Page 26 of Mantle

“You know it became instinctual for me to use my defensive magic right off the bat when entering spaces, so as to not have to bother with wards.”

“Yes, and how it cost you, son.”

Ryker shook his head to himself. “Stop referencing it. I’d really prefer to keep those memories buried.”

Kai and I exchanged a look at their banter.

It was more than just inappropriate humor for the sake of it. Especially with what I was feeling rolling off them.

It was clearly what they needed right now, what they’d come to do automatically with spending so much time over the centuries in crises similar to the one we found ourselves in now.

Ryker flinched all of a sudden, then brought his hand to his temple. Then he was reporting to Lucian and Gabriel, “Mia has gathered all the Coven Heads. She’s conveying the situation to them via herArcane Ascendancy Council. She’ll be a couple of hours at least.”

“Very good,” Lucian said. “Is that all she had to convey?”

Ryker smirked. “You know how she is under stress and how she likes to release that stress with us and Jaxon. Suffice to say, that will be happening as soon as she returns.” He looked out at us. “Let’s spare our daughter’s loves from the details.”

“And please spare your father,” Gabriel cut in.

Ryker rolled his eyes, then touched his temple again. A moment later, he told Lucian, “I’ve asked Jaxon to send his best from Lupan Stabilization Unit up to the Compound. I’ll be sending them along with our best magical trackers to try to get a lock on Ketheron. Just recon and ensuring he’s not raining downdestruction or coming close to any such acts. No reports have come in yet, but that may not last. There’ll be no engagement until we have better means to neutralize him or contain him at the very least. I have emissaries reaching out to the outer realms—Light Fae, Dark Fae, Dracoryn and the like—updating them on the situation as Blackline Protocol doesn’t extend beyond this plane.” He looked out at me. “We’ll also be erecting your developed Underveil Shield around supernatural strongholds and areas of vulnerability.”

Damn,that was a ton of work he had ahead of him, and all to be accomplished so quickly.

Hearing about all of this was a lot to take in.

And it was really impressive how everyone around us was handling it and working off each other like a well-oiled machine.

I felt like that was what our foursome was headed toward becoming.

I mean, this was decades in the making, but in our case, we’d already come so far.

And I loved it.

I loved how the four of us were together.

As Gabriel headed on out of the room, I saw Kai make a move to follow him, but then he pulled up short, and reached into his pocket.

He pulled the holoscreen out, then sucked in an unsteady breath.

Gabriel turned back and looked over his shoulder and Kai shook his head. “Not tonight.”

Gabriel’s gaze darted to the holoscreen, putting two and two together, and he gave Kai an understanding smile, then headed on out to the courtyard.

I walked to Kai. “What was that about?”

“It’s a long story. For now, though, Ari needs us.”

6

~Ariana~

I startled as the door to my childhood bedroom flew open.

I lifted my head from my hands to see Kai and Nyx bursting in.

Well,Kaibursting in with Nyx following after and looking more hesitant to just barge right on in without any preamble.

Yeah, that was about right.

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