Wicked War of Mine (Overworld Chronicles Book 9) by John Corwin Page B

was going to be exposed if we didn't stop Daelissa. There were plenty of people like Abe who felt old and useless. We could give them a chance to feel important again. Another idea occurred to me even though the Custodians would hate me for it. "Do you have other friends who'd like to help save the world?"
    Abe's eyes lit with pleasure. "Son, I could get you a whole platoon if you want."
    I rubbed my hands together like an evil genius who'd just come up with the best world domination plan ever. "If you could do that, it would be amazing."
    "I'm on it, sir."
    I turned to Cinder. "Help Abe recruit more volunteers. Make use of the omniarch to go where you need to go."
    "How interesting," Cinder said. "I will be delighted to help."
    Abe's grin stretched from ear to ear. "Now, was that why you wanted me out here, or can I help you with something else?"
    "I need to test our feeding procedure," I said.
    He held out his left hand. "Be my guest."
    I held out my hand and let instinct take over. Smoky ultraviolet wisps flowed from his fingers and into mine. At first, I felt nothing more than a tingle. My right arm twitched as it tried to rise. Since I could access both Brilliance and Murk equally, it seemed my body wanted to feed from both sides of the spectrum. I forced it to keep feeding from only the dark.
    A moment later, I felt as though I'd been riding in the belly of a boat on storm-tossed seas after eating a slab of salt pork with a side of boiled okra. My gorge rose and it took tremendous effort to keep my breakfast down. The more I fed, the worse I felt. I cut off the feed. I let my right arm extend. Milky white essence trailed from Abe's fingertips into mine.
    The nausea slowly subsided until it was gone. Within a few minutes, I felt heady, giddy, and almost drunk. My left arm tried to rise, but I forced it down and flooded myself with Brilliance. I sensed a strange lightness in Abe's aura and released him immediately.
    He staggered back a foot and shook his head. "Whoa. I ain't never felt that during a drain."
    "Your eyes are white," Joss said to me. "I have seen this before when Brightlings feed."
    I felt high on power. I felt as though I could rule the world or destroy it as I saw fit. It reminded me of the feeling I'd once had texting someone while I was drunk. At the time, it had seemed my words could fix everything when in reality they'd further demolished all my hopes and dreams. If this was what Brightlings felt when they fed from humans, it was no wonder they'd enslaved the world. It was no wonder Daelissa was insane.
    At the same time, I knew exactly how to protect the Darklings from nausea. I had Joss bring out two more noms and tried to show him and Otaleon how to feed from both sides of the spectrum. Try as they might, neither one of them could draw more than a tiny trickle of Brilliance. I finally tried something Mom had once done to help me.
    During a battle in Australia, the enemy had tried to detonate a malaether crucible. The explosion would have demolished the local Templar headquarters. Ivy had detonated the bomb prematurely, but we'd been at the fringe of the blast. I'd shielded us, but hadn't been strong enough to maintain it for very long. Mom had put her hand against my back and bolstered my spell with her own energy.
    I tried to do the same with Joss as he fed. Pressing a hand to his back, I sent Brilliance coursing into him. After a few minutes, his green face turned a normal shade of olive, and he looked at me in surprise.
    "I don't feel sick anymore."
    I did the same for Otaleon with identical results.
    "How interesting," Cinder said. "It appears balancing the two types of essence are the answer."
    "I can't be here to help everyone," I said. "For that, we'd need Brightlings."
    "Surely there must be a way for us to learn to feed as you do," Joss said.
    There was only one other Seraphim I knew of who might be able to do so, but he and I weren't on friendly terms. On the other hand, I'd been planning