24. Phaeron
We ate breakfast in a waiting room with Cress’s coven, as the hospital’s tiny cafeteria was already packed full of defenders and staff members gulping down their rations before getting to work. The witches were quite excited…breakfast was bacon and eggs.
Cress had gotten plenty of compliments for the formal braid I’d given her, with rows of tiny, hearty wildflowers tied just behind her ears. I was rather proud of my handiwork. She sat between Geo and me, taking slow, distracted bites while she chatted with Willow, who’d perched in a seat across from us.
“We can just announce that Ocean Gate 438 is open and ask for backup. I bet you people will come,” Willow was saying. “My maybe-father won’t close it unless I go through it, so why not get some help?”
“It would be unwise,” I said in as gentle a tone I could muster. I could see she was in delicate spirits, excited to have a role to play in the conflict she’d barely gotten a chance to fight in. “We need specific help. If you put a call out to the greater supernatural world, the first people to arrive through that ocean gate will be young glory-hunters and a handful of demigods foolish enough to think they can take Myuna on directly. They will only feed her and make her stronger.”
Willow’s face fell. “But—”
“How will we even separate the help we want verses the help that arrives?” Geo asked.
“Easily enough. We don’t ask for help,” I said. Cress had been in the earlier meeting where we’d discussed this already and nodded tentatively. “The fewer living souls inside Cerris City, the better. If we truly wish to take advantage of Ocean Gate 438, we will evacuate the whole city, including the staff at this hospital. We’d scare the bounty hunters into returning to where they came from. No one remains except those absolutely necessary to our mission.”
Dubious glances turned my way from every witch in earshot. I folded and crunched down a whole strip of bacon, waiting. The salt and fat exploded on my tongue just right, and I closed my eyes from simple pleasure. I could’ve eaten a whole side of bacon rather than the two sad strips each of us had been rationed.
“If all of our support leaves,” Geo said slowly, “who will remain to take care of Myuna?”
Roe, sitting close enough to pick up the conversation, pitched in, “There’s no way everyone can be evacuated, no matter how far-reaching Wren’s stream is. Too many people will die if you’re thinking we leave too and collapse the pocket dimension behind us.”
“I didn’t say we flee. I’m not convinced Myuna can be erased so easily, anyway.” I didn’t hide the troubled twist to my mouth. “What if the fabric of Cerris City rips around Myuna as it collapses and she ends up in the middle of a major human city? It will be the Age of Decay all over again, but much worse with such a huge population of unaware humans facing a hungry cosmic deity.”
“We don’t know that will happen,” Roe said.
“We don’t know that it won’t,” I countered. “Auric et Vess has a plan to return Myuna to Soiluire. It will not require an army to carry out. All we have to do is get him close enough to her to manipulate the Void that clings to her like a second skin.”
Willow stroked her chin thoughtfully. “Going back to getting as many people out of Cerris City as possible. We could use the stream for announcing a gathering point and avoid mentioning the ocean gate.”
“Indeed. But we must be prepared to fight. We will face the majority of Myuna’s forces, as the unnaturals will follow survivors or sense a big group amassing and attack. When we win, we break up the flow of unwilling servants into her service and destroy what she’s already amassed. She will be forced into the one thing she doesn’t want to do…” I bared my fangs in a bloodthirsty grin. “To get up and fight for herself.”
Cress worried her lip. “But if we lose…”
“We’d be completely fucked, right?” Willow murmured. “We’d deliver everyone left in Cerris City to Myuna’s monsters.”
“We won’t lose. We can’t,” Roe said, punching her palm.
“We won’t,” I echoed, turning my head to look over Cress’s head at Geo. He raised an eyebrow back. “We need to gather some resources before this fight.”
“Such as?” he prompted.
“Armor, weapons, food, water. I would strike out on my own, but I need Cress with me,” I said.
A dangerous rumble sounded from the gargoyle’s throat.
“Which means you need to come too,” I concluded.
“Count me in,” Roe said. Not to be left out, as always. “Where are we going?”
I drew a folded map out of my pocket. I’d nicked one from a tourist display that was running low on them since most were pinned on the wall of the makeshift war room. Unfolding it, I pinched its corners with a few tendrils of shadow and floated it between us. “Highfall’s Mall. Too far away for us to walk there. I know you want to help, Roe…but this is a mission for the three of us. If we run into danger, Cress and I can blend into the shadows, while Geo can fly.”
