Chapter 70
Chapter Seventy
BELLAMY
I jolted back into the jungle, horrified as I watched my brothers still fighting Khalasa. She smiled at me as Ryder swung his sword in her direction, her star powers bending upward to throw him back. He flew through the air and hit a tree with a sick crack.
“No,” I said. “Ryder!”
Killian ran to him, helping him up, and relief flooded me when I saw him able to move. Alive. For now.
Khalasa’s words echoed in my head. We were all going to die. There was no way to defeat them. The magic chose them to lead us.
Something about her words niggled at the edges of my mind. The magic chose them. I thought about Maverick’s words from earlier, his questions. Why did my father get a weapon? Who chose him?
I remembered those rocks glowing when I said Khalasa didn’t deserve her magic. I gasped, a realization hitting me as the earth trembled under our feet, everyone stumbling at the force of it.
I raised my hands up, summoning my starlight. It wrapped around me, blanketed me, like a gentle caress.
You don’t want to be controlled anymore. You chose leaders. Made them into gods. But it was a mistake. I spoke to my magic in a way I never had before.
It tightened around me, a gentle Yessssss echoing in my mind.
I thought about my father’s journal entries. He’d mentioned natural disasters happening everywhere—before the gods were trapped. The magic was already trying to destroy the earth, trying to rid itself of the gods and the mortals who had corrupted its magic, abused it.
Jorah, Phoenix, and Killian all fought Khalasa as she bent her starlight around them, and they slashed at it while Klaus jumped on her back. She screamed out as he yanked her hair.
The magic chose my father to lead. It was hoping to find someone noble, someone who could change the realm. But he rejected it. Rejected the net he’d been given. So the magic continued on its course of destruction. Once everyone was destroyed, it went dormant, burrowing itself away. It emerged again when my father returned and asked it to. It gave mortals a second chance, but this time, it chose no leaders. Everyone had the same powers, the same abilities. The magic didn’t want to be wielded by gods. It realized its mistake and did its best to correct it.
The ground trembled under us again, cracking, swallowing whole bushes. The sky rumbled louder, rain pouring and hail pelting us. The trees shook with the roar of the wind.
The magic was doing it again, I realized. It was going to purge us because the gods were back. It was going to destroy everything all over again. Just like it had before, believing we were all part of the problem.
“What’s happening?” Lochlan called, shaking his auburn curls from his forehead as he reached for Poppy and drew her to his chest protectively.
From above, hail and rain fell in heavy sheaths, clattering against the branches. Everyone shielded themselves from the onslaught while the gods continued their assault. So many had already died. Too many.
I remembered my father’s journal entries, his description of the end of the world.
“The magic is destroying the world again,” I yelled. “Just like it did to the Old World.”
“No.” Princess Gabrielle grabbed the pirate lord’s hand, and he wrapped her in his arms. “That can’t be true.”
King Penn looked at his feet as the ground cracked beneath it. “I think she’s right.” Queen Liliath stepped closer to him.
I looked at Kairoth, and he nodded. I was right.
“Perfect,” Aethira said. “We can begin again and rule over mortals who actually appreciate us.”
She didn’t understand. The realization hit me like a lightning strike. The magic would destroy the gods too. It didn’t before because they were trapped, but now it would. Like Khalasa said, the magic had to choose to take away their immortality, and maybe the only way to do that was by destroying everything, including them.
The trees began to crack in half, their roots coming undone as they toppled over. A few of the boys scattered to avoid being hit.
No, I said to the magic. I’d never spoken to magic before, but I felt its understanding as it hummed against me. Help us destroy them. For good this time. No one will ever have that much power again. You don’t have to kill us all to right the wrongs of the past. There are good people here. People who want this world, this magic, to be what you want it to be.
My magic vibrated against my skin. Screams erupted as the ground cracked in half, swallowing up trees and a few of the boys.
You’re not alone, I said to my magic, realizing it was just like me. It thought it had to do this by itself. That it had no one to rely on. And neither are we. It’s not us who are the problem. It’s them. So take back control.
The magic once again hummed around me, and I wasn’t sure if I’d convinced it.
I stared at the carnage around the jungle. The bodies scattered everywhere, the elementals fighting with their magic, using it against the gods and their mighty weapons...
The weapons. The magic chose the gods, gifted them these weapons.
The weapons were the key. I ran through the crowd, yelling to anyone who could hear. “Get their weapons. Get the weapons. We need the weapons. That’s the key.”
The louder I yelled, the more everyone began to take notice. Help us get those weapons, I begged the magic.
The gods didn’t pay me any attention, all their focus on destroying us. Leoni threw water spears at Larissa while Driscoll fought against Aethira, spinning vines out at her in rapid motion. Aron was in his wolf form, batting down any magic that came his way.
