Page 115 of Mantle

“Thank you.”

I pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Of course. Now, you said he’s found a way to helpyou?”

“He gained access to the spell through… illicit means. And being what he is, he spotted something I couldn’t—because I’m not a necromancer. He found necromantic magic buried at the core of the spell my parents cast. He can break it. But the solution’s complicated. The enchantment has to be transferred to someone else, or the entire Maven Coven collapses the moment it’s removed from me.” He swallowed hard. “And… I’d have to die. Temporarily. Sylas has a way to bring me back—with a necromantic tether.”

“Kai, I—”

“I know it’s dangerous. But I need to—”

“You need to go through with it or you’ll never be free.”

He stared at me in wonder. “Exactly.”

“I’ll be there when it happens. Just in case.”

“Okay, sweetheart,” he said, stroking my hair.

“Who will take your place?”

“The person who’s coveted the role of Head of the Maven Coven for years on end.”

“Marlise.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, we’ll set it up.” I smiled up at him. “You realize what this actually means, right? You’ll be free, Kai. After all this time, you’ll be free.”

His eyes brightened. “I haven’t even begun to reconcile that yet. It’s surreal.”

“We’ll celebrate majorly so it sinks in amazingly.”

He chuckled and brushed his lips over mine.

“I love you, Kai.”

He jolted, then eased back, so he could look deeply into my eyes with those soulful hazel orbs of his.

“Ari—”

“I’ve loved you for a very long time, in truth. Deeply and overwhelmingly sometimes. Beautifully and so intensely. Us coming together beyond friendship started in one hell of a fucked-up way, but we’ve evolved so much, grown together, loved deeper together. And I wouldn’t change it. I wouldn’t change anything that led to me feeling this way about you, to what you bring to my life now, to what all three of you do.”

He stared at me starry-eyed, and breathed, clearly overcome. “I love you, too. So deeply, so obsessively one might even say. I’ve loved you always forwhoyou are, sweet Ari.”

“Not what I am. I know. I know it, Kai. I always have. Not matter what.”

The corner of his mouth turned up and there was a twinkle in his eye just before he said, “Fuck, those words will be the beginning and the end of me.”

I slapped his arm. “Seriously? Cutting through our beautiful moment like that?”

He chuckled. “You know me, sweetheart.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “And we both know how much you like that about me. I’m sorry,lovethat about me, right?”

I burst out laughing. “You little…”

In the next second, I was lunging at him with my angelic strength.

And then my giggles and his hearty laughter filled the area as we wrestled playfully on the porch.

When it came to how Kai was and how we were together, it was actually the perfect way to round off an intimate and heartfelt moment like that.

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