Page 31 of Mantle (IMMORTAL FLAME #3)

~Ariana~

I came to with an adrenaline-fueled jolt, my eyes snapping open.

A chill permeated my body as I took in my unfamiliar surroundings.

White walls stretched endlessly. Steel tables lined the space in clinical rows, outfitted with leather restraints that glowed with magic. Some were marred with dried stains that weren’t merely rust, but something far more horrifying.

A series of reinforced glass containment pods loomed near the back, tall and cylindrical.

Most were dark and empty, but a couple were etched with claw marks and blood splatter.

Against the wall were rusting cages, metal bent in places that spoke of beings fighting to break free over and over again.

Rows of cracked monitors flickered on one side of the space, some displaying corrupted data streams—biological readouts, genetic overlays, pulsing hybrid blood markers.

Fluorescent lights buzzed with an incessant hum, casting shadows that seemed to crawl along the floor.

Even abandoned, the space felt alive in the worst way, pulsing with the imprint of what had once been done here.

Those manacles were still binding me, my hands in front of me while I was lying on the stone-cold floor in a circle marked with salt as raging Hellfire encircled me.

“Rise and shine.”

A shudder rolled through me.

That fucking voice.

The one responsible for this madness.

This fucking insult.

This disturbing power play.

With some effort, I pushed myself up from the floor—awkward with my hands bound in front of me—and sat up to find Corvin standing there, a twisted smile on his face and triumph lighting his eyes.

He was holding Valkrith in his right hand—Draco’s sword.

That was where he’d accessed the Hellfire from.

“It was you,” I breathed. “Hellfire was extracted from Valkrith—in your possession all this time—and used in that device that Puritas attempted to level the Guardian Compound with.”

He merely sneered.

As I stared at him—now sitting up—that lightheaded feeling surged again, a sickly weakness crawling through me. I could feel the larger effects bearing down on my strength, and being this close to a swirling cage of Hellfire—barely a foot away—wasn’t helping.

“Your donation was much appreciated, Celestial beauty.”

“What are you talking about?” I seethed at him.

“Aww, not with it? Feeling substantially off?” He gestured at my left arm.

I looked to see I no longer had my jacket on and I was just in my strappy tank top. I had my jeans on, but not my boots or even any socks. And there were puncture marks marring my skin that hadn’t yet healed.

Hadn’t healed?

What he’d contaminated me with was severely impacting my healing ability as well as everything else.

“What did you do?” I demanded, my voice coming out weaker than I’d wanted, than I’d needed.

“Well, the part about needing your help to take down Chimera Circle was actually true. I didn’t need you to be willing to serve, though.

So while you were sleeping so peacefully, I simply took what I required.

” He breathed in deeply, savoring it, as he then told me, “I’ve used your power to destroy Chimera Circle’s neural network.

All their labs have now been revealed, all their protections not only decimated, but the flood of that power sending alerts all over the place to the Guardian Movement, which will lead them and Aegis Watch to arresting every single member.

It’s begun as we speak. This lab we’re at now was already long abandoned and taken by the Guardian Movement so they won’t come here. ”

No help for me was what he meant there.

“Why would you destroy an organization you were a part of? Right near the top of, from what it seems?”

“They were an instrument. I have no further use for them now that I’ve accomplished what I set out to do.

Moreover, their continued experiments—the creation of more hybrid beings—cannot be allowed to continue.

They’re obstacles to my goal. And those they’ve already created?

Soon to be culled. That was why I allowed Puritas access to the lab where Caius was being held.

Of course, I also facilitated the murder of the other hybrids he was imprisoned with—no point in allowing more of them to walk the earth.

I showed Puritas how to weaponize the Celestial coercion you used on their golden boy, Sorin.

How to siphon it. Repurpose it. Twist it into something new.

I’ve been working with Celestial power for quite some time.

The Celestial Plane even granted me access to protected knowledge.

” He grinned. “All because they were afraid of you. They struck a deal with me and two other Chimera Circle scientists to create a being who could destroy you.” He spun the sword in his hand.

“They even let me reach into the Celestial Plane and retrieve this beauty.” His eyes narrowed.

