Page 123 of Mantle

She swept down and shifted to human form as she reached the ground just a couple of feet from her son. Her hair was thick and curling past her waist and silver-tinged with ice-blue. She wore robes of silk draped in faux fur, weapons strapped all over her. A long, curved blade of living ice was at her side, an infamous Vortimer heirloom.

With a spark of glacial magic, she conjured a blanket, then eased my baby brother from Draven and wrapped him in it, before taking him in her arms carefully.

Draven stepped forward and pulled the familiar bracelet from his inside coat pocket.

Thebracelet.

The one Kai had reforged from my dragon’s head pendant, one that now represented connection between me and my brother, where I would be constantly aware of his wellbeing even with us needing to be apart at this point in time.

I took in the damage that had been done to Titanus Castle.

The banners being raised of House Vortimer.

My brother safe just like Draven had vowed.

And the tyranny ended.

The generational trauma had been cut to pieces.

The fucked-up way I’d been raised, then abused would never touch my brother now. He would be spared. He would be given his best chance with House Vortimer.

Despite everything, despite the carnage I was seeing, despite it being an end of an era… I smiled.

Relief rolled through me.

A better world had just been created this day.

The right people were at the helm now.

The Dracoryn Realm could now begin to heal, then thrive once more.

And me?

I looked at my loves.

I already had everything that I needed.

25

~Nyx~

I steadied myself as I entered the Guardian Movement black site.

I’d just had a session with renowned Healer and trauma specialist, Brandise Parker, and I was feeling centered, and mentally refreshed from her treatment. While it would be an ongoing process, for this very moment in time, I was steady. Not untouched, but grounded. Clear. Ready.

And it was the exact right time for it because Ketheron had just woken up inside my dreamscape.

I’d felt it not ten minutes ago and he hadn’t been pushing at my mind, which meant he wasn’t trying to escape and that he was comfortable there.

It was a very good starting point for what was coming.

It meant he was not only receptive, but calm and feeling safe.

When people weren’t, they raged and slammed against the confines of the dreamwalking. And something like that would resonate through my bones and psyche alike, causing a huge strain.

His positive reaction could have something to do with the fact that it was me, someone he had a connection to, one rooted in a trauma we both understood. Given the facets of his hybridnature—ones the Guardian Movement and Warlow had been actively studying—it was likely he could sense who was holding him within the dreamscape.

He was ready.

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