Page 59 of Mantle

“I don’t need to hurt you to prevent you from doing this. But I’d much rather you agree to stand down on your own.”

Damn him. “Don’t do that. Don’t use that.”

“Use what? Calm reasoning?”

“That sweetheart part of you.”

“You think I’m weaponizing it? I’m not, Ari. This is what you do to me, what you bring out in me. Cutting through my abrasive side and my harsher edge.” He took a careful step forward. “And I’ve come to love that you do. I know you have as well.”

“Kai—”

“I know that you’re pained. This anger… this overwhelming need to act and to fucking punish… it’s rooted in your hurt for Vorzyr, for what was done to him,andwhat you know he’s lost in the fallout. And it’s likely also nagging at you that this has happened because of his Celestial power—power like yours—a power that you’ve spent so much of your life being feared for.”

“It’s also… I can’t do anything about what Nyx is suffering through. I can’t do anything about your situation. But Icando something about this.”

“Vorzyr is talking with Nyx now, somebody who understands the pain of being disowned by his parents for being different. He’s opening up about it because ofyou.Because of your love for him and how you make it easy and safe to let go in your presence, something you do for us all.That’swhat he needs right now. You snuck out while he was immersed in that, but it won’t be long before he realizes you’ve gone. If you’re in the Dracoryn Realm when that realization hits, can you imagine what he’ll do? He’ll raze their kingdom to ash with dragon fire, Ari.”

“I can’t just stand down. I can’t just do nothing.”

“That’s not what this is about. They won’t get away with this. There are things you don’t know, things already in place. And if you’ll just take a beat and come down from this rage, I’ll explain everything.”

He gestured at the wild wind still whipping through the trees and now the storm clouds gathering overhead—all a result of my gathering power that was rolling through me dangerously in a fury.

“I swear it to you,” he spoke.

He dropped his hands, snuffing out his power before I’d even calmed.

It spoke volumes.

I sucked in a breath, then continued doing so, calming my breathing and tempering my rage.

After a few moments, the storm clouds parted, then even dissipated.

The wind calmed, then stilled entirely.

“Do you realize where we are?”

I frowned, then noticed the gazebo and the tree from the night of my party—landmarks I hadn’t seen since that infamous night.

The memory rolled over me with its every vivid detail.

I roundedsome thick foliage and came upon a visual of the gazebo and the unwanted interlopers.

So much for assuming that some guests were just out here chilling and shooting the shit or something.

This was a whole lot more than that.

It stunned me into inaction.

It was Kai Hunter and Nyx Laryn, two Maven Academy students who were about to enter their fourth year like me.

There Kai, sorcerer extraordinaire, was still fully-clothed in the sleek black tailored suit I’d seen him in earlier, just his fly undone with his cock pulled through the opening and raging fucking hard as he stood behind Nyx who was completely naked. He was hunched over, his head bowed and his eyes closed in rapture, his vibrant-blue hair falling forward as he humped the white wood of the gazebo, his cock moving rapid-fire back and forth over it and starting to slick the material.

Kai had his fingers hooked in Nyx’s open ass, and I jolted as he suddenly spat inside, causing Nyx to let out a long groan and wiggle in response.

Kai did it again and again until it was oozing inside.

And then he stuffed a finger in there, making Nyx cry out, before he then started seemingly stirring the dirty mixture, then shoving it in deeper and deeper.

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