Page 211 of Fallen Stars
Ophelia looked at him, bored. “My, my. You really are soul-tied.”
Lias snorted, and Elara pinned him with a terrifying stare, though not more terrifying than Merissa’s as she glared at her brother with hate.
“How do you know so much about us?” Elara demanded, her attention back to Ophelia.
“Eli’s charm is to thank,” she grinned. “Charm of knowledge, you see? Plus, because of it, we have studied you in my world.A lot.”
Elara wasn’t sure whether to be in awe of the woman before her or to strangle her for her audacity. She was leaning towards the latter.
“And what exactly have you found?” Enzo interrupted.
Ophelia’s eyes flicked to him. “What I found is that you are in desperateneed of my help. That’s why you listened to my warning and why you came. Because you know what I have seen is true. You feel her too.”
There was another scrape at the door.
“Even now she waits, shrouded in shadows to make the step across realms. You Stars that put her down,” she looked at Eli, “didn’t do a very good job.”
“Then hurry up and show us how to banish her indefinitely,” Adrian growled.
“Look who’s finally sobered up,” Enzo remarked.
Adrian raised another green grape to his mouth before eating it.
Ophelia motioned to the door. “Sagitton, keep working your charm.”
The Star nodded gravely as he walked towards the doors. “It was a plan we formed together when Ophelia sought me out,” he explained, still lucid, whatever strange madness that had overcome him breaking. “I pour my magick out all night, confusing and chaotic, to throw Piscea off the scent of you all until you’d arrived within the confines of the temple.”
“Yousplit us up?” Leo hissed.
“Do you know how conspicuous you all were together? Piscea would have sniffed you out and ended you before even crossing veils. For now, you are all safe. She can’t get into the temple tonight. My magick is too chaotic.”
“She was hunting me,” Ophelia muttered. “The moment I set foot on this land, she felt it. It’s why I had to set you on a merry chase, Eli. Why we had to wait until tonight to meet.”
“How long do we have?” Elara asked.
Eli looked at his pocket watch. “An hour ‘til three—the witching hour.”
“The veil’s thinnest,” Ophelia murmured, producing bags and jars of powders and potions from beneath her cloak. “Moon? Sun? The only way to prevent Piscea getting into this realm tonight and bind her back where she belongs is to visit The Graveyard.”
Elara exchanged a look with Eli. Ophelia clearly wasn’t a charlatan if she knew about the place.
“It’s where souls not put fully to rest reside,” Ophelia continued. “A limbo, neither the heavens nor hell.”
“We know what it is,” Eli scowled.
Elara’s heart began to beat faster.
Ophelia laughed at him, which seemed to incense him more. “Well, I’ve been studying Piscea deeply in my world. The blood magick that bound her, the coffin that Ariete sealed. He is one of the most powerful gods, and yet there must have been a flaw in his spell or a weakness for her power to have awoken once more. And the only way to seal that coffin back up and stop her from ever escaping into this realm is to useyourpowers together. To reinforce Ariete’s spell and make sure her coffin is fully sealed once more.”
She looked between Enzo and Elara as she finished her sentence. “That’s one thing I do know. That your powers combined are the one sure-fire way to stop her escaping from The Graveyard. Every text I’ve pored over, every book, has confirmed it. The Dark’s weakness was always the two of you united.” Ophelia brought her contents to the stone flags before Sagitton’s altar. “She may still be trapped, but her shadows are prowling, and she waits for her chance to slip between worlds.”
“Like you did?” Eli crooned.
Ophelia only smirked as she began to organise the jars in front of her, pulling a spell book from a bag behind her.
Elara was still reeling. She trusted the supposed Star in front of her as much as she trusted the other Stars. Isra was still half in a stupor, none of the others much better.
Enzo kissed the nape of her neck, and she shuddered, feeling some of her tension release.