The evening of Wightnight itself was a completely different experience than Wightnight's eve. Bryony continued to walk back and forth across the bog until the sun brushed the treetops. By then, Wights had begin to gather at the edges of the bog's expanse. Bella landed nervously on her keeper's shoulder as the flickering creatures began to encroach inward. Bryony stroked her head.

Only then once the sun had sunk below the trees did they finish their final pass of the bog together and retreat into the forest. Bryony held aloft the soft purple Witch-light she'd left home with. She must have doused it in Wight-warding potion; Wights parted ahead of her, their alarm twisting the forest into a mirage of minor illusions. Bryony circled the bog and returned to a small, grassy sward at the edge of it.

Bella landed beside her on a log. "Are we waiting here?"

Bryony just nodded. She turned down the fuel in the lantern, snuffing out its light. The late evening seemed to expand around them. Crickets and katydids sang so abundantly, the air resonated with their chirping. Cool breezes—Wight-made or otherwise—stirred the silent air. None were strong enough to rustle the leaves of trees, and so the stillness fell, filled with tendrils of mist that rose up from the ground as the Wights began to move.

It started at the forest's edges. The first few Wights to venture into the bog paused around its edges, wafting in circles as they drew more mist up from the soggy ground. Their lights blurred as they released some of their glow into it. Then they wafted inward. The ones behind them stopped and thickened the mist, which crept like a glowing duvet over the ground. A mesmerizing tapestry of yellow, violet, and cyan light blended and swirled. Its spread coaxed more Wights from the forest, and the mass migration truly began.

Bella held her breath as Wights began to flow past on either side, then above, too. The sky's light had faded to an afterglow behind her, while ahead, stars twinkled in a cloudless expanse of velvet blue. All around the bog, the forest surged with Wights. These began to sort themselves as they moved onto the peatland. Electric blue Enigma Wights floated skyward, silent lightning sparking back and forth between them. Along the ground, Lumina Wights brightened into bog-lights, dense and warm and pulsing. Between the two, Animata Wights darted, releasing their violet glow into the ever-rising mist and swirling it around with breezes of their own creation.

When the encroaching Wights met in the middle of the bog, half began to rise, filling a space as high as the treetops, then higher. More flowed in from all around. There must have been hundreds already. Thousands, even. Even with the Witch-light long since extinguished, Bella could see clearly; the light off the bog outshone the brimming moon. Its mist spilled outward, setting the forest aglow.

And still the Wights kept coming, albeit slower now. Bella was sure they would continue arriving for the rest of the night. The ones in the bog, meanwhile, began to dance. Matched pairs orbited each other, their glowing trails making wheels through the mist. The first two merged. With a bright flash, they scattered, suddenly four small Wights instead. The babies tottered to the ground and rested.

More Wights merged and split. The first little ones began to move again, prospecting over the peat. Several clustered in a hollow where the mist-light seemed to thicken. The baby Wights basked in its glow. It took Bella far too long to realize what they'd found here. Wights fed on the energy released by things that died in the forest or drowned in the bog. Whatever animal had sunk here now fed a new generation of the forest's energy predators.

Bryony got to her feet.

Bella opened her beak to ask what her keeper was doing, then shut it again. She knew what Bryony was doing. She'd spent all day—maybe even several days—sprinkling the bog with whatever potion she'd developed. Given that the Wights still went about their regular activities, Bella could only assume that potion hadn't taken action yet. Sure enough, Bryony pulled a delicate vial from her potion-bag. Holding it at arm's length, she popped the cork and emptied it into the bog.

Green flames shot upward. Bella gasped, but it wasn't fire. It released no heat, and the peat beneath it didn't burn. It moved like fire, though, creeping outward in all directions. Low-wafting Wights were engulfed. Each flashed brightly and dropped, seeking shelter closer to the bog's surface, flickering like candles. And still the green flames spread. Bella watched them, mesmerized. A pocket of baby Wights sparked tiny lightning as the incandescence reached them. All tumbled to the ground. One by one, their lights winked out.

