Page 75 of Heavenly Bodies
Sofia sat on the shore of Lake Astra, the still water a deep indigo, the mist rolling in and around her as she watched Elara approach, attempting to walk. But the pain had followed her into the dream, and she fell to her knees and crawled.
‘Sof,’ she rasped.
She tried to grip on to Sofia, but Sofia’s touch was nothing but smoke.
‘What have they done to you, Lara?’
‘Gem has been sweeping my mind. She keeps asking thesame incessant fucking question. How am I supposed to know why I survived Ariete? Why Fate wrote what she did?’
Sofia stared out to the water. ‘The threads tie in mysterious ways,’ she replied. ‘As our lady Piscea once said.’
Elara refrained from sighing.
‘What about you, Sof,’ she replied gently, scared to break her friend who seemed so far from the spirited girl she grew up with. ‘Are they hurting you?’
‘Not more than usual,’ Sofia replied. ‘It doesn’t matter how they hurt me, even if I knew why you survived him, I’d never tell.’
Guilt plunged through Elara’s chest. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she whispered.
Sofia shrugged. ‘Where are they keeping you?’
‘In my old room,’ Elara replied. ‘You?’
Sofia gave an empty laugh. ‘In the dungeons.’
‘I promise I will get you out,’ Elara swore. ‘I don’t know how, but we will not die here.’
‘You won’t,’ Sofia said.
‘And neither will you,’ Elara said, trying to stroke Sofia’s cheek.
Sofia’s smile was sad. ‘I hope so, Lara. You just need to fight Gem. To wait her out. She’ll get bored. Just like she did with me.’
‘How long will it take?’
‘I don’t know. But I promise it won’t last forever. Ariete will want you out of here soon. For some new game to play.’
‘Lucky me.’
Sofia snorted.
A flash of starlight lit up the dreamscape, and Elara flinched.
‘That’s them,’ Sofia murmured. ‘Get back to your body.’
‘I love you, Sof. And I’m coming for you. I promise.’ Elara reached for her friend’s hand, forgetting for a moment, but Sofia stood up, out of reach.
‘I hope so.’ Sofia looked to the skies. ‘Please don’t fall for him, Lara.’
Elara stumbled back. ‘I’d never fall for Ariete,’ she declared in disgust.
Sofia only blinked, as Elara was pulled back into the waking realm.
The next day, and countless others that Elara could not keep track of, Gem visited her, aiming to break her mind.
She entered it with glee, distorting her memories and picking away every bit of information she could. She particularly enjoyed focusing on Elara’s parents, turning her happy childhood memories into things of nightmares, twisting the echoes of her parents’ dying screams into ‘It’s your fault.’ Still, Elara kept Enzo and the secret of her refuge in Helios locked tightly away, buried so deeply that Gem could never discover it. The darkness beckoned and consoled her each night, weightless and welcoming, like being held in the arms of the night sky, and it was only then, alone, that Elara allowed herself to think of Enzo. It was her only avenue of defiance. A way to make at least one memory—one thought—her own. She pictured his golden hoop glowing in the Light. The freckle below his left eye. The furrow of his brow when he was frustrated with her. Over and over she rendered the images—her proof that she hadn’t lost her mind to Gem. Her one anchor to reality.
She was riding a fever from Ariete’s venom, the god notdeigning to visit her again with his blood since that first night. The door to her bedroom opened, and she was staring at her father. ‘No, no, no, no,’ she whimpered, trying to move, though the venom rendered her useless. ‘This is not real, this is not real, this is not real.’