Page 54 of Fallen Stars

“Elara, someone is watching. Wake up.” Alarm was high in his voice.

“I can’t,” she rasped, sobbing as her legs were strapped to the ground beneath, the maze closing further in.

“Elara,” Eli snarled. “If you don’t wake up, Enzo is lost. Think of him. Picture him and allow it to anchor you. Then wake the fuck up.”

The maze rippled around her, the hedges collapsing, whispers following her as she lay, unable to do anything. The shadows crept upon her like phantom hands, and she felt them pull her down,intothe earth. The hedges closed in, blocking out any sky, any light.

She changed tact as her breath came in one small stream, the shadows near-drowning her now. Instead of fighting, she allowed them to tug her down, down into the undergrowth, the prick of brambles covering her as she sank into the cold, dark earth. It packed around her as she was pulled deeper.

Buried alive. She was being buried alive.

“Wake up, Elara,” she whispered to herself. “Wake up.”

She forced air into her lungs and out again, concentrating on the rise and fall of her stomach, focusing on anything but the shadows. She needed to ground herself, fast.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she pictured Enzo’s face and one of her favourite memories of them together.

They were out on her balcony, his arms wrapped around her, a book in front of them as the deep, lilting timbre of his voice read her stories.

She forced herself to breathe past the shadows. Expand, contract. Expand, contract.

The scent of amber flooded her senses as she held the memory in her mind’s eye, blindly searching for her tether in the process, scanning down her body to her tailbone where she felt the strong black tug of it. She envisioned herself climbing down it, away from the horrors, the maze, the dreamscape. She breathed out again, Enzo’s warm golden eyes branded into her mind, murmuring encouragement to her as she willed herself to climb to the end of her tether, and finally land on firm ground.

Elara gasped sharply as her eyes flew open, keeling forward to the floor onto her hands and knees.

“Elara!” Eli shouted, on his knees next to her as she convulsed, the dingy prison cell now back around her.

“Wha—” Elara wheezed, throat burning as she took another breath.

Eli cursed, leaning to draw symbols upon the door behind them as she collapsed, coughing. A wisp of shadow, like smoke, escaped her mouth, and she screamed, pushing herself away from it.

“Breathe,” Eli was saying gently, rubbing her back as he continued to unlock the wards. “Breathe.”

She coughed again, wanting to get whatever vile substance had made its way into her lungs out of her.

It was only then that she raised her head and saw the state of the room.

Before her, lay Botis’s still body, black blood staining the floor around him. She gasped as she looked at his throat and saw a ragged wound through it. Finally, she looked up at Eli, her mouth agape, entire body trembling as he stared down at her, a hand wrapped around her middle as he dragged her out of the room. There was a spot of black demon blood upon his cheek, but that wasn’t what had alarmed her. It was his eyes. Focused on her, and wholly, wholly afraid.

Chapter Seventeen

Eli hadn’t said a wordto Elara the entire carriage ride back to his club. After he had dragged her out of the cell and the prison, he’d hauled her into it before sharply commanding the driver back to his club.

Elara hadn’t stopped shaking, the nightmare of being buried alive after seeing all of her passed loved ones as corpses lingered over her. She couldn’t erase the images from her mind or the feeling of the shadows—shadows that she loved and took comfort in, turning on her and feeling so terribly sinister.

And as though that wasn’t enough, there was the matter of the dead demon they’d left in the cell.

The carriage came to a sudden halt, making Elara jump. Still observing her strangely, Eli kicked the carriage door open, pulling Elara out and straight into his club, not even looking to the driver as he tossed a midan his way.

The moment they were safely inside his office, Elara’s eyesight blurring, he turned to her.

“Sit.”

“I am not a dog,” she snapped.

“Elara, now is not the time.”

“Oh, really? I wasn’t aware that there was something more pressing to discuss. What with you ignoring me the entire ride home afterwhat happened back there.” She whispered the last part, still scared to even mention it aloud.