Page 65 of Mantle

“Hell, yeah,” Nyx answered all too quickly, his excitement palpable.

She nodded, then swept her magic a few feet to the side of us, forming a swirling vortex about ten feet in diameter.

We stepped forward, moving together.

And then it swallowed us.

We all joltedas the air tore like fabric around us, spiraling pink sigils warping the space into a twisting tunnel of light. It felt like falling—but sideways. The sigils rushed past, then shattered into sparks, dissolving as our boots hit solid ground again.

The portal snapped shut behind us, leaving us in this new reality.

“Whoa,” I uttered, taking in the Rifted Cradle she’d created for us.

Jagged mountains loomed overhead, their black rock streaked with veins of glowing silver. Fractured platforms floated midair, drifting or spinning lazily. A pale lilac sky swirled above, and the air buzzed faintly, like it wasn’t entirely stable.

“So… talking about us moving in together… how does this crazy-ass place work for everyone?” Nyx commented.

Kai and I swung our heads toward him.

Ariana didn’t look the least bit surprised by the content of the words, although she was eyeing him curiously as to why he’d brought it up now.

Well, when he felt something, he didn’t exactly hold back. But he didn’t normally toss it out there likethis.With the trauma of his time in that lab coming to the surface, he was obviously a little off-kilter when it came to employing tact.

“Talking aboutwhat?” Kai asked him.

Nyx lifted a shoulder. “Time’s almost up at the Academy.” He looked at me. “You’re only here for this one year too now. Although, you don’t even need to stay now if you don’t want to, given the break between you and your family—but we’d rather you did. Really rather you did. We need to stay together. So, yeah, the time to talk about all of this is now.”

“Rightnow, while we’re in a Rifted Cradle on a mission and very likely about to do battle with magically-generated fearsome creatures at any moment?” Ariana pointed out.

“While this place is certainly something, I don’t see it,” Kai deadpanned. “Not for us.”

“Plus, it doesn’t exist on the mortal plane,” Ariana said, humoring both him and Nyx, and chuckling.

“That too.” He eyed her intensely. “I was thinkingSolumira.”

Ariana arched an eyebrow. “Is that so?”

“I brought you here because I want this house to be a place of escape for us all when the world gets too loud and insane.I want it to be our sanctuary.”He grinned back at her. “That’s what you told me when we were there last.”

“And I meant it. Deeply.”

“Sounds perfect,” I spoke. Off their beaming looks, I added, “With a few renovations, of course. Right now it’s barely big enough for one person, let alone all four of us. Idotake up a shitload of space.”

“And Kai’s messiness with his magical research is another level where vast space is concerned,” Nyx said, eyeing him.

Kai tucked him into his side and ruffled his hair. “You love it when I’m in magical research mode.”

“Because you’re always shirtless in the midst of it?” I questioned.

“That’s part of it,” Nyx admitted. “Obsessively smoking-hot badass modeis what I call it.”

Kai smirked. “Well, I can’t argue with that.”

“Of course you can’t,” Ariana giggled.

Nyx wiggled his eyebrows. “And he gets super horny afterward, too. Works out hella well for all of us. His dirty mouth comes out to play in a major way when he’s that worked up.”

A low rumble cracked through the sky above us.

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