Page 221 of Fallen Stars
After a moment, he spoke anyway as he kept pace with Elara and Enzo, walking them through The Graveyard.
“It’s best I guide you back. The spirits are restless tonight.”
Elara flashed Enzo a smile as Lukas continued ahead. “So you managed to do it?” he asked. “Save the world from a reckoning?”
“Something like that,” Elara said, smiling.
They reached the grey beach, the obsidian waves lapping and calling them back. Enzo could see flares of rainbow light reflected–Ophelia’s light–showering like lightworks on the black water.
“So that’s it?” Lukas asked, and Enzo turned, his patience thin. But to his surprise, Lukas was on his knees, a desperate and haunted look in his eyes. “You’re just going to leave?”
Elara had come to a halt, her mouth opening and closing as she gazed in bewilderment at Enzo then back at Lukas.
“What do you mean, Lukas? What do you want from me? I don’t owe you a thing,” Elara said.
“I know,” Lukas said, yet his voice broke, and Enzo took a step closer to an alarmed Elara. “I know you don’t, but Lara please. You have to believe me. I wasn’t always like this. And I know I don’t deserve anything from you, especially mercy, but I beg you, on hands and knees.”
He pressed his palms together, and Elara looked once again at Enzo, eyes wide.
“I heard down here that you’re the goddess of death. That’s what the dead whisper. That you awoke into your true form. I heard tales from a drowned sailor that you raised them. So please, Elara… Please, goddess; please spare me this torment.”
He gestured to his bloated face, his rotting skin, hands shaking. “Help me rest, Lara,” he whispered. “Help me die properly.”
Enzo’s chest tightened, knowing that he was the one to have put him here and not regretting it a jot. Perhaps his heart had grown soft with love. And seeing how happy he and Elara were together, he didn’t want to hold on to the hatred in his heart that he felt for Lukas. But he wouldn’t blame Elara if she wanted to hold it for an eternity.
She looked back again, squeezing Enzo’s hands and tilting her head, as though to ask him what she should do.
Enzo nodded imperceptibly, squeezing her hand back, and resolve coated Elara’s face as she turned back to Lukas.
She took Lukas’s hand in hers as he began to weep, and closing her eyes, she called her moonlight forth. Enzo saw it. It was blinding as it coated her from head to toe, pouring out of her towards Lukas’s hand.
“I didn’t deserve you,” he whispered, tears streaming down his face as her magick touched him. “And Lara, I’m happy for you. I’m so happy you found Lorenzo.”
Enzo’s eyes narrowed at him as Elara stood, her teeth gritted as she became a vessel for her magick, allowing it to do what needed to be done.
“Be at peace, Lukas,” she whispered, and the shadows finally cleared from him, his skin tightening, chest healing, and finally his eyes, clear grey again, fluttered shut.
“Thank you,” he sighed.
And before both Elara’s and Enzo’s wide eyes, the silver moonlight coating him swirled and swirled until Lukas’s body began to disintegrate into grey ash, withering and withering until he floated away on the breeze.
Elara’s moonlight dimmed, her cheeks wet. Enzo brushed a tear tenderly, kissing her cheek.
“I’m so proud of you,” he murmured, pulling her up. “But now, we need to get home.”
Elara nodded, wiping her tears as she looked back to the ash floating on the wind. Enzo pulled her to him and into the black ocean.
And then they were swimming, Under, under, under.
Through.
Through.
Through.
Until finally, they wheezed back into their bodies and looked around in elation.
They heard the gasps of relief first, their friends stepping into the circle immediately, arms hugging them, Isra kissing Enzo’s head before muttering how stupid they all were. Adrian was pale-faced, downing a bottle of wine, courtesy of Sagitton.