The wrong Elara
2696 Words
Nobody moved.
Not Dorian.
Not Cassian.
Not Maud.
Not Finnian.
Even the dead seemed to hold their breath.
The white door stood in the middle of the Cemetery of Forgotten Names, perfectly still after delivering the most offensive sentence Elara had heard all night.
And considering the night had included assassins, giant underground eyes, and the revelation that she apparently had a magical daughter created from death magic, that was impressive.
Elara slowly turned toward Dorian.
“You brought back the wrong Elara?”
Dorian’s face was unreadable.
Which meant he was hiding something.
Again.
Elara laughed once.
A cold, dangerous little sound.
“No.”
Dorian stepped toward her.
“Elara.”
“No.”
“Elara, listen—”
“No, because every time you start a sentence with my name, my life becomes significantly worse.”
Finnian nodded.
“She has a point.”
Cassian looked at him.
“Do you ever stop talking?”
“Not during trauma.”
The door knocked again.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Elara stared at it.
Her own voice came through.
Soft.
Weak.
Terrified.
“Dorian…”
He closed his eyes.
That frightened her more than anything.
The voice continued.
“You said you would come back.”
Dorian whispered, “Stop.”
Elara looked at him.
“You know who that is.”
He said nothing.
Her anger rose.
“Dorian.”
“It could be mimicking memory.”
“Could be?”
“Yes.”
“That is not the same as no.”
Cassian stepped closer to the door.
“The cemetery cannot fabricate souls.”
Dorian snapped toward him.
“It can manipulate them.”
“But it cannot create one.”
Elara looked between them.
“Explain.”
Cassian’s expression was grim.
“These doors hold remnants.”
“Of dead people?”
“Not exactly.”
Finnian frowned.
“That answer was horrifyingly vague.”
Maud took over.
“The Cemetery of Forgotten Names does not bury bodies.”
She looked at the endless rows of doors.
“It buries identities.”
Elara’s skin prickled.
“Identities?”
Maud nodded.
“Names erased by magic. Souls divided. Memories cut away. Selves abandoned.”
Elara slowly looked at the white door again.
“And my name is here because…”
Nobody answered.
She looked at Dorian.
“Because part of me died.”
He didn’t deny it.
Her stomach twisted.
The thing behind the door whispered:
“Not part.”
Elara froze.
Then the lock clicked.
Once.
Dorian grabbed her arm.
“We leave.”
She yanked free.
“No.”
“Elara.”
“I am done walking away from answers.”
“You do not know what is behind that door.”
“Apparently I do.”
The door creaked.
A thin black line appeared between it and the frame.
Something breathed from the other side.
Elara stepped closer.
Dorian moved in front of her.
Again.
She stared at his back.
“Move.”
“No.”
“Dorian.”
“No.”
Cassian sighed.
“You know she is going to do it anyway.”
Dorian looked over his shoulder.
“I know.”
“Then at least let her do it while prepared.”
Elara looked at Cassian.
“Thank you.”
Cassian smiled.
“You’re welcome, my—”
She raised a finger.
“Finish that sentence and I’ll stab you.”
His smile widened.
“I missed you.”
Dorian looked annoyed.
That annoyed Elara less than it should have.
The door opened another inch.
A pale hand appeared around the edge.
Elara stopped breathing.
The fingers were hers.
Same shape.
Same scar near the thumb.
Same ring finger slightly crooked from an accident when she was fourteen.
No.
That accident had happened in London.
Hadn’t it?
The hand gripped the door.
A woman stepped out.
Finnian screamed.
Everyone looked at him.
He pointed.
“There are two of her!”
Elara stared.
The woman was identical.
Same face.
Same height.
Same dark hair.
Same eyes.
But wrong.
She was thinner.
Almost translucent.
Her skin was so pale it looked blue under the cemetery lanterns.
A deep black wound split the center of her chest.
And around her neck hung the other half of Elara’s memory stone.
The stranger looked at Dorian.
Tears filled her eyes.
“You came.”
Dorian’s entire body went rigid.
Elara looked at him.
“Dorian?”
The woman rushed forward.
He stepped back.
That hurt the woman visibly.
“You don’t remember me?”
Dorian whispered, “I remember everything.”
Elara felt cold.
The woman smiled through tears.
“Then take me home.”
“No.”
The word was immediate.
Sharp.
Final.
The woman stopped.
Her expression changed.
“Why?”
Dorian looked at Elara.
Then back at her.
“Because you are not her.”
The other Elara’s face twisted.
“I am more her than she is.”
Elara folded her arms.
“I am standing right here.”
The woman finally looked at her.
Hatred.
Pure hatred.
Not confusion.
Not grief.
Recognition.
“Oh.”
Elara’s heart pounded.
The woman walked closer.
“So this is what he chose.”
“I was not aware there was a selection process.”
