Page 181 of Fallen Stars
There was a pause as Isra began to shake. “Her name contains another. And in the end, it won’t matter. She can’t stay—she won’t. But she will help.”
There was a rattling, wheezing sound as Isra began to shake further, Adrian cursing as he ducked behind his chair. Frost clambered over the paper, reaching out to Eli. The Star scraped his chair back and still the frost ran, coating his boots as Isra continued to choke.
“Isra!?” Elara shouted.
“What’s she doing to me?” Eli exclaimed as the frost clambered further up him, sticking to his trousers and the skin of his stomach.
Leo held her, trying to soothe her, but the seer’s head was shaking from side to side. The frost circled around Eli’s torso, a perfect ring leaving the space where his heart should be bare.
“You can trust her, and her rainbows will cast out darkness. For she is a witch, and when she burns on a pyre, she’ll drown the world in light.”
She keeled forward, Merissa letting out a shout as she caught her, the seer’s body convulsing.
“Isra?!” Enzo roared, and Isra’s eyes began to flicker between hazel and white before finally they flew open. She took a lungful of air, gasping as the group crowded around in panic.
“I was burning,” she wheezed. “I was burning alive.”
Chapter Sixty-Four
Enzo forced a tea downIsra’s throat to calm her as the seer shrank into her armchair, her eyes never leaving Eli.
Eli looked back, eyes narrowed, before looking to the frost still coating his boot, the rest having slowly dissipated once Isra had awoken. Isra had shaken him, and he was never shaken. Finally, he surveyed the others.
“So shehascome to our aid,” he said smoothly as Elara rubbed Isra’s back.
Isra nodded. “You can trust her,” she rasped. Eli only inclined his head.
Whatever moment was passing between the two broke as the others settled back into their chairs.Enzo wrapped both his arms around Elara and Eli felt a sharp stab in his chest as he looked at the two, so meant for each other, such a perfect fit.
He reached into his jacket pocket for yet another a cigarette, lighting it with a match and taking a deep drag.
Sweet smoke, his one continuation that he brought from his old life. The honey laced in the roll sweetened his tongue, and he savoured the taste as he rallied himself for the group’s reactions.
“So we have three days to learn everything we can about our enemy, Piscea?” Merissa asked.
Leo leaned forward. “Luckily, you have two brilliant strategists well versed in the art of war.”
“Three,” Eli drawled. “I’m better than the two of you combined. So let’s start with the basics. What do you all know of Piscea?”
“Well…” Elara began. “I know that she’s the patron Star of Asteria. I know that she’s known as the Slumbering Goddess, that no one has ever seen her. I know that no one is sure of exactly what her charm is, other than she is sometimes known as Lady Fate, other times The Slumbering Goddess. Oh! And she has a saying: ‘So worship her, so fear her.”
Eli frowned. “I’ve never heard that in relation to Piscea. Where did you hear that?”
“Sofia. Whenever she would tell me ghost stories about Piscea, she would always end the tale with that phrase.”
“Anything else?” Eli asked.
“I mean, we know she’s terrifying,” Enzo added. “We were also told ghost stories as children about her, about what would happen if we woke her.”
“And what stories did you hear?” Eli asked.
“That if we were bad, she would petrify us in fear, feeding on it until we were left empty husks.”
“Maybe that’s where the ‘so fear her’ comes from,” Isra muttered.
Eli scoffed. “Much myth shrouds Piscea. Stories begin to blend—those of the Dark and the Star merging until no one is sure what exactly she does orwhoshe is.”
He swallowed then as memories began to clamour, begging to be remembered. “But I know,” he whispered hoarsely.