Page 15 of Mantle

I wasn’t a being who required protection of this magnitude.

And Icouldn’tbe.

Not with what we were up against.

I wasn’t just talking about the emergence of Ketheron.

The things he’d said, and what Cassius had even alluded to beforehand, had made it clear that it was beyond even that.

Our true enemy was the Celestial Plane.

4

~Ryker Morgan~

A new beast walked the earth.

A monster unlike any who’d come before.

Even Draco.

He defied the laws of nature.

He defied the laws ofmagic.

For the first time in decades, there now existed a being on this plane who I couldn’t make a goddamn dent against, who my next-level, defensive magic couldn’t impact.

The very magic that put faith in the supernatural world that I’d always be able to safeguard them against whatever came our way.

“We need to get them to your family home,” Cornelius was saying to the group as we still stood in Meforian Forest. “The boys, too. They put themselves on Ketheron’s radar.”

“We’ll use the spell that Nyx implemented to ward your mountain estate,” my dad spoke, eyeing Mia. “That creation couldn’t penetrate it.”

My dad, the almighty Gabriel Morgan, sorcerer supreme with unmatched magical knowledge, had teleported in just moments after Ketheron had taken off. He’d been delayed teaching a class,and not wanting to abruptly take off and cause a whole lot of panic.

As they continued talking in a group together, I looked to see Lucian with Jaxon doing what he did very well and helping him to see reason in the immediate aftermath of his wolf instinct being aggravated tremendously from battle, which was all exacerbated by it being our daughter who’d been in danger.

Or who it hadseemedhad been in danger.

It was more complicated than that.

Ketheron hadn’t intentionally harmed her.

He’d even frantically healed her with his own blood.

ButKetheron did have a worrying attachment to Ari. I’d seen that clear as day.

It was a childlike wonder toward her mixed with a whole lot of intensity and a desperation that invited dangerous obsession.

“They made me to erase you.”

He’d told her outright that he’d been created to kill her. Although, it truly seemed that the intent wasn’t there for him, intent didn’t always possess enough power. It couldn’t be relied on. Not with the Celestial Plane pulling his strings.

I looked over at Ariana.

She was surrounded by her boyfriends.

Cassius was there too, and I heard Vorzyr rumble dangerously, as he touched Ariana’s arm in a comforting gesture.

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