Page 99 of Beasts of Briar


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The agitated shadows moved and shifted until they’d formed into the beast, their jaws snapping. I’d never been so relieved to see a monster in my life. My monster.

I ran into his arms, and Kairoth folded me into him as I sobbed, shoulders shaking, tears blurring my vision.

“It’s going to be okay,” Kairoth murmured in my ear. “I’m here now, and everything will be okay.”

I wanted to believe him, but despite the fact that I’d saved the sweaters, I couldn’t help but feel this fire hadn’t been an accident. That someone had set it. Which meant someone wanted me dead, and I had no idea who it could be.

Chapter Fifty-Five

YEAR 208, ERA OF THE GODS

The signs were there that something was wrong. Earthquakes, floods, wildfires, storms. All the natural disasters happened in small bursts, over months after the gods had been trapped away.

I admit, I hadn’t paid as much attention to them as I should have.

I’ve spent that last two years hiding all the gods’ weapons, including the net, and also trying to figure out how in the bloody shadows the net appeared. Who made it appear? I sit here today still as confused as I was when it first came to me.

I shouldn’t have been so worried about hiding the weapons. So worried about myself. I should have been more worried about the consequences of trapping the gods.

It wasn’t something Kairoth nor I had ever considered. That trapping the gods would somehow destabilize the magic, that it would make it run rampant and wild. That’s my theory, at least. The only thing I can think of to explain what’s happened to this continent over the last two years.

I’ve been so focused on my goal that I brushed aside the stories I heard on my travels. Stories of horrible storms that wiped out entire villages, fires that burned people alive, nightmares filling people’s heads and making them do awful things. I had a goal, and once I completed that goal and hid all the weapons, that’s when I started to pay attention.

And I realized how foolish Kairoth and I had been. I should’ve known there would be a consequence to trapping the gods. Worse, there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop it. To stop the mass panic, the mass deaths, the horror I’ve witnessed.

But the absolute hardest part? Knowing that I’ll be left completely alone. When Khalasa made me immortal, she cursed me to a lonely existence.

I’ve lost my home, I’ve lost my future, I’ve lost everything. I write this final entry as I’m sitting on the shore next to an abandoned ship I found. I’ll bury this journal, hide it away. Maybe someday someone will find it when they’re meant to and know what happened here. As for me, I’ll sail away from the husk of a continent.

I seem to be the only one who can go. Other elementals did try to escape, but the magic wouldn’t let them. It’s like it wants to purge everyone who is able to command it.

I assume it’s only letting me because it senses my immortality. It senses I have power. Or maybe it still hopes I’ll take its offer, accept the net and become a new leader.

But that’s not something I can ever do.

I can hear their screams every night when I lay down to sleep. I see the lifeless bodies when I dream. I’m haunted by their pleas for help when I’m awake. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive myself. Maybe if Kairoth hadn’t been trapped he could’ve stopped all of this from happening.

In trying to save everyone from the gods, we actually doomed them.

Now I don’t know what to do with myself. I don’t know where I’m sailing this ship to. I suppose I could go to the mortal lands and hide my powers. The humans don’t like those with magic, often persecute them out of fear. I’ll have to move often to hide my immortality.

This is my burden to bear. This journal is the only thing I have left. I suppose it’s the only thing I’ve ever had.

And that is the loneliest thought of all.

Chapter Fifty-Six

KAIROTH

I’d known leaving was a bad idea. I’d needed to go again. I’d needed to find Bathalous and get some answers to these confounding questions piling up. Questions regarding the weapons. Bellamy. Connections I couldn’t make.

But I should never have left Bellamy for so long. I shouldn’t have left my castle unattended. Everyone exposed. No matter how much I tried to do the right thing, it seemed I never could.

Bellamy and I sat in the burnt remains of her room on the ash-covered floor. She stared blankly at the bed frame, now crumpled and disfigured. The wardrobe was blackened, the wood thick enough that it had withstood the fire longer than anything else.

Burn marks stretched up the walls. The glass on the balcony doors had shattered from the heat, now sprinkled across the floor.

She clutched the sweaters in her arms, her face pale. Leoni had used her water magic to put out the fire, and I’d thanked her profusely. She’d saved Bellamy’s life. The water elemental andDriscoll had returned to their rooms after making sure Bellamy was okay.