Page 48 of Bright Soul

“I will cleanse myself…then we shall talk,” he said, slipping into the room once I showed him to the door.

I flipped the lock and patted my empty pockets.Oh, right. I’d dropped my ruined phone when Phaeron had stolen me from the hospital room. I imagined Geo mourning over it and stifled a giggle. Served him right for rushing in and decking Phaeron without waiting for any kind of explanation.

That phone had been the last bastion of technology between me and my three men. It’d been a fun thing to watch how Geo would change my algorithms to cat videos and “highly satisfying” type stuff, or how Ben would steal it away to leave silly or weird websites waiting for me when I needed to use the phone too.

But that left me with nothing to do after a quick trip to the laundry room to pick out a change of clothes—shadowborn black, of course—in the largest men’s size that’d been left behind. Phaeron was still showering when I returned, chill mist drifting from under the door, which he’d left ajar.

I set the clothes on the inside of the threshold and raised a brow. This man was seriously taking a cold shower and singing in his own language like the deluge of icy water wasn’t another form of torment. I went to remove my shoes and lay on the bed, closing my eyes while I listened to the alien syllables and soft, hissing words drifting from the shower.

It wasn’t a surprise Phaeron had a nice singing voice, not when his deep, smooth timbre had the power to tighten my lower belly. I wished he would emerge from that shower wet and ready to ravish me rather than to air out the burden he was carrying.

My heart quickened when the shower shut off, as did the tune he’d carried. I heard the shuffle of fabric and the creak of the door opening, but not his footsteps as he emerged with a towel tied around his trim hips. His hair was down from its usualscraped-back tail, framing his head and tangled around the root of his horns.

Combined with a chill cast on his skin from the cold shower, for a moment, I saw the second prince of Soiluire in his prime, dressed for peace with blue contouring his high cheekbones. But it was an illusion, banished in a blink. Fatigue lined his face, and he’d lost weight, evidenced in hollow cheeks and a breakdown of the perfect abs he’d once had.

“Oh, you must be hungry,” I said, sitting up quickly.

“Peace, bright soul,” he answered. With a flick of a tendril of shadow, he turned off the lamp behind me, leaving him backlit by the light filtering around the door shading the bathroom. He slid under the covers with a sigh, shedding the towel with his tail. “I need for little except to lie with you.”

I eased myself back down and scooted closer, resting face-to-face with him. He had the uncanny way of looking right through me with those topaz eyes. They threw off twinkling sparks as he threaded his fingers through my hair, nudging my head forward to touch foreheads with me. “I have missed you far more than words could convey,” he murmured.

“I should’ve done more to bring you back sooner,” I whispered back.

He shuttered his glowing eyes for a moment, gritting his teeth. “It is I that failed you with inaction. There is something you must know.”

“I doubt there’s anything—”

“Your sister, Carly,” he interrupted. I swallowed hard, feeling a little ill to hear him say her name with such guilt. “She was brought before Myuna.”

I broke into full-body goosebumps. “She ate Carly’s soul?” I could barely put the thought into words as shocked tears pricked the corners of my eyes.

He shook his head. “She recognized Carly from the memories she’d been able to extract from me. She tore the soul from Carly slowly while demanding my compliance in exchange for her. Up until that point, every supernatural brought before her was consumed, body and soul.”

I was scarcely breathing as he searched for the words to explain my sister’s fate. “I struck a deal with her, to sleep if she spared Carly. She’d already corrupted your sister’s soul by taking a small taste of it…but still, she returned it and revived her. I’m so deeply sorry, bright soul. Your sister is a torchbearer now, an unnatural enslaved to Myuna’s will.”

“That’s why you were asleep when you came to the library,” I realized.

“Indeed.” He met my gaze, resigned for my reaction.

I glanced away from that heavy expression. “Can we save her?” I asked.

“If she is captured, I can attempt to unbind her from Myuna’s will. But she has still experienced death and rebirth. She will remain an unnatural with unpredictable needs and hungers, whether or not she regains control of herself.”

I couldn’t help but think that Carly had become a supernatural in the worst way possible. I clung to the hope that we might still be able to rescue her and any others that were similarly corrupted.

In the meantime, I drew away a lock of hair that shadowed Phaeron’s face, tucking it behind the curve of his horn. My memories from Braza suggested that mates maintained one another’s appearance and grooming like an act of love. “Stay right there,” I said.

“What are you doing?” He gazed over his shoulder when I retrieved a few things from the vanity.

In reply, I ran a brush through his thin, damp hair and disentangled it from his horns. On a hunch, I abandonedcombing it out and ran my fingers over his scalp. He leaned into my touch with a low moan, and I bet he’d purr if he could. Some of the tension bled out of his body.

“I don’t deserve this, bright soul,” he said.

“I’m glad you told me about Carly. I’ve been worried about her, too,” I said quietly, still massaging behind his horns. “You saved her from dying. It set you on the right path to be set free from Myuna’s will and back here to me. If we can save her, we will, together. And if we can’t, I will carry the guilt with you for the rest of my life. For now…relax. Let yourself recover before you try to help anyone else.”

I pinned his hair back with the leather tie he used. He shifted to lie on his back. “You would care for me as a mate,” he said quietly.

There was a blaze in his eyes as he waited for my answer. For all the teasing touches and whispers in my ear, the nibbles and snatched kisses…the fears born of a hunger he understood but didn’t fully control, thismoment felt like the tipping point between us. “Of course. I love you,” I replied.

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