Page 198 of Fallen Stars
She crushed a grape between her fingers, its purple juice like blood in the low light.
“Come on, beautiful,” the voice murmured, as though onto her neck, and it sounded exactly like Enzo.Be with me. Stay here. Take a sip.
Elara raised the cup to her lips, her eyes fluttering shut. Enzo was right; this was what she wanted. To be with him, to ignore the rest. That was all that mattered.
She took a sip of the wine, its plummy richness sliding down her throat, and her lips parted in ecstasy.
She felt a hand twist her hair back and smiled. Here Enzo was, finally with her. Her eyes fluttered open as she looked up and was met instead with deep purple eyes that glinted and shoulder length hair to match.
“Sweet Moon,” Sagitton grinned. “How nice of you to join me.”
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Eli dodged the drunken crowdwhere he could, though that was in a sense impossible in a country quite literally dedicated to getting absolutely fucked.
If there was a place he hated perhaps even more than Concordia, it was Kaos. Eli was a pillar of order. Sagitton was the very opposite. Eli grimaced at the sloppiness around him, the complete lack of shame the courtesans of Bacchus showed. Passed out in the middle of streets, or red faced and roaring, or if none of those, just fucking…openly. Against walls, on the dirty floor…
“Nice,” he muttered to himself, flicking his eyes away from a couple moaning and writhing next to a man asleep on a bench, using a wine bottle as a pillow.
He scanned the crowd, searching for a wraith or a lion. He’d had to arrive earlier than the rest of the group and didn’t like the thought of leaving Enzo and Elara to the madness by themselves. Neither had been to Kaos before, and if Eli knew anything, it was that one needed a guide in the kingdom of utter insanity.
But he couldn’t see them in the crowd, and he was very aware that Sagitton was somewhere close, the idiot drinking in the festival he loved so much and likely trying to find Eli and drag him into whatever debauchery he was already involved in.
With a flick of his power, Eli parted the crowd with a slight dash of mind control as he traversed to the other side of the square. He could breathe and think a little easier now, and he paced down one of the side streets, hoping to find Enzo and Elara down one of them.
Before he could turn, a body slammed into him, making him stumble.
He went to say something scathing before realising who was gripping his arms, his eyes wild.
“Eli,” Enzo said. “They’ve disappeared. They’ve all disappeared.”
Eli took a moment to register the lion in front of him—his costume, the desperation which he gripped Eli with.
“What do you mean, disappeared?”
“One minute they were with me. El was holding my hand. And the next she’d vanished into smoke. Merissa too. Then the others. I’ve been running around trying to find you.”
Eli cursed, pushing his hair back. “Walk with me,” he growled. “We’ll find them.”
Enzo fell into step beside him, the two towering over the other citizens of Kaos. Eli caught his reflection in a glass window as they passed. A skull had been painted onto his face, his hair combed back and a sharp black suit beneath. He’d wanted to dress as the dead to subtly respect Elara, as a fuck you to the rest of the Stars. He and Enzo couldn’t have looked more different as they stalked the streets of Bacchus.
He could feel the Sun burning up next to him, and he sent a thought out. “You need to relax. She’s here. I can just about hear her thoughts now. Just a little closer…”
Enzo stiffened beside him. “You need to stop doing that,” he gritted out.
Eli smirked as he continued to part the crowd with a thought here, a thought there.
Finally, he halted, Elara’s thoughts pouring out strong, like a beacon to him, silver and pulsing. They swirled and laughed, beckoning him closer.
“Oh shit,” Eli muttered.
“What?”
“She’s with Sagitton.”
Enzo cursed, setting off at a run.
“For fuck’s sake,” Eli growled. “I don’t run.”