust, or…’
‘Or?’ he demanded.
‘Or for me to rule the heavens and everything beneath, and for you to kneel before me, precious Sun.’
Enzo laughed coldly. ‘You’ll have to kill me first, you unhinged bitch.’
Sofia shrugged. ‘Then kill you I will.’
‘Try,’ Elara snarled.
Sofia gave a wicked laugh, shaking her head. ‘You were always too stubborn, Elara. You could have had bottomless, unending power beside me. We could have ruled the darkness together, alone and content. And still you chose him.’
‘She will always choose me,’ Enzo hissed.
Sofia’s grin grew terrifying. ‘Then, vengeance it is,’ she said sweetly. ‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you. And since you stole someone from me—’
A shadow lunged for Isra, wrapping around her neck as she choked.
‘No!’ Enzo shouted, lashing sunlight at Sofia. She screeched as it burned her, but she didn’t relinquish her hold.
‘Now I’ll steal someone from you.’
The shadows yanked Isra to Sofia as she struggled, eyes wide with fear. More shadows began to wrap and coil around her as Elara screamed, slamming her moonlight to the ground.
Sofia cackled. ‘Too slow,’ she crooned. ‘But I’m sure I’ll see you again soon enough.’
And as Elara’s moonlight flooded the temple, rushing towards Sofia, the Dark gave one last feral grin. With Isra still in her clutches, she disappeared into smoke and shadow.