Page 152 of Mantle

It looked like paradise forged from starlight—towering spires of gold and glass reaching through clouds spun from magic, suspended in the cosmos like constellations.

Bridges of radiant energy stretched between citadels, gleaming with authority older than time.

Everything shimmered, but not with warmth. With precision. Withdominion.

I stepped forward, light solidifying beneath my boots on the path.

I didn’t have long.

I had to move incredibly quickly.

I pressed my hand to the path, the center point that connected to all others across the Plane.

My magic radiated out and I jolted as I felt the anchor settle into place, providing an invisible bridge from this plane to where Ariana and Ketheron were performing the Severance spell.

I watched as my magic spread through the Celestial Plane.

It was done.

Ariana could complete the spell now that my anchor was in place also.

It wouldn’t be long now.

And it was impossible to undo—even at the will of the Plane itself.

I went to turn back now that I’d done what I’d needed to, and take my leave before all hell broke loose—pun intended.

But I was too late.

A blast slammed into my chest—divine fire burning through me.

It hurled me backward, right through the white marble palace, and deep into its depths.

I crashed through a wall, stone and gold fracturing around me, and I landed hard on a polished floor.

Of a chamber that wasn’t supposed to exist.

What the—

Silence descended.

An eerie silence that sent a chill through me.

The room glowed faintly, enough for me to look around as I pushed back to my feet, and wiped debris from my pants.

A strangled gasp escaped me as I caught sight of rows of what looked like coffins at first glance, in the center of the odd space that I’d never seen before.

With a sweep of my magic, I opened each coffin at once—all thirty-one of them.

“Hades,” I breathed.

Inside each was a child enveloped in white light—in magical stasis.

“No,” I choked. It was beyond reprehensible.

It was utterly horrifying.

Boys and girls. Infants. Adolescents.

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