Page 76 of Heavenly Bodies

‘Darling, it’s me,’ the figure said, and her father’s voice was so warm that she began to cry, looking into his face. ‘It’s me, and I just wanted you to know,’ the warmth in his eyes was replaced with malice, ‘that it is your fault that we died.’

Elara let out a shuddering sob. ‘This isn’t real. You’reGem.You’re not my father.’

In the blink of an eye, the form changed, and her mother crouched before her. Sadness tinged her grey eyes.

‘He’s right, darling,’ she lamented, ‘you did this to us. If I hadn’t given birth to you, the Star would not have appeared.’

Elara shook her head against the coldness of her mother’s hand as it touched her face. Over and over, like a mantra, she told herself that this was not real, that it was the Star of trickery doing what she did best. But as the screams of her parents told her that she was worthless, better off dead, her mind started to crumble.

Who is Alec?came the question, relentlessly, the same as every other day. ‘No one,’ she replied.

Cold laughter followed, before she blacked out, as she always did, clinging on to an image of golden eyes.

When she next woke, her back was wet with sweat, her neck stiff with pain, where Ariete’s bite wound throbbed. Her head lolled forwards as she prayed for respite.Hoop. Freckle. Frown. Hoop. Freckle. Frown.She repeated it again and again, untilEnzo’s face came to her in her mind. She was still here. She was still alive.

‘Elara,’ a voice urged, and she jolted up, looking around wildly. She nearly fainted from the pain in her head, so much pain that she could barely open her eyes. ‘Elara,’ the voice said again.

Standing in front of her was the pale, dark-haired figure of Eli. Gem’s twin. The Silvertongue. She swore, rolling off the bed away from him, thudding hard on the ground as she buried all thoughts of Enzo as deep as she could. She tried to crawl, but her body wouldn’t obey.

‘Stop,stop.’ He took a cautious step closer. ‘I’m not going to hurt you.’

Elara’s chest heaved as she eyed Eli, bracing herself for the same cruelty his sister had shown. His piercing eyes were unreadable. His charcoal shirtsleeves were rolled up to show a black snake tattooed on his forearm, winding around it. His hair was slicked back, not a strand out of place.

‘Have you come to finish what your sister started?’ she spat, still trying to inch away from him.

‘I came to give you this,’ he said, producing a small knife.

‘To put me out of my misery? Why do they call you the god of knowledge if you don’t even know that I can’t be killed by a Star?’

An amused sound escaped him as Eli drew the blade across his hand. ‘He warned me you had a smart mouth.’

Elara’s mouth dried, her body singing out for the divine elixir now dripping from Eli’s palm.

‘Wait,’ she said, backtracking. ‘Who said that?’

Eli crouched forwards, gingerly picking Elara up and placing her back in bed. He sat upon the edge, tentatively skimming a hand over the wound at her neck. She took a deep breath at the Star’s contact again. That scent of rainreached her, along with his cunning, quicksilver power that never stilled, that couldn’t be read.

‘Ariete and my sister are fucking sadists,’ he muttered, forming his palm into a fist above her mouth. ‘Now drink.’

Elara held his gaze as she tentatively opened her mouth, allowing the blood to slip down her throat.

She jerked as her magick leapt towards him. Something within it sang to her, and her shadows followed it, right into the wound in his palm.

The contact caused an image to flare in her mind—Eli, sitting with a woman with white, long hair, a sky heavy with stars around them—before the Star whipped his hand away. ‘What was that?’ he hissed.

‘I—I don’t know,’ she said. ‘You tell me.’

He stared at her, something like fear in his gaze.

‘What?’ she asked.

‘Nothing.’ Whatever the look was, now it was gone. ‘That’s just…that’s all your body can take right now. It will keep Ariete’s venom at bay, at least for a few hours.’

‘Why are you helping me?’

‘Because I owe it. A certain prince bought my favour.’

Elara stilled.No, no, no, no.Every royal knew, warned as children, that one did not make a deal with the Stars. She thought to the bloodied Stella card that had wrought Ariete’s wrath upon her. A Star could be called by a blood sacrifice upon their card. But if someone’s wish was granted, it was rarely worth what the Star asked for in return.