The woman ignored the joke.
Her eyes moved slowly over Elara’s face.
“You look soft.”
Elara raised an eyebrow.
“You look dead.”
Finnian whispered, “Oh, that was good.”
Maud elbowed him.
The woman smiled.
“So you have her mouth.”
Elara’s irritation sharpened.
“I have my mouth.”
“No.”
The woman touched her own chest.
“You have what they left behind.”
Silence.
Elara’s hand tightened around the black sword.
“What does that mean?”
The woman smiled.
“I’m the part of you that remembered.”
A pulse of cold moved through the cemetery.
The doors around them began whispering.
Thousands of voices.
Thousands of names.
Dorian whispered, “Don’t listen.”
The woman continued.
“When you begged them to erase your past, the spell did not destroy it.”
Cassian’s expression changed.
“It split her.”
Maud cursed.
The woman nodded.
“One life above.”
She pointed at Elara.
“One death below.”
She touched herself.
Elara’s throat went dry.
“So you are…”
“You.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
The woman laughed.
“You really are stubborn.”
“Apparently we share that.”
Dorian stepped between them.
“The ritual created a remnant, not a second soul.”
The woman’s eyes flashed black.
“You abandoned me here for three hundred years.”
Dorian looked at her.
“I did not know you were conscious.”
“Would it have mattered?”
He did not answer.
She laughed bitterly.
“Exactly.”
Elara looked at him.
“You knew there was a remnant.”
“Yes.”
“But not that she was alive?”
“No.”
The woman screamed.
The sound shook the cemetery.
Every door slammed at once.
BANG.
BANG.
BANG.
BANG.
Finnian crouched.
“Can everyone stop yelling in magical graveyards?”
The other Elara’s eyes turned silver.
“You stole my life.”
Elara stepped forward.
“I didn’t know you existed.”
“You slept.”
“I lived.”
“You loved.”
Elara froze.
The woman looked at Dorian.
Her expression broke.
“You found her.”
Dorian said nothing.
“You found her exactly like you promised.”
His jaw tightened.
“And you loved her.”
Elara looked at him.
Dorian looked at the floor.
The woman laughed.
“That’s the cruelest part.”
She looked at Elara.
“He fell in love with you twice.”
The cemetery went silent.
Elara’s heartbeat thundered.
Dorian’s head snapped up.
Cassian slowly smiled.
Finnian whispered, “Oh, this is terrible timing.”
Maud murmured, “Excellent timing.”
Dorian glared at both of them.
Elara stared at him.
“Twice?”
He looked like a man considering throwing himself into an open grave.
“Yes.”
The answer came quietly.
Elara’s anger faltered.
“Before?”
“Yes.”
“And now?”
Dorian’s eyes met hers.
The whole cemetery seemed to disappear.
For one second, there were no doors.
No monsters.
No ghosts.
Only him.
And that look.
That stupid, impossible, devastating look.
“Yes.”
Elara forgot how to breathe.
The other Elara screamed.
Black power erupted from her body.
Elara was thrown backward.
Dorian caught her before she hit the wall.
Cassian raised his sword.
Maud cast a shield.
Finnian ducked behind a tomb marker that did not exist five seconds earlier.
The other Elara floated above the floor.
Her hair whipped around her face.
“I waited!”
The doors around her burst open.
Hands reached through.
Thousands.
Dead hands.
Shadow hands.
Hands made of smoke.
“I waited while she lived my life!”
Dorian shouted, “You are destabilizing the cemetery!”
“Good!”
A black hand seized Finnian’s ankle.
He screamed.
Maud smacked it away.
“You are becoming embarrassing.”
“I am trying to stay alive!”
Cassian charged.
The other Elara waved one hand.
He flew into a wall.
Dorian released Elara.
“Stay behind me.”
Elara grabbed his coat.
“Do not start that again.”
“She has your magic.”
“So do I.”
“You barely know how to use it.”
“I threw a man through a wall earlier.”
“That was accidental.”
“It was effective.”
The other Elara laughed.
“She always argues when frightened.”
Elara looked at her.
“You need a new personality.”
The woman’s smile disappeared.
Elara lifted the black sword.
“Listen to me.”
The dead hands stopped moving.
“You have every right to be angry.”
Dorian looked at her.
“Elara—”
She raised a hand.
“Quiet.”
He actually obeyed.
Cassian looked impressed.
Elara continued.
“If you are part of me, then what happened to you was cruel.”
The other Elara lowered slightly.
“You were abandoned.”
A tremor ran through her face.
“You were forgotten.”
The cemetery quieted.
“And I am sorry.”
The woman whispered, “Sorry?”
“Yes.”
“You think sorry is enough?”
“No.”
Elara took another step.
“But killing me will not give you those years back.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed.
“What makes you think I want to kill you?”
Elara stopped.
Dorian went still.
Cassian slowly stood.
