Page 72 of Bright Soul

I snapped a picture and texted it to Bianca. Instead of the stream of abuse I expected, she merely texted back, “Wish I could’ve seen it. :(”

The excitement was fading about as fast as it’d been to kill Garroway out in the sun. “It was too easy for him,” I texted back before pocketing the device. Any death would’ve been too easy,though. What would’ve really satisfied me, when he was the reason I’d lost my mom and childhood? When Lucas was still in a coma in a hospital we were about to evacuate.

There was an awkward silence between the four of us. Well, they had just helped me murder a man, no matter how deserving he’d been. I didn’t know what to say after it was done, either.

“Shopping spree?” I suggested.

Cress breathed a disbelieving laugh.

“No,” Geo grumbled.

“Stay if you wish. I need to borrow Little B,” Phaeron said.

Cress covered her mouth, trying to contain a string of tired giggles. “You’re really calling him that?”

“Yes, and I will bring him back shortly. I owe you all phones, after all.” Phaeron glanced toward the wreckage of the truck. “We’ll need to steal another truck, I presume?”

I handed Wren’s phone over to Cress. “Here. Call Bianca. She knows how to hotwire a car. I’m sure you can get tools from the mall somewhere.”

Geo raised a stony brow. “And if the unnaturals return?”

“They won’t,” Phaeron said confidently. He rested a hand on my shoulder.

“Wait, you never told me why—” And we were off in a puff of shadows.

I saw why Phaeron didn’t like cars now. Traveling by shadow waswayfaster, though by the time he released me, I was about to throw up over his leather boots. We’d arrived in a hospital room in what felt like no time at all. Dizzy, I fell toward thenearest trashcan and fumbled it under my chin to dry heave until my stomach felt better.

“Sorry. Time is of the essence,” the dimensional said. He offered me a hand up once I set the trashcan aside.

We were in Lucas’s room. The steady hum of machinery beeped around his still form swallowed up in its sea of white sheets.

Phaeron turned toward him too. He leaned over my little brother, presumably staring at his soul. “Such a long possession by the Hungering Darkness has left him quite damaged. But he is the last victim,” he murmured. “And a chunk of his soul remained in the belly of the monster.”

I choked on a breath. “You’re going to save him? You…you’re holding that piece of his soul right now?”

“I cannot make any promises,” he warned. “But my soul was just made whole, and the process was…easy. The missing piece knew exactly where to slot.” He untucked Lucas from his hospital sheets and drew aside the collar of the gown. I went to the other side of the bed, watching with my heart beating erratically in my throat.

Phaeron opened his fist and placed his palm flat against the skin over my brother’s heart. A jolt passed through Lucas. His fingers twitched; his legs shifted. He was waking up!

Above the ventilator strapped to his face, his eyes flared open. The irises were a shade of gray one small notch off from white and swam around in a panic as he spotted the two of us standing over him. “Lucas,” I breathed.

He clawed the mask off his face and started screaming. Dragging his nails over his cheeks, he nearly scratched furrows into himself before I caught his wrists. “It’s okay. You’re in control. It’s okay,” Phaeron was saying.

“Look at me,” I begged as Lucas continued screaming his lungs out.

The door into the hall slammed open, and in rushed Mama Rollins at the head of a trio of nurses. Thank fuck she was here—anyone else would’ve seen what was happening and immediately assume the worst.

“Use some magic. Check him,” Cress’s mom barked toward the fae nurse behind her.

Phaeron slipped into the shadows and reappeared at my side in moments, giving the green-skinned woman space to work. “Lucas, you’re okay,” I said, giving his wrists a shake. “You’re in a hospital, and you’re safe.”

“You are your own person, free of the Hungering Darkness,” Phaeron added.

The title seemed to catch his attention. Lucas relaxed back into the bed and looked around again in earnest. Green tinged his skin from the fae nurse’s magic. She was quickly checking him head to toe.

“Ben?” Lucas rasped. He hiccupped dryly, his face creasing like he was going to cry. “Ben, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to run off like that.”

“Shh.” I looped one arm under his shoulders, awkwardly bending down to hug him when he was still hooked up to several machines. “It doesn’t matter. All I care about is that you’re finally back.”

---