Page 17 of Mantle (IMMORTAL FLAME #3)

~Nyx~

So many incisions.

All over my body.

Clinical yet unnecessary.

Brutality masquerading as supernatural medical research.

Pain and humiliation in the name of advancement.

Forced on me.

Free will stolen in a blink and warped into… this.

The never-ending time here.

Always ending up on this cold, metal table.

Restraints that were so familiar, it felt like my body conformed to them now.

Dazedly, I watched the rivulets of blood from the deep slices all over my upper body trickling over my skin.

They stained the white towel hanging low across my waist.

I startled as the expressionless cold eyes came toward me. Three pairs of them as usual, their faces hidden behind masks, their bodies covered in smocks.

I caught sight of each of them holding a beaker of bubbling gray liquid.

Demon essence, I heard them call it.

And that was all the warning I got, before they poured it into my wounds.

Shrill screams rang in my ears.

My own.

Pain became white-hot agony.

The liquid burned and bubbled into the too many open wounds.

I couldn’t thrash, the binds not even allowing me that mercy.

I couldn’t move at all.

Hands even grabbed my head, then a gag was stuffed into my mouth, silencing my cries, too.

“Hold on,” a quiet voice uttered.

Black eyes filled my vision.

There was peace in them, something I thought I’d never know again.

“You’ll survive. Hold on.”

I held onto it.

Even as I passed out, I held onto it.

I snapped back to my immediate reality with jarring force.

No. It… it couldn’t be.

I hadn’t remembered.

I hadn’t remembered a lot of what had happened back then.

I’d chosen not to.

I’d needed not to.

Kai had spelled me at my behest—actually at my begging—to make me forget most of my time in the Chimera Circle lab.

But Ketheron had triggered those memories, somehow unlocked parts of them.

With all the chaos, the stakes, I hadn’t paid his comments to me much mind.

I’d hadn’t been able to.

But now… now I saw.

Now I understood.

“Hybrid. I know you.”

“What? Never seen you before.”

“You were asleep.”

Those eyes I’d seen there.

That voice I’d heard there.

It had been him.

He’d been there too in that lab with me. Suffering alongside me.

And he’d tried to help me, to give me a spark of hope to hold on to.

When he said I’d been asleep, he must have meant he’d recognized that those parts of my memory had been slumbering.

“Nyx?”

I jolted and eyed my phone on the coffee table of one of the living rooms in Ariana’s family home, the tabletop covered with all my papers regarding Crossborn initiatives as a whole and specific information about the Crossborn Refuge System as well.

It was Velra calling my name.

We’d been in the middle of discussing our work.

We were all doing that remotely and we had a joint call with all our members later today. With the lockdown in effect, Crossborn wasn’t meeting in person right now. Not even in the Chief Sanctuary Zone that Ariana had warded.

I scrubbed my hand over my face. “So sorry,” I offered. “I just… zoned out for a moment.”

“No worries. I’m a bit off my game today as well.”

“What? I thought you were doing better now?” I said, my concern elevating.

“I was… I am. I even sent in my application to attend an academy.”

“Wow, that’s a major step forward, and really pulling from your loner disposition. Which one?”

“Wraeven Academy. It’s perfect for my specific situation. It caters to darker beings, darker natures.”

“Wraeven, yeah, it will suit you well. Better than Maven. Lazriel attending it didn’t put you off applying there? Or was it a deciding factor?”

“Please. There was no Lazriel factor at all in the decision-making.”

Sure. “So, why did you say you were off today? Something happened?”

“Cassius found Sorin.”

“He did? That’s amazing!”

“He’s being detained now and they should be able to get some key intel from him regarding the whole Puritas nightmare.”

“But it also brought up a lot for you.”

“I knew you’d get it without me having to spell it out.”

“That’s kind of my thing, little sis.”

She chuckled. “That’s an understatement.”

“Focus on the positives that him being caught brings. But I understand the shock.”

“And the fact that Cassius did that, went to all that trouble… all for me… it’s… it’s a lot to reconcile.”

“I can imagine. He’s not as stoic as he appears.”

“No, he’s really not. He’s caught in a bad situation. He’s trapped.”

“He won’t be for long. We’ll fix it, Velra. There’s a way out for him. A way out for everyone as a result.”

“I just hope they can find a way to break the connection before the True Celestials do something even worse than sending Ketheron after him, like coming for him themselves and stripping him of what he is, like they did to Cornelius Martel.”

“The best magical minds in the world are on it. And he’s an ally now, so he’s not dealing with this threat alone.”

