Page 55 of Bright Soul

Phaeron’s lips pressed into a fine line of disapproval.

“AndI wanted to point out that A Little Wicked Coven has no job now that the library is cleared internally. Myuna moves to take over the supernatural population. I know I can speak for my friends when I say that we can’t sit idle.” I flexed my hand, overlaid with purple-black claws.

Madigan propped her chin on a gauntleted fist. She’d placed her helmet aside for this meeting and shot a bemused glance toward Hana. “Well, you called it. What do I owe you?” she sighed.

“Let’s call it good if you say yes. This way, you can assign them a few protectors,” the augur said.

“What of protecting the library?” There was a dangerous edge to Phaeron’s question.

Braza barely had to warn me. Fury blazed in his otherworldly eyes as I aired her suggestion. “You can hold it singlehandedly with the powercore’s support.”

He switched languages seamlessly, the hisses and rolls of Soiluirian made crisp by his anger.“And when darkness falls and Endaeron comes for you both, I am to…what, sit idle?”

“Unless Myuna herself shows her face, you will be safe from her control this way,”Braza answered.

It felt like I was double-teaming him as I added in English, “This also protects you from whatever hold the Hunger has on you.”

I heard the agitated snap of his tail.“He will change the subject to buy time to think of a way around our logic,”Braza said privately.

“Let us speak of the ocean gate,” he said. Well, she’d called that. “It is surrounded by unnatural sightings and skirmishes. It’s a guarantee Myuna has figured out something valuable is in the lake, but she will not know what an ocean gate is unless one of her creatures gets the opportunity to use it.”

“That’s only a matter of time,” Hana said. “Especially with the number of unnatural hunters coming and going.”

Auric loosed a displeased growl. “Those kids are pretending at being heroes.”

“I know it seems that way, but we simply don’t have the people to rescue everyone.” Madigan drummed her fingertips on the table, weighing our options with a pensive expression. “If there was a way to communicate with all of the people still trapped in their homes, we could gather them up for one big push.”

“We could use Wren’s stream?” I suggested.

She tilted her head back and forth with a hum. “My understanding is her audience is all supernaturals on the outside, watching for our fall with baited breath.”

“Not necessarily. She’s really tried to show that there’s hope on this side of the pocket dimension. I bet you there have been several people who’ve come to the hospital for protection after seeing it on her stream,” I argued. She seemed to consider it and nodded to herself.

“For better or for worse. Who knows how many supernaturals were dragged in front of Myuna because they were trying to get to us?” she pointed out. “And broadcasting our plans would only make that problem more severe. Not to mention someone locking the ocean gate from the outside if it becomes common knowledge.”

“I don’t think they will yet,” Hana said. “We will have to talk to the mer representative when he arrives tomorrow.”

I interjected before they could switch to another topic. “You’re right that a lot of people on the outside are watching Wren’s stream too. What if we used it as a platform to call for help? If there’s a future where we try to evacuate all the people we can.” My gaze landed on Auric, whose expression was cynical at best. “We cleared out the most dangerous creatures in Cerris City Library with the help of a couple unnatural hunters. They’re competing, not trying to be ‘heroes.’” I put up air quotes. “But therearepeople who will come to help us if they know it’s possible. Real heroes who will know what’s at stake because of Wren’s stream and come anyway.”

“I question the wisdom of dragging anyone else into this conflict, bright soul,” Phaeron replied quietly. “The fewer supernaturals around for Myuna to corrupt, the better it will be for us. However a small river can help, it…is not possible to share her evils without firsthand experience.”

“Fuckin’ hell. The first thing you asked was if I brought reinforcements,” Auric grumbled.

“Ofourkind, who understand the magnitude of a soul’s death,” he said.

“Who says they won’t come when they see the Sudair fighting?” A sharp grin took over the blue dimensional’s face. “I have an idea that will keep you away from sitting on your ass in a library. You just have to appear on camera.”

“Back on Soiluire, we called this clearing a path,” Phaeron said a little later, at the head of our armed group heading away from the hospital.

“It’s not like we’re going to get very far on foot,”Braza grumbled in my head.

We’d all kind of gotten what we wanted. Braza seemed the most disappointed, as she’d initially wanted to strike out on her own. It was the impulsive teenaged side of her, I thought. Traveling in a big group was much slower, but this way, we were present to keep Phaeron sane. In the same breath, he was here with me, and that seemed to put him more at ease than staying in the library.

“That’s not the point of why we’re out here,”I replied to her. In a way, I knew we were being humored. We had one objective for this trip, and that was to free one torchbearer of Myuna’s control. We had to see if Phaeron could do it.

Our group’s spirits seemed high. Roe and her familiar, Tank, wore identical smiles, faces lifted toward the sun. Bianca and Grace were nearly attached at the hip, muffling the occasional laugh. Ben and Geo were doing much the same, actually, from where they flanked me. I was relieved to see Geo smiling again, even in gargoyle form.

There were a couple guardians and Crystal fae with us, all familiar faces who’d been assigned to the library. Absent from our group were Jordan and Auric, who’d both stayed behind to plan; Áine, whose magic was needed at the hospital; and Grant, who seemed quite shy of Wren’s camera. The blonde stood at the center of our group with her phone panning the scene. More often than not, it was focused on Phaeron, a new star to the “small river,” as he still didn’t quite understand what a stream was.

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