Page 4 of Mantle

He was helping to bring my dragon fire forth while I was too weak to manage it on my own. Not so that I could unleash it, but so that it could overcome the damage the spell had done. Essentially, he was pulling it back from the edge of fading away entirely after what it had just endured.

From what I’d heard about the very rare occurrence of the Ashbinding process being interrupted and stopped prior to completion, it would take time for me to actually invoke it and breathe dragon fire again. A few days, maybe.

But, still, relief rolled through me as his chant, his magic, enabled me to feel the deep warmth of it still being there and spreading slowly, holding on… not fading away.

It would remain now.

I would recover.

In time.

But that was something we didn’t have the luxury of right now.

That was made especially apparent as I finally managed to push to my knees, and I saw Kai’s hands shaking as he held one with a rose-gold glowing barrier against Zepharion and Serapha,stopping them from coming at me or him, while the other was somehow wielding dragon magic to keep back the tenenforcers.

I struggled closer to Kai, pushing off my knees, only to crash right back down on them just a foot from him. “We need to leave. Forget this… punishment.” I choked, hacking up a lung almost in the process.

“We can’t. Not yet.”

“What are you—”

“You need to siphon me.Now.”

“What? No. Our physiology isn’t compatible for that sort of thing. Sorcerer to sorcerer, fine. But this? It’ll hurt you. You’ll feel like your veins are on fire.”

“You healed me before. Consider this balancing that out. Giving comfort versus causing pain. It’ll cancel it out.”

I gave him a withering look. “Kai.”

“You have to. A Blood Anchor spell is in place. Territorial magic cast by Zepharion and Serapha. They laid the seal in advance to ensure you couldn’t escape once they ambushed you. To ensure that no one can unless they lift it themselves.”

“Wait. You would have felt that before you even breached the Dracoryn Realm gates.”Holy hell.“You came in here knowing you couldn’t get back out?”

Instead of directly answering, he focused on the strategics of the situation. “There is nothing I can do against that. Butyoucan. You can force their will with your Command of Beasts ability.”

There was another way.

And it was clear that he was purposely not speaking it—again, formybenefit.

To kill my parents would extinguish the spell—all their spells.

But Kai didn’t want me to have to go that route. Even after what they’d done to me… taking their lives… it wouldn’t be good forme.It would… taint me. Scar me. Blacken my soul.

“Serapha is pregnant… with my brother.”

“I know. When I invoked dragon-based magic, I felt the additional presence of one not yet birthed.” He gestured at his hand currently keeping the ten dragons down, their roars of both pain and indignation filling the room and echoing off the walls. “Grab my wrist there and start siphoning. You’ll need to be quick once my magic starts tapping out, or they’ll overwhelm us.”

“I can’t just…”

“You’re too weak to employ that ability without me boosting you. Majorly. Take what you need and don’t fucking hold back, oryou’redead andI’mtrapped here.”

Yeah, they wouldn’t kill the heir to the Maven Coven. The political fallout would be catastrophic. But they could definitely imprison him here for some time for breaching their territory uninvitedandaggressively. No doubt, with him unable to defend himself and me dead and unavailable as a witness, my parents would spin the narrative in their favor so that they were the victims and Kai was the aggressive and arrogant, misguided interloper.

“I’ve only used the Command of Beasts ability once and it was by accident. I don’t know if I can call it or even control it like we need.”

“You have to. And you absolutely can. I’ve seen you with the Primal Celestial Resonance and how quickly you took to it once we started training.” His eyes darkened. “We’re in a battle situation, a battle for your very life. You’re dragon—threat and danger call to your primal instincts like nothing else. You’ve been weakened, so that’s dampened right now. But it won’t be as soon as you draw from me. Andthat—that need, that determination and conviction to win out and protect—is what will allow you to access that ability much more easily than it normally ever would be possible.”

I gritted my teeth.

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