Page 21 of Mantle

Lucian gave me a discreet chin lift, letting me know that it wouldn’t interfere with what he needed to do.

As for me, I could work a spell through hell on earth, even with a war waging around me.

“Ari?” I asked.

“I’d like that,” she told us. She added more forcefully, “A lot.”

I saw Kai smirk.

Little bastard.

I rolled my shoulders, then got into position, sitting cross-legged in front of Ari, while Lucian gave Vorzyr some pointers on how to carefully feed.

“Feed from her wrist. It’ll provide more control. Especially being dragon, it’s far less likely to trigger the animal within and its primality. You cannot let it take you because you’ll need absolute focus for every moment of it. It’s clinical, not for pleasure.”

A growl came from Jaxon.

Mia pressed her hands to his chest, running them over his shirt softly, working to quell his antagonism.

I instructed Ariana and Vorzyr, “Clasp one another’s hand and maintain the connection. Once the spell isolates Ketheron’s blood and infection, it will signify how to draw for you aswell, Vorzyr. You’ll need to latch on with your Primal Celestial Resonance to that only—that essence, if you will.”

The two of them shifted to face one other, joining one hand each. Ari rested her other on her knee, ready for when Vorzyr would need to begin drawing her blood.

Lucian stayed at his side and I remained between them.

I levitated the ball of magic and then I palmed it and pressed it to Ari’s shoulder, uttering the incantation we’d designed.

She grunted as it seeped into her body until it completely filtered inside.

I saw her wince as I strengthened my cadence and conviction, feeling that familiar power of casting a significant spell roll through me—a sure sign it was taking hold.

A shudder from her told me that thepins and needlesaspect had begun.

As much as I hated to see her in pain, it also meant that the design of the spell had worked well and was already coursing through her system and searching out Ketheron’s toxicity.

Words of encouragement came from her boyfriends, but they fortunately resisted their obvious urge to reach out physically to comfort her while the spell was still underway.

“Son of a bitch,” she gritted out, after another few moments, squeezing her eyes shut against the pain.

I kept going, holding my hand to her shoulder, pushing the spell onward.

“Her pulse is spiking,” Lucian warned me.

I caught Vorzyr getting upset, looking like he wanted to react to stop it, or hell knew what.

“Don’t,” Lucian warned him, because I couldn’t do it myself while I was deep into the spell. “You’ll end up hurting her.”

“I’m fine, my dragon,” Ari spoke. “We’ve dealt with worse, right?” she said, her eyes glinting with mirth in a clearly strainedbid to reassure him. “Besides, you all know damn well that I’m far from a fragile little flower.”

“Hey, some flowers are the toughest shits,” Nyx piped up.

“She’s our fuckinggoddess,remember?” Kai followed.

Vorzyr sucked in a calming breath. “I know, yeah. Of course I do. I just… I hate seeing you in pain. Not like this. Not fucking like this.”

“I know,” Ari said. “But it’ll all be okay. It’ll all be over soon. Then this will just become a fading memory.”

I looked out at the family surrounding us and took in their smiling responses to her words that said so much with how she handled things.

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