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“This additional ward… it’s not breakable through… normal magical means,” Kai croaked, the pain getting to him. “Not even ancient magic… could work… to bypass it.Go.Both of you.”

“No,” I told him. In the next moment, as I stared at that white smoke attacking him and holding him hostage, instinct took hold, guiding me in such a powerful way, like it did when I was in my dragon form those times when I let myself go fully.

I stepped forward and grasped Kai’s burning and now blistering arm while he struggled and grimaced in horrific pain. I got a good look at it, seeing that it was burning deeper and deeper, almost reaching bone.

The damage was similar to that caused by dragon fire and Hellfire.

How?

What was going on?

I didn’t have time to think about it as the white magic trapping Kai reacted to my proximity, then loosened around his arm and hand, before going for me and wrapping around mine.

I managed to shove Kai back and then it was just me standing there trapped by it.

But only briefly.

Because a primal part of me had me pushing against it, commanding it with a feral snarl and something strange within me that I didn’t understand.

Nyx gasped and Kai frowned, cradling his damaged arm, as the attacking magic started retracting from me, then dissipating entirely, as I fucking well dominated it, forcing it to back the hell off.

“What the—how did you do that?Whatdid you do?” Nyx asked.

There wasn’t time to get into it—not that I even really knew the answer myself.

I turned to Kai. “It’s clear now. Extract the trace essence that you need, then we’ve gotta get you out of here and deal with that wound. It’s still burning, I can smell it.”

Shakily, he reached out with his good left hand, called his magic to his fingertips again, and he completed the extraction, before then pulling back, shimmering golden balls levitating on his palm as he opened his fist. He snuffed it out, sealing it away for safekeeping. “Done.”

I eyed Nyx. “Get us out of here. Can you hold it long enough to do that?”

He nodded, and then he was moving us out of there in his smoke and shadow.

The moment we were clear and made it outside to the forest, Kai collapsed at the edge on the dirt and grass.

Ariana burst over in a cloud of teleportation. “What happened?” She eyed me. “And how are you here? I saw you dart inside.” She held up her hand. “Never mind. Kai first.” She skidded to her knees beside him.

Nyx was already crouching down on the other side, his blue magic sparking to life as he cast a spell to ease Kai’s pain until we were able to heal him. He started uttering ideas aloud at the same time of how we could help him and heal the damage, even though we didn’t know the source of whatever that additional shield around the scroll had been.

“How… no. This can’t be,” Ariana choked, studying Kai’s wound that was getting worse by the second, the red-raw nature of it now turning black, like being charred, like ash.

“You know what it is?” Nyx asked, frantically.

“It looks like dragon fire damage, but it’s not. I’d be able to sense it,” I spoke. “Maybe Hellfire-based? Somehow?”

She shook her head, the look in her eyes grave and deeply worrying, so much so that it sent a chill down my spine and actually had Nyx shuddering—he was clearly reading her emotions.

“This is the work of Celestial Light,” she informed us. “This is the damage it does when it touches any being rooted to the mortal plane.”

“Like, non-Celestials?” Nyx asked.

“Even Fallen. They were cast out, so it can also harm them.” She hovered her hands over Kai’s arm, her silver magic sparking, as she told him, “I can heal you. Hold on, okay? You’ll be all right. I’ll fix this.”

His other hand shot out and grasped her thigh urgently. “No.”

“Kai, this damage is… it needs healing immediately.”

“Not… by you.”