Page 149 of Heavenly Bodies

Elara swept one around them, the ground swirling beneath their feet as quicksand appeared.

Ariete grunted as his feet stuck in it, fending off the crow as Elara advanced.

But the god quickly fought off the illusion, a slam of starlight dispersing it, the shadow crow with it, bringing them back to the rooftop.

‘You forget who you joust with, Elara. Your little mind tricks won’t work on me.’

‘That must be why you believed I’ve been dead all these months,’ she retorted, and Ariete’s eyes flashed with fury.

‘Shadow!’ Isra ordered.

Elara threw a spew of them at Ariete, who stumbled back from the force.

‘Duck left!’ Isra shouted, but Elara was too slow as Ariete threw a knife through the air, nicking her arm.

The blow broke her concentration, and her shadows shattered as Ariete advanced.

Again, and again, she took Isra’s orders, to conjure shadows and illusions, to move right or dodge left, as Ariete tried to fend her off, and she pushed him closer and closer to the edge of the palace roof. He tried to shoot starlight outtowards Isra, but the seer saw his moves before he made them, dodging them with relative ease.

He conjured another throwing knife and launched it once more at Elara, but another yell from Isra had her missing it, shifting their surroundings faster.

From fjord caps in Sveta to the ocean depths of Neptuna, Elara whipped image after image at him until he was disoriented. At last, the god of war stumbled.

‘Merissa?!’ she yelled over at Isra, as she sent a shadow, this one an arrow, piercing through the air. It plunged into Ariete’s leg and he swore as sparkling blood flowed from the spot.

‘Alive,’ Isra shouted back, and Elara gave a sigh of relief as she continued, shadows swarming and blinding the god.

There was no end to her power, no bottom to the well. Whatever had happened in her dreamscape had removed any limits on her. And for the first time, she felt hope. That she could actually vanquish the god before her.

She did not tire, even as the god did, until finally he was on his knees. He was panting, luminescent blood spilling from various gashes on his body. Ray after ray of starlight tried to knock her down, but she had been drilling with Enzo’s light for months. She disarmed each one with a shield of shadows that grew more wicked as it absorbed each hit.

‘Time for the monster!’ Isra called.

And Elara smiled.

She took a deep breath, one palm raised as the blackest shadows she had ever conjured grew and shifted behind her. Bigger and bigger they grew, until they blocked the lightdown behind her, casting darkness over Ariete.

Because standing at Elara’s back, wings spread, was a dragun. Born from herself.

Ariete blinked, looking to it in shock, then Elara. ‘It’s you,’he said softly, scrambling back so that he was almost dangling off the edge of the roof. Elara approached, and so did the dragun.

It bent its head over Elara, maw open as it clamped down upon Ariete’s arm. He screamed in agony as her shadows kept him pinned, while she raised her duskglass blade.

‘Elara!’ Isra shouted. But it was too late. With his free hand, Ariete had conjured a sword, its hilt carved into a ram—flashing rubies glowing within its eyes. In one swift movement, he plunged it through the mouth of her dragun, and it dissipated, the shadows exploding into nothingness.

Before she could draw breath, he sprang at her with his blade. At Isra’s alarmed shout, Elara twisted to avoid it, which she realized too late had played right into Ariete’s hand as he used her one off-balance moment to pull her to the floor. In a leap, he was on his feet, one foot upon the wrist that held the duskglass.

His grin was one of feral delight.

And Elara realized, it had all been too easy. That Ariete had danced her around the rooftop, letting her gain confidence, before showing her what it really meant to fight a god of war.

‘Outcome?’ Elara wheezed, winded—one last desperate attempt to Isra.

‘Winged lions,’ came Isra’s quiet response.

A code word. She nodded. Stall Ariete, that’s all she had to do.

‘You know, this was fun at first,’ Ariete said as his starlight wrapped around her. She fought against him. ‘But now this is all becoming rather an inconvenience.’