Page 18 of Mantle (IMMORTAL FLAME #3)

“You were more right about Ketheron than you even realized.”

Her eyes widened and she instantly tensed. “What do you mean?”

“He’s far from a soulless monster. He… helped me. He tried to help me more still. I know it, I felt it, when I remembered.”

She shifted her weight on the bed. “Remembered what?”

“I… I guess seeing him triggered it… triggered the memories I’d had buried… and I… he was there… in the lab with me… they were cutting into me and…” I scrubbed my hand over my face, shuddering as I openly recalled it.

“Nyx,” she soothed, stroking my arm gently.

I sucked in a breath and forced myself onward. “I was being experimented on… hurt… really badly… and he… he told me to hold on. He helped me. He cared .”

She was quiet for a while, but she didn’t stop stroking my arm, soothing me.

“I’m sorry you had to go through remembering that. I can’t even imagine.”

“It’s not just about me, Halo.”

“I know,” she said softly.

“He’s not a villain. At least, he doesn’t want to be. You were right about pulling the focus away from harming him—or worse. He’s already been through worse as it is. Like me.” I grimaced. “Like me.”

She wrapped her arms around me and held me to her, slinking her fingers through my hair, even lightly brushing my horns to soothe me further. I trembled at the sensation, not sexual, but anchoring and so loving.

When I lifted my head and eased back a little to look at her, I said, “If I can remember more, I can figure him out a lot deeper. And if I can recall those scientists who were experimenting on me, I could figure out which ones experimented on him. We could track them down and find out more about Ketheron’s makeup, figure out a way to pull him off the Celestial Plane’s leash so he’s not a threat to you or anyone here on the mortal plane.

And we could also free him at the same time. ”

“I understand and I hear you, but you’re already suffering from remembering a mere part of those experiments that you endured.”

“It’s okay. I can handle it.”

“I know you’re strong. Hell, we all know just how strong you are. So resilient, so determined and brave. The way you hold your heart on your sleeve in spite of the life you’ve led… it’s a huge demonstration of strength, Nyx. But what you’re suggesting, it risks unraveling you.”

“But the fact that I recalled that memory at all when it was buried with the spell Kai performed to take that time from me suggests that I’m ready now to take it, to manage to relive it.”

“Wrong,” a familiar voice boomed through the room.

We both spun and shifted on the bed toward the door to Ariana’s childhood bedroom to see Kai leaning against the doorway, arms folded across his chest. “That spell was complicated and multifaceted. The mind is an intricate instrument. As such, there were possibilities of things arising that couldn’t be clearly accounted for. ”

“Side effects,” Ariana spoke.

“In essence. This was one of them. Coming into contact with a visceral trigger of your time in that hellhole risked upsetting the spell, peeling it back, weakening it. From what I just heard, seeing Ketheron again, somebody who was there in that time and space with you, functioned as one such trigger. That’s what’s happening.

It doesn’t mean you’re now ready to deal with it.

We’re not talking about natural memory repression in the wake of severe trauma, and memories now ready to break through. It’s not the same.”

“Fine. I hear what you’re saying. But I need to remember. And I can handle it now. I’m much stronger now.”

“You most definitely are,” he agreed easily, pushing off the door and coming into the room. “That’s not in question at all.”

“Then you’ll lift the spell? So I can remember and we can figure all of this out?”

“No.”

I blinked. “What? You just said—”

“I won’t lift it, as you put it.”

“Kai, this is my decision. I love you for wanting to protect me, and always so fiercely at that, but I can’t just sit back and—”

“It will break you.”

“You just admitted that I’m not some weak-willed—”

“You’re not hearing me. It will fracture your mind, Nyx.”

I jolted. “What… no…”

“You didn’t use Oblivisca?” Ariana queried. “It’s for targeted memory wipes, but in several doses, combining interconnected spells, it should technically have been viable.”

Kai shook his head sadly, his gaze flicking to me. “The trauma was too severe, too deep. It wouldn’t respond to that.”

“God,” she breathed.

Kai sat down on my other side and weaved his fingers with mine on the bed covers.

“I had to employ darker magics and infuse it with the essence of a Dark Fae spell that had the ability to violate free will through remaking somebody. I had to essentially reshape his mind… but engineer it to only target that portion of his memory.”

Silence filled the room.

A heavy, weighty silence.

And then Kai turned to Ariana. “You’re not going to condemn me?”

“You can’t,” I cut in. “I begged him to do it. Really begged him. I was in a really bad place. I couldn’t take it back then, the memories of what had been done to me.

” I squeezed Kai’s fingers, as I told her, “He risked himself in so many ways to find a solution for me. And he only did it to spare me, because I needed it so badly.”

Ariana lifted her arms and wrapped one around each of us.

“I know. It’s okay. There’s no condemnation coming.

I know who you both are. I get where it came from, how it happened.

And all I see is the love that was behind doing this, the protectiveness.

” She smiled. “If anything, it makes me adore you even more.”

I saw Kai getting choked up at the way she was taking it.

He had to shift his weight and even clear his throat just to hold it together, and get his next words out.

“Although I can’t lift the spell, the fact that you’ve had a flash of a memory from that time due to the triggering element that Ketheron functioned as means that it has substantially weakened the spell.

It will fall. But you need to let it do so naturally.

No magical enhancements, no asking Ariana to use her Celestial coercion to see into your mind and try to extract them that way.

After what I did to wipe the memories in the first place, any other interference could be catastrophic.