“Yeah,” she murmured as she obviously processed it. “That’s true. Thank you, Nyx.”

“No problem. Focus on the excitement of joining that academy, finally being able to come out of the shadows fully, like you started doing by joining Crossborn.”

“I will. You want to wrap this up for today, come back to it later, with both of us being distracted right now?”

“Yeah, actually, there’s something I need to attend to.”

“Everything okay?”

“It will be. I’m good.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure. Take care of yourself. See you on the Crossborn call.”

“See you, Nyx.”

We hung up and I sank back against the couch with a heavy sigh.

My instinct was to bury those memories that had come to the surface earlier.

But I’d actually acted on that instinct before when I’d had Kai spell me to forget, and now that was bringing repercussions.

Because, if I hadn’t done that, I would have known about Ketheron.

Maybe I could have done something.

Maybe me reporting it could have resulted in him never coming at Ariana, or the experiments being stopped before he was made into a being that posed such a formidable threat to her and the entire supernatural world.

Fucking shit.

I couldn’t… I couldn’t live with that.

I couldn’t just… I had to do something.

Now.

The weight of it took me over, and then I was locking onto Ariana’s location through my instincts and the depth of our connection, and teleporting right to her.

In a blink I was outside in an isolated area of the gardens.

And right in the middle of a major danger zone.

A shimmering funnel of silver and white power swirled around Ariana, rising from the ground in a wide spiral and narrowing as it twisted skyward.

The air vibrated with raw, radiant energy, the power fluid and alive.

Wind whipped her hair around her shoulders, but her stance remained rooted, steady, commanding the storm. The funnel moved in perfect sync with her breath and her focus—a celestial vortex entirely under her control.

Until she felt magical interference closing in—my teleportation.

The funnel spun wildly and part of it shot out, coming right for me.

I couldn’t stop it.

I was already in mid-teleportation; it would complete whether I liked it or not now.

“Nyx!” I heard her scream.

And then the might of her power tore into me as I materialized right in front of her, tearing me from that position in the next second, and sending me flying several feet in the air, before I smacked into a tree as my chest burned, blinding pain shooting through me.

Lights out.

“Nyx… thank goodness.”

That sweet and soothing voice infused me as I opened my eyes.

I blinked and lifted my head and it swam, making me drop right back down.

It took me a moment to realize I was sprawled out on Ariana’s pink bed—drenched in cute, fluffy luxury. Fancy cushions surrounded me like a cocoon of warmth and reassurance.

But the chief reassurance and what I latched onto was her.

I found her perched on the edge of the bed, stroking my hand.

“Hey,” I rasped.

“You’re going to be fine. I healed you.”

“Healed me… oh… shit.” I looked down to see that I was shirtless now, just my leather pants on. There was a mark over my abs, like a mixture of a charred black circle and a burn.

“That will fade within the next couple of hours,” she told me. She squeezed my hand. “I’m so sorry.” Emotion welled in her eyes. “I’m so sorry that I hurt you, cutie pie.”

“It wasn’t your fault. I was an idiot. I teleported right in front of you while you were using powerful magics. And, by the way, what I saw was incredible. You’re at another level now, Halo.”

She shook her head at me.

“What?” I asked.

“I can’t believe you’re complimenting me and encouraging me while you’re lying here from being wounded really badly by said power you’re talking about.”

“Hey, credit where credit is due,” I said with a chuckle.

She eased closer. “You’re another level.” She gazed down at me, so much care and adoration bleeding from her. Her breath caught, and then she confessed, “I love you. You know that?”

I stilled.

She’d done it.

She’d put it out there.

I’d felt it from her a while ago, for all of us in turn, but she’d been holding it back.

I smiled up at her. “I do now.” I reached out and slid my hand into her soft, golden hair. “I love you, too, Ariana. So very much.”

She leaned down and brushed her lips over mine, kissing me softly, but with such openness and loving vulnerability that it warmed me down to the bone.

And, honestly, it made what I was carrying just that little bit lighter.

I shifted up against the pillows, actually managing it this time, and I wrapped my arms around her, holding her tightly to me.

We stayed that way for several moments, soaking in it.

And then she brushed some of my vibrant-blue hair back from my face and asked me, “What were you doing teleporting out there like that? There was so much urgency and—”

“Crazed recklessness?”

“I wasn’t going to put it that way.”

“You should. I was beyond reckless and I’m sorry I put you in that position all because I wasn’t thinking of larger consequences. I was too focused on the immediate.”

“And the immediate was?”