Page 97 of Mantle

As I stared at him—now sitting up—that lightheaded feeling surged again, a sickly weakness crawling through me. I could feel the larger effects bearing down on my strength, and being this close to a swirling cage of Hellfire—barely a foot away—wasn’t helping.

“Your donation was much appreciated, Celestial beauty.”

“What are you talking about?” I seethed at him.

“Aww, not with it? Feeling substantially off?” He gestured at my left arm.

I looked to see I no longer had my jacket on and I was just in my strappy tank top. I had my jeans on, but not my boots or even any socks. And there were puncture marks marring my skin that hadn’t yet healed.

Hadn’t healed?

What he’d contaminated me with was severely impacting my healing ability as well as everything else.

“What did you do?” I demanded, my voice coming out weaker than I’d wanted, than I’d needed.

“Well, the part about needing your help to take down Chimera Circle was actually true. I didn’t need you to be willing to serve, though. So while you were sleeping so peacefully, I simply took what I required.” He breathed in deeply, savoring it, as he then told me, “I’ve used your power to destroy Chimera Circle’s neural network. All their labs have now been revealed, all their protections not only decimated, but the flood of that power sending alerts all over the place to the Guardian Movement, which will lead them and Aegis Watch to arresting every single member. It’s begun as we speak. This lab we’re at now was already long abandoned and taken by the Guardian Movement so they won’t come here.”

No help for me was what he meant there.

“Why would you destroy an organization you were a part of? Right near the top of, from what it seems?”

“They were an instrument. I have no further use for them now that I’ve accomplished what I set out to do. Moreover, their continued experiments—the creation of more hybrid beings—cannot be allowed to continue. They’re obstacles to my goal. And those they’ve already created? Soon to be culled. That was why I allowed Puritas access to the lab where Caius was being held. Of course, I also facilitated the murder of the other hybrids he was imprisoned with—no point in allowing more of them to walk the earth. I showed Puritas how to weaponize the Celestial coercionyouused on their golden boy, Sorin. How to siphon it. Repurpose it. Twist it into something new. I’ve been working with Celestial power for quite some time. The Celestial Plane even granted me access to protected knowledge.” He grinned.“All because they were afraid ofyou.They struck a deal with me and two other Chimera Circle scientists to create a being who could destroy you.” He spun the sword in his hand. “They even let me reach into the Celestial Plane and retrieve this beauty.” His eyes narrowed. “The Hellfire I placed into that device Puritas had Caius bring into the Guardian Compound? It was meant to wipe out Crossborn and distract the Guardian Movement from my real work. I’d just emerged from being off the grid.” He sneered. “But thenyouinterfered.”

Fuck… no, no, no.

He’d orchestrated so much… all from the shadows.

“I gave you a choice earlier. To cooperate. But you stood against me, even when I came to you under the guise of needing help, of giving you the chance to rise and demonstrate your power.”

“To demonstrate my power for you, for what you wanted.”

“Ah, you didn’t believe my little spiel. I see. You still had the chance to rise, Ariana. But you chose not to. And not possessing that instinct to be better means you don’t have what it takes. You cannot be a part of what’s to come. Therefore, you are a threat to my plans.” He shook his head in disappointment. “I gave you a chance to be spared. But now you must be eliminated. Onlyhewill remain.”

“Ketheron.”

“Yes. As I’ve already conveyed, the Celestial Plane gave us the tools to make him. But I never agreed with the purpose of his creation—to kill you. I believed eliminating a being of your insurmountable power was a waste. I wanted to repurpose that power, to guide you in the correct direction. But you have grown far too stubborn and beyond being tamed. You are no longer raw and untried like you were when I wormed my way into your orbit that night in a bid to bond with you. It has taken great pains for me to control the other similar to you in Ketheron. And the leashI employed was created whenhewas, so it is a different matter.Youare not salvageable in the same way. And you proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt earlier when you dismissed me.” He spun the sword in his hand again. “So, I’m afraid… you won’t be leaving here.”

He stepped away and walked to another empty space a few feet from me, then called his blue power to both palms. “But before I take your life, you must endure punishment for your behavior, for pushing me to do this.”

In the next moment, an eruption of blue light exploded into being and a shimmering dome formed. He snapped his fingers, then someone materialized trapped within it and bound by white glowing chains, on his front facing me, his arms and legs stretched out either side and forced down by those awful manacles.

“Ketheron,” I breathed.

He was roaring and struggling, his wrists and ankles raw and bloodied from obviously trying so desperately to escape.

He was bare, aside from a pair of torn black shorts that hardly even covered him properly. His wild hair was matted and dirtied, as was his skin. It seemed to be a mixture of dirt and ash, all of it muting those glowing cracks and fissures all over his body.

“Be still and look upon the one who is causing you so much grief!” Corvin commanded him.

My gut twisted as hedidstill.

And then his black eyes settled on me. “Kindred,” he rasped. He stared for several moments. “My blood… I scent it… it’s hurting you?” He looked absolutely horrified as the big picture of it kicked in. “Before… I fed it to you… you were damaged? Because ofme?”

“You didn’t know what would happen. You reacted to save and help. That’s what matters.”

He strained to crane his neck to look up at Corvin. “You’re hurting her… stop. My blood… it’s toxic to her… I see it. She can’t heal. She’s in pain.”

“Something you should not care about. Something you should actually relish.”

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