Page 92 of Bright Soul

In the meantime, I guest-starred on Wren’s stream. She’d wanted me to deliver the message in stone form, where my grinding tones and deadly serious expression would lend us credibility with the remaining survivors in Cerris City.

I looked into the camera and said, “We have discovered an exit to the pocket dimension that Myuna and her forces don’t know about. All survivors and noncombatants will be evacuated through this secret exit in one week’s time.”

I listed the four new rendezvous points that Ashbough Protective Services was opening up now that we knew that Myuna had consumed her poorly shaped monster creatures. The seers had balanced out all possible futures for the evacuation and decided that one week would allow us to gather as many of the dwindling population of survivors as possible while the twisted goddess would still be mastering how to puppet her newly empowered servant and the fine control needed for the unfamiliar magic of her torchbearers.

According to our changeling, there didn’t seem to be any movement coming from Myuna’s throne. She was deepin meditation alongside a handful of the most powerful supernaturals she’d managed to bring under her sway. We were still outnumbered three-to-one by her torchbearers, and that number could still grow before we moved a large group toward the operating ocean gate.

Hell, if we messed this up, her forces would growbecauseof us. I made it my new, temporary duty to help locate survivors and bring them to safety. For the rest of the day, I flew loops around the furthest reaches of the city as a scout and guard for anyone I came across.

It was my pleasure to serve. Cress would be happy I’d used my time wisely, and it helped me feel productive. I had no doubts that Phaeron and Ben were, quite literally, fulfilling my primary duty, and…I came to terms with it on my long scouting flights. Logically, I knew I could not be with her all the time. There was work only I could do here and wouldn’t if I had to choose between it and protecting Cress.

I glowed with the pride of a job well done the next morning, having personally saved a dozen survivors and left a single stray torchbearer in quartz cuffs and a medically induced sleep in one of the hospital’s rooms. I stood in the foyer, waiting in human form, a few minutes before the big meeting when they arrived in a swoop of shadows.

Phaeron had transported them with his hands on Cress and Ben’s shoulders. Her face lit up when she saw me. “Geo! I have something for you,” she announced.

I found her joy to be infectious, cracking the first smile out of my recent stint in gargoyle form. “Oh?” I asked.

She took the back of my hand and placed a cool plastic box in my palm. “Your very own phone. Brand new.” She beamed as I looked from it to her and released a single, grinding laugh.

“Now I will never break yours again,” I said.

“Look, he’s smiling. That’s practically bursting with joy,” Ben laughed, reminding me that he and Phaeron were still there. The dimensional hung back a step, wearing an expression that could only be described as besotted as he watched Cress.

I nodded in approval and bent to kiss her. “Thank you,” I said.

She lingered close, palms on my chest. “Of course. Ben’s going to get us all signed up on a plan together, and then you can watch cat videos to your heart’s content.”

“Soon.” I had a pang of regret to end this moment, but the meeting was about to start without us. I pocketed the new phone for the moment. “There is a lot that still needs to be done. Some decisions were made in your absence yesterday, and other things need an expert’s opinion.” My gaze flashed more deliberately toward Phaeron.

“I enjoyed my respite quite thoroughly,” he replied. And judging by the lack of dark hollows under his eyes, it seemed he had finally rested. Good. He’d be ready for the tough challenges ahead. “After the meeting, perhaps I could trouble you for a moment alone, Geo?”

“No problem. I want to show you to a torchbearer that needs your attention anyway,” I said.

He dipped his head and led the way to the meeting, which started up the moment we settled. Madigan stood over a spread of maps pulled down from the wall. Today, we were joined by the usual group of decision makers: the two Crown Coven members, Hana Graygazer, Auric et Vess, Madigan’s husbands, plus Roe and Grant.

Auric greeted Phaeron in Soiluirian, who replied in kind, taking a seat next to him. I glanced over at Cress, who shrugged. Without Braza, we had no hope of knowing what they were actually saying, but Auric’s guffaw and hearty slap on Phaeron’s back seemed fairly universal.

“Fashionably later than me. Nice,” Roe said, fist bumping Cress.

“Hello, you all. Welcome,” Madigan said at the same time. “We are gathered to plan our methods of attack. We’ve just set the hourglass over and have less than a week to evacuate civilians and noncombatants before it’s too late.”

“What do you already know of Myuna’s recent actions?” Phaeron asked.

She mentioned the consumption of most of her unnaturals and the way the torchbearers were seeming to wake and use their magic at her direction. He nodded, speaking up at the end of her narrative. “I’ve come to understand that Myuna is not the only monster of her kind. She intended to create another being of entropy in my brother and planted a seed of corruption in his soul. It was why the Hungering Darkness was so exceptionally awful while also being like her.

“It is more than likely, with its death, she has chosen to ascend another, who is helping her control her torchbearers. Such an expenditure of magic would be quite difficult for her in her current state without a sacrifice.” His yellow gaze cut to Grant. “Do you know who she ascended?”

“No. I just know she’s sitting around with five of her strongest minions right now. It could be any one of them,” he answered.

The others nodded. At some point, he must’ve shown his changeling nature to everyone else in this room. Soon it wouldn’t be much of a secret at all, if we survived the coming fights.

“If we can kill the ascended torchbearer, Myuna will be at her weakest. She will be so distracted by her hunger that we could bait her into a trap. Auric will manipulate the Void to send her back to rot away on the remnants of Soiluire,” Phaeron said.

Hana’s grave voice cut through his confident tones. “We will still need someone to stand toe-to-toe with her while he works.”

He frowned, shaking his head. “Even weakened, she is still akin to a goddess…”

“A point we can come back to,” Madigan interjected. “We have exchanged a few messages with the Coral King. He’s willing to send his myrmidons to help us defend the ocean gate as long as Willow Frost is among the evacuees.”

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