Page 121 of Beasts of Briar
In the near distance, Kairoth stared at me with red-rimmed eyes, his cheeks so swollen, the skin around his eyes black. Even if he would heal, whatever they’d done to him must’ve been horrible.
I would make them pay for this.
Khalasa stretched out her hands, and starlight blasted down from the clouds right toward me. I felt a tickle in my brain. Something fuzzy inched around the edges, and my eyes grew heavy.
“Bellamy!” My father’s voice was urgent and jolted me.
I stared at Khalasa, realizing she was trying to put me to sleep. I glanced up, not seeing any stars to reach out to. But if Khalasa could reach the stars behind the clouds, then that meant I could too.
I gripped the sweaters tight under one arm while reaching up toward the sky with the other and calling to the stars.
The starlight responded, filling my blood and snaking through me, granting me permission to use it as I wished.
I looked over at my father.“What can Khalasa do with this magic? What can I do?”
He took a deep breath. “Anything, Bellamy. You are a goddess’s daughter.”
I pointed at his heart and touched it, then pointed at mine. I was his daughter. Always his.
His eyes welled with tears, and he tipped his head. “You can do the impossible with this magic. So much more than you ever realized.”
That was exactly what I’d wanted to hear. I looked back at the gods as they came closer, then slashed out my hand and directed the starlight straight toward Kairoth. The light wrapped around him and yanked him from the gods’ grasp, bringing him to me on the terrace.
I wanted to drop to my knees and kiss him, assure him that everything would be okay. But I didn’t have the luxury of time.
“Oh, so you do have some power,” Khalasa yelled. “I was starting to wonder since you’ve done so little with it.”
The gods all stared at me in shock, each of them summoning their magic and pointing it straight toward me.
“No.” My father stood in front of me, holding out his shaky hands.
He reached out toward the castle’s shadow that stretched over the green grass below, then bent it upward like a shield. The gods’ magic blasted toward the wispy shadow, barely visible through it. The magic crashed into the shadow, shaking the castle. Stones came loose and smashed to the ground.
The shield had done its job though. It slowed the magic, giving us time to dive out of the way as it punched through the castle’s shadow and flew over our heads toward the glass doors. It shattered the doors, shards of sharp glass blasting everywhere and raining over us.
Rain still drizzled down, the tiled terrace growing slick. I shuffled my feet and slipped, reaching out a hand to grip the stone balcony and steady myself.
The gods’ hazy forms burst through the castle shadow, and my father dropped it as the castle terrace lurched under us. I looked over the lopsided balcony to see a huge hole in the stone wall below, the earth cracking below us.
This thing was going to collapse soon if we weren’t careful.
The gods landed on the terrace, each one more terrifying and beautiful than the last.
Khalasa stepped forward, her black hair curtaining her pale face. Her purple gown trailed the ground behind her, and she seemed to glow with a purple light. She gripped her scythe, the weapon as tall as her, shiny and purple.
My father stepped back.
“Bathalous,” Khalasa said. “It’s been a while.”
My father stiffened beside me.
“Don’t speak to him,”I signed, pushing forward.
“Is the girl mute?” Aethira asked, her hair made of vines and twigs, her gown a sparkling green She arched her bow, pointing the arrow directly at me.
Ragar stepped forward, his hair a fiery red as flames leapt from his body, swirling around him much like Kairoth’s shadows surrounded his body. “What are we waiting for? We’re here to kill Bathalous, are we not? He’s the one who trapped us.” His jaw locked as he looked at Kairoth. “Along with that traitor.”
“Patience,” Khalasa said.
