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She couldn’t feel sad about his death if the wraiths managed to tear him apart.

Danu appeared in front of the truck, and the world around them froze with Danu’s power. Bryn watched the older woman struggling, her face pinched, her body tense, as she worked to give them enough time to gather their faculties and ready for the fight ahead.

“You must face this trial.” Her voice was ethereal and spread out through their minds as much as it did their ears. “You cannot run from it now. Not when the blood of the innocent spills into the streets.”

Danu’s eyes met Bryn’s, and she knew Danu saw her will to stay, to not leave and let the wraiths finish what they had started as they searched for her and her friends.

“The innocents lost will roam the earth if the queen chooses not to release their souls to paradise,” Danu finished on a whisper.

Bryn pushed away from Declan and moved to stand in front of the older woman.

“You know you must fight. I know you feel it deep inside of you,” Danu whispered as her gnarled finger moved along Bryn’s cheek.

Everyone stepped away from the vehicle, following to stand next to Bryn as she stood face-to-face with Danu. Bryn knew what she meant, as she’d heard the screams of the souls lost on Saints’ Road all around her.

Niamh placed a hand on Bryn’s shoulder.

The caw of the crow moved overhead, its battle cry all too familiar to the spirit within Bryn. Even if it were only in her head, there was a warrior soul in her that would see them through this.

Whether their end was here or on the other side of the veil.

“We need you to come back, Phantom Queen,”Cyerra said into her mind.

Turning back to her friends, her skin on fire, she took a deep breath as Declan gave her a pleading look and motioned toward the truck. Her eyes moved from his as she took in the rest of their group, all of them waiting for her to take charge.

Even Kian hovered in the background unbeknownst to her friends.

It was time to dig in deep, to reach for her true self. The part of her that she was too afraid to let fully out. That thing inside her that she always thought a monster might just be what kept people alive in the end.

To do so, Bryn could no longer hide from her true nature.

Closing her eyes, she accepted there was no time to think this over. It was done. The Morrigan would be her best bet to guide her and, since she had zero fighting skills, her best bet to live another day.

Time to think logically and field a battle plan.

With a nod, she opened her eyes and looked at her friends who stood around her. She needed to plan quick as sweat beaded Danu’s brow.

“Justin, Travis, Caden, and Declan, I need y’all to get up high with your rifles. Take point in the buildings and try to keep the enemy, both enemies”—Bryn looked to each of them, hoping they took her meaning— “at bay. Sage, please head around the back of the buildings, and I will see if I can guide people to you. Get them to a safe place, and Jace, you provide care to the wounded,” Bryn ordered, the itch under her skin flaring back up again.

“Niamh—”

“I am with you, Bryn,” Niamh stated, brokering no argument as her eyes glittered.

Nodding, she took a deep breath, readying herself for what was to come.

“You’re kidding me right now!” Declan bellowed.

Bryn stood firm, staring him down.

“I am going to do this, Declan, so either strap yourself in and do as you’re told or get the hell out of my way.”

Turning away from him, Bryn rolled back her shoulders.

She worried that if she gave too much of herself over at once, she’d lose herself completely, so she would let the Morrigan have small bits of power. Danu may have said they were one and the same person, but it did not feel like it.

If Bryn didn’t need to protect her people, she wouldn’t bother with even the small possibility of losing herself completely to the predator. She knew that would only lead to the deaths of those around her if she lost control.

Would the Morrigan part of her soul even care if the people of the town lived? Bryn barely did and only because of the innocents like the children, so she couldn’t imagine this goddess fighting for people who worshipped her enemy. No, it was best to keep that part of her soul contained as long as possible if Bryn wanted anyone but her and her friends to live.