Page 38 of Heavenly Bodies

Her eyes, flooded with terror, found his. Oh skies, she could see the fury writhing in them. But his warrior’s tone was steady. The ocean drew closer.

‘Spread. Your. Fucking. Wings.’

Elara closed her eyes, flaring her arms wide.

‘Please,’ she begged her shadows. ‘For him, if not for me.’

Light shone around her as Enzo let go of any semblance of control, and when her shadows writhed forth, this time they seemed to careen desperately towards his light—the light that flowers had bloomed from, that hadn’t hurt her even when she’d begged it to.

Something within her shifted, a deep weight on her chest.

It cracked open, that lump of obsidian, shadows spewing from it. Streams of blackness poured in torrents from Elara’s flailing fingers, and suddenly both she and Enzo rocketed back upwards, soaring into the crimson sky.

Elara let out a roar of delight, and Enzo looked around, startled to discover they were both still very much alive, andriding on the back of a creature made of shadow. Alion.A winged lion. Elara could have laughed if she hadn’t left her stomach miles below.

The lion swooped, and they spun and soared through the air as Elara continued to whoop and holler.

‘I did it!’ she shouted above the roar of the wind as Enzo clutched her desperately from behind.

‘I think I left my balls back there,’ he shouted over the clamour to her. Elara simply smiled, arms raised in the air as the wind whipped her hair.

With another cheer, she guided the lion in an arc, marvelling at how solid the shadows felt. Even Lukas hadn’t been able to give this kind of substance to his.

Enzo let out a disbelieving laugh as he looked below to the crashing sea.

‘You’re as insane as Sagitton.’

‘I know!’ Elara turned around to him then, and he stilled, his smile slackening. Her hair billowed around her, and she could almost feel herself glowing.

‘You came for me,’ she said. Enzo shrugged, a lazy smile creeping on to his face. With a burst of power, he fed his fire into the shadow lion’s maw so that it billowed out of its mouth.

‘Show-off.’ She winked at him. Her hair drifted past his face, and she felt his hands digging deeper into her waist as they soared.

With a press of her palms, her shadows dived in a huge drop towards the ocean as she screamed in delight, Enzo shouting in alarm. At the last moment, she pulled the shadow lion up and leaned forwards to skim the lapping cobalt waves.

‘Wow,’ she breathed, looking back again to Enzo.

‘Wow indeed,’ he said raggedly, his breath still lost on the wind. She slowed the shadows so the lion could fly smoothlyacross the ocean, the sea spray cooling their faces. Elara swung herself round to face Enzo.

‘Now who’s the show-off?’ He smiled. ‘A little bit of power, and you’re a renegade.’

She sighed as she draped her back across the lion’s mane.

‘You have no idea how good it feels,’ she moaned, her arms still trailing the water as they flew. ‘I feel invincible.’

‘Power looks good on you, princess,’ he said, his voice deep.

Elara regarded him. ‘What I said…I’m so sorry. You know I didn’t mean it. I just had to make you—’

‘I know,’ he replied. ‘And I didn’t mean to push you off a cliff.’

Elara made an amused sound as she eased back a little, craning her neck to look at the skies. The deep red had begun to lighten as the morning crept in. Gold mingled with crimson and burnt orange; pure bronze seemed to glitter through the tapestry.

Her lips slightly parted, she looked back to Enzo, who had been looking at the sky with a yearning in his eyes. She willed the lion to climb higher, until they broke through a mist. She stopped it, the lion’s beating shadow wings the only sound.

A floor of fluffy clouds surrounded them, the light enveloping them, completely unfiltered. It bled out in a rainbow, a kaleidoscope containing every colour conceivable. She saw violet rays reach out to the South, to Asteria. The gold washed over them. Rose stretched further north to Aphrodea. She reached a hand out, marvelling at how the Light splashed her skin. There was no tension. No fear, as she let it touch her.

For the first time, she marvelled at it.