Page 225 of Fallen Stars
“What do you really want, Elara? All of this has been thrust upon us but…what is it you want? It used to be Asteria, did it not?”
Elara closed her eyes, turning away from her kingdom. “Yes. My only mission before I met Enzo was to reclaim Asteria, reclaim my throne. But now that it’s vacant, now that I know who I am, I don’t find myself wanting to return.”
She looked back to the sky, sighing.
“I’m not sure where home is anymore. Only that it’s wherever Enzo is.”
Merissa finished her fourth letter of the day, her neat script filling pages and pages as she sprayed her perfume onto the letter, as she always did, and folded it to send off at the next port they called at—Shadow’s Bay, if she wasn’t mistaken.
Wedding planner was her now unofficial title. The moment that Enzo and Elara had revealed that they were getting married, she had taken over the duties. This was going to be the wedding of the century. But confined to the sea as she planned it was proving difficult.
Nevertheless, she smiled to herself as she began her next letter to her favourite goldsmith in Sol, a commission for a ring that Elara had asked to be made for Enzo. Elara’s wedding ring, the one that Enzo had commissioned for her, had been made weeks before. She still remembered it, how the moment he had awoken, right before they had escaped to the Sinner’s Sands, he had asked Merissa to help design a ring for his soulmate. It would be ready now in Helios for the big day.
She heard Leo’s laugh from beyond the door and sighed. While she was ecstatic for her friends, her own love life was non-existent. She wished she had felt a soul-tie with Leo. It would have been so easy to love a man like him. She thought to the slight flirtatious energy she’d picked up from Adrian, which had soon been nipped in the bud once he’d met Cancia. He was extremely pleasing on the eyes too—she’d certainly been caught staring a few times—but the pirate didn’t look at her the same way.
And then, utterly unwanted, her thoughts landed on her kiss with Ariete—the way his lips had been far softer than she had expected, his touch gentler than she had imagined. But she shuddered. Ariete was terrifying, and most importantly, the most evil and depraved god in Celestia. What he had done to Elara and Enzo, she would never forget.
As her thoughts continued to wander, they did to the demon-masked stranger in Kaos. Now that was a connection she couldn’t deny. She had tried to blame it on the charm and was still half convinced it had been Sagitton’s energy. Hell, she had actually toyed with the idea that itwasSagitton. Whoever he was, the utter desire she had felt, the awakening within her when he had brushed her skin, when they had breathed each other’s air…
She clenched her thighs, pressing them tightly together as unwanted feelings began to surface.
“Focus,” she hissed to herself, resuming her letter. She had a week to get the wedding together, their stretch across The Olympian Ocean to the Western continent nearly done. The Goldfir Forest would be a beautiful location, and she hadn’t been surprised at all when Enzo had suggested it, an intimate ceremony for only their small group. But she needed to order a dress that she could tailor and glamour for Elara, the rings, and food too. She made a note to contact Bruno, Elara and Enzo’s favourite baker, for the latter. He, she could trust.
She sighed, brushing all thoughts of demons from her mind as she continued to plan a wedding that would be marked in history.
Chapter Seventy-Eight
Elara took a deep breathas she looked in the mirror before her, admiring Merissa’s work. The glamour had outdone herself, both in the dress she had helped choose and the way she had made Elara up.
Elara’s hair was long, cascading down her back, and through it, Merissa had painstakingly weaved threads of silver that finished with tiny crescent moons. The front of her hair was swept off her face in a series of intricate plaits, her veil fitted below the crown of her head.
And that veil looked like the night sky. A deep indigo gossamer, almost black, sheer save for the glittering art that patterned it. Merissa had chosen silver for the art—again—to compliment Elara’s eyes and magick, and as Elara gaped at it in awe, she took in what she could see depicted as a mural, the love story of her and Enzo. Down one side of the veil were swirls of smoke and golden rays of light. Stars were intertwined in the art, and pooling at the centre of the border was a sun and a moon, interwoven—the Sun’s rays leaping out and splaying across one side of the veil, and the Moon a modest crescent.
Elara’s eyes began to fill up. “Mer, this is so beautiful,” she whispered. Her friend beamed, squeezing her arm.
“No tears now. You’ll ruin your makeup,” she chided although her own eyes were brimming with them.
“What do you think of the dress?” Merissa added, pulling her veil out carefully so it didn’t crease as it trailed behind Elara.
“The dress… It’s… It’s better than my wildest dreams.”
The dress was a deep indigo to match the veil. It was tight to her bust and waist, and then spilled elegantly into a skirt of blue tulle. But it was the sleeves Elara was mesmerised by. The sleeves were made from a sheer gauze, so it appeared she was wearing nothing at all, but silver poured in intricate patterns, swirling down her arms as though she had dipped them in moonlight, the silver trailing here and there along the skirt of the dress.
“Enzo is going to adore it,” Elara grinned. She could not wait to see him, could not wait to be married to him. Her husband. She allowed the warm feeling to spread in her chest—that feeling that she hadn’t allowed herself to feel for a long time, for fear it would evaporate.
“You know, I never believed I would get married,” Elara whispered as Merissa applied the finishing touches to her hair and makeup.
“Why?”
“I just… I didn’t think I’d ever feel love that way. That someone would want me to be theirs forever.”
“You deserve it more than anyone, El,” Merissa replied as she stepped back. “I can’t wait to see two of my favourite people in the world get married.”
Elara grinned. “Me neither.”
Enzo paced the room of the small lodge, tugging at his cuff sleeves. “What’s the time?”
“The same as when you asked me ten seconds ago,” Leo drawled, checking his hair in the mirror. He turned round to Enzo, grinning. “Enz, are younervous?”