Page 147 of Mantle

I caught myself.

See it coming.Of course!

I mind-linked Kai.

“That time in your lab where I had you pinned and you still managed to overwhelm me with your magic—”

“Got it.”

I smiled inwardly as I closed the mind-link. Of course he did.

It took barely two seconds before he managed it, a violent explosion of his rose-gold power detonating all over Corvin, blowing him back into the rough stone wall with absolute brutal force.

In the process, the spell holding Lucian broke, and he fell to the floor, landing in a primed crouch.

Corvin snarled and fired his own power at Kai, but I was already there, my flames exploding across the chamber and decimating his magic upon contact, forcing him to shield his face in the process.

Lucian cut across the space in a blur and delivered a blow so brutal, it ripped Corvin off his feet. As he landed on his back painfully, Lucian was there, wailing on him with his vampiric strength, then wrenching him up, seconds away from breaking his neck which would knock him out for some time. But then Corvin blasted him away with a bolt of his power at the last second.

I grimaced as Lucian went careening across the chamber and slamming into a wall, taking a massive chunk out of it.

He recovered incredibly quickly, then burst toward the way we’d come in.

“Now!” he called out down the tunnels. “Commence the transfer spell toThe Void!”

A deranged laugh sounded from Corvin. “Yeah, they’re not coming.” He smirked out at us. “My black magic users those foolish Guardians took away came in handy for a lot of things. Of note right now is that I was able to infuse their magic into an illusion spell that doesn’t just distort the reality all around, it also severely distorts the perception of those afflicted with such a spell, meaning they cannot sense the difference, nor register it even existing magically. So, all your backup and those who can actually perform that secretive transfer spell are off deep in thetunnels here, completely unaware that you’re here with me. In fact, they can’t even see this little chamber at all.”

“You think you’ve thought of everything,” Kai spoke, stepping forward a little as that eerie tone of his echoed through the place.

“I know I have, youngling.”

“Every move you make can be countered. That’s already played out. You’ve seen your failure.”

“Shut the hell up!” Corvin roared.

“Hmm. Not as Machiavellian as you believe yourself to be, are you? And, fuck, that’s with years of planning. How incredibly disappointing.”

He went for Kai.

Lucian and I were both primed to react.

But Kai responded, already expecting it, his magic blasting from both his palms and forcing Corvin back.

Corvin hissed and pushed against it, then raised his hands to call his, but Kai snapped his wrists with just a fucking flash of his power through his eyes, making Corvin shriek.

In the next second, he thrust his palms forward and rose-gold lightning erupted, tearing into Corvin’s entire body, making him convulse uncontrollably.

Motherfucking shit.

“Mmm, magical evolution. Happens once in a while to a dedicated few. A brilliant dedicated few. Just like me. It’s really something, isn’t it?” he taunted Corvin.

Corvin’s jaw clenched. “Ariana… will… perish.”

Kai’s lightning intensified and Corvin crashed to the ground, writhing and screaming.

Through it all, he laughed insanely. “You’ll watch… her die… fucking cunt that… she is.”

It took everything for me to reel it in as Kai was already losing his shit.

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