Page 114 of Fallen Stars

She didn’t know how to navigate this new and strange friendship with him yet. The moment she’d arrived at the palace and seen him, she’d felt…nothing. After such a build-up of nerves and emotions, when he had crushed her to him, she hadn’t felt that rightness that she knew Elara and Enzo had felt when they’d held one another. It seemed Leo had understood it too, the softening of his eyes enough to tell her that. They’d spoken again, obviously, before the bounty had arrived to ruin all of their plans once more. And the distance seemed to only have pushed them further away, Leo agreeing almost immediately with Merissa when she explained how she’d felt.

She sighed, shaking it from her head. There were more important things to worry about right now.

“Hello.”

Merissa jumped as Adrian called over to her. She raised a hand as the pirate approached, the scent of sea salt and sage enveloping her. He was beautiful. So handsome that she understood why stories were being spun of him stealing maiden’s hearts. Her mind cast back to the scene that had been displayed to her when she’d first laid eyes on him, of the woman who had been sitting…

She blushed, body heating as she tried to push the image away. Merissa didn’t like thinking of such things. They just reminded her of her charm—her curse, as she preferred to call it. To be able to seduce anyone she wished. That level of manipulation, which her mother and brother didn’t seem to mind, had never sat well with her. Better to abstain from such things.

“You settling in okay?” he asked as he approached and she forced a smile onto her face as she nodded.

“Wonderfully. Thank you so much for being so accommodating.”

Adrian’s ocean-coloured eyes twinkled as he tilted his head. “Did I have a choice?”

Merissa made an amused sound then. “Not with Elara or Enzo, no.”

Adrian ran a hand through his hair. “So,” he murmured, “what are you doing out here at this time?”

“Just couldn’t sleep,” she lied. Though the pirate seemed nice enough, she would never reveal her friends’ secrets.

“Need a little something to help?” he asked, waving a small bottle of rum.

“Oh no,” Merissa said. “Can’t stand the stuff.”

“More for me,” Adrian grinned, taking a swig.

Despite her best efforts at tamping her charm down, around Adrian, she could feel it beginning to awaken, answering to his flirting tone. And the last thing she needed was a besotted pirate to deal with.

“Well,” she said, nodding to him. “I’d best get back to bed.”

“You best had,” Adrian replied, small smile playing on his lips. “Should you need anything, you know where to find me.”

Merissa blushed anew, cursing her magick as she gave another small nod before scurrying back to her rooms.

Elara did not sleep. She watched the others nod off after the revelations of the evening. Isra in the centre of the bed fell asleep first after casually and brightly confirming that Elara apparently contained a death power within her.

Merissa was next, leaving with a worried look on her face after kissing Elara’s cheek and telling her to get some rest so they could talk about it in the morning. Leo stayed up with the two, talking in earnest about what Enzo and Elara’s new powers could mean.

“I’ve been on many a battlefield,” he said. “And I have never once heard of powers like them. Does it even feel like you have a limit?”

He directed that question to Enzo.

Enzo shook his head. “No. I didn’t feel drained like I did before I awoke. Like El said, it felt as simple as breathing.”

“And you, El?”

Elara was trying not to think about the death that slumbered within her veins. She still missed her shadows with her very being, would have traded them for her moonlight at first chance. This foreign light, she did not feel like it belonged to her.

“The only times it has ever reared its head was when Enzo brought it forth,” Elara said.

Leo thought, that brilliant strategizing mind of his working. “So perhaps Enzo’s powers amplify yours? Encourage them to be brought forth.”

Elara nodded. “Perhaps. Enzo, I’m tired. We haven’t slept in nearly two days. I think we should rest.”

Enzo kissed her on her forehead, and she winced. His eyes narrowed slightly as he pulled her up, bidding Leo goodnight before the two walked out of the room.

“What was that?” he asked the moment they were alone.