Page 126 of Mantle

“But she’s not here.” He thought for a moment, then eyed me. “You can’t hold us both here.”

“It would be strenuous. I could maybe manage it for a few minutes, but nothing more.”

“Then she sent you?”

“I also came on my own.” I settled on the sand opposite him. “Because you don’t deserve any of this. And because of what you did for me when I was in that lab.”

“I didn’t save you. You were still trapped.”

“Because you were as well.” I smiled. “But you did save me. You lit hope in me when I was without it, when I wanted to give up and fade away to the Valley of the Dead. That’s no small thing. With what you were also going through at the time, to try to help another and make them feel better… it’s beyond courageous. It’s incredible, Ketheron.”

His eyes shone at me as he recognized it.

But that glimmer faded all too quickly. He let a handful of sand slip through his fingers, watching it fall. “They won’t let me be that. They want death and destruction. It’s not safe. I’m not safe for you. Especially not my Kindred.” He sighed heavily. “We’re the same—Ariana and me. Both not supposed to exist. Both too different for their liking. They want to use it, to use us, but they don’t like it.”

“I’m here to ensure that they can’t use you ever again.”

“How?”

“Your subconscious isn’t leashed or controlled by Corvin. It’s just us here. He’s nowhere. That’s a phenomenal thing. He doesn’t have control at this level.” I reached out and gathered some sand and held it out to him. He cupped his hands and I poured it into them. “The reason that’s the case is because of you. How much you’re fighting it. How much you actually aren’t the monster he wants you to be. With the control he’s tried to exert over you and the means he’s used, which Ariana has detailed for me, he should be here right now. But he’s not.” I passed him some more sand. “That means we can break his hold completely.”

He looked at me again, something flickering in his eyes that I couldn’t quite read.

A secret? Information he was privy to but didn’t understand how to convey?

“What is it?” I asked gently.

“What he did to leash me in that lab, when he used Ariana to do it… it’s gone. I felt it when I woke up on this beach. The way I imprinted on her… it’s too strong. Even for him. It’s back… my connection to my Kindred.”

I started. “Then why haven’t you been pushing at the walls of my dreamscape? You could wake up now. Any time. With this being the case, you’d be back in control in reality.”

“Because,” he murmured, pouring the rest of the sand from his palms, then drawing slow circles. “He could do it again.”

“He’ll be stopped.”

He shook his head. “You can’t. The Celestial Plane is with him. They want this. They want more… not just a foothold… all power over the mortal plane.”

“Ariana has received word that a way has been found to sever the connection to the Celestial Plane. Cassius, Mia, and Jaxon have been working on it for a while and coming closer and closer. Ariana is with them now because they need her power as a binding agent… a special ingredient… something along those lines. High-level spellwork isn’t my forte, but you see what I’m conveying, yes?”

“This is wrong.”

“What?”

He abruptly pushed back to his feet, worry and agency taking him over. “She’ll fail and they’ll hurt her. They’ll cage her there forever. No. No. No.”

I shot back to my feet also. “What’s wrong about it?”

He shoved his hand through his hair, starting to pace erratically.

“You know I have Celestial power and abilities… a lot of pieces inside me… all screaming at me at once sometimes. The Celestial part… it’s made up of lots of True Celestials. It gives me access… knowledge… into their minds.”

Holy shit.

“So, she’s the anchor—from this side. Another needs to be on their side—a pure True Celestial—not me. It’s Cassius. But they know what he’s done. He will fall soon, so he has to hurry. When Ariana opens the connection from this end to do the severance spell, she’s vulnerable to them. She needs somebody to join with her… the special dragon… he can upset Celestial power so it can’t hurt her. But… there’s something missing.That’s only connecting to both planes. To break it… she can’t hold that open and protect blowback on the supernatural world at the same time without… without giving all her power.” He jolted and spun to me. “She’ll die.”

“What?” I choked.

“The connection to them… it could be poisoned.” He blinked hard. “By me. My power. It’s not pure. It’s pieces, pieces of everything, all creatures, but also having Celestial Power in amongst it. Yes, I’m the missing ingredient. Hybrid energy is. Hybrid energy with great endurance. You could pull on the hybrid energy of all hybrids like you, but it would hurt them. Many could die. But me… I won’t. I can withstand it.”

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