Page 111 of Mantle

Instead, she reached out and cupped his cheek.

The milky white of his eyes that Corvin had caused from what he’d done to him flickered in and out of being, the natural black beneath flaring intermittently.

“I’m here,” she told him, managing a soft and steady tone somehow in spite of everything. In spite of witnessing Vorzyr, two of her dads, and countless Guardians being brutalized by him. “You arenotalone. Do you hear me?” She brought her other hand to cup his other cheek. “You are notthis. Not this destruction. And you arenotlost.”

I started as a heavy sigh escaped him.

“Kindred…”

It was a weak uttering, and he was still caught between Corvin’s programming and Ariana trying to reach him.

It didn’t matter—that was my opening.

I came up behind him and grasped his shoulders while Kai and Cornelius held him immobile still, and Ariana kept his focus.

And then I pulled on my power and closed my eyes, reaching into his subconscious mind and locking onto it, drawing him into my own mind.

The more Ariana spoke to him, the more his initial resistance weakened.

Just enough for me to take him with me.

My magic seeped into him, rapidly enveloping him.

Ariana stepped back just as it completely covered him.

His eyes shone a vibrant-blue with the infiltration of my power.

Then he let out another sigh, before closing his eyes in sleep.

A deep sleep.

“I’ve got him,” I told them. “He’s immersed. Currently sleeping.”

A massive surge of collective relief rolled through me.

We’d done it.

But it wasn’t the war.

It was just the battle.

Pulling him into a dreamwalking state was just a part of it.

There was work to be done to fully liberate him.

To save him.

And, fuck, he deserved that.

Even as I took in the devastation, believing that didn’t falter.

Becausethiswasn’t him.

He hadn’t really done this.

He’d been used like a mindless weapon.

This was them.

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