Page 9 of Mantle

I stepped back up to him. “Scent her. Find our celestial princess.”

He nodded, then I grasped his shoulder and teleported us away.

We needed to move to an area beyond the stifling impact of the lava on his senses.

When we rematerialized, we were in a stretch of empty fields miles from the volcano.

Wasting no time, Vorzyr squeezed his eyes shut and concentrated, sniffing the air.

Moments went on by in anxious silence as he searched.

I was tapping my foot, barely able to contain my urgency.

And then, finally, his eyes snapped open. “She’s definitely in trouble.”

Adrenaline thrummed through me. “Where?”

“Meforian Forest.”

3

~Ariana~

“There you are, pretty thing.”

An unfamiliar voice rolled through me.

I opened my eyes slowly in a highly disorientated state.

And then I was sputtering and choking, blood flowing into my mouth.

Instinctively, I moved to pull away, but a wrist pressed to my lips was so tight and exerting so much determined pressure that I couldn’t turn away. And I was also backed against something… a tree, I thought I remembered. Remembering was all I could do, because I couldn’t turn to see to confirm.

An arm was banded around my waist, anchoring me upright, exerting not a painful grip, but a steadfast and resolute one.

All of it was forcing me to remain still and to ingest the coppery liquid.

“Stop! Don’t infect her!” a voice thundered.

Despite its harsh tone, the recognition of who it belonged to was like a tether of comfort through the confusion I’d just woken up to, and the chaos of what was happening.

Grandfather!

I tried to seek him out, but the being before me shifted his weight, blocking my view.

He was a mammoth beast of a man, all muscle and well-defined bulk, his broad hulk-like form and his towering height completely dwarfing me. His gray-tinged skin pulsed with golden cracks, forming jagged patterns all over his exposed skin. And there was a lot of that considering he was only wearing a rough, animal-hide wrap slung low on his hips, barely brushing his upper thighs.

Ketheron.

That was what he’d called himself.

Right before he’d attacked.

Cassius!

Where was he?

And how was Grandfather here?

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