Page 213 of Fallen Stars

“El, Enzo… I—” His mouth worked. “Be safe. And get back to us quickly.”

“And they say you don’t have a heart,” Enzo teased.

Isra nodded. “Both of you take care. I’ll be here. Leo has his light too should the darkness try to take over. And Ophelia will lead you back.”

Ophelia nodded, one of her long fingernails between her teeth.

“Okay,” Elara breathed. She held out her hands to Enzo and he took them—warm and calloused, the hands she had come to know so well. He looked at her, winking, and it eased her a little. Enzo was always so good at that—making her feel safe. She squeezed his hands once, her eyes fluttering shut, and with a sharp yank on her tether, as Ophelia began to chant a guiding incantation for Elara’s dreamwalking to follow, the dagger held tightly in one hand, Elara hurtled herself and her beloved into the dreams of the dead.

Elara’s eyes flew open, feeling Enzo standing opposite her. The place between dreams and death was pitch-black, with what felt like sand beneath her feet. Enzo quickly flared a dim light between his palms, holding it to allow them to take in their surroundings.

The air was cold, still. And most oppressive of all was the quiet. Like a vacuum. Elara realised she could not even hear her own breath.

She yanked on Enzo’s arm in a panic, shouting his name. It came out as a whisper, but she was relieved to know she could speak in this place.

“El, look,” Enzo said, pointing ahead of them.

There, a few paces ahead, Elara could make out what looked like glass, the surface glossy black. They approached slowly, and Elara realised what they were looking at was a pool. It was as black as their surroundings, and as Elara and Enzo peered over, she gasped.

“No reflections,” Enzo murmured. He cast his light back around the space, making sure there was nothing else, nowhere else to go. Elara could make out that the place looked like a kind of cave, and there was no entrance or exit, save for this pool.

She looked at Enzo uncertainly. “Do we…?”

She heard Ophelia’s voice echo as it bounced off the cave walls and jumped.

“Swim, swim, swim,” the witch guided.

Enzo nodded grimly, threading his fingers through hers.

They both dipped one foot tentatively into the water, Elara half convinced the liquid would begin to burn her skin clean off. But instead, as she waded her other foot in, and then a little further…and a little further…she could only feel cool, silky water slipping over her. Something began to flare in the pit of her stomach, a longing. She took another step, and another, following the call that was beginning to drum louder and louder the further into the water she stepped. Her shoulders were completely submerged now, her hand still in Enzo’s.

“Do you feel it?” she whispered to him as an almost visceral pull called her deeper into the pool.

“Feel what?” Enzo asked. He looked to her, his eyes widening. “El—”

“What?” she asked, breathing heavily.

“Your moonlight,” he said, and with a surprised look to the silver shining off her skin, she turned to reply, and the pool swallowed her whole.

Darkness. Unending, never-ending darkness met her. It forced its way into her open, screaming mouth, coating her insides, trying to yank out the life inside her. She fought against it, the darkness thrusting and thrusting and…

Please,she begged to her moonlight.Please help me.

There was no reply, no spark. She could see Enzo from the corner of her eye, golden light pouring from him. At least he was battling it. She…she had shunned her light once. Was still getting to grips with it.

I swear to Gods,she snarled to it, if you leave me to die here, you will never be free again.

She felt a small flicker, as though something had awoken, pricking up its ears.

Help me,she commanded. Not a request, but a ravaged order, one that only a queen would make.

The moonlight inside of her began to curl lazily; she could feel its familiar cold power, the same as she had when she had forced it to save Enzo or when she had raised the shipwreck from the depths of the ocean.

Faster,she hissed.It seemed to harrumph, filling and flooding her, so the cold overtook her entirely before it recoiled and then launched at the surrounding darkness.

The darkness left her, abating, its death grip on her loosening as they continued to be catapulted through realms.

They plunged, sucked through the dark, weightless. The water was so silken it felt like air, and Elara for half a moment was convinced it was, and that she was flying. She closed her eyes as she and Enzo were dragged…