“The weapons,” I yelled to them. “Get their weapons!”
I sprinted toward Khalasa, who was knocking Klaus backward, my brother hitting the jungle floor, the spear he held flying from his hands.
Khalasa swung her scythe around, pointing it directly at me. “Still fighting?” she asked. “It’s a little pathetic, you know. You can’t win. We’re back, and we’re not going anywhere.” She stepped forward. “And you and your brothers will suffer the same fate as your father.”
She blinked, then shook her head, jabbing her scythe into the air, calling for more power. Then she blinked again.
“Get out of my head,” she growled.
I wasn’t in her head. I took a step forward, and she blinked again.
I turned around, my brothers all behind me in a line, their eyes closed. They were in her mind. All of them.
They were giving me the chance I needed. I ran toward her and kicked out my leg. She caught it with her hands, dropping her scythe to the ground. She gripped my leg tight and spun me around. I fell face first into the mud.
“I got it!” Driscoll held Aethira’s weapon in his hands. It glowed bright, and Aethira snarled at him, but right when she reached out to grab her weapon, he jabbed it straight into her heart.
She looked down, then back up with a smirk. “Good try, mortal, but you can’t kill me with my weapon. No one can.”
Driscoll shot a panicked look over his shoulder. “Got any other ideas?”
Aethira’s smile slowly vanished, her eyes widening as green cracks spread from where Driscoll had driven the weapon into her heart. Green glitter exploded, Aethira screaming as the magic ripped her and her weapon apart.
The remaining gods’ eyes widened.
I gasped. The magic was fighting back. We weren’t alone, and neither was it.
A foot stepped on my back, and I wrenched my head around to see Khalasa above me, her heel digging into my spine. My brothers still stood in a line, all of them with joined hands, their eyes closed. Khalasa dug her fingers into her hair, eyes growing wild. I reached out for her scythe, a few feet in front of me, hands scraping at the mud to get it.
Across the clearing, Kairoth was using his shadows to try and get the other gods’ weapons. His own dagger was strapped to his side, nestled safely away.
More trees toppled. Lightning split the sky above. Hail hit my head, bouncing off the ground, a thick layer of the milky white rock settling on the dirt.
“Enough,” Khalasa yelled and held out her hands, rising into the air. She summoned her starlight and shot it at my brothers. All of them flew back, and I let out a scream as they hit the earth.
They lay unmoving, and my heart stopped for what felt like an eternity.
“We’re okay,” Jorah said, slowly sitting up and rubbing the back of his head. My brothers slowly moved, and I was able to breathe again. But not for long.
The rest of the gods followed Khalasa, all of them floating up, weapons in their hands pointed straight at us. They closed in around those of us left, and we all backed in tight.
A hand closed around mine, and I looked over to see Kairoth next to me, his shadows swirling around him. His eyes glowed red behind the wispy forms.
“I’m with you,” he said. “Until the end.”
The gods stared down at us, fury in their tense shoulders and blazing eyes.
We’d taken Aethira by surprise, but we wouldn’t be able to do the same with the rest of the gods, not after what they’d just witnessed.
But they didn’t just look angry. Ysar’s eyes shifted back and forth. Larissa’s face had lost some of its color. Ragar swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing. They were worried. Unsettled by what had just happened.
I stepped forward through the crowd. “The gods abused your power,” I called to the magic, voice ringing out through the jungle, and everyone turned to look at me. I summoned my starlight, the gods shifting their weapons toward me. “They took the precious magic the land offered them and turned it into tools of power, oppression, and vanity. They don’t deserve to wield you any longer.”
Queen Liliath eyed me, then raised her chin and reached up toward a branch. It dipped down toward her finger, and she caressed it. “They take you for granted.”
“They are the reason you had to destroy everyone in the first place.” Princess Gabrielle flipped over her palm and a ball of water appeared over it.
Queen Poppy flapped her wings, wind swirling around her that lifted her thick brown hair. “They are not worthy of you because they do not respect you.”
Maverick kept a tight hold on Emory, but she gently shook loose from his grip. “They don’t think they need to earn your trust or respect and so they are reckless with you.”
“You don’t have to destroy the world again,” I pleaded as the jungle began to fold in on itself around us, the very earth swallowing it up. I thought of my father, how he’d blamed himself for what had happened, but really it was going to happen either way. “They are the reason you’ve been misused. Abused. Not the rest of us.”
“It’s cute how they think anyone is in control except for us,” Ysar said as if Aethira hadn’t just burst into dust. They knew. They knew and they were bluffing.