“Hey, what about me?” Ben called. He sat with Wren, the two of them bent over a set of paper notes covered in basic celestial witch runes.
“And we carry Ben along to manage the stream,” I added.
Wren bit the inside of her cheek, and Roe shifted uncomfortably at my suggestion. But we were simply too large of a group to cover the ground I wanted to see tonight.
“If you break my phone, I’ll break you,” Wren grumbled.
I chuckled. “We will bring back as many new phones as we can carry.”
I reached down to take my other piece of bacon, and my thumb skimmed three. Cress stole a quick glance my way and covered her lips with her fingers, a subtle enough tell as to where they’d come from.
I curled my tail tip around her calf for a teasing caress. I wished we had time for more than mere teases. Soon, I told myself.
Hopefully she and the other two men would be willing to go along with the rest of my plan once we were en route.
“Are you sure about this?” Cress asked, stealing glances upward. Myuna’s foul bird creatures lined the roofs, watching our truck drive by with unblinking white stares.
Geo could’ve flown ahead of us and chased them off, but fool that I was, I wanted her to know who was in our truck and where it was going. At my request, he remained in human form in the seat behind Cress. She drove. When our options were her or Ben, her caution was the preferable choice.
Our allies had lent us one of the largest flatbeds for what they thought was a supply run. Highfall’s Mall was right outside the territory that hadn’t been searched for survivors. It sat at the edge of the pocket dimension, a mega-sized structure sure to already be looted and occupied.
The truck hit a bump in the road, jostling us. I stifled a growl, already disliking the confines of this cabin. “Myuna has a special interest in you and me. If she is aware we have split off from the rest of the group, there’s a higher chance she will send her strongest servant after us.”
Ben said through gritted teeth, “Garroway.”
“You want to use me as bait again?” Cress asked dryly.
“We are both bait this time. If we are out after nightfall in a prominent public place, we can compel Myuna to send him,” I said.
Geo’s frown deepened. “I did not agree to this trip to put Cress in danger.”
“Wait, Geo, put that aside a moment,” Ben said, turning in his seat to look at the gargoyle. “This is our chance to finally turn Garroway into ash.”
The look of disapproval slowly morphed on Geo’s face. He blew out a slow sigh. “As always, it seems I am the only one saying no to a reckless plan,” he grumbled. “But I have wondered why we have not yet seen Garroway and the Hunger. They could decimate the survivors we’ve gathered in the hospital if given half a chance.”
“They will once there are no easier options to steal and deliver to Myuna. She is still acting like her old, predictable self, going for the lowest-hanging fruit first,” I said.
“Once we evacuate survivors through the ocean gate, there won’t be many of those left,” Cress said.
“Exactly. There is no better way to fight him than on our own terms.”
And this time, I would snuff out the Hungering Darkness completely. I had hesitated too many times before, seeing it as the remains of my brother more than the shade that’d murdered and consumed hundreds of innocents. It was time I ripped its remaining soul in half…see how it failed to cope with such a devastating wound.
I seethed for its death, and the others noticed. Cress smiled after a moment, saying in a two-toned voice full of forced levity, “Plus, if we have to wait for nightfall…shopping spree!”
“Everything left is free,” Ben agreed.
Even Geo cracked a little grin. “Park the truck right by the doors to load it up.”
And I will ensure no unnaturals disturb your fun, I thought.
“That’s a great idea,” Cress and Braza enthused.
With the help of Wren’s phone, we arrived at Highfall’s Mall in a short time. “Don’t turn the stream on until we know what we’re dealing with,” I said before ghosting out of the vehicle as shadows through an open slit of window. I stretched as the others climbed out and Ben muttered “showoff” in my direction.
“I’ve grown to master a proper entrance or exit in my time,” I said.
“Proper? Try dramatic,” he replied. “Well, this is your kind of place, Big P.”
He pointed through a set of glass doors, where the insides of the mall were shrouded in darkness. “I’ll do some scouting. Stay here,” I said, turning to shadows before anyone could air a complaint.
I felt for the small tether of power connecting me to Braza. Neither of us had severed it, even once my free will was returned. It gave me a good idea of how far I could travel before my mind was susceptible to Myuna or Endaeron.
That thread grew taut before I was done scouting the whole complex. It was four stories of shops, play areas, and kiosks. The lights were out and the air stale. I’d expected survivors and detected none…but Myuna’s creatures had infested the food court and restaurants, while her torchbearers shuffled along like sleepwalkers in the common areas. I blinded and unbound the souls of the closest two to the entryway, then dragged their unconscious bodies back to the truck.
