“Elara,” she heard Eli say, voice filled with alarm as he grabbed her shoulders. She pulled away from him. Saw a haze of blonde hair in front of her, faintly registering Merissa was here too. She didn’t see or acknowledge any of it.
“I will trade anything, anything.Bring him back, bring him back,bring him back,” she screamed to the room. “Bring him back,” she whispered, squeezing her eyes shut.
“El,” she heard Merissa sob.
“Bringhimback, bringhimback, bringhimback, please, please, please.” She shook, repeating the words over and over as she curled up on the ground, hair plastered to her face as pain racked her body.
“Elara,” Eli’s voice was firm. ‘What happened?’
She ignored him. “Please,” she whispered to the floor. “I have nothing left.”
The door slammed open, and Elara didn’t even deign to look up, wails racking her body. She still couldn’t cry; tears wouldn’t flow. Only an animalistic keening that forced its way out of her throat.
She heard the figure stop, breathing heavily, but saw Eli and Merissa still.
“Elara,” Isra finally said, breathless. “Come outside.”
“What?” Elara whispered, her voice cracked. “No. It didn’t work.” A sob choked her as she squeezed her eyes shut. “He’s gone. We ran out of time.”
Elara felt arms lift her up and pull her out of the room. She tried to kick and push them away; she did not want to be touched.
She heard Eli curse, tightening his grip so she had no option but to stop resisting. She gave up, slumping against him and Merissa as Isra paced ahead, flinging each door wide out of Eli’s apartment until they were in his hallway. Merissa gently took an arm, so she was being held up by both her and Eli. Sheer pain burned through her, rendering her immobile as she was hauled out.
They tugged her out of the dark atrium, Eli kicking the door in front of them open and hauling Elara into the street. The queen stumbled, Merissa and Eli righting her. And then she clamped her eyes shut, the Light blindingly bright.
“Open your eyes, Elara,” Isra whispered, and it sounded likejoyin her voice, not despair. Elara did, squinting against the brightness awash in the Castorian street, her gaze catching on townsfolk completely frozen, all gazing at something behind her, transfixed, eyes shielded by hands. She registered screams and cries, as though sound was coming back to her. She craned her neck, shielding her own eyes as she saw it, the reason there was uproar in the city.
The sky was on fire.
A great, burning orange ball rising higher and higher, so much brighter and fiercer than the Light itself, the sky behind it bursting into fragments of every colour of the rainbow
She heard Eli laugh behind her, clapping. Felt Merissa wrap her arms around her, muttering prayers and blessings as she wept. And finally, Isra turned to her, her hazel eyes filled with tears as she whispered, “He’s awake.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Elara hauled herself up, lettingout a sharp breath.
“You did it,” Eli said behind her, clapping her on the back. “You genius woman, you fucking did it.” He yanked her to him, hugging her tightly.
Merissa threaded her hands through Elara’s, holding on tightly as Elara stared dumfounded to the light that now shone off every building before her.
“I need to get to Helios now,” Elara breathed. Then her eyes widened in alarm. “Astra.I need to get Astra.”
“Astra?” Eli frowned.
“She’s Elara’s wolf?” Merissa explained, her tone insinuating that Eli was dim-witted.
“Pardon, did you just say wolf?”
Elara was still in a daze, marvelling at the sun as the conversation washed over her. “She’s part of the reason I killed those three men I left for you.”
“And the rest,” Eli muttered. Isra raised a brow, though said nothing.
“She’s at the inn. We can go now,” Merissa said.
Eli shook his head. “The inn is on the way to the in-between. I’ll accompany you in a carriage.”
Eli hailed a carriage which arrived immediately, chucking a midan to the bewildered driver to drive faster through the traffic that had come to a halt, transfixed by the heavenly body rising into the sky after a month of darkness.
