Chapter 69
Chapter Sixty-Nine
BELLAMY
W e ran as fast as our legs would carry us toward the fighting. The closer we came, the more the ground shook, trees rattling, creatures scurrying in the opposite direction. Fissures broke through the ground, and I wondered if it was the gods’ magic causing all this chaos. Rain pounded against us now, and a harsh wind whipped through the jungle, bending the trees to its will.
We finally arrived at the battle site to see magic flying everywhere in complete chaos. For every god, there were at least thirty people battling against them.
Leoni had been successful in rallying the Neverland boys, and even though many of them were decades old, it still felt wrong watching some of the younger ones fighting. At least they had their shadows back. At least they could grow old now. If they survived this.
The gods’ magic was strong, getting stronger by the minute.
Kairoth commanded his shadows, mainly on the defense, keeping everyone safe. An ice shard flew through the air, and Kairoth commanded a shadow to fly in front of it, blocking the shard from hitting its target.
The shadow dissipated then reformed.
His family’s shadows still swirled around him, forming the beast with its red glowing eyes and snapping jaws. The beast snapped a spear of water in half, the water splashing down to the ground and further soaking everyone below.
“There.” Ryder pointed to Khalasa, who was off to the side, not summoning her magic, not fighting any battles, just watching.
Waiting.
For us. Her gaze locked on the eight of us standing together, and a slow smile spread across her face.
My brothers gathered in front of me. Still my protectors after all this time. But I’d grown up. I didn’t need protecting.
A boy cried out as a fireball hit him square in the chest, and he fell to the ground, dead on contact.
“Time to end this,” I said as we made our way through the battle and toward Khalasa.
“Watch out!” Jorah called right as a vine snaked out through the air and straight toward us.
The vine was inches from impaling Soloman when a shadow darted in front of our group, catching the vine.
I looked over to Kairoth across the throngs of people. He stared at me from behind his shadow beast, his eyes glowing red.
I raised a hand and put it to my heart, and he did the same before turning his attention back to the fight.
We picked our way through trees and brambles, boots sinking in the muddy jungle ground while the wind howled around us. Khalasa watched us the entire time, not making any move to fight.
“Why isn’t she attacking?” Killian asked.
“Probably some psychological game,” Ryder muttered.
“She’s too proud,” I said. “She wants to defeat us fairly. So she’ll wait until we get to her.”
We all came to a stop in front of the goddess. “Your father is dead, so now I just need to exterminate his offspring. Then I’ll go for your mother, of course, and the last remaining legacy of your father will finally be gone from this world.”
So much hate. It was hard to believe my father had ever fallen in love with her. But that wasn’t fair. She’d tricked him, made him believe she wanted the same things as him. When really she’d just wanted him under her control.
Ryder unsheathed the sword at his side and charged for Khalasa. My other brothers followed behind, all of them waving their weapons in her direction. She reached up toward the sky, summoning her starlight, which spliced down through the canopies. My brothers hadn’t lost a step.
They deftly avoided the starlight, slashing at it, dodging the strands of light that attempted to trip them or bind them.
My heart clenched. I wanted to fight with them. I wanted to keep them safe. But I had to use this opportunity they were giving me to get into Khalasa’s mind and get the answers that would save us all.
Shadows surrounded me, and I glanced back at Kairoth. He was ensuring I stayed protected while I dug into the goddess’s memories.
“Watch out!” someone yelled from behind as a huge explosion of fire hit a group of boys. They flew backward, all of their lifeless bodies landing on the ground.
Now. I had to go now. I reached for the starlight above, and then I drove straight into Khalasa’s mind.
Unlike last time, Khalasa’s mind wasn’t completely blank. There were windows, doors, pathways I could take. So our plan was already working. She was distracted fighting my brothers, unable to completely guard herself from me.
The question remained: where would this memory be? I reached for my power, letting the stars guide me. They knew all. They were timeless. They had the answers, and they could lead me to them. So I asked the starlight for help.
In the corner of Khalasa’s mind, a door creaked open, the starlight shining on it. There. It was telling me to go there.
I wove my way toward it when the ground ruptured underneath my feet. A huge crack fizzled across her mind, creating a chasm in the black space between me and the door.
I scrambled backward as the chasm grew wider, threatening to swallow me whole. My father had always warned me about star elementals who had gone too deep into someone’s mind, getting lost and unable to find their way back out. They became like blank voids. Alive and breathing, but their minds were no longer present. It was a horrible existence, and as a goddess’s daughter, I didn’t know if it could happen to me.
I didn’t know much about my powers. Khalasa was likely the only one who could teach me, and she never would. So I needed to be careful.
I heard the distant cries of the battle, and Khalasa’s mind trembled around me, sending vibrations up my legs. Maybe one of my brothers had gotten a hit on her. Either way, she was still able to keep me from whatever it was she didn’t want me to see.
