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“Dream on, dreamer,” Prudencia says with a smile.
I’m having a hard time picking what to wear, especially without my full closet in front of me, until I remember every influencer who puts time into looking casual even though they controlled every single-sleeve roll and wrinkle. I don’t need a tuxedo or some trying-too-hard-to-be-cool leather jacket. Ruth gives me her blessing to cho
ose something from her closet, and even though she’s not actively selling anything from her Every Body Is Super line, I make a mental note to credit her in the caption. I choose a blue shirt with white lettering since it’s the closest one that matches my flames.
I go outside with Emil and Prudencia and the evening air is chilly. We go deep into the trees, finding a nondescript area with a couple rocks for us to sit on and enough moonlight so we can be seen. I review the talking points with Emil, making him repeat them back to me because I want this conversation to appear casual and we can’t have that if he’s sitting there with a notepad. Prudencia offers to hold the phone for us so we can stream at a wider angle, but I think it’s going to be cozier if I’m shoulder to shoulder with Emil. This way I also get to see how many viewers are tuned in and read some of the comments.
“We’re still not mentioning my past lives, right?” Emil asks.
We had this conversation back when we were doing the Spell Walkers of New York feature. “That’s not my call. You and Pru were the ones who didn’t want to bring it up.”
“Because people might hate Emil for being Keon once upon a time ago,” Prudencia says.
“Or they’ll love him for being Bautista,” I counter.
“Either way, they’ll take it out on phoenixes once they realize specters can resurrect with their essence,” Emil says. “I’d hate for the Blood Casters to get the jump on us and reveal this to turn the public against me, but they haven’t done it yet. Hopefully they have their own reasons for keeping it quiet.”
“Good point. The secret stays in the vault,” I say.
I still think there can be something so powerful about the world knowing that Emil wasn’t only adopted, but that he was reborn in fire from the two most popular specters in history, but the story isn’t more important than the consequences.
“We shouldn’t mention the ghost specters either,” Prudencia says. “We don’t need alchemists and necromancers pretending to be gods any more than they do.”
The more and more politics are getting involved in my business, the less enthusiasm I have for this livestream. But I hype myself right back up because it’s not like I have to hide any ghostly powers from the public anyway. I still get to show off.
Once it’s nine on the dot, we go live.
“Hey, Brightsiders, it’s your boy Brighton coming at you from somewhere in the world—I can’t say where exactly because I’ve got some ruthless Blood Casters after me—and I’m here with my amazing brother, Emil, for the chat of a lifetime.” I wrap my arm around his shoulders. “Say what’s up, man.”
Emil offers a shy wave. “Hey.”
I’ll never understand how he isn’t fueled by all this attention. I’m so fired up right now, especially as the comments are rolling in. My favorite is from a fan who says they’ve been following me since my first YouTube video and how they’re loving my journey. I shout out their handle and thank them. They immediately react with more love because I noticed them. The power in a simple hello is incredible.
The chat opened with nearly ten thousand viewers and in two minutes we’re already passing one hundred thousand. “There are already so many of you, but we’re going to wait a little longer to start to give everyone a chance to settle in,” I say. “But I got a treat for you early birds.” I watch my eyes burn like eclipses in the livestream and silver and sapphire flames slither around my fingers. The chat section explodes with fire emojis. We’re nearing five hundred thousand viewers when I announce that we’re good to start, which is amazing since it’s relatively short notice, but I hope we cross a million viewers.
“So you’ve shown us what’s new,” Emil says. “I obviously know what’s what, but do you want to walk all your epic Brightsiders on what went down?”
I’m glad he remembered to call them epic. Lore calls their fans “beauteous” so much that it’s almost like they have ownership over the word. I want my brand to be epic heroism and this association will better connect me with my followers.
“My origin story has been a trip,” I say. “Everything changed for us the day that specter tried to kill me. You saved my life, bro. You’ve saved it a lot of times since then too. But there was only so much I could do from behind the camera, especially when the brawl was breaking out.”
“That night was wild,” Emil says.
“You were almost killed. Luna Marnette stabbed you with an infinity-ender blade—a weapon designed to kill phoenixes for good! Show them your scar.” I reach for his shirt but he grabs my hand and pushes it back toward me. “Come on, show everyone what we’ve been through!”
“I’m not lifting my shirt,” Emil says and then I remember all his body business.
“All good. It’s not for those with weak stomachs anyway.” Great recovery. This is why I’ve always thought I’d be a great TV host. “But yeah, one week ago tonight when the Crowned Dreamer was at its zenith, we were battling it out with the Blood Casters. We were down a man after Atlas was killed—may he rest well in the stars—and Luna was about to turn herself into a specter with this new concoction. I was able to take her down before she could drink the elixir and then something came over me and I went for it. I drank it all.”
“And it poisoned your blood,” Emil says. “You almost died like Dad.”
I have a YouTube video I filmed a month after Dad died to explain why I hadn’t been posting as regularly but I share all the details again for everyone new. “Between being scared for my life in Gleam Care and Stanton coming to assassinate me, I really thought I was a goner. But it turns out I’m strong enough so I could become a soldier like you.”
There are so many comments from people hoping to become specters too.
“And Bautista de León,” Emil says. “You’ve loved him since we were kids.”
“I have! There’s no denying that the majority of specters are abusing their powers. But then you have some shining stars like you and Bautista who have done a lot of good.”
