Page 53 of Bright Soul

I dipped my chin in a slow, grinding nod. “No agent of Myuna has had the presence of mind he has,” I said.

“Good point,” she mused. “Let’s talk about your plan in more detail, Auric. I have a few augurs you should meet as well.”

I cleared my throat, a sound about as pleasant as two rocks grinding together. “While you do that, I wish to have words with Phaeron.”

She considered for a couple moments. “Yeah, all right. No one’s using the conference room right now.”

I shook my head at Cress when she looked ready to pose a question. She’d be all right without us for a while, considering how she carried a powercore’s might with her. Her gaze softened with concern as she watched Phaeron and me head for the hospital, with Ben hesitating before catching up to us.

The dimensional followed us as we took the familiar path from the lobby to the conference room that’d become somewhat of a war room. Tourist maps of Cerris City peppered the walls, each covered with different notations. One was stuck with red pins each time there’d been a sighting of unnaturals. Another marked battles and skirmishes, while a third noted suburban areas we’d tried to evacuate already.

Phaeron paused in front of these maps, his tail flicking against the carpet in agitation. He read over them for a few moments before crossing the room to have a seat at the head of the conference table. “I suspect this conversation has been due a while,” he commented.

I transformed back into my human form while he and Ben got comfortable. Feelings both positive and negative flooded in, as well as the phantom sensations of hunger and thirst. I’d need to satisfy both if I intended to spend more than an hour as a human.

“Yes. We should talk about how you’ve put Cress in danger,” I said. My voice just didn’t hit the same kind of dangerous rumble in this form, but I glared across the room at him as another way to express my displeasure.

Before I sat, I fiddled with the light switch, dimming the room and earning a grateful glance from the dimensional. I went to sit across from Ben, the three of us completing a seated triangle.

“I would not willingly harm her. I am fated to her, same as you both,” Phaeron answered.

“I am aware,” I gritted. I’d already expressed my frustrations about this to Ben last night, once I’d calmed down in the aftermath of finding him disconnecting Cress from the machine monitoring her vitals. “All three of us are fated to the same woman, and yet we could not be more different.”

Phaeron’s eyes glimmered like gemstones as he took in Ben and me. “A relationship with one man and one woman can be needlessly complicated, let alone adding in two more partners. Yet it is easy to love Cress, yes?”

“Yes,” Ben and I answered at the same time.

“That’s the fate part of it,” Ben added.

I scoffed lightly. “Fate,” I echoed. “It pales in comparison to being made for her and only her.”

Ben rolled his eyes. “All right, if you want to measure dicks about this, then my soul is the other half of hers. We share a deep bond.”

We both glanced toward Phaeron. “She is my True Light, the only woman capable of quelling the rages of my shadowborn side,” he said. “Were she one of my kind, she’d also be a perfect biological match capable of carrying my life force and thus my child.”

“So, we’re all specially bonded to her,” Ben said more to me, with a gesture toward Phaeron.

“But that creates the other side to being her mate. We must find a balance where we can support her while not hating one another for her shared affections,” Phaeron said. “I have shared a mate before. It was not always easy.”

“You have?” Ben asked.

He nodded. “With my brother. She was the first mate either of us had, before we fully developed our magic and abilities. I’m glad of the experience, as it taught me that a heart like hers or Cress’s should be trusted to expand to love her mates equally. It is better for all of us not to expect her to cut herself in portions and jealously look over to see if we all received an equal piece of her.”

My hands softened from the fists I had resting on the table. Somehow, he’d taken what I was feeling and phrased it just right.

“I have only seen you both as my competition,” I admitted quietly. They were unpredictable and changeable, unlike myself. But that wasn’t a fair summation either when Cress had already improved me just by being her.

“That is quite clear,” Phaeron said. “Do you remember what I said when I offered to temper your stone form?”

I thought backward. My memory used to be crystal clear, but I was starting to forget the edges now, especially moments when my human form was involved. “You helped me to make peace between us.”

He nodded. “I wished to establish some common ground for Cress’s sake. I still hope to build up a foundation like that with you both. As long as we can be friends, we can focus on her despite our differences. What do you say?”

Ben’s answer was quick. “I’m in.” He was already in, though. I was the one who found this difficult. My gargoyle side still saw the world in binary, so there was no “I will try” like I’d promised before.

I was the one who needed to change here. With a gargoyle’s brevity, I answered, “Yes.”

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