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Corvin Morvain and the Celestial Plane.
And they’d damn well fall.
Thatwould be justice for us all.
22
~Ariana~
I stared at Vorzyr and Nyx sleeping in my bed, tucked up in the covers and nuzzling against one another without even knowing it. They’d instinctively moved closer when I’d carefully extricated myself from between them.
I couldn’t sleep.
I was too wired.
And not in a good way.
Waking them up to deal with that wasn’t an option.
Nyx desperately needed the rest. He’d already hurt himself earlier, according to Vorzyr and Kai’s reports after the Unity Council battle, by forcing his memories forward using a Ruminat. And now, he was holding Ketheron in a dreamwalking dimension. Ketheron was currently asleep—Nyx had told us that, given the state of his mind thanks to that sick piece of shit Corvin, he might remain that way for hours, maybe longer. But even if Nyx wasn’t inside the dimension with him, just keeping someone there for that long was draining a significant amount of his power.
And Vorzyr had needed some major healing and recovery time after what he’d endured during that nightmare of a battleearlier. Thankfully, he hadn’t needed to healme, and the spell that my family had used in conjunction with his Primal Celestial Resonance to rid me of Ketheron’s toxic blood hadn’t needed to be employed again either. Because this time, that toxicity had faded on its own. My body had adapted to it and overcome it without help. I was healed with my usual level of strength and power rolling through me now.
But I was strained mentally. Majorly taxed. After seeing Ketheron that way, seeing my family and the men I loved in such grave danger,andbeing subjected to the sadism of Corvin.
Currently, Ketheron was being held at a secret Guardian black site off the books. He was being bound by an Underveil Shield. I’d put up a barrier of my own magic around that as a form of protection—against the Guardian Movement. It was a bitch of a thing that I’d had to do it and my family weren’t happy. But after Pops had delivered that deathblow with the Wrath of Hades… their intent was clear. I understood that he had a responsibility to the supernatural world.Butthere was another way to do this. And it was Corvin who deserved that fucking deathblow, not his victim.
I’d overheard Gabriel, Cornelius, and Cassius talking, and they’d figured out why the accursed dagger hadn’t actually killed Ketheron. It needed a pure soul-signature to create the divine connection required for the kill spell to activate. Draco had that—a complete Celestial soul. Even corrupted, he was cohesive. But Ketheron? He was a shattered mosaic. There was no single “self” for the blade to destroy.
Right now Kai was with Arcanum Order working to rush a solution to producing a version of theInhibitorthat would strip Ketheron of his magic and power, wherein they would then kill him in a mundane way. Although I trusted that Kai would fight to stop that latter part from happening, we were up against a lot, so fighting for it didn’t guarantee anything at this stage.
So, yeah, my barrier was absolutely necessary to keep Ketheron alive.
The supernatural world was up in arms and Pops was pulling an all-nighter at an emergency conference with everyone of note across the supernatural world—except the Dracoryn Realm for obvious reasons. They hadn’t even been made aware of what had happened. And they wouldn’t be made aware of anything else until House Vortimer took power.
Grandfather was also deeply involved as Inter-Realm Ambassador so I hadn’t been able to confront him about him being in possession of the Wrath of Hades. I understood it. I just would have liked to have it out with him, to hear it from him.
My phone buzzed and I pulled it from the pocket of my brown suede jacket to see a text.
Cassius:Mia, Jaxon, and I have identified a weak point between this mortal realm and the Celestial Plane. We are extremely close to determining how to break the link. ?? Thought you could do with some positive news.
I smiled down at his thoughtful message.
During brief breaks during our training, I’d conjured him a phone and taught him how to text so we didn’t have to rely on invasive mind-linking. I didn’t feel right about doing that with anyone other than my boys.
He’d taken to the texting well.
Actually, he’d taken to a lot well.
He’d come a long way.
Ariana:Thank you. That positive news is definitely welcome.
I stowed my phone away, took one last look at Vorzyr and Nyx, and then I teleported out.
Solumira.
What had once represented solitude and essentially giving up, had now become a place of possibility, home, and freedom.