Page 52 of Mantle

“And the fact that Cassius did that, went to all that trouble… all for me… it’s… it’s a lot to reconcile.”

“I can imagine. He’s not as stoic as he appears.”

“No, he’s really not. He’s caught in a bad situation. He’s trapped.”

“He won’t be for long. We’ll fix it, Velra. There’s a way out for him. A way out for everyone as a result.”

“I just hope they can find a way to break the connection before the True Celestials do something even worse than sending Ketheron after him, like coming for him themselves and stripping him of what he is, like they did to Cornelius Martel.”

“The best magical minds in the world are on it. And he’s an ally now, so he’s not dealing with this threat alone.”

“Yeah,” she murmured as she obviously processed it. “That’s true. Thank you, Nyx.”

“No problem. Focus on the excitement of joining that academy, finally being able to come out of the shadows fully, like you started doing by joining Crossborn.”

“I will. You want to wrap this up for today, come back to it later, with both of us being distracted right now?”

“Yeah, actually, there’s something I need to attend to.”

“Everything okay?”

“It will be. I’m good.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure. Take care of yourself. See you on the Crossborn call.”

“See you, Nyx.”

We hung up and I sank back against the couch with a heavy sigh.

My instinct was to bury those memories that had come to the surface earlier.

But I’d actually acted on that instinct before when I’d had Kai spell me to forget, and now that was bringing repercussions.

Because, if I hadn’t done that, I would have known about Ketheron.

Maybe I could have done something.

Maybe me reporting it could have resulted in him never coming at Ariana, or the experiments being stopped before he was made into a being that posed such a formidable threat to her and the entire supernatural world.

Fucking shit.

I couldn’t… I couldn’t live with that.

I couldn’t just… I had to do something.

Now.

The weight of it took me over, and then I was locking onto Ariana’s location through my instincts and the depth of our connection, and teleporting right to her.

In a blink I was outside in an isolated area of the gardens.

And right in the middle of a major danger zone.

A shimmering funnel of silver and white power swirled around Ariana, rising from the ground in a wide spiral and narrowing as it twisted skyward.

The air vibrated with raw, radiant energy, the power fluid and alive.

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