“You heard the senator; he’s already got everyone thinking Ness is a liar,” Emil says.
“Iron’s story is the only one out there right now. That will change once we speak up.”
“Look, I came to talk to you about something else.”
“I’m not going to keep repeating myself on killing Stanton, bro. He’s powerful and had to be stopped. It’s not like I ripped out defenseless Luna’s heart.” Though I guess I killed her in my own way when I stole the Reaper’s Blood. I hope Maribelle has thrown Luna off that phoenix by now. “There are bigger threats at hand.”
“I’m scared you’re going to become one, Bright. I’m begging you to really hear me on this. The Starstifler is ready and I think you should drink one.”
He’s never going to let this go. I’m finally showing everyone what a true hero looks like and they’re so used to the sanitized versions in our generation that it scares them. This is why nothing has changed. “You had no problems with my powers when we were using them to break out Ness, but now that you’ve got what you want I’m a threat? You can’t have it both ways. This city needs me now more than ever. If this is too much for you, drink your potion and go figure out if you’re trying to screw Wyatt or Ness or yourself. I have real work to do.”
Whenever I lash out at Emil like this he’s usually tearing up or storming away, but he’s just standing there frozen. It’s like this life has finally made him numb.
I get up and pocket my phone. I’m not hanging around here while he feels bad for himself.
“Brighton?”
Before I finish turning Emil punches me so hard in the jaw that I bang straight into a bookcase; he’s finally cracked. He pins me down. I try phasing out from under him, but I’m stuck because of his hold on me. He pulls out a small knife, one of the ones from the kitchen, and my brother slices my forearm. I shout as Emil yanks my bloody flesh.
“What are you doing?!”
“This is for everyone’s own good!”
Emil runs for the door.
Everyone’s own good? What the hell does that—
No. I won’t let him.
I bite my tongue through the pain and dash toward Emil, grabbing him before he can even leave the library. He elbows my stomach and squeezes my new wound. It stings so much. I dash backward, dragging him with me, and I swing him on top of the table. I blast it in half with a fire-bolt and Emil caves in between the cracks.
“You’re not taking this from me!”
I hit him with a flurry of punches, so betrayed by my brother. This is different than every other fight we’ve ever been in. He has no business trying to force this change on me.
I’m suddenly thrown off of Emil and straight into the wall, banging into an art print of some green phoenix. I look up from the floor and Prudencia and Wyatt are both shocked to see me laying into Emil like that, but not as much as I am to see Emil also standing beside them, holding on to the arm of our horrified mother.
The Emil who’s sitting up glows gray. That bastard Ness was posing as my brother.
The real Emil stares like he doesn’t know me.
Seventy-EightOverpower
EMIL
Our brotherhood isn’t enough to stop him.
By the look on Brighton’s face, he didn’t know the person he was beating up wasn’t me. All of those punches were intended for me. I keep trying to ask Ness and Brighton what went down, but I piece it together when I see my brother’s bleeding arm and Ness holding on to some flesh.
“Did you plan this?!” Brighton shouts.
“Emil had no idea,” Ness says as he limps toward me. “I’m sorry, firefly, but I had to show you the truth.”
I would’ve happily died never knowing this truth.
Brighton’s eyes burn and fire snakes around his wrists. He hurls a fire-bolt while Ness’s back is turned and Prudencia telekinetically sweeps it out through the balcony. I hurl a fire-orb at him so fast, but it phases through him. He stares at me, maybe even a little more surprised than I was to find him punching my face in.
“Go get a potion,” I say to anyone, and Wyatt runs off.
“I’m not drinking it,” Brighton says.
“Please, Bright.”
“These powers are mine—I almost died for them!”
“You almost died because of them!”
“I’m not Dad; I’m a survivor!”
There’s complete silence in the room except for Ma gasping. Phoenixes are screeching outside but somehow my beating heart feels louder. I can’t even fight back the tears, thinking about how grateful I am that Dad isn’t around to see Brighton being so absolutely horrible.
“Don’t insult your father’s memory like this!” Ma shouts. “If he were around, he would tell you that you’re not supposed to be playing judge, jury, and executioner with these unnatural powers.”
Brighton is red in the face. “None of you appreciate how extraordinary I am! The Spell Walkers treated Emil like he’s some chosen one, when I’m the one who has defied death to become the most powerful gleamcrafter in the entire world. I will make the most change and protect everyone from anyone using their powers to terrorize. Overpowering the enemy is how wars are won, and that will sometimes mean deciding if someone lives or dies.”
I remember my nightmare of Brighton terrorizing everyone with all his reaper powers. I tried to shake that off as nothing but a dream, but maybe that was my subconscious trying to brace me for this dark reality.
“Am I your enemy?” I ask.
“If you’re not with me, you’re against me.”
“Then overpower me.”
Brighton and I stare each other down, and in an instant, we draw fire.
My gold and gray fire-orbs blast apart his silver-and-sapphire fire-bolts, driving straight into my brother’s chest.
This is not a fight I want to have, but it’s one I got to win.
Seventy-NineShining Brighter
BRIGHTON
I should’ve known it would come to
