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-Eight
Overpower
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-Nine
Shining Brighter
BRIGHTON
I should’ve known it would come to this.
My chest burns from the fire-orbs, but I won’t be the only one in pain. I throw fire-bolt after fire-bolt as I rise and they all explode in the air as Emil keeps countering with his own attacks. It takes so much agonizing soul-searching for Emil to justify fighting actual enemies, but now that it’s me he has no problem being so aggressive. He can’t dominate me like this, not with his one set of powers. I dash in a zigzag, dodging his fire-orbs, and I’m so close that I’m about to uppercut him with a flaming fist when Prudencia telekinetically shoves me back across the library.
“Stay out of this!” I shout.
“No! I’ve been with you both since the start and I’m seeing this through to the end,” Prudencia says.
“You’re supposed to be on my side.”
She shakes her head. “You’re supposed to convince me