Page 178 of Fallen Stars

Eli nodded, face grave as he sipped his tea.

Adrian leaned forwards, addressing Elara. “So the Dark is your long lost best friend turned enemy, who’s out for vengeance against you and Enzo?”

“The Dark was infatuated with her,” Eli replied. “Obsessed. It wasn’t even love. It was…possession. She wanted to possess Elara. Wanted her power. Her beauty. She wanted tobeElara.”

Enzo was grinding his jaw behind her. Elara thought she might be sick. These memories—memories that Eli was recounting, her memories and yet not… She felt like she was hearing about a stranger.

“But what does this Dark have to do with going to Kaos?” Merissa asked, worrying at her lip.

“I’m getting to that,” Eli said, pulling a piece of paper from his pocket. It had begun to tear, as though it had been unfolded and folded again numerous times.

He thrust it onto the low table between them, and the group leaned forwards.

Elara frowned, the symbols and squiggly lines making no sense to her.

“What—”

“It’s a warning,” Eli said. “A warning from another world.”

Adrian laughed uneasily. “What do you mean another world?”

But Elara was staring at Eli, remembering the part of the story he’d told her during Bard, about how the Dark had visited other mortals in other worlds and made them Stars.

Isra sat bolt upright, her nostrils flaring as she looked at Eli. “It’s not possible.”

“You, seer, of all people should know that it is,” Eli replied. “Can’t you feel the foreign power that coats it?”

Elara chewed at her lip, glancing between Enzo and Eli as Isra swiped the piece of paper from the table. The others were murmuring in disbelief.

“Care to translate?” Isra asked.

Eli nodded. “The rough translation goes:

‘Beware the Dark, beware your shadow

On the eve of All Hallow’s

Even now she watches and waits

Come find me ‘fore it is too late

In the land of chaos on this date

Seek me there to stop Lady Fate.’”

“Fucking hell,” Leo muttered. “Whoever wrote this, I hope they don’t make their living off poetry. Their rhyming scheme is atrocious. It’s all over the place.”

“I thought it was quite good,” Adrian said.

Isra and Enzo scoffed.

“Helions through and through,” Merissa sighed.

“It’s offensive to our artistic ears,” Isra said. “But more seriously,whowrote this?”

Eli traced the snake on his arm. “A witch.”

Elara narrowed her eyes, raising them from the letter. “A witch?”