Page 30 of Bright Soul

Before she could change her mind, I closed my eyes, feeling how dry and aching they were. It was the biggest gamble of my life, to go into her hands willingly, if temporarily.

Her awful, multi-layered voice whispered into the last remnants of my awareness. “We have a library to claim. Perhaps your slumber shall end…with your sweet mate in myhands.”

13

BEN

“You were difficult to find,” my father said.

The dream I’d been waiting for was made by a surrealist. Bursts of color surrounded us, hazy and out of focus, leaving Liam Evenstar the only solid figure around. I didn’t dare look down.

He was younger than I expected, wearing a navy button-down and slacks. He’d died dressed for work, as he’d been in a wreck one ordinary afternoon when I was barely more than a toddler. A tragedy in any person’s life, but doubly so when it was the event that’d forced my mom to seek out Garroway for a private loan.

The rest, as they say, was history.

I felt bad. I didn’t know anything about this man except that I somewhat resembled him. Yet I needed him to acknowledge me as his heir so some of the Evenstar family magic could flow into me. Sure, it was based off of a wild hunch, but one Jordan and Wren grew more certain about every time they tested the weirdness of Cress’s jumbled-up magic.

“I was starting to wonder if you were even looking,” I said with an awkward little laugh.

Liam grimaced in return. Seemed like I wasn’t the only one who was feeling off about this meeting. “Of course I was,” he replied. “I was at peace in the next life until your mother found me and told me everything you’d shared with her.”

“Oh, um, sorry about that.”

He gripped my shoulder. In this dream, at least, he was more solid than a ghost. “I know this is uncomfortable, but I need you to know…you deserve better than what life has dealt you. When I was alive, I meant to give you and your brother the world. Now, all I can do is gift you the power to take it instead.”

That was all the preamble we had before golden light haloed his form. Raw power and knowledge flowed through him into me, and it was about as pleasant as molten lava coursing through my veins and head. But the pain faded to memory: his memories and emotions and intentions.

Liam knew how much I needed aid and at least a cursory understanding of celestial magic. I needed to properly use the staff that was my inheritance, Evening Guidance. And I was suddenly sure that I could if it were possible to suppress or supplant my blood affinity.

Once the urgency between us faded, I opened my eyes and drew my father in for a hug. “Before you go, won’t you tell me more about you?” I asked, unsure if I would see him in another dream. He deserved to go back to a peaceful slumber while I used the gift he’d just given me.

“Of course,” he said. The abstract colors around us solidified. He and I sat before a campfire in his favorite park, roasting sausages and marshmallows.

I woke after hours of conversation with a huge smile on my face. That was mydad. His power and knowledge settled in mymind like I was always supposed to have Evenstar light just under the surface of my skin.

Cress was just starting to stir from where she was snugly pressed to my side. “Guess what, babe,” I whispered excitedly. “I met my dad. I wish you could’ve as well.”

Her answering look was bittersweet. “I wish I could’ve met him too,” she said.

I refused to let sadness into this moment. “Sure, he’s gone…but it was amazing that he could visit with me for a night.”

I kissed her until she stopped frowning. We got ready together in our small shared space with growing familiarity and went up to breakfast, where we saw Geo running face-first into the one usage of the Internet he didn’t understand.

He was his stone form, coming down to greet us after a night of standing guard. Wren pointed the camera of her phone at him. “Ladies and gentlemen, our resident gargoyle has arrived. This obsidian giant has kept us protected as we continue to fight back here in Cerris City,” she narrated aloud.

“Hello?” Geo gritted, still confused about what she was trying to do.

Grace and her body camera had inspired Wren. Without any useful magic to fight, she had turned to playing in the court of public opinion. Since her ex-family had not spoken a word on our behalf, she streamed everything safe to share about what we were doing in the library and beyond. Thousands of strangers could be watching right now as we ate breakfast and planned.

We’d taken out three more of the greater unnaturals since the Jellywalker’s death, but not without cost. One of our fae protectors had died, while another had joined Aurora last night in the hospital for intensive care. We’d only gained one fighter in return with Grace, who’d revealed that she was a mountain lion shifter, while her teammate, Tish, was her support woman.

Tish was a tiny young woman with a lavender-colored pixie cut and wide, haunted eyes. She was a hybrid of some kind, with a soul that moved like a shifter’s but ears that came to small, fae-like points.

She was hard at work typing away on a laptop while taking distracted bites of dry cereal. An apparent tech genius, she’d jumped in with enthusiasm and gotten Wren’s stream and social media accounts set up to not only boost our message that there was still hope inside Cerris City, but also to gain some visibility for the unnatural hunting team she and Grace represented.

That was why those two were here, after all. They were chasing internal points with their unnatural hunting organization, Chaos Inc., by killing the unnaturals here. Apparently there were several more teams that’d chosen to enter Cerris City of their own volition through the only way still open: an ocean gate.

That the ocean gate was still operating despite the fae magic that’d shut down Cerris City was a ticking time bomb, but one we handed off to Madigan and our other senior leadership. They were the ones to decide how we would use the knowledge. If we abandoned ship now, there were still hundreds of unaccounted for people out there that we’d be leaving to the monsters. But it could be used to usher out the civilians that’d already been saved.

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