Page 106 of Mantle

Her wings were out, and she grabbed onto the doorframe for purchase, barely able to hold herself upright.

I rushed to her with Sylas at my back.

As I reached her, I went to support her body, but she held up a shaking hand. “I’ll be fine… just need a few moments.” She sucked in a breath. “Where is Nyx? I tried to reach him, but his mind was locked down or something. I couldn’t employ a tracking spell in my current stateandget here to you. And I needed to prepare you.”

“Nyx is fine. He was recovering after forcing his memories forth. He’s likely entered into a healing sleep, something much like his dreamwalking state for him. He wasn’t happy that I benched him while you were missing.” I caught myself. “Prepare me? What’s going on? And what thefuckhappened? Did Corvin—”

“Yes, he took me. He used my power to destroy the veil over all Chimera Circle labs so the Guardian Movement would move in and be distracted from what else he was doing. And he… he had Ketheron. He used me to strengthen the leash that he has on him and now… now he’s reprogrammed him, enslaved him to hiswill. He has Draco’s sword, Kai. But I can’t… I don’t know where they are. But when we find them, I have an idea. It involves you and Nyx working in tandem. We need your ancient magics that you used to hold Cassius at bay temporarily. I know you can’t hold that long, but we only need a few moments for Nyx to get to work and—”

I grasped her arms. “Take a breath. What Corvin did to you—”

“I can’t get into that. Corvin has Ketheron out there, forcing him to hurt people, to raze and destroy. That has to be our priority. I know the rational, calculated side of you sees that clearly, but your love for me is currently clouding it.”

“You’re hurt. You’re barely mobile.”

“Corvin injected me with some of Ketheron’s blood. It’s weakened me and I had to fight past it to employ mammoth power to escape. It’s just taking a toll, I just need rest. It wasn’t an incapacitating concentration—despite what Corvin believed. Once I rest and Vorzyr uses his Primal Celestial Resonance to remove the trace elements of the blood, I’ll be fine. But it does mean that I can’t be the one to stop Ketheron right now. But you and Nyx can.”

Sylas cursed. “That bastard has escalated to full-on insanity.”

I jolted in the next second as a mind-link blasted open.

Vorzyr’s voice sounded through my head, frantic and straining.

“Unity Council. Ketheron is unleashed. We need you. Need Ariana too, but I still can’t reach her.”

“She’s here with me. Just arrived. She’s weakened, so her mind is probably on lockdown.”

“You found her?”

“She found me.”

“Motherfucker… thank hell.”

“We’re on our way. Hold on, V.”

I closed the mind-link and reported Vorzyr’s words.

“Oh my God,” Ari breathed.

I spun to Sylas. “Stay here. You can’t be in the thick of battle right now. Notify Ryker Morgan and Cornelius Martel.”

At his nod, I gathered Ariana into my arms, then teleported us to Nyx, where we’d make a pitstop to wake him up, then stop this fucking madness.

Together.

21

~Nyx~

Seeing her like this was upsetting.

Hard to reconcile.

But the physical was just the tip of the iceberg.

The pain, grief, and torment radiating off Ariana was basically pulsing at me. And in her current state, she didn’t have her usual shields up that could have muted that intensity.

I was actually grateful for that because it meant I could feel exactly where she was at in order to help, to soothe her.

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