It could leave you catatonic at best and dead at worst. And nothing is worth that.

” His gaze burned into mine. “Do you hear me?”

“Yes,” I assured him. “I promise. Now I know they’ll come back on their own, it’s only a matter of time anyway.”

“It’s something you need to prepare for,” he warned.

“I will… I am.”

“Do not do it alone. All right? Especially after last time. I know you’re a great deal stronger now, but it will still be a lot—it would be for anybody. You come to us. Are we clear about that, too?”

I grinned up at him in spite of the awful subject matter. “I love you, too, brother.”

He grinned back. “Damn fucking straight.”

“How’s it going with Arcanum Order?” I asked, wanting to change the subject and wanting to hear him talk about something he was so over the moon about being a part of. Although, he’d never outright admit that. It was Kai after all. But I knew. All three of us did.

He’d had his induction a few days ago and he’d been heading out every day since as well, meeting at their secret location, wherever that happened to be.

“It’s going well. Our development of more Bastion Gauntlets is coming along. The Inhibitor aspect is proving more difficult, but we’ll get there.”

“And the other members?” I asked.

“Nyx,” Ariana spoke, knowing Kai wasn’t supposed to talk about it.

“I just want to know who he’s interacting with.” I looked at Kai. “You go out of your way to protect us. This is me doing that for you.”

“Nobody dangerous—not really, anyway.”

“What does that mean?” I pushed, not reassured in the least now he’d put it like that.

“You already figured out Gabriel was a member. There’s also Calla. A Dark Fae highly-experienced magic-wielder.” His jaw tightened. “And Sylas.”

“Sylas Morgrave?” I choked. “The bastard who hit you with death magic during the Coven Games?”

“The very one. He hit the Scepter, not me.”

“Still.”

“It would have been very different if he’d hit me directly. Extremely damaging. You know that. Your reaction is about the other thing.”

“What other thing?” Ariana asked, and a wave of tension from her rolled over me. Because of Sylas? Was it about the Coven Games attack Kai had endured from him? Or something else?

“Shortly after my relationship with Marlise, I had a brief thing with him.” He rolled his eyes at me. “Very brief.”

“I thought you were all… sexually closed off back then?” she put to him.

“I was. It was just solace after the breakup.”

“And you’re fine working together now?” she asked.

“It’s all in the past, yes. We’re fine.”

“He knows you’re with us?” she pushed.

I frowned. What was going on? Ariana wasn’t insecure in our relationship. Or the jealous type. That wasn’t her at all.

Then she was worried about Sylas from another standpoint? As a threat, maybe?

Kai chuckled and tucked her into his side. “All is well, sweet Ari. I promise.”

“ All is well, is it?”

“Yeah.”

“What about Vorzyr and you?”

“Ari, I—”

“There’s something going on, something definitely up.”

There definitely was. I’d felt it, too. And I’d hoped they’d come out with it.

It looked like Ariana was about to hasten that.

Kai sighed and pulled away, even off the bed entirely. “And here I thought you were going to try to get into the whole Maven Coven complication for me that came up at breakfast our first morning here. It’s been several days and you still haven’t said a word.”

“Did you tell Vorzyr about it?” she asked.

“Yes. On our way to Cornelius’ vault that day.”

“I know it’s part of why you’re so happy to have been invited to Arcanum Order. It could give you access to knowledge that could fix things where that’s concerned.”

“It could, yeah.”

“You should tell my grandfather, Kai. He could really help you.”

“You know I can’t tell anyone outside of the three of you. It’s too much of a risk. It could compromise my parents and the entire Coven’s wellbeing.”

“Maybe they need to be compromised. Maybe they deserve it.”

I jolted at her words.

And Kai completely stilled.

She pushed off the bed then as well, and walked to him, urgency radiating off her.

“They’ve trapped you. Not out of nastiness or vindictiveness, but—”

“Fear. It was out of fear. From powerlessness. And that’s something I understand.”

“If you don’t move beyond understanding soon, you’ll be forced into that role. We’re close to graduation now. Time is running out.”

“And I’ll find a way.”

“Let me help you. I can use the Celestial knowledge that Cassius has allowed me to access and—”

“No.”

“What?”

“It could compromise you. Interference from you in an entrenched and highly traditionalist institution like Maven Coven would come with massive political blowback. I won’t have you caught up in that.”

“Kai, I can’t just stand by and let them steal your future.”

“Seems there’s a lot of that kind of bullshit going around lately,” Vorzyr’s rumble sounded just before he materialized inside the room in a cloud of teleportation. He lifted his chin at Kai. “Wouldn’t you say, Kai?”

“You’re ready to tell them?”

“I don’t want it to be true, so I didn’t want to speak to it.

Or to relive it through talking about it.

But these last few days working with Jaxon have made it clear that bottling it up hasn’t been doing me, especially my animal side, any favors.

In fact, it’s causing a shitload of instability.

And I can’t have that, not with what’s happening, and not with being around the three of you.

I won’t risk you getting hurt because I’m not able to get control.

And I won’t let myself get to that point—especially not because of them. ”

“Them?” Ariana queried.

“My parents.”

Ariana frowned and held her hand out to Vorzyr. “Tell us, my dragon. What’s happened?”

As she offered that, something broke in him, his defenses coming down. And as he walked to her, I choked when a wave of grief and agony surged from him.

It was so overwhelming that I could barely breathe through it.

Holy… damn.