Cress’s eyes widened when I took form in the blinding sunlight and laid them in the bed of the truck. “Seems we have something to occupy our time, after all,” I said, sharing with the group what I’d seen.
“Once we take care of all the torchbearers, I could drive them back to the library?” Ben suggested.
“Perhaps. I don’t like the idea of splitting up further,” I said. The first batch I’d unbound from Myuna’s will still rested in their containment rooms without waking. These victims had a similar level of soul damage, unfortunately. Early victims of the goddess’s sloppy work.
Cress drew her sword and handbook and set the edge of her blade alight. It’d be a beacon for any unnatural the moment she stepped into the mall. Geo nudged his way in front of her after transitioning to gargoyle form, holding his tower shield and a mace made from his quartz spikes. And Ben turned on the stream, placing the phone in a sling over his chest and taping a small device to his ear.
“Yeah, I hear you,” he muttered into it while he drew blood runes up his arm. “I don’t need you chattering in my ear, Bianca… Uh huh, fuck you too. For those early watchers, hi, it’s Ben. Today we’re going extreme shopping.”
I shook my head, bemused by the whole idea of streaming. “Ready?” I asked.
Cress, now wearing the purple-black shadows of Braza’s power, nodded first. She wrapped a concentration of darkness around her blade to dim it.
I hissed toward Ben for quiet and pointed at the nearest shopfront. A sheet of what looked like chain-lengths covered up the entrance, except a huge hole had been ripped through the metal. Dozens of white eyes turned our way from the bowels of what’d once been a restaurant.
Geo charged, catching the first lunging rat-creature with a swing of his weapon. It died with a piercing squeal, and I hung back, hearing the death cry echo further into the enemy-infested mall.
Footsteps pounded their way toward us. I sheathed my sword and raised both hands, warping the shadows into grasping things. Three more turned supernaturals threw themselves into my snares. I made quick work of unbinding their souls and was about to carry them through the shadows to our truck when a flash of green brushed the back of my hand.
Stinging pain followed the line of a two-inch long cut. I passed through a second shot of energy and swirled into the shadows in search of the culprit. A verdant witch clutching a wand stooped just behind a counter, her blind white eyes roaming for where I’d disappeared to. I reappeared behind her, and she froze as my claws tugged her soul free.
I clucked my tongue as I inspected the loose knot her soul had been tied into. Just as I’d feared—Myuna was figuring out how not to destroy her victims utterly during the binding process. We’d have to be more careful to weed out intelligent torchbearers. There were countless hiding spaces in this mall for ambushes.
The others were waiting for me when I returned with the verdant witch’s unconscious body. “Trouble, my prince?” Braza asked privately.
I switched to answering in Soiluirian, knowing she’d translate for Cress, “Perhaps this location is too infested with Myuna’s victims. That last witch still had access to her magic. Imagine if there are many more like her… We will exhaust ourselves clearing out the mall before nightfall.”
“Let’s try it,” Cress answered in English. “Imagine if we gained control of the mall and used it as a rendezvous point for survivors.”
I shrugged and gathered up the unconscious torchbearers two at a time to deliver them to the truck. In the meantime, Cress explained our exchange to Geo and Ben. The former expressed a desire for us to leave before nightfall, while the latter wanted a good fight.
“Let’s see how we feel after a couple hours of this, then,” I said.
The beast of shadows and teeth hiding just under my skin relished the idea of a true fight. I could’ve taken on the challenge ahead of us on my own if it weren’t for the hole in my soul and the consequences that came with it.
Cress lit the way for Ben and Geo while I prowled at the edges of her magic. I had to turn my head away from her radiance. It made my mouth water. Another reason to despise the Hungering Darkness, for infecting me with this desire to taste my mate’s soul. It was truly relentless.
I pitched my frustrations into the intermittent fights that followed. It took less than an hour for us to travel to the top floor and clear it, though I spent a significant amount of time afterward forming a burn pile of slain unnaturals and filling the truck bed with unconscious torchbearers. One of us would have to return to the library sooner than expected.
Chill wind kissed my face, and I risked a glance at the sky as clouds skidded over the sun. An angry gray storm flowed toward us from the horizon, moving impossibly fast on magic-kissed gales. With that realization came a pricking sensation over my scalp. The ghost of white talons trying to burrow into my skull.
The Hungering Darkness was coming.