Page 133 of Beasts of Briar
Driscoll squeezed my arm, and Leoni leaned into me.
“How did you know the magic would do that?” Driscoll asked. “I mean, what did you find in Khalasa’s mind that helped you figure it all out?”
I wiped away my tears. “The answer wasn’t in Khalasa’s mind.” I paused. “It was a hunch, but based on everything I read in my father’s journals, based on everything I’d learned from Kairoth and Khalasa, I just realized that the magic was trying to protect itself. It had chosen leaders, and it chose wrong. It thought it had found a partner, people who could do good with it, use it, make it flourish. But instead, they turned greedy and power hungry. So the magic helped my father trap them. My father didn’t realize it at the time, but that’s what the magic was doing. Then, when my father rejected the net, the power, the magic decided to destroy everything, start over.” I shook my head. “It put itself out there again when my father returned a thousand years later, and this time, I think things were better.”
“Until the gods got free,” Driscoll said, shaking his head. “Then the magic decided to destroy the earth again.”
I nodded. “But we all worked together to convince it that we were worth saving. That it wasn’t alone. That it didn’t have to work by itself. We could help it. So it helped us.”
“Wow,” Leoni said. “All this time, the magic has had a mind of its own. It’s a little scary. It could just decide to destroy us all.”
I stared out at the dark waves crashing on the shore in the distance. “I don’t think it will. It doesn’t want to. It wants to be used. It just doesn’t want to be abused.”
Aron nodded, brows furrowed. “You saved us all, Bellamy. We owe you a great debt.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want anything.” Except the one thing I couldn’t have.
“So what now? What’s next for you?” Driscoll asked.
My brothers wanted to leave for the star court immediately, begin to rebuild, which would be hard when all we had was the Wilds, an untamed land full of creatures who no longer had star magic. But I had a feeling the magic would right itself. That if it wanted star elementals, it would grant mortals that power again. Things would balance out. They always seemed to.
“Jorah wants to go home. Ryder wants to stay here and rebuild the shadow court, my father’s home.”
“What do you want?” Driscoll asked.
I thought about my father’s journal entries, my father’s long life, and ultimately what had mattered to him in the end. “I don’t know,” I said simply.
“You could be queen, you know,” Aron said. “You could rule the star court. No one would stop you.”
“I don’t want that.” I’d spent so long fighting to save my brothers that I’d never stopped to think about what I wanted after, and now, the truth was, I had no idea. But I knew I didn’t want to be a ruler. Jorah would be an amazing king. Ryder would be as well. Phoenix and Soloman would both make great advisors. Killian and Klaus would make amazing generals. And Marcello would keep all their spirits lifted. He’d play music and make art and make the world a better place.
But me? I wasn’t sure where I fit into any of it.
“I think I need a walk to clear my head.” I turned to them. “Can you cover for me?”
Driscoll’s eyes widened. “Cover for you? Are you going to do something crazy? Because if something happens to you, your brothers will kill us.”
I turned to him. “I didn’t spend sixty years trying to break a curse and reunite with my brothers just to do something stupid now. It’s just a walk, Driscoll.”
He, Leoni, and Aron looked at each other.
“Okay,” Driscoll said finally. “But we’re watching you.” He pointed two fingers at his eyes, then at me.
I wandered aimlesslythrough the jungle until I came to the black-sand shores. Water washed up on the beach, and I took off my boots and walked barefoot. The squishy sand felt good between my toes, the water warm and inviting. Sea salt clung to the air, everything smelling so fresh, so new. Maybe it was new, in a way. A new beginning for this world. For everyone who lived in it. Fog rolled in as I walked, getting thicker, making it harder to see.
I needed to turn back soon. Leoni, Driscoll, and Aron would only be able to cover for me so long before my brothers found out I’d snuck away.
I turned, the hairs on the back of my neck raising and making me pause. A figure emerged from the fog.
Big, broad shoulders. I took a step back, ready to run or fight, but as the figure came closer, I recognized his wavy dark hair, those amber eyes, the scars on his face.
I rubbed my eyes, wondering if I was going insane. If I was seeing things. But it was him. In the flesh.
I took off at a run, sand flying up behind me as I barreled into Kairoth.
He wrapped his arms around me, lifting me and whirling me around while I cupped his face and kissed him again and again and again.
“How are you here?” I asked when he finally set me down.
