Page 10

Alas, there was far too much fear attached to her existence. From outsiders, from so many throughout the supernatural world, from the True Celestials as well, and even from our family.

Particularly from Mia.

Due to her own trauma brought about from the duty that had been forced upon her by the True Celestials, she was so afraid that Ariana would suffer the same fate, that her approach was to have Ariana tamper herself down, for us to shield the explosion of power from her whenever she’d lost her temper as a child.

The party had been strategic and Mia’s idea also, to demonstrate Ariana’s stability in a bid to calm the supernatural world down.

Making Ariana attend Maven Academy had also been Mia’s idea, the goal being that it would keep her contained, while she learned absolute control no matter what came her way, so that nothing could destabilize her.

To make her inconsequential was the key to protecting her, Mia believed.

Unfortunately, it had ended up hurting Ariana in the process.

It had undercut her confidence.

It had led to some intense repression from her.

“You all right?” Jaxon asked me, as he came to a stop in front of me.

I shoved a hand through my hair. “Let’s just focus on finding Ariana and Cassius.” I drew in a centering breath, “You said you managed to get a lock on Ariana?”

“The beginning of the trail, yeah. It’s slight and distanced, so it will take some time. We need to set out now, once we call Ry here. He’ll be needed to help us extract Ari from a True Celestial. Even combined, our power won’t be enough.”

“You are discounting Ariana’s, Jaxon. Much like Mia so often does.”

“You know why she does that.”

“I do. Very much so. But I’m bringing it up, because I need you all to recognize that we’re beyond that now. We can no longer approach things that way. It’s too late to focus on solely protecting Ariana. The Celestial Plane has sent its emissary. Empowering Ariana needs to be our goal now that things have shifted so substantially.”

I saw the struggle all over him. Acknowledging that it was too late was difficult enough to do—I felt it deeply as well. Then, having to recognize that he couldn’t protect his own daughter was beyond even that, and something I knew the awful feeling of all too well.

“I know,” he uttered. “I know.”

I was glad he was acknowledging it now.

Before I could speak to it further, an eruption of green lightning tore through the area, and in the very next second, Ryker materialized in his go-to deep crouch, one hand slapped to the snow with his lightning radiating out, just seconds away from leapfrogging all over the place and decimating everything in his path.

“Stay your hand!” I called out.

He jolted and called his lightning back just in time, then rose to his feet, frowning between Jaxon and me. “He’s not here,” he breathed.

“No. He was gone before we arrived,” I informed him.

“With Ari,” Jaxon told him.

“What?” Ryker choked. “No.No.”

“Jaxon was able to lock onto her trail with his wolf instincts. We’re about to follow said trail and extract her.”

“You’ll need my defensive power to incapacitate this True Celestial long enough for the two of you to free her.”

“Yes. I was about to mind-link you, but you arrived without me needing to do so.”

“I erected the additional ward around the Guardian Compound quickly. I have my dad there in my stead until I return. Warlow, too.”

“That’s a good combination,” Jaxon said.

“As is Lucian and Mia with Ariana’s boyfriends,” I spoke.