Page 6 of Bright Soul

The talking heads on every station reported that it was Myuna, quoting a red-skinned dimensional woman who’d come forward earlier to set the record straight for the greater supernatural community. She’d shared who Myuna was and why she was there. And once that footage was exhausted, talk turned to that of survivors and missing family members who hadn’t had the means to escape the pocket dimension in time.

It looked bleak for them…for us. Cerris City would not come off lockdown for anyone when a world-eating goddess could escape behind them.

“I bet you someone is streaming the uncut footage.” The husky-voiced suggestion came from Wren, who sat on one of the beds. Though she’d stopped crying, she looked and sounded exhausted, wearing her grief with her spine curled in.

Several of us spoke up at once. Wren ignored it all, typing away on her phone screen.

“We need to have some eyes on the inside. Why not a camera?” suggested our resident changeling in disguise. We only knew him as Grant Norwood, the verdant witch who he appeared to be at the moment. Since Áine was also in this room, he kept his true form hidden. As they were from enemy courts, she was bound to be the last to know we had a changeling in our midst, and I didn’t want to be around for her wrath if she ever learned the truth.

I glanced over at him, wondering if we could send him to spy on Myuna. It would be more accurate than the news or a recording presumably being streamed online.

An awful buzzing noise came from Wren’s phone, startling most of us. She grimaced and turned it down with a few rapid clicks on the side of her device. “This hacker is saying that when Myuna spoke for the first time, all the audio got messed up. But this is what she’s doing right now,” she said.

Her phone was passed from hand to hand, quickly ending up with Cress. “They’re just…doing nothing?” she asked. Myuna hadn’t moved from the dais, and Phaeron was a motionless statue below her.

The device stopped in Roe’s hands last. She angled its screen away from Willow, who had recently received magical healing for a concussion. Our intrepid leader was the only one here willing to scroll as far back in time as the stream would go, making a sound of disgust as the black and white shadows played over her face. “Okay, gross,” Roe muttered. “So she eats everyone…then she starts talking to Phaeron… Oh, this might be something.”

We gathered into a tight knot behind Roe as she played the video at three times its normal speed. Myuna made a come-hither gesture, and Phaeron responded. She worked magic over him and blinded the camera with beams of light…

“Fuck,” Cress spat in frustration. “What’d she do to him?”

When the light cleared, Phaeron was assuming the same spot where he’d apparently been standing since this moment. Myuna turned to Garroway and said something, then Roe paused the video. “He’s taking one of Phaeron’s swords and leaving,” she said.

“We have to go get Phaeron,” Cress said.

“Not yet,” Geo rumbled. “He has to leave the goddess’s side first. And something tells me she won’t allow him to do that…unless he is fully under her control.”

“We’ll figure out how to nab him, promise,” Roe put in.

Everyone voiced their agreement in their own ways. Willow, Áine, and Wren gave weary nods. Grant, Bianca, and I cracked our knuckles, signaling a readiness to fight. I raised a brow at Grant since he’d said more than once that his pretty changeling ass was no good in combat. He offered a brilliant smile and a shrug in reply.

Roe, Geo, and Cress exchanged glances, determination in their faces.

“In the meantime, I’m declaring Yule to be on pause. I bought a gift for each and every one of you, and you’ll get them when we escape this pocket dimension,” Roe continued.

“If you haven’t noticed, they’re not unsealing the pocket dimension for anyone to ‘escape,’” Grant said with air quotes.

“Not until Myuna is dead,” Cress spoke up. “And Hana Graygazer believes the right group has been trapped in here with her to make that happen.”

“Who…us?” Wren asked, glancing around. A bit of that rich girl judgment returned to her gaze and tone. “Most of us can barely cast five spells.”

“Two of us are trained assassins with many kills to their names,” Bianca retorted. A claim she could make about herself, especially in hunting unnaturals, but less about me. I had the “trained” part down, but Garroway had barely sent me on any missions.

Wren turned a glare her way. “You’re not even in this coven.”

I knew that look in Bianca’s face, ready and excited for a fight. I murmured her name, practically begging for her to glance my way and not start this conflict. Not now.

She said without pause, “I will be tomorrow.”

Several emotions passed over Wren’s face before she settled on betrayal. She tilted that look toward Roe. “Heath’s body isn’t even cold yet,” she said, going breathy with emotion. “I mean, before some monster everyone calls a goddess ate what’s left of him. He can’t be replaced like that.” She snapped her fingers.

“Wren, you have to understand—” Roe began to say.

“I’m not having this conversation around everyone,” the other woman said abruptly. She stood and snatched up her phone, putting it in her pocket and sailing out the door. If she was trying to outrun the first sob before we all heard it…I could pretend it hadn’t happened before she was out of earshot.

Roe heaved a tired sigh before following after her. After a few moments of hesitation, Cress followed, motioning for Geo and me to stay behind.

4

---