Page 129 of Beasts of Briar
“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.
