Page 118 of Bright Soul

Myuna loomed over me, black mouth gaped in a smirk. Her booming voice shook me further as I gasped for air in her crushing grip. “You see now that you cannot win.” Black spots crowded the edges of my vision when first Geo’s magic slipped from my grasp, then Phaeron’s and Ben’s.

The shield slipped from my grasp, shattering with the delicate tinkling of small pieces of glass. Flame fell next, but I didn’t hear it clatter. Ididnotice the nothingness of the Void enveloping us both in its freezing embrace before she seemed to.

“No prophecy can spell the ending of a goddess such as I.” Without the acoustics of an audience chamber, her many voices rang hollow. “How foolish I was…to believe…”

My vision was fading. I gaped for air and painful prickles coursed over my skin head to toe as I just couldn’t find any to fill my lungs. Myuna squeezed me instinctively now as she turned her gaze to the Void.

“This cannot be!” she thundered.

In one last act of defiance, Braza spoke to her, mind-to-mind.“The prophecy never said you would be killed. Only defeated. Soon you will know only the rot of Soiluire and I hope you choke on it.”

Her pale irises focused on me, the prize she crushed in one hand. “You insolent—no. I shall know the taste of youfirst.”

Myuna lifted me and I fell face-first into her mouth’s pit.

41

PHAERON

Familiar shadowborn rage coursed through my blood as Myuna’s minions rushed us. Eleven supernaturals, all possessing strong magic or powerful, enchanted weapons. And the last of the dozen…I fixed my gaze on the dragon shifter that’d tried to incinerate my mate.

And on Roe as she recklessly ran ahead of our defensive line to punch said dragon in the face. I swore under my breath and burst into shadows, racing after her. With Cress occupying Myuna’s attention, I knew it was my duty to nullify the second worst threat here.

The dragon raised a taloned foot to crush Roe, flinching at the last minute as my shadowy claws punched through his scales and loosed streams of blood. While fire dragons ran hot, his blood shouldn’t have steamed as much as it had under normal circumstances.

Insane chatters of laughter accompanied the Void’s chilling touch. It surrounded me gleefully, frosting the dragon blood I flicked off my shadows as I regrouped next to Roe. “Defensive magic, now,” I ordered her. All we’d done was annoy the massiveshifter, who to our luck was moving much slower than he should, dragging under Myuna’s control.

“Got it,” she said. There was plenty of debris lying around that answered to the magic of a guardian witch. She cobbled together a wall of cement, rocks, and tiles.

Our opponent turned one blazing eye my way, squaring his legs and sucking in a deep breath to feed the inferno at the back of his throat. I disappeared into shadows when he breathed out, to keep the gout of fire away from Roe.

Reappearing by his hindquarters, I lashed solid shadows into knotted ropes between his legs and tail. “Hey, ugly!” Roe shouted, accompanied by the sound of rocks cracking against scales.Fuck.The bold female had a death wish.

And I was acting on Cress’s wishes too much—trying to ensnare the shifter to lead him into a moment of weakness, to save him and his soul. She’d taken much of my sword skills and it seemed I’d gained her empathy. A dangerous emotion, given the stakes. I should’ve shoved my sword through his skull and been done with it.

Instead, I ripped my weapon through the wing membrane looming nearby, which flared with his shift of attention. I accompanied it with a shadowborn’s roar of challenge, hoping he would realize that Roe was not the opponent worth his flames. He swung his head on his long neck, lifting his wings and looking at me over his shoulder.

That’s right. Come this way.

First he tried swinging his tail and I took the blow, letting him impale it on my sword, which punched through scales and flesh before I was thrown several yards from the impact. I cushioned my landing with shadows, skidding to a stop and making an exaggerated groan to tickle his prey sense.

Light exploded in the chamber. Someone screamed, though it echoed over and over a hundred times with the rest of thevoices the Void wanted us to hear. Still lying on the ground, my gaze flashed to the dais, where Cress crouched behind the crystal shield, her face turned to the ceiling.

Myuna was gathering rays of light, her hand held in that direction. “Phaeron!” Cress screamed, reaching out to our mating bond. She needed my darkness and I gave her nighttime, reaching upward too and blasting all the shadows over my form and every ounce of magic I could muster to block out the sun and cut off Myuna from its power.

The goddess’s furious bellow resonated with the Void. Auric was nearly done calling it down to envelop Myuna. Just a minute more.

“If you insist on interfering, then I will have every head in this room in addition to hers,” Myuna thundered.

I was sure she would turn her wrath on me and bared my fangs, welcoming it. I’d forgotten about the dragon for a few critical moments too long, though. He’d lunged at me and I noticed the crimson blur of his limbs and snapping mouth. With my power occupied helping Cress, I didn’t dare try to dive into the shadows.

Besides, he tripped over his back legs, his bulk going down. With his trajectory, he’d crush me under his barrel chest.

I rolled to my feet and leapt, sinking my claws into his scaled neck and climbing. The jarring impact of his body hitting the ground nearly unseated me, but I remained seated on his neck. “Are you okay?” Roe shouted.

“Fine! Hold his head if you can,” I called back. I searched him frantically with soul sight, locating the aura of his soul between his shoulder blades, where his wings met prominent flight muscles clothed in plate-like scales. It did not encompass his whole body, remaining the same size as it would be if he were in his true, human form.

I dove for it as he started to stand, abruptly jerking his head with the sound of flame igniting. With a great heave, I had his knotted soul between my hands and he slumped to the ground. I tisked under my breath. Myuna had tied his soul into two knots, a sign that he hadn’t gone to her control easily.

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