Page 95 of Bright Soul

Myuna’s laugh faded, and the woman’s eyelids began to fall. “So I took…” Myuna rasped. “…something from…you.”

She went silent. He took a rigid breath from between his teeth and noticed Lucas’s attention, moving his hands slowly to untie what Myuna had done to this victim’s soul. Coming to her bedside, he reached down and returned it to her with a hand on her chest.

Then, in a tone laden with agony, he said, “I know who she ascended in my brother’s place.” Pressing his palms into his eyelids, he made a sound of anger low in his throat. “I shouldhave been more like you, Geo, dedicated to duty over pleasure. I should have rescued her before…”

“Who are you talking about?” I demanded.

“Carly,” he gritted out. “She picked her out of spite. Who has had time to impress Myuna otherwise?”

Tentatively, I laid a hand on his shoulder. “You can’t be so sure.”

“Myuna has little left to harm me with. And she meant harm, even with that threat.” He dropped his hands, looking over at me with eyes that gleamed internally like yellow gemstones. His slitted pupils dilated with his surprise when there was a gasp from the bed behind us.

The former torchbearer was trying to sit up, looking around in a panic and thrashing against her restraints. “Where am I? Who the fuck are all of you?” she demanded.

We both turned to Lucas, who looked embarrassed. “Sorry, ma’am. I didn’t mean to wake you,” he said.

“What did you do?” I demanded.

“Her soul is…” Phaeron scrubbed his eyes. “Young man, I think you need to come with me. All of you, in fact.”

Despite how he said her soul was miraculously stable, Phaeron still placed the woman in a stasis room and asked Lucas for an explanation. Ben’s brother was less sickly today but still needed to sit down shortly after arriving in the library from the sudden jerk of the dimensional’s shadows.

“I dunno, I saw that there were a lot of cracks in her soul. It felt like my magic could do something for her, and the next thingI know, she’s awake and…” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m dizzy.”

I walked away and returned with an armful of Cress’s beloved junk food and soda. Lucas looked like he could’ve wept when he saw what I was offering him. “Finally. Flavor,” he murmured.

As he tore into a pack of chips, Phaeron drew me a few paces away. “He healed her soul. I’ve never seen anything like it,” he whispered.

“His new affinity is powerful,” I stated.

“Potentially the miracle we need, with all the torchbearers we have saved,” he said. “However, a week is not long to master a unique power. Especially considering…” He gestured over at Lucas, who’d passed out with his hand in the chip bag.

He went to return him to the hospital, taking the junk food with him with a promise to hide it from the nurses. I waited with the patience of my stone form for him to return, knowing he would want to speak in more depth about what he’d revealed in the elevator.

I considered what I knew of Braza. A considerable amount, considering she was the powercore to my home library and tethered to Cress. She’d told me as much as she remembered of Braza’s life after experiencing it close to firsthand. But did she deserve a gargoyle form and a second chance?

Did anyone? I was here, after all, an echo of an honored witch I was nothing like.

When the shadows writhed in front of me, I was already saying, “I do not know the secrets to my own making.”

He answered as he took form. “The secrets are within you. I understand I am asking the world of you, but you are my only hope to make a gargoyle form for her possible. I need to study your heart and the magic that animates you.”

I stiffened. He’d taken my heart out before to say his goodbyes to Morgana, but this was something entirely different.

“I understand that she means a lot to you,” I said. By the shift in his expression, that was an understatement. “You realize that she will not be the same person, yes? If you wish to pass her off as a gargoyle that has existed since creating one was legal…she will need the body of a man. There are no female gargoyles.”

He blew out a breath, nostrils flaring. “I cannot make changes to the spells unless I see them first. Perhaps it is folly, but I need to see for myself if it is possible.”

I considered whether it would be wise to aid him in veering so far from the right side of supernatural law. What shifted my opinion was knowing that Cress would approve. She did have a deep connection with the powercore and expressed her regrets that Braza’s life had been cut short so traumatically.

Phaeron waited for me to come to some semblance of a decision. With a sigh, I said, “She could pass as a half-gargoyle if her body is formed with it in mind. One of my friends has a daughter, and she inherited some of his features and a temporary version of his stone form.”

A smile started to tug at his lips, showing the edges of his fangs. “You would help me?”

“After we join Cress’s mating circle, yes,” I said.

He breathed out with relief and stepped forward, reaching out. “You will be as close as family on that day, if not sooner. Come, clasp arms with me, brother.”

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