Chapter 64
Chapter Sixty-Four
BELLAMY
I closed my eyes and reached for the starlight above, letting the light guide my mind toward the star court. That was where Khalasa had to be, no doubt looking for her scythe. The final weapon.
It only took a few moments to locate her, and when I did, I entered her mind. It was easy to get in, but inside, it was blank, similar to the shadows.
I wondered if she felt me, if she knew I was there, poking around. She must’ve kept all her thoughts, memories, hidden away. Maybe she’d anticipated this, knew I’d be coming.
Either way, I didn’t have time to waste. I moved around the dark spaces, unable to see anything, feeling my way around until I felt resistance. Something was lurking in the recesses of this darkness, something Khalasa wanted to keep hidden.
I pushed harder, my magic lighting up the space with its silvery hue. A door stood in front of me. I tried to open it, but it was locked. I shook the handle, but the door wouldn’t budge. My magic flowed through me, and I reached for the power of the stars, letting the light push from my hands and into the door. It began to crack and splinter, and my heart pounded in anticipation of what I might find on the other side.
A scream split the air, and my head snapped back, my magic faltering.
The scream was distant, and it took me a moment to realize that it wasn’t just one. It was multiple screams. They were happening wherever Khalasa was. My stomach twisted into a knot. Khalasa could be destroying the Wilds right now, hurting everyone who lived there. I had to see what was happening.
Then, I heard a male voice, and my blood ran cold.
“Don’t do this, Khalasa.” It was Kairoth.
I moved away from the door and toward the sound. Darkness once again surrounded me, but the voices were my guide as I made my way to the part of her mind where I could see what was happening.
A little window appeared, and I walked up to it, looking through to see the crypt, the stones that trapped the remaining gods—and Kairoth with his shadows swirling around him in their beast form, eyes red and glowing.
Starlight and moonlight slashed through the gaping hole in the ceiling of the crypt, and Khalasa bent it toward the shadowy beast, making the shadows leap back toward the darkness.
“I don’t need my shadows to fight you,” Kairoth said, the angry shadow beast snapping its jaws at the light.
Khalasa laughed. “I don’t care what you use to fight me, Kairoth. You won’t win.”
Behind her, starlight wove into chains that bound all the weapons together, including Kairoth’s dagger. The starlight glowed so bright it was blinding. His shadows tried to snatch the weapons, but the starlight bound the weapons too tightly. The shadows couldn’t get them.
I pressed my hands up against the window, staring from Khalasa’s mind, helpless to do anything but stand there and watch.
Kairoth’s shadowy beast charged toward Khalasa. She raised a hand, and the stars obeyed, their light shining down brighter, making the beast roar and cover its eyes. I had to look away, the light so glaring it hurt my eyes. I peeked through my fingers. Kairoth twisted his hand, and the beast chomped at the starlight, but it bent again, this time forming into a lasso that wrapped around the shadowy beast’s neck.
Khalasa could do things with the starlight I’d never imagined. Used it in terrifying and wonderful ways.
She so effortlessly called to the stars, used their light to do whatever she wanted. And Kairoth did the same with his shadows. His beasts evaporated, the lasso dropping from its neck as it sank to the ground in a puddle, then reformed into its beast shape near the wall. It reached out a long leg and slashed at Khalasa.
“You caught me by surprise last time,” Khalasa said, jumping back. “The only reason you were able to trap me was because I didn’t see you coming. But that’s not going to happen again, Kairoth.”
She reached up and directed the starlight straight at the beast, the light burst into daggers that drove into the shadows and shattered them into a million little pieces.
They reformed as smaller beasts, about ten of them that charged at Khalasa from all different directions.
I wondered if, like elementals, the gods’ magic drained the more they used it. Probably not. So this could go on for a long, long time.
One of the shadow beasts leapt onto Khalasa’s back, and she let out a scream as another beast chomped at her hand, which it swallowed as blood spurted from her wrist. The starlight disappeared.
I gasped.
Yes. He was doing it. His shadows were defeating her. Another shadow snapped off her other hand, the cave dark other than the moonlight that shone through the hole, far enough away from them that it didn’t bother the shadows.
Khalasa screamed as blood poured from her wounds. She’d grow her hands back soon. The gods could be injured and hurt, but they could always recover. That was what made them deadly. Whatever Kairoth was planning, he needed to hurry.
The shadows forced Khalasa to her knees, wrapping around her so tight she couldn’t move.
Kairoth approached her, his boots thumping against the uneven ground.
Khalasa glared up at him.
“I won’t let you release them,” he said. “And I will find a way to defeat you once and for all.”
Khalasa struggled against the shadows, and she spit at Kairoth’s feet. “You are a coward. You won’t face the other gods after how you betrayed us all.”
“I didn’t betray anyone,” he said. “You were going to destroy the world.”
“Except we weren’t the ones who destroyed it, were we?” Khalasa asked.
Kairoth stiffened, one of his shadows lashing out from where it bound Khalasa. He needed to keep his emotions in check, to not let Khalasa get to him.
She smiled. “You let all those mortals die because you were selfish. Because you couldn’t handle that all the other gods were getting so much attention, so much adoration, while you were left behind.”
