Page 90 of Beasts of Briar
“No, it did not,”I signed.“You certainly have a way with your... shadows.”
He laughed, and I wished I could see his face in this moment. See if his lips were swollen like mine. If his cheeks were flushed, his hair mussed. I saw glimpses of him through his shadows, but I desperately wanted to see all of him.
“What is going on in that mind of yours?” he asked, reaching out to brush a thumb over my cheek.
“Nothing,”I signed.“Just thinking about what we just did.”
“Ready for more?” His voice dipped low. “Because I could spend all night touching you, making you come over and over until you can barely stand.”
I reached out to pull him to me and see just how much he meant that, but he frowned, making me pause.
“The purple smudges are back. Under your eyes.” He swore. “I should’ve been more careful. I should’ve known this would be too much.”
“No.”I tried to protest, but he gathered me up in his arms and lifted into the sky.
“You need rest. Believe me, if you’ll let me, I plan on doing that many, many more times. But for now, I want you to sleep.”
The thought of him doing that—and more—again stirred the heat between my legs. Despite what my mind wanted, my body curled into him, eyes fluttering. Exhaustion crept over me. He was right. I’d been going on adrenaline for hours, and now I felt like I might crash. I could barely lift my head to look up at the sky as we flew back toward my balcony.
Kairoth lowered down onto it, then strode through my open doors and into my room, laying me gently on the bed.
“Goodnight, Bellamy,” he whispered, but I caught his arm.
He froze, looking down at my hand that gripped him. I released him and signed,“Stay with me?”
“Yes,” he said, and that was all it took.
I scooted over to make room for him, then I lay down, his big body settling behind mine. I cuddled into him and immediately fell asleep.
Chapter Fifty-One
YEAR 206, ERA OF THE GODS
My hand is almost shaking too much to write this. At this point, these journal entries have become what I hope will be historical documents so others may know of the horrible fate we all escaped today. I hope that those who read this will realize that the gods are not, were never, something to worship. They are not to be respected or immortalized. They are to be a cautionary example of what may happen when individuals are granted too much power.
Kairoth and I have spent months planning the entrapment of the gods. We ultimately picked Founding Day as the day we would strike. There are festivals in every town and village across the continent celebrating the gods who created this realm. This will hopefully be the last year these festivities exist.
But this year, instead of the gods going to their temples, we recruited some of their most devoted followers to plan something different. Something that took place in the revered crypt where they first discovered the weapons of power. While I may know the truth about this day, about how the gods cameinto power, everyone else just believes this was the day the gods realized they could spread their powers, gift them to mortals.
The celebrations began early in the morning, as they usually do. The gods took the bait, all of them appearing in the crypt, followers flocking from all over to drink, eat, and marvel at these beings who gave us our magic. Kairoth lurked in the shadows as always, and I stayed far away, not wanting to garner any suspicion from Khalasa.
If I appeared, she’d know something was about to happen.
I waited all day long and far into the night until the final revelers had stumbled out of the cave, so drunk they could barely walk. Kairoth had one job at this point. To pick a fight. To make the gods angry enough that they didn’t leave. To distract them enough so that we could strike.
Yells echoed from the cave, and that’s when I made my move. I’ve never been so scared in my life. My heart was beating so hard I thought it might rip free from my chest. There were so many ways this could go wrong, but I had no choice but to forge on.
Kairoth and I had spent too long planning this for me to lose my courage.
We’d planned every part meticulously, hoping that the gods would be so drunk their reactions would be slow. Kairoth had revealed that it took copious amounts of alcohol to dull the gods’ senses, so much alcohol that if a mortal were to drink that same amount, they’d die. The gods had been drinking and celebrating for at almost twenty-four hours now. We’d made sure to stock the crypt with barrels of wine and ale.
Kairoth had also revealed something surprising to me, something no one knew. The gods needed to have access to their elements, to use them regularly, to remain powerful. If Kairoth didn’t use his shadow magic for an extended period of time, his powers would slowly drain. Same for the other elementals. Ittook a day of no access, Kairoth had told me, to even dim their magic. Months to drain them completely. It wasn’t much, but between the alcohol and lack of elements in the crypt, we might have a fighting chance.
I tried to steady my heartbeat as I walked toward the entrance, still hearing yells echoing. I steeled myself, clenching my fists tight as I entered the crypt to complete chaos.
Aethira was screaming at Uruth, while Ragar and Ysar were holding him back from attacking the goddess of earth.
Khalasa stood in the middle of the arguing pair, holding out her hands and yelling over them to just calm down.
