Page 23 of Mantle

Tension filled the air.

The high stakes of it all twisted my gut.

Adrenaline thrummed, fueling a high-alert state.

It was all compounded by the low, resonant hum that was sounding across the entire supernatural world right now, vibrating at a frequency that supernatural senses couldn’t ignore, one that magic-wielders could feel pulsing through them.

Blackline Protocol.

It was an emergency warning system that Ryker Morgan had developed two decades ago that was used by the Guardian Movement in times of severe crises.

When Draco had risen years ago, there’d been nothing to warn people, and many had suffered for it, for the lack of preparation or time to put protective practices into place.

But this protocol, it sent a warning to us all of a high-level threat, and signaled supernatural beings to get off the streets, hunker down, and engage their safeguards.

I watched Cornelius and Ryker finish erecting the shield I’d created. Well, what Kai and I had made together, but what I’d managed to finish up the process of just in fucking time.

We were at Ariana’s family home, and they were testing it on a larger scale of covering an entire estate first, before then planning to immediately move out and employ it around supernatural strongholds and for those most vulnerable.

A burst of white light caught my eye and I saw Cassius return in a cloud of teleportation. He’d taken off briefly shortly after we’d come here after the Meforian Forest attack and Ketheron making himself known—in the weirdest way imaginable. Because we were in a high-alert situation, he’d had to reveal where he’d been headed. I’d already read him and made the connection. He’d gone to see Velra. He’d told everyone here about it now. About him pulling her from death, committing a grievous sin in the eyes of the Celestial Plane, how it had created a Soul Brand, and that it meant she’d felt him in distress during that Ketheron attack. She’d tried to leave Cornelius and Warlow’s home, but Warlow had stopped her. So, with that, there’d been no more hiding it anyway, as to why she’d been so concerned for Cassiusorhow she’d even known he’d been in distress.

I’d felt his nervous disposition when he’d told Ariana’s family the whole deal. I mean, if it got back to the Celestial Plane, it risked his very life.

But everyone here had been supportive. Jaxon, a little reluctantly, because he was still all wolf-protective about the time Cassius had taken Ariana. But they had all dealt with the Celestial Plane before and been burdened and hurt by their actions. They’d most definitely taken his side, and they were all on the same page.

Thank fuck for that, because it was really needed right now.

I drew my gaze away as Cornelius and Cassius used themselves as the test against the shield, while Ryker observed and documented.

He was in real high-alert mode. I could feel his unnerved state, a lot of which was because his defensive magic had failed against Ketheron’s barrier earlier. And then he’d seen his daughter suffer from the toxicity of Ketheron’s blood.

For so long, Ryker’s defensive magic had been the one thing that everyone in the supernatural world could count on to cut through any threat—even Celestial magic.

But those fools, the Celestial Plane, had created a being in Ketheron that was immune to it.

It was no small thing to absorb.

It had all of us nervous.

Especially Kai.

He hadn’t stopped moving for a second since we’d arrived back here.

And Vorzyr was currently flying in dragon form, while Jaxon was running in wolf form across the grounds, the two of them essentially racing—one on the ground, one in the air. It seemed Jaxon wasn’t just using it to relieve his stressed state—something that could become dangerous for wolves and dragons, supernatural animal kind—but also as a means to bond with and teach Vorzyr how to manage that animal overwhelmed state well.

For me, I’d stepped out to take a breather from all the overwrought emotion while Ariana was taking a shower in her childhood bedroom. She’d slept for a couple of hours when we’d brought her back here, but she was already up and about again.

I sucked in a breath and walked back in through the double entrance doors, making my way across the beautiful white marble floors and back to the central living room where Kai and Professor Morgan—although he’d told us to call him justGabrielnow—were gathered around on the wraparound couches, documents, grimoires, and old scrolls laid out across a large glass coffee table.

Just as I reached them and Kai looked up, giving me a reassuring smile, a hand landed on my shoulder, and I turned to see Ryker giving me a chin lift.

He joined his father, Gabriel, sitting down beside him on the edge of the couch and starting to study some of the stuff on the coffee table—Kai’s research and Gabriel and Cornelius’ combined.

“Remarkable work earlier,” Ryker told me. “How did you bridge the gap in knowledge in order to fashion the shield we’re implementing now?”

My gaze flicked to Kai. “One of those books you left in your lab, one of your recently highlighted passages… about True Celestials. Aside from Ariana, they’re not rooted to the earth, to the Mortal Plane. It means their magic isn’t, so there’s a vulnerability to exploit.”

Kai smiled proudly at me. “You determined you could erect the ward from beneath theirs. Well fucking done.”

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