He frowned, looking at me. “I don’t know,” he said honestly. “When all of us became gods, we were adults. Maybe when you have immortality, you do still age but once you reach adulthood, you stop.” He shrugged. “That’s my best guess.”
These answers should have felt like a relief, but instead, they felt like a weight. I didn’t want this. I didn’t want the whole world to rest on my shoulders.“What do we do now?”I asked.
“We prepare. Khalasa still has to find two weapons.”
I had to speak to Aron, to make sure the axe was secure.
“We need to figure out a way to fix this,” he said. “The gods escaping is inevitable, I fear. Trapping them, imprisoning them—it’s like a bandage. It’s always temporary.”
So we needed a permanent answer. The gods couldn’t die. But there had to be another way. Another solution.
I snatched the journal, about to start reading it again, but I stopped. We needed help. I needed help. This wouldn’t be a problem I could solve alone, and for the first time in a long time, I realized I didn’t have to handle this by myself. I handed the journal to Kairoth.
“We need to call everyone together. Leoni, Driscoll, the pixies. We’ll tell them everything. We’ll ask for help.”
Kairoth raised a brow. “You want to work with others?” I gave him a look, and he leaned forward, shadows brushing my face as he kissed me. “Okay, then let’s not waste any time.”
Chapter Sixty-One
BELLAMY
Isat on the terrace, knitting the final sweater that needed to be done. Driscoll and Leoni sat on the tiled floor, poring over books and my father’s journal entries as I worked on the body of the sweater.
It had only been one week since I’d learned of my true identity, and I still couldn’t believe any of it. I’d been working with Kairoth to explore the extent of my powers. My father and brothers had trained me well growing up, but I didn’t even think my father knew the full extent of my magic as a goddess’s daughter. Plus, I’d only had six years with him before Khalasa struck.
My eyes closed, and my chin nodded against my chest. I jolted, the pin of the needle jabbing into my hand.
Leoni looked up from the diary entry. “Bellamy, you’re exhausted. You have to take a break.”
I shook my head, focusing on the sweater in front of me.
“I know your brothers don’t have much time left, but you’re doing too much. You’re visiting them every night. You’re goinginto your father’s mind, trying to fix whatever Khalasa did to him. You’re visiting Aron to make sure the axe is safe. And you’re also injecting your body with poison every day.” She gestured to the sweater. “It’s a lot for one person.”
I’d been missing out on so much all these years not letting others take care of me. Aron had always tried, but even then, I’d kept him at a distance, refused to really let him in or let him help me.
But ever since I’d so foolishly accepted that bargain with Khalasa, I’d realized how important it was to lean on others. So I let Driscoll and Leoni fuss over me. Well, mainly Leoni. She put salve on my hands, helped me gather supplies, got me food, made sure I was drinking enough. Driscoll mainly gossiped, which helped in its own way. His stories were so ridiculous they provided a surprising distraction for my mind as I harvested and knitted.
“Leoni, she’s a goddess.” Driscoll set down the book he was reading, pinning his gaze on me. “Can you even die?”
Leoni shot Driscoll a withering glare.
“What? Is that a rude question? Is it like asking someone’s age?” He peered at me. “How old are you, by the way?”
Leoni threw up her hands. “I give up. I cannot teach you. You’re an ingrate no matter what I do.”
“At least I’m a fun ingrate,” Driscoll mumbled.
“Have you found anything?”I asked.“Anything about how we might defeat Khalasa?”
“Big fat no,” Driscoll said.
Kairoth had left a few days ago to search for Khalasa, and my stomach had been in a permanent knot ever since. I worried about what she might do to him if he found her. What if she found a way to kill the gods? What if she trapped him somehow? Hurt him?
I hated being here, feeling so helpless, but I had to finish the sweaters. My brothers were barely themselves by this point. They’d deteriorated so quickly it was scaring me.
I sighed heavily.
Leoni bit her lip. “There is one thing I keep coming back to.” She flipped through the journal until she came to a page near the middle. “Your father saw Khalasa’s notes. He said he suspected he saw something in there that could be the answer, but that he couldn’t remember any of it, and he suspected Khalasa manipulated his mind. He said that in this entry.” She pointed to a page she was reading. “Do memories ever really disappear? Could it still exist in his mind? Be found somewhere?”
