Infinity Reaper by Adam Silvera (new books to read .TXT) 📕

your boy Brighton coming at you from somewhere in the world—I can’t say where exactly because I’ve got some ruthless Blood Casters after me—and I’m here with my amazing brother, Emil, for the chat of a lifetime.” I wrap my arm around his shoulders. “Say what’s up, man.”

Emil offers a shy wave. “Hey.”

I’ll never understand how he isn’t fueled by all this attention. I’m so fired up right now, especially as the comments are rolling in. My favorite is from a fan who says they’ve been following me since my first YouTube video and how they’re loving my journey. I shout out their handle and thank them. They immediately react with more love because I noticed them. The power in a simple hello is incredible.

The chat opened with nearly ten thousand viewers and in two minutes we’re already passing one hundred thousand. “There are already so many of you, but we’re going to wait a little longer to start to give everyone a chance to settle in,” I say. “But I got a treat for you early birds.” I watch my eyes burn like eclipses in the livestream and silver and sapphire flames slither around my fingers. The chat section explodes with fire emojis. We’re nearing five hundred thousand viewers when I announce that we’re good to start, which is amazing since it’s relatively short notice, but I hope we cross a million viewers.

“So you’ve shown us what’s new,” Emil says. “I obviously know what’s what, but do you want to walk all your epic Brightsiders on what went down?”

I’m glad he remembered to call them epic. Lore calls their fans “beauteous” so much that it’s almost like they have ownership over the word. I want my brand to be epic heroism and this association will better connect me with my followers.

“My origin story has been a trip,” I say. “Everything changed for us the day that specter tried to kill me. You saved my life, bro. You’ve saved it a lot of times since then too. But there was only so much I could do from behind the camera, especially when the brawl was breaking out.”

“That night was wild,” Emil says.

“You were almost killed. Luna Marnette stabbed you with an infinity-ender blade—a weapon designed to kill phoenixes for good! Show them your scar.” I reach for his shirt but he grabs my hand and pushes it back toward me. “Come on, show everyone what we’ve been through!”

“I’m not lifting my shirt,” Emil says and then I remember all his body business.

“All good. It’s not for those with weak stomachs anyway.” Great recovery. This is why I’ve always thought I’d be a great TV host. “But yeah, one week ago tonight when the Crowned Dreamer was at its zenith, we were battling it out with the Blood Casters. We were down a man after Atlas was killed—may he rest well in the stars—and Luna was about to turn herself into a specter with this new concoction. I was able to take her down before she could drink the elixir and then something came over me and I went for it. I drank it all.”

“And it poisoned your blood,” Emil says. “You almost died like Dad.”

I have a YouTube video I filmed a month after Dad died to explain why I hadn’t been posting as regularly but I share all the details again for everyone new. “Between being scared for my life in Gleam Care and Stanton coming to assassinate me, I really thought I was a goner. But it turns out I’m strong enough so I could become a soldier like you.”

There are so many comments from people hoping to become specters too.

“And Bautista de León,” Emil says. “You’ve loved him since we were kids.”

“I have! There’s no denying that the majority of specters are abusing their powers. But then you have some shining stars like you and Bautista who have done a lot of good.”

“With powers that aren’t ours,” Emil says. “I’m really hoping I can figure out that potion to disempower any specter. No more Blood Casters. No more us.”

I nod along even though that was not a talking point for this discussion. “Until that time comes, we have a lot of work to do making this country safer from the true terrorists—the Blood Casters. Emil and I have both been captured and abused by them. We’re lucky we’re alive. But we don’t know if that’s true for our mother who they kidnapped.”

“They took Eva Nafisi too. Some of you might remember her as the healer from Brighton’s Spell Walkers interviews,” Emil says like I forgot about her.

“Eva made me good as new. She’s an incredible healer and an even more remarkable human. Eva and our mother are strong women, but they don’t stand a chance against the Blood Casters. We need all of you to be our eyes around the city so we can bring them home safely,” I say.

As Emil describes everything about the fight at the Aldebaran Center, I read through the questions that are coming in so fast that I can hardly keep up. People want advice on how to become specters. Others are sharing their own personal struggles that require heroic hands. There are some good ones too I want to address.

“I think it’s time to answer some questions,” I say. It’s a safer move since Emil isn’t exactly sticking to the script anyway. “I see a lot of you asking if I’m planning a rebrand on the series since Emil and I aren’t celestials. Maybe I’ll change it to ‘Gleamcrafters of New York’ so it’s more inclusive. But honestly, I created Celestials of New York because it was my way of feeling close to the lives of those with powers. Keeping up this format of interviewing strangers feels tricky with everything going on that I might make it my own until things settle down. If they ever do.”

There’s immediate support and even a suggestion that I follow Atlas’s lead and how all