Page 119 of Fallen Stars

“How do you feel?” he asked, stroking a tear and looking at it in wonder. She settled into his chest as his arms wrapped around her, his body her haven, their skin-to-skin contact and hearts thrumming in tune making her magick dance even further.

“I feel free,” she whispered back.

Enzo squeezed her tighter.

“Enzo, I don’t know how I can ever repay you for this. What you did tonight…”

Elara heard the sound of footsteps and turned in alarm, Enzo already wrapping his discarded shirt around her as his eyes turned near black.

The shadowed figure paced across the deck.

“So,” Adrian said, face like thunder as he stopped before the two, “when were you planning on telling me that you’re the fucking Moon?”

Chapter Forty-Two

Eli stormed through the alleywaysof Eros, clutching the sheaf of papers as he marched. Although he tried his best to blend in and not draw attention to himself, today was different. He forced no kind of cloak over his charm as he let it writhe through the streets. Passers-by stepped out of his way, wary to even brush him as his wild eyes scanned each alley.

This was bad. Very, very bad. Never once in his immortal existence, had he met a worldwalker. Save for the Stars that had fallen to this world centuries ago, there had never been another stranger able to simply appear in this world. And the woman was powerful. He’d felt it the minute she’d cut his charm away from her.

Between this woman and the feeling of something following him that he hadn’t been able to shake, Eli was worried. And pissed off. The latter he was happy to dole out to the useless god whose temple he was now outside of.

He flung the doors open.

“Lias!” he roared, the temper he always kept in check was unleashed as priestesses and priests shrank against the wall in various states of undress.

“Lias,” he growled again, letting his storm-cloud power roll through the room.

“Miss me already?” he heard a familiar voice croon and tracked it to a magicked archway. He passed through easily, the place clearly only enchanted to allow certain people through, and fell onto an unsurprising scene.

Lias’s rose hair was tousled as a man sucked on his neck, kneeling behind him, the two on a bed of silk. A woman was kneeling before him, raising wine to his lips as she knelt between his spread legs. His wings fluttered in pleasure as the priestess sank her mouth onto him, one hand still raised with the goblet as she worked him.

“Out,” Eli commanded the two and saw the familiar grey clouding of their eyes as they obeyed wordlessly.

“No, stay.” Lias’s voice was light, but Eli knew the gleam in his eyes. The god was being cruel for the sake of it, trying to start a dick measuring contest. But Eli had a bigger cock, always had. He clenched his jaw as Lias’s charm began swirling through the air, a pink and lilac that seeped over the man and woman. Their eyes hazed over even further as they widened and softened, turning back to the Star.

“I don’t have time for this.” And perhaps in another life, or a few centuries ago, he would have felt bad as he pushed his charm further onto the mortals.

“Leave,” he growled, and they began wailing as they walked, looking back and grasping the air around Lias as their feet walked away from him, the emotional anguish clear in their tears. The minute he heard the temple doors shut, assessing that there were no other beings on the premises, he whirled.

“Did you know that there is a fucking witch in your kingdom?” he snarled.

Lias frowned, toying with the rim of his glass, a morganite ring glinting in the light.

“Witch? What do you mean, a witch?”

“I mean,” Eli hissed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “there is a woman here, roaming your streets, who is wielding some kind of unholy magick, one that should not exist on this plane.”

He flourished the papers, shoving them into Lias’ chest. The god tied a robe around himself before sitting on his canopied bed and spreading the sheaf of papers in front of him.

Eli waited impatiently as Lias scanned the symbols and text, all in a language Eli had never seen before.

Lias stilled, lazy façade gone as he raised his eyes to Eli.

“What?” Eli snapped.

“What world did you fall from?” Lias whispered.

A flash of memories flicked through Eli’s mind, of a dreary sky that mirrored Castor, of queens and kings and no gods, a world where he and Gem were just two pickpockets begging for a world to rule.