Page 45 of Beasts of Briar
I cut him a look.“You have a boyfriend if I’m not mistaken, and I’d like to remind you that if you hurt Aron, I will hurt you. Badly.”
Leoni translated the message with a smirk, and Driscoll shot me a glare. “He’s not my boyfriend. We didn’t attach labels.”
“To be fair, I think he wanted to be your boyfriend,” Leoni said. “I saw the way he looked at you.”
“You were with him for like two seconds,” Driscoll said.
I watched as the shadows continued to stream past the window. Something was happening. Something big.
“I have to go,”I signed as I stood from the couch.
“Where?” Leoni asked.
I pointed out the window, and she and Driscoll both saw the shadows outside.
“Go,” Leoni said. “We’ll keep the pixies distracted.”
“I don’t think we need to,” Driscoll said as Jerome tap danced while Wesley bellowed out a song. “They are having the time of their lives entertaining us.”
“Just tell them I didn’t feel well and decided to retire to my room.”
Leoni nodded as I hurried out of the parlor and chased after the god of shadows.
Chapter Twenty-Six
BELLAMY
Icrept out into the silent night. Thick mountain jungle surrounded the castle, covering the steep mountainside.
Shadows flew off into the distance, following their leader. He soared over the treetops and through the sky toward the mountaintop.
I chewed the inside of my cheek, hesitating just for a moment before I set off over the uneven ground and into the thick jungle. Unlike the jungle on the island, these trees and the brush were so overgrown that there was no clear walking path. My boots sank into thick mud, and I grabbed onto whatever I could to haul myself up the steep mountain incline.
I trekked up the mountain, having no clear view of the shadows or the sky, everything shrouded in so much darkness I could barely see. I didn’t even know if I was going in the right direction. I assumed I was since I was going up, but I couldn’t be sure.
I walked until my legs started shaking, and I grabbed hold of a thick tree. At this rate, I’d never get to the top. Definitelynot before Kairoth finished whatever he was doing. I needed a different plan.
I eyed the treetops, then started climbing to the top. My muscles shook, a sharp pain stabbing my sides, but I kept going until I could peek over the canopy. The top of the mountain was still so far away. From here I could see all the shadows gathered, Kairoth in the middle.
What was he doing?
This wasn’t going to work. I didn’t have a clear enough view. My feet throbbed, and my hands felt like they were on fire. The bandages I’d wrapped around them had come undone when I’d climbed the tree, exposing my raw and inflamed skin. I gritted my teeth, thinking of the alternative.
Charming him. Absolutely not.
I’d rather find a way up that mountain.
The stars twinkled above, bright and beckoning. Their power oozed over me. Maybe I could put one of the shadows to sleep, then enter their mind and spy. I’d done it before, used my powers to see places all around the world.
I had no idea if shadows slept. No clue if this would work. But I had no other options—and nothing to lose.
I had to start piecing together the mystery that was Kairoth.
I gazed up at the stars, calling to them. I’d grown up reading books about how to access your magic as an elemental, all of them describing what it felt like to reach inward and pull a little thread. But that had never been how it was for me. I didn’t have to reach inside. I could bend the outside world to my will, reach for the stars and ask them, and in turn, I would receive. My father said that was just part of what the Wilds had done to us, to our magic.
I stretched out a hand, the stars brightening in the sky, responding to my call. Then I directed their light toward the shadows.
Pick one,I urged. The one closest to Kairoth. I could see the lone shadow lingering right by the god’s side, slightly apart from the crowd. I frowned. No. That might be too risky. I needed a shadow that blended in with the crowd. I shifted my hand and directed the starlight toward the middle of the shadows.
