Page 134 of Mantle

My father scrubbed his hand over his face, emotion welling in his eyes, as my mother also sniffled.

She looked to Nyx. “You understand our intent wasn’t malicious, yes? You can feel it with your Incubus abilities.”

“I can. But intent is only a part of it. You tried to force him into a role that not only didn’t suit him, but that he never wanted. You ignored his agency. And, yeah, I do owe you for taking me in, but at the same time, I can’t forgive this. You branded your own son, you hurt him, and you kept on doing it.”

“Please, Kai,” my mom pleaded.

“Son,” my father added.

“You want forgiveness without earning it,” I told them. “And let’s face it, that forgiveness you covet from me is more to assuage your own guilt. No. That’s not how it works. Change is required first. And that isn’t the case currently.”

“We’re done here, right, Kai?” V asked me, clearly on the verge of losing his shit all over them. Especially when he’d just recently shifted into his draconic form, something that put him on edge, his emotions wild, for a while afterward.

I looked to Marlise and she gave a nod, assuring me, “I’ve got it from here. And, thank you, Kai. I promise I will do the role justice.”

“I have no doubt.”

Then I turned and looked at my loves and Sylas, confirming, “We’re done. Let’s go.”

In the next moment, Ariana was enveloping us all in a cloud of teleportation.

And I smiled.

I couldn’t stop smiling.

It had actually happened.

I was finallyfree.

27

~Ariana~

We still hadn’t found Corvin.

The spell Cassius and I had created had also been infused with that bastard’s blood to track him through his victims, but it had been slamming up against some major resistance.

Resistance that we’d determined had been necromantic in nature, another thing that Corvin had stolen some of Sylas’ magic for.

Thankfully, now with his power fused to the spell, we would be able to cut through it.

It was the time-consuming aspect that was getting to me more than anything else.

Although Nyx had assured me that Ketheron was safe and content in the dreamscape, I wanted him out of there for both their sakes. Nyx was still holding it well and not showing any visible strain, but it still wasn’t ideal to have a dreamwalking spell active for a long period of time.

Nyx deserved the relief.

And Ketheron deserved true freedom.

My training sessions with Cassius had shifted to focus solely on practicing my part of the severance spell—the one he, Mom,and Dad had created, now refined with Ketheron’s help. Talk about a close call. The guys had been seriously freaked out. Me? I was a lot more used to being thrown into dangerous situations thanks to all the gaps in what I knew about my own heritage.

At least I’d been able to shed some of the weight of things while we’d been immersed inApex Magic Theory and Practical Applicationwith Grandpa.

But as the four of us walked out and Grandpa was headed back to Arcanum Order to work on the reengineeredInhibitorspell, that weight returned all too quickly.

“Not until later,” I heard Kai tell Nyx, as he asked if Kai was going to teleport out right now and join Grandpa.

“Oh, phew. I thought we were going to have to reschedule our special plans for tonight.”

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