Page 18 of Mantle

My dad was resting on one knee as he studied what I took in as black goo tinged with actual blood.

A shudder betook me as it called forth unpleasant memories of Draco and infections so similar in nature that had befallen many of us.

“It’s not the same,” Lucian spoke, reading me well. He joined my dad, while Mia and Jaxon were all over Ari, panicking, something I could feel intensely through our bond, but something that they were trying hard not to show for concern of exacerbating the situation.

“Can you call your power?” Kai asked Ari softly.

I saw Jaxon’s surprise at witnessing that from him. He was even gently caressing her hair as he held it out of her face.

She shook her head.

“It’s okay. You’re gonna be okay,” Nyx told her. “We’re all here. We’ll help you.”

Vorzyr growled at Cassius, “Give her a boost. Help her.”

Cassius was already moving in as he spoke. “Move back,” he told them, including Mia and Jaxon.

“You could overwhelm her system,” Mia warned.

“I’ll just suffuse her with enough to reignite her own.”

“It looks like Ketheron’s blood is compromising her ability to do so on her own,” my dad surmised.

“She’s freezing,” Vorzyr reported. “Her temperature is way too low.”

She was shivering, but I’d put it down to the toll of the vomiting.

As Cassius moved in, everyone did back away, Mia and Jaxon taking a couple of steps back, while the boys loomed near, stillcrouched on the ground, not willing to give more space than that while the woman they clearly loved was suffering.

As Cassius’ hand glowed with his white power and he pressed it to Ariana’s shoulder, we all watched as it had her vomiting ceasing.

She choked and raised her head, sitting back on her haunches and then panting from the ordeal.

She was still shivering, though.

“Thank you,” she told Cassius.

He smiled at her. “Of course.”

She took a beat, looking around dazedly at all of us for a few moments, her gaze resting predominantly on her boyfriends beaming out at her, seemingly instinctively seeking them out for support and reassurance.

Then she centered herself and rose above it all in a way she’d done a lot of lately. A way that made me and the rest of the family so fucking proud.

She went to call her power, but it only sparked briefly on each palm.

“That toxic shit is compromising her too much,” Vorzyr rumbled.

“Obliterate the magic in the blood he forced her to ingest,” Jaxon snapped at me in his panic.

I gritted my teeth at my impotence in this fucking vital moment.

Lucian, who had been unduly quiet, which meant he was analyzing the situation deeply, grasped my arm and reminded them, “He can’t.”

I’d told him what had happened via our mind-link while he’d been on his way, vamp-speeding here like a bat out of Hades from across the other side of the supernatural world, that my defensive magic had failed against Ketheron earlier.

“Fuck,” Jaxon growled. But then he sucked in a breath to force himself to calm, stroking Ari’s hair, focusing on reassuring her and not escalating what was already a panicked situation.

I looked out at my dad, the only being alive who was better at workarounds than me, and finding loopholes and solutions where there appeared to be none.

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