I’d ordered Goji to survey the perimeters of the castle while Jerome and Wesley were searching inside the castle. No stone was to be left unturned. I’d also asked for the healer to come and look at Bellamy’s burns, which were spread up and down her arms and hands. She’d been brave. Foolish but brave.
“Where have you been?”she signed with shaky hands, her words cracking open my stone-cold heart.
“I told you I was going to have to leave again,” I said, and I took a deep breath. “But that’s not all. I did it, Bellamy. I found what I was looking for, and I have a feeling things are going to come to an end soon. Sooner than I expected. So before coming back to the castle, I made a stop in the jungle.”
She peered at me and tilted her head.
“I reunited the boys with their shadows. I told them they’re free to go or stay. But their shadows are no longer mine.”
She kissed me hard, stirring something primal inside of me. I wanted to lay her down and take her right here on the floor, but it wasn’t the right time. Before I lost all control, I broke off the kiss.
“What did you find?”she asked.“What do you mean things will come to an end? Do you know how to kill the gods?”
“First,” I said. “Tell me what happened here.”
Her face fell as if she was just remembering there’d been a fire in her room. She swallowed and lay the sweaters in her lap.“I don’t know. One minute I was visiting Soloman, talking with him. The next minute I smelled smoke. I left his dream to come back here, and I was surrounded by flames.”She shook her head.“I have no idea how a fire could have started. I didn’t have any candles lit. No fire in the hearth since it’s so damned hot here.”
I frowned, a cold chill creeping up my spine. Foul play. But who? My staff was loyal to me. At least, I thought they were. The idea that any of them would betray me was... hard to believe. Then again, I’d been betrayed once already.
I wouldn’t jump to those conclusions. Not yet.
“Can you remember anything else other than the smoke?” I asked.
She looked down at the sweaters in her lap, staring at them with furrowed brows. Her black hair tumbled down her shoulders, wild and covered in grey ash.“It just doesn’t make sense, Kairoth. This couldn’t have been an accident.”
That feeling in my gut intensified, the one that told me something was off. Bellamy stood abruptly, walking around the room, studying the walls, the wardrobe, the dresser—every part of it. I waved my hand, commanding my shadows to search as well. I considered telling Bellamy to come to me, to sit with me and let my shadows do the work, but I doubted she’d listen. That stubbornness was something that both frustrated me and drew me to her.
She leaned down by her dresser, digging through the piles of ash, and slowly drawing out the remains of something and cradling it in her hands.
I stood and walked over to her as she dumped the contents into my hands.
I studied the wilted and burned paper, the whittled down small sticks.
“What is this?”she asked, studying it. She rubbed her arms where the burns were.
I blinked a few times, the burns on her arms already scabbing over, the blisters no longer there. The hairs on my arms raised.
“Bellamy,” I said. “I want you to do something. Something that might feel strange.”
She looked up at me with wide eyes, but I had to see if my suspicions about her were correct. There were too many coincidences, too many things that weren’t adding up about her, her magic.
“I want you to go into your own mind. You’ll have to go deep. You’ll have to use your star magic to help you dig into your memories.”
She backed up a few steps.“I can’t do that. No one with star magic can.”
One person could.
“Can you try?” I set down the mess of paper and sticks, then grabbed her hand and led her out to the balcony. I guided her down into one of the chairs and gestured up to the starry sky. “I know this is a lot, but if you can do this, we could figure out what happened tonight.”
She didn’t say anything, just stared up at the stars.
“Do you trust me?” I asked, sitting down in the chair next to hers.
She looked over at me, then nodded. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, holding her hands up to the sky and commanding the starlight to shine over us.
The silver light bathed her, illuminating her creamy smooth skin, giving her this ethereal glow that made her look divine. I could see her eyes moving back and forth under her closed eyelids. Her hands stayed raised, her body tensed as she focused on her task.
I didn’t know how much time passed. I sat there, staring at her as the starlight wrapped around her like a cocoon. It glowed a silver hue on her wild black hair. It lit her pale skin. I’d been alive for centuries, and I’d never seen anything so breathtaking. I could watch her like this forever. Watch her use her magic, watch her look so utterly powerful and beautiful and fierce all at the same time.
