Page 148 of Mantle

Firing and firing mercilessly.

Using so much power—too much power.

“Take it down,” Lucian called to him in that smooth and collected way, despite what had just happened. And it being his daughter that Corvin had just threatened with death and called acunt.

“Kai,” I pushed. “You’re gonna kill him.”

The lightning wasn’t just hitting Corvin anymore.

It wasshreddingthe floor beneath him, cracking through the stone in jagged veins of molten fury. The chamber shook with it.

Corvin’s screams were drowned out by the roar of raw magic.

“Kai!” I shouted again, stepping closer.

He didn’t hear me.

His eyes were burning rose-gold. His expression was locked in that emotionless, focused rage, that dangerous state where there was no line he wouldn’t cross to do what needed to be done, to protect us all.

I burst forward and grasped his shoulder in a harsh grip.

He blinked.

“She wouldn’t want this.Youdon’t really want this. I know you too well to believe that. Don’t let him push you to become this when you’ve come so fucking far with us. It would be a fucking tragedy, Kai.”

He hesitated.

A growl escaped him.

And then he pulled his magic back.

The chamber fell into a heavy, aching silence.

Kai’s chest rose and fell fast, his jaw clenched so tight it looked like it hurt.

His hands dropped to his sides, still twitching with the residue of what he’d unleashed.

Lucian stepped past us, walking slowly toward what remained of Corvin Morvain.

The bastard was smoking, bloodied, half-conscious, and glaring up at us with whatever rage he could still summon.

Lucian crouched beside him, calm as ice. “It’s over.Cunt.”

I looked at Kai. “I’ll take that portion of his blood and magic that we need for Sylas.” He’d only just calmed down, he needed to hold on to that.

I crouched down the other side of Lucian and called my power to my right palm, then levitated his blood that had already spilled, and collected it in a vial.

Next, I pressed my red power to Corvin’s chest, ready to draw out some of his magic, to complete what we needed to help Sylas.

The moment it made contact and the spell tried activate, it repelled, like a static shock making me jerk back.

I frowned and tried again, but the same thing happened.

Corvin choked out a laugh. “Think I didn’t see this coming? I knew you were helping Morgrave, knew you’d come for my magic at some point. Youcan’t. It’s locked down. Nobody can take it.”

“Fuck,” Kai uttered, emotion swimming in his eyes for Sylas.

“Best get back to the drawing board with that one, almighty sorcerer. It could take years to find an alternative way to cure him without my power—the power of the one who afflicted him with that curse in the first place. You think he’ll last that long? I wonder. That serum was an impressive creation, but his body can only endure so much.”

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