Page 140 of Mantle

He grasped my hand with his free one. “Thank you, Nyx.”

I arched an eyebrow. “For what?”

“For sticking by me all those years when I was emotionally distant and… difficult in too many ways to name. And I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t be what you needed before. And the power imbalance between us back then…”

“Stop. You did what you could with what you had. You were suffering too, and you still opened up to me and let me in. You took me in. You took me under your wing. You protected me and loved me. Even in that largely shutdown state you were in back then. That says everything, Kai. And without you… I wouldn’t have made it. I’ll never forget it. And I don’t want you discounting what you actually did for me either.”

“Aww,” a familiar voice sounded, and we both craned our necks to see Vorzyr now leaning against the door, arms folded across his white henley and grinning out at us. “Look at the two of you, all wrapped up in one another.”

His crimson pants pulled taut across his mammoth thighs as he strode up to us and leaned against the porch railing. “Come on, let’s face it, things changed because Kai needed a kick in the assandthe ego—which he got in spades from me, right?”

I burst out laughing.

“You don’t buy that explanation?” Vorzyr questioned, humor sparking in his eyes.

“That you kicked my ass?” Kai said. “More like I tamed the dragon to my liking.”

“Oof,” I choked through my laughter.

Vorzyr growled and got up in Kai’s space, leaning over him on the porch steps, his hands slapping down on the wood, essentially caging him in.

Kai, of course, didn’t even flinch.

And then a smirk spread over his face as he stared up steadily at Vorzyr.

Vorzyr chuckled. “Love you too, sorcerer.” He kissed Kai’s forehead, then pushed off him and settled down on the steps at his other side.

“This is a nice sight to come out here to first thing in the morning,” Ariana’s voice rang out.

I turned to see her in just my button down navy shirt. She looked good in it—sexy and cute at the same time. Her wavy golden hair was a little mussed. Again, so much cuteness.

She padded toward us, her bare feet quiet on the porch, and Kai and I shifted so she could flop down between us. Vorzyr, on the other side of Kai, grasped her feet and draped her legs over Kai and him so she was on all three of us.

Without her even asking, Kai handed her his coffee.

“Do I look that wiped?” she asked with a smile, as she then took a couple of big gulps. Given her angelic physiology, it was more about the mental aspect of it, rather than it being able to give her any sort of real physical jolt.

“You do seem weary. Just not physically,” Kai told her.

She handed him back the coffee. “I really needed last night, so thank you.” She sank into us, then told us, “It helped to lighten the load, or at least cut through it for a while—it taking so long to locate Corvin, Ketheron still being immersed in the dreamscape and afraid to leave, the pressure of performing the severance spell soon…” She looked out at each of us. “And I… what happened with Corvin that day is still nagging at me, I guess.”

“We’re here,” I said, stroking her arm. “If you’re ready to tell us, we’re here.”

She beamed out at us. “I know. I know you are.”

She sucked in a breath, readying herself to tell us, and I saw Kai and Vorzyr tense—definitely preparing to tamp down any explosive reactions. Kai could barely hear that bastard’s name without it igniting his fury as it was—and that had beenbeforewe knew Corvin was involved in any of this, before he’d taken Ariana. All we’d known was that Corvin had been Ariana’s first. But Kai wasn’t an insecure, toxic shithead about that kind of thing—no, he’d been upset because heknewthat bastard’s reputation. He’d recognized that Corvin had used Ariana, had preyed on how vulnerable she’d been back then, to get close to her power and try to control it through sexuality—and hell knew what else.

“When he came to me that day outside Maven Academy,” she began, voice steady but soft, “it was all polished charm and carefully rehearsed manipulation. He said he needed my help to take down Chimera Circle, said he’d infiltrated them, and I was the only one who could sever their network.” She exhaled slowly. “He tried to frame it like it would be weak of me not to act.”

Kai’s jaw ticked, his fingers tightening around the mug he now held again.

Ariana continued, “But the subtext was clear. He was testing whether he could still control me. He even called me a ‘foolish girl’ when I pushed back. Said I was squandering my power. That I needed to be… tamed.”

“That’s textbook coercive misogyny,” Kai bit out, low and sharp. “He didn’t see you as a person—just a force he thought he could leash.”

I felt her tremble just slightly, and I pulled her in tighter.

“Even worse,” she said, “he was furious that Ididn’tfall for it. He didn’t just want my power. He wanted topunishme for denying him. Like it was some kind of betrayal. And when he kidnapped me to that lab with Ketheron, he delighted in telling me he’d taken my power without my permission, that he’d been able to use it without me, the wayhe’dwanted to. He’d even taken it while I was unconscious to fuse with Draco’s sword, which he then used against Ketheron right in front of me, while I was bound by a circle of Hellfire and those suppressioncuffs that he’d outfitted with timed releases of trace amounts of Ketheron’s blood into my system in order to keep me weak. He kept calling me naïve. Weak. Said I used to be pliable, and now I was inconvenient. He didn’t just want my power—he wanted mesubservient. And when he couldn’t get that… he took everything he could instead.”

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