His eyes flashed red. “That’s why you think I trapped you?” He shoved a hand through his hair. “You are more delusional than I realized. All of you had gotten out of control. You were fighting all the time, and mortals were your casualties. You were using them like pawns on a game board.”
“Because that’s what they were,” Khalasa said.
Stop talking to her, Kairoth. Just whisk her away already. Get her back to the prison cells and out of this crypt.
But, of course, Kairoth couldn’t hear me. “I never meant for anyone to die. And believe me, I regret it more than you can ever imagine. But this is my second chance. I won’t let you destroy this world. Hurt these people.”
“And what’s your plan?” Khalasa asked.
Kairoth’s jaw tightened.
Khalasa laughed, her red lips curving as she threw her head back. “You don’t have one, do you? After all this time, you still don’t know how to destroy us.”
“It’s only a matter of time before I find out,” Kairoth said, raising his hand, his shadows lifting Khalasa into the air.
Blood still leaked from her nubs.
A realization hit me. I could do something to help. I could find a part of Khalasa’s mind to manipulate, to weaken her. I could try and put her to sleep. Anything. Kairoth didn’t have to fight this battle alone. I felt stupid that I hadn’t thought of this sooner. But I would do whatever it took to help him win, to help keep him safe.
I stretched out my hands and summoned my star magic, using it to brighten the space before me, still blank and empty. Khalasa hid so much away. If I didn’t know she was a goddess, I’d think she was dead based on what I felt, what I saw.
I needed to explore, and there wasn’t time for that.
“Well, well, well,” Khalasa said. “Looks like we have a visitor. She’s a clever one. Which makes sense since she’s my daughter.”
No. She knew I was here. In her mind. I should have left, but I couldn’t, not until I saw that Kairoth was safe, that Khalasa was on her way back to being imprisoned. I turned back to the window, dread filling me.
“What are you talking about?” Kairoth snapped.
“Your little pet. She’s in my mind, watching all of this. I could break her, you know. I could go into her mind and twist it as badly as I did her father’s. Make her go mad. Make her think you’re the enemy.”
“Touch her, and you will . . .”
“What?” Khalasa asked. “What will you do to me?”
She was bluffing. She couldn’t hurt me. Especially not right now, trapped by Kairoth’s shadow magic. He needed to get her out of here.
She tsked. “You care for her. I can see it in your eyes.” Khalasa laughed again. “Of course you’d fall for a mortal.”
“Didn’t you?” he asked. “You loved Bathalous. You still do.”
“Oh, please. He entertained me.”
“He threw you away,” Kairoth said. “And you couldn’t stand that. That someone didn’t want you.”
“What I couldn’t stand was that a mortal thought he was better than me. That he thought he could just end things with me. A goddess. He should’ve been worshipping the ground I walked on. Thankful just to get to be with me.”
Kairoth scoffed. “You’re unbelievable.”
“I’m going to get free,” Khalasa said. “And when I do, I’m going to find Bellamy and I’m going to turn her against you.”
I stiffened at her words. I would never let her do that. Kairoth had to know that. He had to understand I was strong enough to withstand whatever she threw my way.
But Kairoth reached out a hand, wrapping it around Khalasa’s neck. She smiled, choking as his hand tightened. This was what she wanted. A reaction. It was working.
All of a sudden, starlight blasted from her hands. I hadn’t even realized that they’d regrown, and neither had Kairoth. His shadows shattered and split, the force throwing them back against the cave wall, along with Kairoth.
His head hit a rock, and he fell unconscious. He’d wake soon enough. He’d be okay. But it would be too late.
“Are you watching, daughter?” Khalasa said as she stood. “It’s going to be a good show.”
Ice filled my veins, the cold prickling down my spine, making the hairs on my arms raise.
Khalasa reached out toward the weapons, twirling her finger as the starlight chains broke. She then slashed a hand through the air. Strands of starlight reached down, forming hands that grabbed the weapons and threw them through the air and straight toward the stones.
Each weapon embedded itself into a different stone. Cracks formed in the rocks like webs, stretching out until the stone broke into pieces.
It fell in chunks to the ground, dust rising up in thick swaths. I watched it all in horror, unable to do anything to stop this.
The ground rumbled, chunks of rock falling and smashing all around. Khalasa stood there, waiting while Kairoth still lay unconscious.
All of a sudden, a slash of frosty blue shot from one of the nooks. Then a fiery red. Then green. Then sapphire. And finally, white.
Khalasa raised her arms and commanded the starlight once again. It formed cage bars over the opening of the crypt, trapping the wild magic that flew around the cave.
“Brothers, sisters,” Khalasa called. “You’ve been trapped for a very, very long time. Your magic is unpredictable right now. It’s out of control.”
The magic swelled, the colors filling the cave and crisscrossing everywhere.
“It will calm down, and then you will be at full power again.”
Her voice appeared in my mind, and I jumped. “And then we’ll be coming for you, daughter.”
My eyes popped open, and I gasped.
“What?” Driscoll frowned over me. “What’s wrong?”
“The gods are free,” I signed as Driscoll, Leoni, and Aron crowded around me. “They’re free, and they’re coming for us.”