Page 155 of Mantle

And then it sealed and disappeared entirely.

Because I was no longer allowed passage.

I was Fallen now.

I heaved a sigh, and turned to see hundreds of True Celestials closing in, all calling their divine fire.

It wouldn’t be a quick death.

I’d defied them several times over.

The punishment would be unimaginable agony and then I’d be held in eternal damnation and torture. In stasis, similar to how those children were, but being aware of every little thing, time passing, feeling every second of agony that they inflicted upon me.

A fate worse than the release of death.

I dropped my hands down to my sides and put my wings away.

And then I braced myself as they began to close in.

A burning at my chest had me grunting.

Then something wrapped around my wrist and I looked down to see shadow magic curling around it and traveling up my arm.

It couldn’t be.

I turned and looked behind me again, and I was stunned beyond comprehension when a door made of shadow and purple magic formed right in the space where the previous portal had been.

It was rebuilding it.

Rebuilding it in its own way.

A violating way, no doubt.

But I was beyond caring about any of that.

Especially when I recognized who the power belonged to.

I lurched forward, just as the Celestial soldiers closed in.

A hand ripped through the portal.

Herhand.

“Velra,” I uttered, as I managed to grab at her.

In the next second, she was pulling me all the way through.

I heard screams of indignation behind me.

I was too weak to call my wings again.

But I needn’t have worried.

We were hundreds of feet in the air, and she held me to her in all her black leather glory as her shadow and purple magic surrounded us both.

I looked out as the glow of the Celestial Plane faded away entirely.

The link had been severed completely.

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