Page 13 of Bright Soul

My skin prickled, and I shuddered. I’d lost enough blood to miss it, most of it now dried to the front of my shredded armor. I hadn’t left this spot in…days?

No, that’s not right. I blinked away the fog trying to creep over my eyes. Garroway had yet to return, so it had not even been a day yet. He was bound to the day-night cycle as a vampire, so I could judge time passing by his arrivals and departures.

I knew for a fact that Myuna would eventually rest as well. Until then, she occupied herself with consuming the rest of the enchanted books in the chamber. It would’ve been easier for her if she stood and snatched them, but she was as lazy as I remembered. Either she read their titles aloud and they came to her hand obediently to meet their end, or she lassoed them out of the air with the strands of pure light she’d woven into rope.

This was fun for her. Her occasional laugh threatened to split my head in half, theha halayered with so many other voices. It felt like the souls she’d consumed screaming out while she had her gaping maw open to laugh.

Or a small amount of Void doing what it did best, echoing. Its chill lingered in the atmosphere, its many lurid eyes watching Myuna with me. She was too busy trying to call down the final two books from the rafters to notice.

I couldn’t close my eyes for longer than a blink, not when Myuna had forbidden me to sleep or rest. Time’s passing increasingly felt like torture, trapped within a silent, alert body with no reprieve.

So I embraced the Void, just a little. Letting it giggle for me when she grew frustrated. Her lassos broke several human fixtures, casting us into full darkness, even knocking off the object I’d hoped was a weapon secretly pointed at her. It fell tothe bloodied ground and shattered with the crunch of smashed glass and fragile metal.

With no artificial light in the chamber, it was obvious when the sun rose. Garroway returned, dragging two unconscious people behind him. “My lady,” he said in the Hungering Darkness’s two-toned voice. “I was not able to find the purple-haired witch. But I brought you a meal…”

Myuna’s lasso flashed out and closed around the torsos of the two victims Garroway placed before her. Her magic faded, allowing her to hold up the man and woman in either hand as if they were dolls.

“…for us to share,” Garroway finished in a whisper since it was already too late. Myuna consumed their souls with all the fanfare of taking a deep breath, then swallowed the bodies together in one ravenous gulp.

“You have forgotten my appetite if you believe that was a meal for me,” she tutted, dabbing at the corners of her mouth with her sleeve.

“Yes, my lady.”

“Forget the girl for now. Bring memore souls.”

Garroway bared his teeth. I doubt the blood baron had made an expression of chagrin like this in decades. “I will remind you that this vessel cannot go out in the daylight, my lady.”

She gazed down at him as if he were a bug to crush. “Worthless. I will make more servants since none of the ones I sense want to answer my call.” Then she turned that look on me, instructing me to walk myself out of the audience chamber to wait five paces from the door for her summons.

My feet moved for me, pivoting me away before she could read the realization on my face. There was a library in the city…and Myuna could sense the denizens within it. It was only a matter of time before she corrupted a small force and tried to raid the building for access to her captured unnatural creatures.

I’d figured out at some point overnight that the pocket dimension had been closed. The change in air pressure was noticeable once Myuna was no longer bearing down on me. That meant the supply of unwilling servants was the small pool of people who didn’t, or couldn’t, escape from Cerris City in time.

A group of people that might not include Cress and her friends. Perhaps they had escaped not just the audience chamber, but Myuna’s grasp completely. I hoped that was the case. The last thing I wanted was for Cress to see me become one of the goddess’s servants, but that was only a matter of time. Myuna could already command my body. She’d make it as slow and torturous as possible, but she would inevitably seize control of my soul as well. A fate that loomed over me with great, ever-present dread.

Thankfully, five paces from the audience chamber took me to a battered bench I turned upright from its flipped state. My legs became one constant ache once I sat and finally took the pressure off my feet. I wanted to stray farther and find a restroom to clean my wounds before infection set in, but I couldn’t defy Myuna’s order to wait five paces from the door.

I massaged feeling back into my muscles and reminded myself that I was still nearly whole.Cress will still recognize you. She will still want you.

I clenched my hand around one knee.I will return to her,I vowed. No matter what tortures Myuna inflicted upon me, I had a mate to claim and protect. It was up to me to find a way out of this situation before it was too late.

The Void’s madness struck again while I was lost in my own thoughts. It felt like a blink’s worth of time before Garroway stood before me, arms crossed. “I was sent to retrieve you,” he said without the two-toned voice that showed Endaeron was in charge.

I stood, wincing and reaching for the wounds that crossed my chest. They were weeping a hint of fresh blood. I spoke with effort, “Before we go back there, I need to clean my—”

“Quiet,” Garroway practically purred. My teeth clacked together so quickly I tasted the cut on my inner lip before I felt it. “Ah, it seems she’s given me the end of your leash.”

If I could correct him, I would. It was my brother, the one who’d swallowed a part of my soul, who had originally had a finger’s hold on my consciousness. With the Hungering Darkness inside of him, Garroway had it too, and I was too weakened to fight back.

He took a more confident stance; this was familiar territory for him, having his orders obeyed unquestioningly.I tamped my anger down with a deep breath.He’s a blood baron. He’s used to mute glares and the futile struggles of those he controls,I reminded myself. When I met his gaze, I wore my calmest expression.

He eyed me for a few moments, his face also a practiced mask. There was no telling if my reaction was also expected, or if he was even a little unsettled. “I’ll take you to a public bathroom in exchange for an honest conversation,” he said.

I waited with patient blankness.

With a soft huff of breath, he added, “You may speak.”

“I find these terms acceptable,” I said.

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