Page 131 of Mantle

He carefully cut Marlise’s palm and caught the drops of blood in a small crystal vial.

Once it was full, he replaced the cork, then told her, “Thank you. That’s all we need. Ensure you remain on Maven Coven grounds during the spell.”

“Understood,” she said, while healing her palm with a spark of her magic. Then she took my hand and told me earnestly, “Thank you for choosing me for this, Kai. It means a great deal.”

“I didn’t choose you. We both know you’ve earned it. And, on the flip side, thank you for doing this for me.”

“You deserve to be happy and carve out your own destiny. We all do.”

I gave her hand a squeeze, she smiled, then teleported out to the Coven grounds.

I sucked in a breath, then turned to Sylas. “Lead the way to this secret room that was even kept offmyradar all these fucking years.”

“Don’t worry, my friend,” he said, as he led the way down another corridor beyond the Main Hall. “Soon that bitterness will be replaced with relief and a beautiful sense of freedom.”

He wasn’t wrong there.

I looked behind me and grinned out at Ariana, Nyx, and V, and they all smiled back at me supportively.

We moved quickly then, as Sylas took a sharp turn near the east study, approaching an unremarkable stretch of wall between two long-forgotten portraits.

He stopped, bringing all of us to a halt.

Then he raised his hand and pressed three fingers to the wall in a precise triangular pattern.

The wall pulsed with necromantic energy—black veins of magic writhing outward—before folding in on itself with a hiss.

A narrow staircase spiraled downward into darkness.

“Catacombs,” Sylas said. “The legacy enchantment is housed in the original ritual chamber below the foundation. They laid it directly into the bones of the place.”

No torches. No lights. Just a cold, humming power that vibrated through the stone as we descended.

At the bottom, the chamber opened into a circular sanctum carved from black marble. The ceiling arched like a cathedral. And in the center of the floor, carved into the stone itself, was the sigil of the legacy enchantment: a monstrous thing, all jagged angles and blood-bound symbols. Black tendrils of necromantic magic crawled across the floor from it, embedding into the room like roots and rising faintly toward the ceiling.

Sylas knelt at the edge of the circle, his hand hovering over it, trembling.

“This is where they tied your magic to their will, Kai.” He looked up at me. “Time to undo the fucking thing.”

He settled there on his knees and gestured for me to lie down.

Before I could, a spark of Nyx’s magic startled me and he conjured a mattress with a fuzzy gold blanket.

Ariana chuckled.

“So fucking lovable, Luscious,” Vorzyr said, coming and draping his arm over his shoulders.

I smiled out at Nyx. “I’ll be okay. I promise. Besides, you know what a stubborn bastard I am.”

“No arguments here,” Sylas muttered with a wry grin.

“He’s got this,” Ari assured Nyx. “He’s prepared. He’s strong. And, yes, he’s exceedingly forthright as well.”

“Aww, sweetheart, I love you, too,” I uttered, as I settled onto the mattress and placed my hands over my stomach. I looked out at them each in turn. “All of you.”

Although they didn’t say much because they were all trying to keep it together, focus needed right now, I saw it in their eyes, their body language, felt it from them.

I always fucking did.

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