Page 43 of Bright Soul

“Shit,” I muttered under my breath, lurching into motion to protect his back when he was quickly overrun. This type of fighting felt too familiar. In another life, he and Braza had fought swarms of unnaturals under all kinds of circumstances and won. The creatures threw themselves at us, sensing easy prey and meeting a swift death because of it.

What felt like minutes later, the onslaught paused, monsters freezing and then pacing away from us. Soon they were in fullretreat, leaving behind a gory mess. Myuna seemed to realize she was losing servants much faster than she’d corrupted them.

Phaeron turned to me, his head tilting and expression uncertain. “We must burn the remains. Myuna can still gather energy by eating what’s left behind,”he said in the foreign syllables of his language.

I repeated it out loud in a two-toned voice, drawing glances of surprise and distrust from the defenders who’d survived the onslaught. With a sigh, I released my tether with Braza, lamenting the lack of her power and support immediately. I wavered on my feet and felt my skin pull in multiple places as wounds in the process of healing reopened. “I said, we have to burn the remains.” A slur crept into my voice.

Grace was the first to react. “Hate to point it out, but we’re in a library,” she snarked.

“Well…we made this mess. Might as well clean it up.” The tired voice was clearly Aaron’s by his forced cheer. His more serious twin was already kicking glass shards into a pile.

“Cress?” Phaeron eyed me top to bottom, his brow knit in confusion. He clearly still knew my name but rolled theRand hissed the rest, making it harder to recognize. He…hadn’t realized it was me under Braza’s shadows?

Maybe he was just horrifically mixed up from his whole ordeal, torture from sleep to waking.

“And look who’s back with us.” Aaron, to my horror, came over to clap Phaeron on the shoulder. Phaeron winced and hissed in earnest. “Oh…damn, can I get a medic?” he called out.

Narrowing his new catlike eyes, the dimensional shook his head and gestured toward his ears. “I know. I see it now. How’d you get burned like that?” Ajax answered.

Phaeron seemed to give up and flicked out his tongue, which was now forked at the end. “He had a translation spell break,”I explained for him. I inched closer, staring at his mouth in fascination. He gazed back, catlike pupils resizing.

I put on an exaggerated grin, hoping he got the message. He bared his fangs back at me and…holy shit, he had a mouth full of sharp teeth, reminding me of a dog’s dentition. Now that I’d noticed, it was obvious that whatever the Void had done to him to make him more human had worn off, sharpening his features at unusual angles and making him that much more alien.

I remembered his many fangs from the haze of Braza’s memory, but it was more real to see it in person. His expression relaxed, and he dragged himself forward a limping step, cupping my cheek and jaw. I sighed out at the familiar rasp of his calluses and even the less familiar points of his more solid, curved claws following the pads of his fingers.

He didn’t speak, but he didn’t have to. He was clearly somewhere between affection, admiration, and disbelief. If he could, I think he’d kiss me, then tell me off for ignoring his every warning and saving him anyway.

When the “medic,” a verdant witch doctor still in his scrubs, arrived to tend to him, Phaeron cut a sideways glare before realizing why the man was interrupting our moment. He sighed out something and took my shoulder, pushing me toward the doctor.

“Wait, you first,” I protested, even though I was feeling increasingly lightheaded.

He held me in front of him stubbornly. “You first,” he echoed with effort.

The doctor began to heal the worst of my injuries with flashes of green and brown magic. “He will need to head to the hospital anyway,” he told me in an undertone. “Actually…wow, you should as well.”

I hadn’t heard a doctor say “wow” before about any illness or injury I’d taken to them. My whole body throbbed and stungwith previously ignored hurts. I was going to have one hell of a full-self bruise if I didn’t do as this doctor said.

I turned to Phaeron and pointed to the light outside the now-windowless library. “Hospital,” I said slowly.

He frowned and shook his head, not understanding. I gestured between us, then pointed outside again.

“Allow me to assist. She wants to take you to a hospital, my prince,”Braza said, somehow speaking in both our languages at the same time.

Phaeron grunted. Nice to know that sound was just a universal man thing.

18

BEN

There was a lull in the patrols of unnaturals—big fucking surprise there—so several of us traipsed to the hospital. Along with their general injuries, Phaeron had patches of second- and third-degree burns, and Cress needed a blood transfusion, so they were both in a medically induced sleep as they recovered. I checked on Lucas, just to see that he was still deep in a coma.

I’d never felt so worthless than when I was waiting around for one of the trio to wake up. I’d taken a bet with Geo on who it would be first. “It’ll be Cress. She’s the least injured of them,” I’d reasoned.

“Phaeron, so I can knock him unconscious again for harming Cress,” Geo had grumbled. I’d cast him a worried glance. He and Phaeron had been getting along pretty well until this confrontation.

That was before he’d disappeared with Wren to appear on her stream. The population of supernaturals watching was swelling dramatically each time Wren went live. Tish had set up her laptop in the waiting room to monitor the chat anddonations, setting it on an end table so I could listen in with the gaggle of women I’d ended up hanging out with: Bianca, Grace, and Tish.

Geo had a presence in his gargoyle form and his big, gravelly personality was quickly becoming a fan favorite. Wren was interviewing him as they toured the area outside, showing the blockades Ashbough Protective Services had put in. It was a little post-apocalyptic from the lingering bloodstains on the sidewalk and the way the streets were cracked and rucked up from the use of guardian witch magic.

---