That wasn't right.

Bella's eyes darted to the closer bog-edge, where the flames had settled to a simmer. Less than half the fallen Wights here remained. Had the rest fled to the forest? She hadn't seen them move. The remaining ones didn't look well enough to escape. They flickered feebly, guttering in the green-lit mist. Even as Bella watched, several more faded into nothingness. Wights' lights only went out when they...

Bryony stood at the edge of the bog, watching her flames spread. Something glistened on her cheeks. She was crying. Her expression, though, was settled, like she'd been waiting for this moment for a long, long time.

"Your mother—" began Bella.

"She's gone." Bryony didn't even look over. "You can't find a body here after so many years."

She wasn't here to find her mother's body. So what was all this for? The flames burned silent, ever spreading, eating over the bog. Marching inexorably towards the dancing, swirling Wight-cloud at its center. There was something else between the crickets now. A high, thin sound, from wherever the flames had burned low.

The Wights were screaming.

"Bryony?" said Bella. "Is it supposed to do this?"

"It had better be. I've spent years on this."

Horror seeped through Bella at the coldness of her keeper's tone. "You're killing them."

"They killed my mother. So many people, Bella. You wouldn't understand."

Bella froze, stricken speechless. She had always tried to understand. She'd been kicked out her family for the curse of being Wight-touched. Lost those family members—many to Wights—before any were willing to reconcile. She'd been there when Bryony got the news about her mother. She'd stayed by her side.

What did she not understand?

"I don't want her body back," said Bryony. "I want her to rest in peace. That won't happen for as long as this bog's Wights are alive."

"You're killing them."

The screaming was everywhere now, the wail of a winter storm without the wind. The Wights in the bog's middle clustered together as the flames advanced on them, following whatever patterned paths of potion Bryony had laid. Now the ones in the fog above the flames were also dropping. The fire must release a smoke of sorts, poisonous as the flames themselves. A path to the forest remained on the bog's other side, but the Wights seemed confused, their instincts telling them to stay until the night ended and baby Wights were all that remained.

Bella struggled to her feet. Bryony might be grieving, but that grief had marred her judgment and tampered with her sense of empathy. She would see sense when the grieving passed. But the flames had to stop in the meantime. Bella couldn't stand by and watch a massacre.

"Don't," said Bryony as Bella spread her wings.

"I can't—"

"Would you rather save the creatures who killed my mother than stand with me?"

Bella's words deserted her.

"You should have just stayed home," said Bryony, her voice cracking. "Don't you see? I didn't want you to see this. I let you stay because you said you'd support me. Please, Bella. Just stay. After tonight, it'll all be over."

"You can't just kill them all!"

"Then they shouldn't have taken my mother."

"Is half enough? You can just end it now."

"There's no way to stop it, Bella. I set it up to burn on its own."

She was smiling now, a sad, broken kind of smile still streaked with tears. Her expression could only be described as tormented peace. Bella's heart and chest constricted as the Wights in the bog's middle continued to gather, darting in increasing panic with the creeping flames' advance. A night's sky of lights had already died.

"Don't tell anyone, Bella," said Bryony. "Please. I don't want to lose you, too."

On the bog's far side, a shout rang out. Glass shattered. Then shattered again. The Wights in its vicinity startled, then moved. In a moment, they were streaming off the bog. This quickly reached the central gathering, which began to siphon away towards the forest in the direction of the sounds. The Wights were escaping.

"What was that?" demanded Bryony, voice sharp but eyes wide.

Something stood in the direction of the Wight-lights' flow. Bella strained her eyes as the creatures brightened the forest's edge. Her heart lifted. There, standing on a rock and waving her coat in the air, was Daphne.

A/N: Hi friends! Given recent changes Wattpad has been making, this will be one of the last books I post on this site. If you want to keep in touch, learn when I move to other platforms, or get insider updates on my publishing journey, sign up for my newsletter—link in the comments, or in my Wattpad bio if you can't click it here.