“What do you want?” Elara asked.
The woman smiled.
“You.”
Cold spread through Elara’s body.
The woman touched her own chest.
“We were never meant to stay separate.”
Dorian whispered, “No.”
Elara looked at him.
He was afraid.
The woman extended her hand.
“Merge with me.”
Elara stared.
“What happens?”
“You remember everything.”
Dorian immediately said, “No.”
The woman ignored him.
“You become whole.”
“And you?”
“I become you.”
Elara frowned.
“That sounds suspiciously like dying.”
Finnian called from behind the tomb marker.
“It absolutely sounds like dying.”
The woman’s smile sharpened.
“You would not die.”
“What would happen to the person I am now?”
Silence.
Elara nodded slowly.
“That is what I thought.”
Dorian stepped closer.
“You cannot merge.”
The woman looked at him.
“You fear she will remember what you did.”
His face hardened.
Elara turned.
“What did he do?”
Dorian swore.
Cassian sighed.
“Here we go.”
The woman laughed.
“You truly never told her?”
“Elara, do not listen.”
“What did you do?”
The woman’s eyes glowed.
“Ask him how the First King was imprisoned.”
Elara looked at Dorian.
His face told her everything.
He was hiding another piece.
She felt sick.
“What did you do?”
Dorian’s voice was barely audible.
“I used you.”
The words fell heavily.
Elara stared.
“How?”
“I used your blood to seal him beneath the city.”
Her heart sank.
The other Elara smiled.
“And when the ritual required a sacrifice…”
Dorian closed his eyes.
Elara whispered, “Dorian.”
He looked at her.
“I chose you.”
Silence.
The cemetery seemed to tilt.
Elara stepped back.
“You sacrificed me?”
“No.”
The other Elara laughed.
“Yes.”
Dorian’s voice cracked.
“It was not that simple.”
“It never is with you.”
“Elara—”
“You let me die?”
“I thought it was the only way to stop him.”
Her face hardened.
“And afterward you helped erase me.”
“Yes.”
“Then spent three hundred years looking for me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He stared at her.
“Because I was wrong.”
The answer broke something open in her.
Not forgiveness.
Not yet.
But something.
Dorian stepped closer.
“I spent three centuries regretting it.”
His voice grew quieter.
“I thought saving the city mattered more than saving you.”
Elara swallowed.
“And now?”
His silver eyes locked on hers.
“Now I would burn Belladonna to the ground before I let it take you again.”
Nobody spoke.
Finnian slowly emerged from hiding.
“That was disturbingly romantic.”
Maud nodded.
“Very.”
Elara wanted to be furious.
She was furious.
But her heart had betrayed her.
It beat too fast.
Too hard.
Dorian looked at her mouth.
Then immediately looked away.
Which was somehow worse.
The other Elara’s face twisted with rage.
“You don’t get to love her.”
Dorian turned.
“You do not decide that.”
“I am her.”
“No.”
His voice was firm.
“You are what was cut away.”
The other Elara screamed.
Black energy exploded.
A crack split the cemetery ceiling.
Something fell through.
A small body.
Elara gasped.
“Nyra!”
The child crashed onto the stone.
Elara ran.
Dorian shouted behind her.
She ignored him.
Nyra lay motionless.
Black veins covered her arms.
Elara dropped beside her.
“Nyra.”
No response.
“Nyra!”
The child opened one black eye.
“Mother?”
Relief hit Elara so hard she nearly cried.
“I’m here.”
Nyra grabbed her wrist.
“Grandfather is coming.”
The entire cemetery shook.
A deep roar rolled through the earth.
Every white door turned black.
Except Elara’s.
Her duplicate stared upward.
“No.”
Cassian looked around.
“He found us.”
The stone floor cracked.
An enormous shadow spread beneath them.
Dorian grabbed Elara and Nyra.
“We move.”
“Where?”
Maud pointed toward a staircase appearing behind the doors.
“The Undercrypt.”
Finnian went pale.
“No.”
Elara looked at him.
“You say that a lot.”
“The Undercrypt is beneath the cemetery.”
“Yes.”
“That is where they bury things the dead are afraid of.”
Elara stared.
“Wonderful.”
The other Elara suddenly seized Elara’s wrist.
Dorian raised his dagger.
“Let her go.”
The woman ignored him.
Her eyes locked on Elara’s.
“We have no time.”
“For what?”
“To decide.”
“Decide what?”
The woman leaned close.
“Whether you want to remember why your father was imprisoned.”
Elara froze.
The First King roared beneath them.
The woman whispered:
“Because Dorian did not betray you first.”
Her smile vanished.
“You betrayed him.”
Elara’s blood ran cold.
“What did I do?”
The duplicate’s eyes filled with tears.
“You opened the gate on purpose.”
Then the cemetery floor split open.
And everything fell into darkness.
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