“The Hellfire I placed into that device Puritas had Caius bring into the Guardian Compound? It was meant to wipe out Crossborn and distract the Guardian Movement from my real work. I’d just emerged from being off the grid.

” He sneered. “But then you interfered.”

Fuck… no, no, no.

He’d orchestrated so much… all from the shadows.

“I gave you a choice earlier. To cooperate. But you stood against me, even when I came to you under the guise of needing help, of giving you the chance to rise and demonstrate your power.”

“To demonstrate my power for you, for what you wanted.”

“Ah, you didn’t believe my little spiel.

I see. You still had the chance to rise, Ariana.

But you chose not to. And not possessing that instinct to be better means you don’t have what it takes.

You cannot be a part of what’s to come. Therefore, you are a threat to my plans.

” He shook his head in disappointment. “I gave you a chance to be spared. But now you must be eliminated. Only he will remain.”

“Ketheron.”

“Yes. As I’ve already conveyed, the Celestial Plane gave us the tools to make him.

But I never agreed with the purpose of his creation—to kill you.

I believed eliminating a being of your insurmountable power was a waste.

I wanted to repurpose that power, to guide you in the correct direction.

But you have grown far too stubborn and beyond being tamed.

You are no longer raw and untried like you were when I wormed my way into your orbit that night in a bid to bond with you.

It has taken great pains for me to control the other similar to you in Ketheron.

And the leash I employed was created when he was, so it is a different matter.

You are not salvageable in the same way.

And you proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt earlier when you dismissed me.

” He spun the sword in his hand again. “So, I’m afraid… you won’t be leaving here.”

He stepped away and walked to another empty space a few feet from me, then called his blue power to both palms. “But before I take your life, you must endure punishment for your behavior, for pushing me to do this.”

In the next moment, an eruption of blue light exploded into being and a shimmering dome formed.

He snapped his fingers, then someone materialized trapped within it and bound by white glowing chains, on his front facing me, his arms and legs stretched out either side and forced down by those awful manacles.

“Ketheron,” I breathed.

He was roaring and struggling, his wrists and ankles raw and bloodied from obviously trying so desperately to escape.

He was bare, aside from a pair of torn black shorts that hardly even covered him properly. His wild hair was matted and dirtied, as was his skin. It seemed to be a mixture of dirt and ash, all of it muting those glowing cracks and fissures all over his body.

“Be still and look upon the one who is causing you so much grief!” Corvin commanded him.

My gut twisted as he did still.

And then his black eyes settled on me. “Kindred,” he rasped. He stared for several moments. “My blood… I scent it… it’s hurting you?” He looked absolutely horrified as the big picture of it kicked in. “Before… I fed it to you… you were damaged? Because of me?”

“You didn’t know what would happen. You reacted to save and help. That’s what matters.”

He strained to crane his neck to look up at Corvin. “You’re hurting her… stop. My blood… it’s toxic to her… I see it. She can’t heal. She’s in pain.”

“Something you should not care about. Something you should actually relish.”

“Never!” Ketheron roared.

Corvin snickered and crouched just outside the dome.

“You do realize she’s the reason you’re suffering, don’t you?

” He tilted his head, voice full of mock sympathy.

“You imprinted on her and now it’s weakening the leash I have on you.

” He jerked up his right sleeve, revealing a shimmering black and gold circle etched into his skin, two jagged lines cutting through it.

It pulsed… then flickered. “This is compromised because of her. Because she made you feel . Made you question your mission—what you were fucking created for in the first place.” His gaze turned cold.

“And those manacles? They’ll keep tearing into you… for as long as you keep defying me.”

“Stop!” I cried out, pushing to my feet, and hating that I was staggering just to manage it. “This is madness! He doesn’t deserve this!”

“He was made for this!” Corvin roared back at me.

“And you complicated it! You elicited humanity and a depth of sentience in him that was never supposed to be! Years of work and now I’ve had to go to great lengths to find workarounds to the damage that you’ve done.

” He stormed up to me. “I’ll end his pain immediately if you reject his imprint on you. ”

“What are you talking about?”