Chapter Eighty-Four
ELARA
Elara remained kneeling as the shadows began to dissipate from the temple.
She didn’t realize she was shaking until Enzo embraced her again, fire rippling off him.
She could hear Merissa sobbing faintly beyond the ringing in her ears.
Leo was trying to comfort her, and Adrian was cursing as he paced. Ariete was silent.
Enzo was overheating; she could feel it as he worked to bat down the flames coiling around his body.
Sofia had just taken the closest thing he had to a sister.
Elara shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut. Sofia. It wasn’t—it couldn’t be possible. Her betrayal…it was a worse pain than the knife Merissa had pushed through her heart, worse than the pain of her parents’ death, worse than the pain of Sofia’s own death.
But it wasn’t grief she was feeling in that moment. That pain in her chest, the lump forming and growing and stretching in her heart…it was fury.
That fury finally lent her the strength she needed to rise, liquid iron seeping through her and forcing her spine straight. She grasped Enzo’s arm, pulling him up as she continued to shake.
Isra’s scream rang in her ears, and Elara tried to push it away as she blinked, taking in the faces of her stricken friends around her.
‘El, are you okay?’ Merissa whispered.
Elara nodded, clenching her jaw.
‘Enzo?’
Enzo let out an animalistic sound.
‘Sofia—’ Adrian began.
‘No,’ Elara snarled at Adrian. ‘That isn’t her name. Sofia died in that theatre. The person I thought was my friend is dead. Any mercy, any benevolence I felt is gone with her. Piscea is who remains.’
Elara inhaled deeply, observing the shadows around her, unsure what to trust but knowing one absolute truth as she threaded her fingers through Enzo’s, lending her moonlight to him, willing it to cool the fire in his veins, the grief.
This was the final straw. She almost heard the tie to her humanity snap.
Elara understood in that moment, as she surveyed the group before her, that the Elara they knew was gone.
No mercy. No weakness. Not even grief.
She turned first to Merissa. ‘I need you to get hold of Eli and ask him to find out where Piscea has taken Isra. Tell him to use his wits and be the two-faced god he’s known to be. It may be our only way in.’
Merissa nodded gravely. ‘It is done.’
She turned to Adrian. ‘I need you to find the other Celestes. Piscea has just declared war. We need the other titans on our side if we’re to stand a chance of winning it. The Air, we think, waits in Sveta. The Earth, I believe, may be in Verde. And with your command of the sea…’
Adrian nodded. ‘I understand. I’ll be able to travel swiftly to the continent.’
‘I’ll go with him,’ Leo said. ‘He’ll need help. We’ll start with Verde.’
Adrian clapped him on the back.
‘And what about you three? Where will you go?’ Adrian asked.
Elara exhaled deeply, glancing at Enzo and Merissa. She honestly couldn’t say. Asteria most definitely wasn’t safe with Piscea awake, and no other kingdom would be, either, with the bounty still on their heads and the Stars still chasing them.
‘To Perses,’ Ariete muttered grimly, responding before she could.
Elara looked around in surprise.
‘My patron kingdom,’ Ariete continued. ‘It’s the only realm we’ll be safe in.
It’s as far north as one can go, with defence after defence laid to barricade out the likes of Piscea.
No other Star can enter, and I have legions there, the most skilled warriors in Celestia.
It’s also right beside Sveta, where you believe the Air to be waiting.
We go there; we form a plan; we ready an army. ’
Elara nodded, looking at her Sun, still broken. She couldn’t believe she was accepting the help of the god who had ruined her life less than a year ago. But now he was the lesser of the two evils.
‘I’m going to burn the skin from her bones,’ Enzo whispered, eyes aflame.
‘The Dark will learn,’ Elara replied. ‘She hasn’t yet—that while I provide light, I also rule over her. The night will bow to me, and if she doesn’t, I will tear her apart with my bare hands.’
She took a breath as Adrian and Leo both kissed her cheek. Then they said their farewells to Merissa and Enzo.
‘Be safe, El,’ Leo said softly.
She nodded to him once. ‘You too,’ she replied.
In the past, she would have blamed Ariete’s charm for her rage, that he was awakening her thirst for blood.
But now, as she walked out of the temple and looked at the winding, dark river, at the black skies, her moon swallowed by them, she knew that it had always been inside her.
She shuddered as her moonlight roared and writhed within her, begging to be let out.
She turned to Enzo, who was still so furious that the rain which began to fall turned to steam as it hissed upon his skin.
‘Piscea thought that she could break me, but all she’s done is forge a holy monster.’