I backed up a few steps, then took a running leap over the chasm. My body slammed into the other side, and I slid down, my hands catching on the black edges of the smooth surface. I dug my fingers into the floor, trying to keep myself from falling down into the void below, where I’d surely be lost forever.
I grunted, screaming out as I heaved myself up. The chasm rumbled, widening again, and I had to run toward the door before it swallowed me.
I threw myself through the open door, and it swung shut with a loud crack.
Chills skittered over my arms. I was in a cave somewhere now. I gasped. And there was Khalasa. My heart hammered in my chest as I walked toward her.
She knelt down over something that I couldn’t see, her purple gown flowing around her. I edged closer just as Khalasa stood, turning and staring straight at me.
“You really thought it would be so easy?” she asked.
My breath hitched. Was this a memory? Or was Khalasa somehow here, in her own mind, toying with me?
“Maybe it’s both,” she said. “You could have been great, you know. We could have worked together. Mother and daughter. An unstoppable force.”
Her black hair hung around her shoulders, the same color as mine, but whereas her strands were melded into perfect waves, mine were wild and untamable. Just like my father’s.
“No,” I said, “we couldn’t have been. I am my father’s daughter, and my father would never ally with someone like you.”
“No, he’d just sleep with me, then discard me like I’m the one who’s nothing.”
I circled her, legs braced and hands out. This was a mind, just like any other mind, and that meant I had some control. I looked down, and a sword unraveled in my hand.
“How utterly human of you,” Khalasa said. “Your brothers are using the same kind of weapons against me right now. And it’s not going well.”
A cold sweat broke out over my brow. I needed to hurry. To get the information and get the bloody stars out of here so I could help them.
“You’re not going to find what you want,” Khalasa said as I lunged at her.
I jabbed my sword toward her stomach, trying to force her out of the way so I could see what she was looking at.
She spun, then stretched out a hand and threw bolts of starlight at me. I rolled to the ground, tumbling to my feet as the bolts flew over my head.
She sucked in a sharp breath, doubling over. My brothers. One of them must’ve gotten a hit on her. She groaned, then cracked her neck and set her attention back on me.
The sword in my hand disappeared, and I imagined two daggers. They appeared and I hurled them straight toward Khalasa as another blow wracked her body. Something was happening out there. My brothers were gaining ground on her. The daggers drove straight into her dress, pinning her to the cave wall and giving me the extra second I needed to stretch out my hand and summon what she’d been looking at in this cave.
Small rocks flew into my palm, and I stared down at them, brows bunched. Shimmery dust covered each of the rocks. Seven rocks. Seven different colors.
Khalasa appeared in front of me, the daggers I’d imagined now gone, her dress perfectly in place.
“Confused? So was I when I found these rocks. These glittering pieces of magic. All my research led me to them.”
The rocks glittered in my hand, and I could feel the weight of their power. It seared into me.
“Your research to rid yourself of your power? So you could be with my father?” I asked.
Khalasa wheezed out a breath, and I hoped my brothers were doing okay, were managing against her.
“Yes, that had been the plan. I really did want to be with him.” She looked longingly at the rocks. “But as I discovered, I wanted my power more.”
“So what was the key?” I asked, not actually expecting her to answer.
“That’s the funny part about all of this.” She leaned in, red lips stretched into a power-hungry smile. “I figured it out when I found these. They were remnants of the original stone we pulled the weapons from. Little pieces of the stone that had fallen loose. See, we have no control over any of this, Bellamy. This continent created those weapons. It shipwrecked us. It chose the seven of us to pull those weapons from the stone. The stone was a way to trap the magic, shield it, control it. But once the weapons were pulled from the stone, there was no going back.” She stared at the seven stones. “Of course there were loopholes, ways to trap the gods using that stone, as your father found out. But there was no way to actually get rid of the magic. Get rid of us.”
“But...” I tried to make sense of what she was telling me. “But my father sensed you manipulated his mind, made him forget what he’d seen from your notes and journals.”
“I didn’t do anything,” she said. “Your father wanted to believe there was a way to rid himself of his immortality. He clung to that hope. He forced himself to believe that somehow I had the answer, that I’d hidden it from him, and that meant he could find it too. He dedicated his entire life to finding it.” She laughed. “Pathetic.”
I snarled. “You’re not worthy of any of this, and I will continue his life’s work and find a way to defeat you.” I lunged forward right as the rocks in her palm glowed, stopping me.
Khalasa’s smile widened, sinister and slithering over me. “I couldn’t rid myself of my magic, and neither can you.” The dust lifted and swirled around her in a rainbow of color. “The magic has to choose to leave me, and it never has. The magic wanted leaders, gods to wield it, to have this power. Do you understand, my daughter? There is no way to separate us from the magic. This is a losing battle, and every single one of you who’s fighting against us is going to die.”