Page 19 of Mantle

“A transfusion,” he mouthed to me.

He knew that was bad news. There was no other blood like Ari’s. It couldn’t be replicated. Unless—

“Cassius, you’re closest to her blood type and power makeup. We’re dealing with a supernatural medical problem here, so we can bridge the gap with careful spellwork.”

He warned us, “If I do that, it will cause her great agony. Celestials aren’t meant to mix blood. Therefore, there is a price should anyone violate that Law.”

“The only magical aspect of his blood that could harmheris the Celestial aspect,” Kai spoke. He eyed Vorzyr. “It has to be you.”

A look was exchanged between him, Kai, and Cornelius.

“Yes. That will work. However, we’ll need to isolate Ketheron’s blood from her before you do so, or it will significantly harm Ariana and her power.”

“It could kill her,” Vorzyr corrected him.

“No,” Cassius spoke. “But it will drain her to the point that she would be incapacitated for days on end.”

“What are you talking about?” my dad asked.

Vorzyr sighed, then revealed, “I have the ability to dominate Celestial magic, to bend it to my will, and to also annihilate it, if I so choose.”

We all fell silent.

To say it was a mammoth revelation didn’t begin to cover it.

Cassius didn’t look surprised, however. He’d already inferred it then.

Cornelius was clearly also well aware, but that didn’t surprise me. He was involved in a lot of clandestine and underhanded knowledge-seeking and research. For plausible deniability and the complications of my role as Head of the Guardian Movement, some things had to be kept off my radar.

This, though, it was bigger than that.

But the time for reprimands wasn’t now.

My daughter was sick and in fucking danger.

That was all that mattered in this instance.

I stepped forward. “Kai, Cornelius, and Gabriel, work with me to create a spell to isolate Ketheron’s infection from Ari’s blood.”

Lucian spoke up, “Instead of Vorzyr’s ability burning through her to neutralize the magic, given that I’m also seeing evidence of blood poisoning here, work to isolate Ketheron’s blood itself, then have Vorzyr feed from her in order to extract it. It won’t harm him because of his ability to dominate and nullify it. The longer it’s in her system, the more damage it’s doing, the longer she’ll be unable to heal herself.”

Cassius nodded. “My power has only stopped the vomiting. Her body isn’t accepting it for anything beyond surface-level healing because of the obstacle that Ketheron’s blood is posing.”

I snapped my fingers. “Then we work immediately to create an isolation spell.”

“You’ll need Ketheron’s fresh blood independent of what he forced her to ingest,” Cassius spoke, and then he was rushing over to where Ketheron had attacked Ari earlier. He called over his shoulder to Lucian. “I need you to scent out the drops for me to gather.”

With a burst of speed, Lucian was over there working with him.

Before I could move to get working on the spell aspect, a burst of yellow light gave way to Calla Coretti’s arrival.

Sorceress extraordinaire and my dad’s wife.

She went to embrace my dad, but pulled up short at the sight of Ari shuddering and sweating and the black vomit near her.

It took her a moment to move beyond that, then pull out the elixir that she’d brought with her.

Mia stepped up to her. “Let’s use it on the blood Ariana has already rejected.” She called over to Lucian. “Is her blood present?”

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