Page 3 of Bright Soul

“Useless fuck,” muttered Garroway as he dragged another corpse past me. Though most of my body was locked in place, I could still move my head to see that he struggled with the bulk of a fallen Crystal fae, whose body was encased in a suit of armor like solid stone. Myuna would still consume it in one giant swallow.

I knew he was trying to insult me, but I ignored him. There was little intensity left in Garroway’s voice, and I had to preserve what fight I could muster for Myuna. He carried what was left of my brother, the Hungering Darkness, within him and thus was more hopelessly enslaved to her will than I was.

Myuna sat upon the lip of the raised dais where the Crown Coven once reigned, their throne-like seats pushed around haphazardly to make way for her bulk. She was over twice my height, with bone-white skin that glowed dimly even now. Her visage still appeared to be that of one of my people, with forward-facing horns, leathery wings, slitted eyes, and a tapered tail that swung midair like a pendulum. We had once reveredher as a goddess of light, not realizing the dark hunger lingering inside her until it was too late.

She’d appeared on my home planet of Soiluire within an egg-like comet, emerging a savior and a beacon for my people, who at that time lived in near-complete darkness. For centuries, she built her base of worshippers, biding her time until the moment was right, or her cravings for souls grew too great.

Our society had collapsed within a day of her turning on us. Those that’d served her most faithfully as her torchbearers were killed and enslaved first, forced to bring her millions to consume. Her glutting was the beginning of our Age of Decay and eventual exodus from Soiluire.

I’d slain her monsters and endured a trip through the Void to lead the dregs of my people here, to Earth. We’d tolerated the prejudices of humans, who’d thought our features resembled the hellish demons of their worst imaginings, all to get away from Myuna. My people became known as dimensional travelers by escaping to a new world. We’d sealed the way behind us, intending to close the door back to Soiluire permanently.

I simmered with a low boil of fury. There was no end to my rage with Endaeron for undoing all of our work and leading her here, but I kept my emotions contained and my breathing slow and deep. I knew I could not act in anger if I wanted to escape this room and return to Cress.I also knew I could not kill Myuna alone.

“That is everything, my lady,” Garroway said in the two-toned voice that meant the Hungering Darkness was currently in control of their shared body. White shadow flickered around the vampire’s form like flames, slowly enveloping his body and hiding his human features.

Myuna worked the stretched-out material that should have been her jaw. It’d come unhinged and spread wide enough to allow her to feast unimpeded. What should’ve been fleshand bone quickly flowed back into place. Then she…melted. I watched in horror as her entire body ran like candle wax, puddling down the carved stones of the dais.

The mass of white substance quivered before drawing into a ball. It was like witnessing a master sculptor manipulate Myuna’s body as it formed four tubes and an oval for a head before etching in details. Wrists, knees, fingers, and nails formed, and the oval sprouted a nose, hair, and two almond-shaped eyes that glowed a little brighter than the rest of her.

Myuna had transformed into a human. Worse, I recognized her new face. She had assumed an all-white visage of the fallen leader of the Crown Coven, Tempest Wildsong. Instead of having flowing raven-dark locks and a dress of soft green, though, Myuna was a pale imitation in pure white, save for the toothless black hole behind her lips as she spoke.

“Is this what mortal females look like on this world?”

Her voice held power; it shook me to my very center. She spoke every possible language layered on top of one another. For her to utter anything wrapped her first exhalation and last in a blanket of incomprehensible nonsense. To listen too closely would inspire madness in most.

“Yes, my lady,” Garroway responded with Endaeron’s breathless awe of her.

She dipped her chin. The dots of her pupils pointed my way, even under a filmy sheen of white magic. “What small, soft people. I yet hunger for more of them. But first there’s you, Phaeron et Sudair. We have unfinished business.”

The language I heard my name in was my native tongue, separating my title rather than treating it like a surname, as humans did. “Because of you…” she began before trailing off. Her attention snagged on a book that flew above her head.

A whole flock of books flapped above us. The audience chamber had representations of magic from all seven affinitiesavailable to witches, and these books of law were enchanted to fly with librarian witch magic and a tiny creature from Soiluire called a wispfly. For a moment, Myuna was like a fascinated cat, watching them circle the room unaware of the fight and subsequent summoning of an otherworldly goddess.

She snatched one out of the air when it flew too close. It was not malfunctioning, like Cress’s handbook, so it settled and reported its title with one last flick of its front and back cover. It wasThe Rule of Supernatural Lawand was halfway through listing its copyright information before she sucked it into her mouth and swallowed.

“Hmm, dry,” she commented. A glowing tongue emerged from her mouth to lick a slimy trail over her lips. “But that wispfly…I need more like it.”

“The books will come to you if you state their title, my lady,” simpered Garroway. The lack of the two-toned quality to his voice and his brief smirk told me the suggestion was all the vampire.

Myuna was tall enough to glimpse a few titles. Those books came to her hand and quickly disappeared into her maw. As she did this, I noticed a metal device mounted out of reach that seemed to be pointing our way. A red light flashed beside a dome of black glass. I gazed at the unfamiliar technology with hope for a moment. Was it a weapon? Perhaps something that nullified magic?

The sounds of rattling paper ceased, and Myuna cleared her throat. I turned away from that blinking light with a sigh. If it were something useful, then it would’ve been utilized in the fight that’d killed most of the Crown Coven and their protectors earlier.

“As I was saying.” The goddess wove light into threads between her fingers. Watching her brought back hazy memories of seeing her do the same thing when she was bored atfunctions or needed to keep her hands busy in dozens of other circumstances. “I spent too much time sitting in place on Soiluire, feeling the advancements and indulgences of the mortals on planets innumerable. Their peoples growing plump for harvesting…but I could not reach them.”

Her fingers fisted on the dais, cracking the stone underneath. “Because ofyou, Phaeron. You and the other souls that fled from the death you were due.”

I drew breath to reply and felt the force of her will. She didn’t want to hear my voice.

“You meddled in forces outside your control. I am entropy, the death of civilizations, the reaper of worlds.” She leaned forward, her finger pointed accusingly. The hairs on the back of my neck lifted from a shift in air pressure. Here it was…the moment she consumed me for saving what I could of my people.

“I came short on power when you disappeared alongside thousands of souls. I have been stranded, sitting alone on a rotting world. I ate my half-formed interstellar vessel waiting…I endured the pain of eating my own power, pleading with my fellow gods to take me away in my darkest season. Their silence was damning. And yet, I am saved.”

She turned her head toward Garroway and whispered, “You shall be rewarded beyond measure.”

I slanted a glare his way, my lip curling in disgust. He would enjoy that reward for half a second before I made his death as painful as possible.

Myuna made a come-hither gesture, and my legs jerked forward at her unspoken command. Light sputtered against her palms before she managed to make them both glow. She had an old trick that she used on me, where she lifted and suspended me in a bubble of light she formed between her hands, making it seem like I floated before her looming, all-powerful presence.Pain twinged in my chest as the muscles shifted from the lack of gravity.

---