Page 77 of Bright Soul

I fixated on my new mission, becoming a spirit that popped in and out of being only to take what I needed. Clothes were last, for when I cleansed the filth of battle from my skin. First, I sought abandoned shops for rare spell reagents. The couple I found were already ransacked, most items of value already taken.

No matter. I was chasing another memory, a ritual few supernaturals would remember and fewer still would approve of. I filled a box with powders and tonics that’d been overlookedon their shelves. I tucked in a few potions of a vibrant hue of purple that matched Cress’s hair. I’d noticed earlier that some of the strands were reverting to a dark brown, a sign that she needed to renew the dye.

There was one reagent no shop would sell, and I found myself browsing the guardian witch sections of each one I visited, looking for a suitable replacement. The best I could find was the scale of an earthen dragon, and that was a lucky, as it was hidden under something else in a nearly empty display case. It wasn’t much on its own, just a matte disc the color of dried mud, but I felt the latent power within it as it sat across the length of my palm.

The most powerful supernaturals in this world were those that took a dragon’s shape. As unlikely as this scale was for the task I required of it, it would do if I did not acquire a better alternative.

Evening was beginning to touch the sky as I considered what to find next. Traditionally, I should present Cress with a gift made with my own hands. But I didn’t have time for that, not with Myuna breathing down our necks. I would make her something she’d cherish if we made it back to the safety of New Salem and Moongrove Academy.

In the meantime, I sought comforts for her. As night fell, I encountered more unnaturals stirring from their nests. They met a swift death as I emerged from the night with each sighting. It felt good to have two blades in my hands again, though most of Myuna’s creatures required little effort to slay.

The occasional roaming torchbearer added hours to my quest, as each time I unbound a soul, I ended up with an unconscious body that needed to be carried to Cerris City Library. I felt Braza tracking me coming and going, though she didn’t try to talk to me as I added a few people at a time to spare containment rooms.

Past midnight, there were no more unnaturals to kill. I sensed the wrongness of that fact when I dared take form in a beauty store and chill dread creeped up my scalp while I busied myself with inspecting labels. There was a baffling amount of makeup products, lotions, hair care, and serums in this store.

I stilled halfway into my search and turned in the direction of soft footsteps. There was a soft gasp and a scuffle. Human sounds.

“Hello there. I won’t hurt you,” I said.

“That’s exactly what a monster would say.” She sounded young, and I caught myself rolling my eyes despite the circumstances.

“None of Myuna’s creatures speak. That’s how I know you are not one. You may apply the same logic to me.” I glanced down at myself and hoped she wasn’t a shifter or vampire, able to see the state I was in through the dark. My shirt was in tatters, and I still bore the grime of battle, new and old. “Would you like me to take you to a safe place?”

“I thought I had a safe place.” She was peeking around a display of nail polishes, and I caught a glimpse of her aura, that of a witch who hadn’t picked an affinity yet. I drew a layer of shadows over my torso when I noticed that she was aiming a phone light in my direction. “Oh! You’re the dimensional from the stream. Are you here to rescue me?”

I tilted my head, bemused, and fibbed, “Yes.” I would take her to the hospital no matter what. She needed to evacuate with the rest of the survivors we were protecting. “But before we leave, I need some advice.”

The girl ended up being an employee who was living in the back room of the shop alone. She was more than happy to help me load up on things Cress probably wanted. I left with a couple heavy bag of various products and her in my shadows, ploppingher on the front steps of the hospital and disappearing the moment she turned to thank me.

I returned to the library to deposit the bags next to the other items I’d found, finally turning my attention toward making myself presentable. First, a shower. I luxuriated in the cool water even though it ran in the various colors of blood and battle off my form. I was cleansing my wounds a second time when the feeling of dread returned.

Power intensified in the air, and I clutched my skull, wailing from the pressure bearing down on me from all angles. It lasted for all of a minute before abruptly disappearing. I shut the shower off, breathing heavily.

There was no questioning that Myuna had done something awful. But what could it have been?

Braza tentatively brushed my mind.“I know you’re probably resting…”she said.

“My next rest will be when Myuna is dead,”I replied.

She had a way of holding her silence a way that felt disapproving.

“I shall come to you shortly.”I didn’t need her to be concerned for me, even though I muffled a yawn at the thought of rest.

“I shall be ready,”she murmured.

The fatigue I was running from threatened to catch up with me as I dressed in the set of too-tight clothes that’d been left here earlier and prepared what I was going to say in the mirror. I had to keep moving. Though I did pause by the bed to catch a breath of the scent lingering on the sheets. The perfume of Cress’s arousal and my magic, intertwined.

Heat pooled in my groin. I’d make her my mate on this bed now that my soul was whole.

I shook my head sharply and turned into shadows, leaving before I could fantasize about it further. Taking form in frontof the domed powercore, I forwent the formality of bowing and asking permission to enter. Braza was already formed of black and purple energy in the middle of her small space, hands on her hips, tail flicking as she took a good look at me.

I didn’t give her much of a chance to speak before I swept her off her feet and into a hug. Whatever she was going to say rolled into a squeak of surprise, then she hugged me back, curling her wings into a looser second embrace.

She fixed her luminous powercore eyes on me, a little furrow in her brow. She was undoubtedly searching my mind for an explanation, but the rehearsed words had evaporated away already. I was, perhaps, more fatigued than I expected. I held her more firmly, enough that her body dimpled and static tingled on my skin. “I’m sorry,” I said in the language of our people.

“About—”

“I’m sorry, Brazita,” I corrected myself.

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