AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It didn’t seem important with everything else we had going on,” he softly says.
The number of ways I’ve been screwed over by this sad excuse of a chosen one is astounding. “I plan on honoring Sera by undoing all of Luna’s work. You better have memorized those potion ingredients because I’m not reliving that again!”
Emil nods vigorously. He grabs the journal and begins marking the true names of the ingredients. I hear him talking about crushed torch grains before I tune him out.
All the pain I’ve been through this year feels cruel. It’s as if the gods hidden in the constellations hate me, as if they’re punishing me for defying nature with my existence as a hybrid celestial-specter. Grieving my parents and Atlas has been hard enough, but living in Sera’s heart as she loses the love of her life and the father of her child? Of me? I have to repay blood with blood, and all roads lead back to Luna.
Tala takes the journal from Emil and reads. “I’m not in love with exploiting a phoenix’s pain to use their tears, but it’s certainly better than all potions that call for their eyes and talons. There’s an underground market in the city where I’ve done business before. They should carry some of these rarer ingredients.”
“We’re going to get a bloody Nobel Prize out of this, yeah?” Wyatt asks. “Well, posthumously awarded to Sera and Bautista.” Everyone is staring at him. “Messing around, of course. Long live our phoenixes, heh.”
“Maribelle, ride with me?” Tala helps me up. “Everyone else stay put.”
“We can help,” Brighton says.
“You can help by keeping your famous face away from the public,” Tala says.
He turns to me as if he wants my support, but I’m following Tala’s lead here. “We need discretion.”
“Fine. But this fight is all of ours,” Brighton says.
“Absolutely. As long as it’s understood that Luna is mine.”
It’s my duty to kill my last living family member.
Forty-Eight
Oblivion Night
EMIL
It’s wild how much time I lost while traveling to the past.
I already didn’t get enough sleep last night, but now I’m so drained. Brighton brings me two salad bowls with tofu, quinoa, and chickpeas, and I could easily throw back another. I’ve already given Wyatt my official report on everything that went down while retrocycling, and while he’s busy updating his commander, Brighton is still picking away at every last detail. I swear he won’t chill until he can grow out a beard like Bautista.
“He had more edge than I expected,” I say.
“Of course. No one ever saved the world by being casual about it,” Brighton says. That feels like a slight against me. He picks up his phone. “Are we sure we can’t do any content about retrocycling? Now that we have the potion ingredients, we can make sure that if anyone even thinks about trying something then the Infinity Kings will stop them.”
Prudencia rests her hand on Brighton’s shoulder. “It’s not in our best interest to brag about retrocycling. We need to surprise the Blood Casters with the Starstifler so they won’t be prepared.”
“Good point,” he says.
“We’re also going to be drinking the potion ourselves,” I remind him.
Brighton looks like he’s fighting back a massive eyeroll. “You do understand that immediately drinking the potion won’t solve any problems, right? It’s our responsibility to use our powers to protect as many people as possible before the election. Otherwise all this country will see is more havoc because heroes aren’t stepping up to save them.”
“I know that—”
“Then buckle up, bro. If Sunstar wins, sh
e’ll still need a few months to set up the Luminary Union, so we’ll continue defending the country until then. But if Iron takes the White House, we’ll be in this for the long haul until we can set this world right.”
There’s a part of me that thinks Brighton wouldn’t mind Senator Iron winning the election so he can keep playing hero. I don’t want this, I’ve never wanted this, and I’m so damn nervous that Brighton is going to keep pushing back the goalposts on when we give up the powers. And the truth is that I doubt he ever will give them up, though I don’t understand why. He could easily make a living out of being Brighton Rey, the dude who was once infinite. He could chill back and engage with his millions of followers and publish some tell-all memoir about what it was like being on the inside of this war. But I know my brother too well. No spotlight will shine bright enough unless he’s the Infinity Savior.
I tell Brighton and Prudencia I need air and then bounce.
I head straight to the library without a second thought. I enter cautiously in case Wyatt is still busy with his virtual meeting, but it’s quiet and completely empty. I’m nervous he might be sleeping, wherever he’s set up his bed in here. I step quietly and find Wyatt lounging in his usual spot on the balcony, dressed in the leather Halo Knight jacket with black feathered sleeves I haven’t seen him in since we met three days ago. Nox is eating away at some of the foliage wrapped around the stone railings as a sun swallower blazes across the dark sky.