“Are you done yet?” Larissa asked, staring at her long blue nails. “This is getting boring.”
“I agree.” Ragar ran a finger over the hilt of his hammer. “I’d rather get back to the fighting.”
As if in response, the world around us suddenly went silent and still. The hail and rain stopped. The ground no longer rumbled. Trees stopped falling.
The gods looked at each other, and Kairoth squeezed my hand hard. I screamed out, “Now!”
Everyone moved at once, magic flying at the gods in a rush, a mixture of water, wind, fire, starlight, and earth, taking the gods’ weapons. And dust. The glittering dust appeared in the air, swirling around the gods’ eyes, keeping them from being able to move.
My brothers appeared next to me and shoved out their hands, right in Khalasa’s direction. They looked at me and I nodded as I stretched out my own hands while Khalasa swatted the purple dust swarming her. Seven bands of starlight wrapped around Khalasa’s scythe and ripped it from her hands. The dust fell to the ground and disappeared.
The gods stared at us, dumbfounded.
The magic was listening. It was helping us do what we needed to do. It wasn’t going to destroy this world after all. Just what needed to be destroyed.
Aron shifted into his human form. He was getting better at controlling when he could shift. Emory handed the frost god’s axe to him and nodded. Each ruler of the seven courts held onto a weapon.
“Now,” I yelled.
The rulers stepped forward in unison, launching the weapons straight toward the gods. The gods screamed out as they and the weapons exploded in bursts of blue, white, red, and gray. The glittering dust burst in the air like confetti, raining down over us. Jorah held the scythe out to me, and I took it, staring at Khalasa as she backed away.
Dust floated in the air, the only remnants left of the gods.
“You can’t do this,” she said, voice trembling.
“This is for my father,” I responded, ignoring her pleas as I launched the scythe. Khalasa tried to move, but the earth cracked around her, trapping her. The end of the scythe flew straight into her heart, and she exploded in a cloud of purple dust.
Silence descended upon us, then everyone broke out into cheers, hugging, kissing, crying. My brothers squeezed me tight, then moved on to celebrate with others.
The world slowly faded away as I turned to stare at Kairoth. His shadows slowed in their movement so I could catch glimpses of his face through them.
He stepped toward me. “You know what you have to do.” He tipped his head toward the dagger strapped at his side.
Horror washed over me at the vision I’d had so long ago. “No,” I said as the earth lurched under us.
Cries rang out, the ground continuing to crack and fissure, splitting in a horrible earth-shattering sound.
“Why isn’t it working?” someone shouted.
“Bell!” Soloman yelled.
I looked over to him, to everyone as they stood around us, except the jungle had split in a circle, leaving Kairoth and I on an island barely big enough for us to fit.
Ryder reached for me. “Come. Now!”
I held out a hand. “Just wait. Just let me?—”
I turned to Kairoth, panic seizing me.
His eyes softened to their amber color. “You know this was how it was going to end.”
“No.” I beat my fists into his chest. “No.” My voice cracked. “You told me visions don’t always ring true. You’re good. You were good.” I raised my voice, shouting at the magic. “Don’t take him. Don’t demand him too.”
As if in answer, the island we stood on began to crack apart, and black dust rose up around us.
“Bellamy! Jump, now!” Jorah gestured for me. “Don’t let the magic take you too.”
Everyone else stared at us with sorrow in their eyes. Some with pity. Others with confusion.
The cool steel of Kairoth’s dagger pressed into my palm. “You have to do this. I won’t let you die with me.”
“I can’t.” Tears leaked down my cheeks. “I can’t lose you.”
“You won’t ever lose me.” He caressed my cheek. “You found me. You saw me. You gave meaning to a meaningless life. I love you, Bellamy.”
I choked out a sob. “Please don’t make me do this.”
He folded my hand around the hilt of the dagger. The island shook beneath us, and I almost stumbled off as the ground began to crumble further, the dust closing in around us.
“You have to jump now!” Jorah called. “Bellamy, jump!”
I ignored him. I ignored everything but Kairoth standing in front of me, his eyes boring into me. He lifted my hand, pointing the dagger straight at his chest. Then he pushed the dagger into his heart.
Black dust exploded, blasting me backward. I barreled over the chasm and into my brothers, all of us tumbling to the ground.
“No!” I screamed, scrambling to my feet as the world stopped shaking once again. “No!” I beat my fists in the ground. “No.”
I felt Soloman’s arm first, then his wing. Then it was Phoenix. Marcello kissing my head. Klaus and Killian stroking my hair. And finally Jorah and Ryder leaning into me, wrapping their arms around all of us as I screamed and cried.
We’d saved the world, but I’d sacrificed my heart in doing so.