Chapter 63
Chapter Sixty-Three
BELLAMY
I paced back and forth on the terrace as Leoni and Driscoll stared at me. I’d told them everything that happened in the dream, and they were out of ideas. They’d read my father’s journal entries at least five or six times since I’d handed them over. That had been our only idea. Other than that, there was nothing anywhere about how to strip away the gods’ powers. That had been our only lead, and it had ended abruptly.
“If there is a way to rid the gods of their immortality, Khalasa is the only one who knows, and she’ll never tell,” I signed. “We’re doomed unless we figure something out.”
“Wait.” Leoni chewed on her thumbnail. “That’s it. Khalasa is the only one who knows. So you go into her mind.”
I stilled, staring at Leoni.
“Are you insane?” Driscoll whirled on her. “Khalasa is a goddess.”
I gestured to Driscoll and nodded.
“So are you.” Leoni rolled her eyes. “You are Khalasa’s daughter. If anyone can do this, it’s you. You’re the only one who can do this.”
Driscoll scratched his head. “Well, damn. That was actually a compelling argument.”
I started to shake my head when a voice rang out.
“She’s right.” I turned, my father standing in the doorway of the terrace. Moonlight shone down, haloing him in its milky glow. “You’ve got to find out, Bell. I can’t remember. But she knows, and that’s the key.”
“Father.” I rushed to him. “What are you doing out of bed?”
Wesley and Jerome flew after him. “We tried to stop him,” Jerome said. “He’s very determined. Like father, like daughter.”
I pushed my father back inside, but he resisted, straightening. “I’m okay right now.” He put his hands on my shoulders. “I feel better than I have in a long, long time.” He touched his head.
“It’s working,” Leoni said. She and Driscoll stared at me with awe. “Whatever you’re doing in your father’s mind. It’s working.”
“She has a point.” Driscoll shrugged. “You’re undoing what an actual spirit did.” He cleared his throat. “Or goddess. So weird saying that.”
Leoni stepped forward. “Face it. This is what has to happen.”
The thought of entering Khalasa’s mind and trying to fight against her to get information—it felt impossible. Like a weight sitting on my shoulders, holding me down. I was powerful, yes. But powerful enough to go against Khalasa? “I can’t do this alone.”
Leoni and Driscoll looked at each other.
“You’re not alone,” Driscoll said. “Haven’t you figured that out yet? You’re kind of stuck with us.”
“He’s right.” Leoni laughed and gave a shrug. “We started this journey and we’re going to see it to the end.”
A hand slipped through mine, and I looked over at my father. He nodded, his eyes dimming, some of that lucidity fading as he scrunched his brows.
“Where am I?” He looked down at our clasped hands. “What’s going on?”
Oh, Father. Maybe he was getting better, but not nearly enough. He still was having these episodes far too often.
“They’re coming,” he said with a shaking voice. “They’re coming.”
“Who is coming?” Leoni said.
I gripped my father’s arm tighter, wondering if he was remembering a nightmare, having an episode.
“Leoni,” Driscoll murmured. “Don’t feed into it.”
I was about to lead my father inside when, suddenly, feathers filled the night sky, wings flapping, swans swarming the terrace in a flurry of activity.
“They’re gone,” my father said with a shaky voice. “They’re gone.”
My gaze snapped to the swans, then to the unfinished sweater laying on the chair. Its arm was still missing. But?—
I scrambled to the other pile of sweaters.
“What’s going on?” Leoni asked.
“I think maybe it’s time,” Driscoll said slowly, looking between my father and the swans. “To break the curse.”
I grabbed the sweaters up in my arms but paused when a roar shook the terrace.
Driscoll’s head snapped over, and he ran to the balcony, looking out. “No way,” he said.
“What is that?” my father asked, eyes darting around frantically.
A smile spread across my face as I signed, “A friend.”
Aron sat with us on the balcony. The shadows were no match for his wolf form as he burst through the wall surrounding the abandoned village below. We’d watched as he ran through the village so far below, then bounded up the mountain path and toward the castle.
We had to reassure the pixies he was a friend and not a giant wolf coming to eat all of us, and now here he was. I could barely believe it.
His blond hair was longer, curling around the nape of his neck. He rubbed his strong jaw, blue eyes sharp and assessing.
My father had been so distressed by all of it, Jerome and Wesley had taken him back to his room, and I hoped he was sleeping now. Resting. I’d visit his dreams again later tonight.
The swans had calmed down, all of them sitting on the terrace, watching Aron. They knew him well. His arrival must’ve been why they’d been so worked up.
“What are you doing here?” Driscoll asked, staring at Aron with wide eyes.
“I don’t come with good news,” Aron said, his face severe.
I swallowed, waiting for the hammer to drop.
“She came for the axe.”
No.
“I don’t know how she knew it was in the frost castle,” Aron said. “But she did, and she took it.”
The edge of my mind tickled, something feeling fuzzy, not quite right. I gasped. “She’s been in my mind somehow. Digging through it. She found out from me.”
Now that I was saying it, I knew it was true, and my stomach dropped.
“Do you think Kairoth has found her yet?” Leoni asked, leaning against the balcony.
“I don’t know.”
But if she had almost all the weapons, I hoped not. Kairoth claimed gods couldn’t be killed, but I had a feeling Khalasa knew more than us, more than she was letting on.
“What do we do?” Driscoll asked helplessly, and for the first time since I met him, I detected actual fear in his voice.
I glanced at everyone’s defeated faces, their slumped forms, and I stood. “I’ll do it. I’ll enter Khalasa’s mind.”