Page 38 of Mantle (IMMORTAL FLAME #3)

~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 battle earlier.

Thankfully, he hadn’t needed to heal me , 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, and being 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.

But there 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 the Inhibitor that 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.

A real home for all four of us.

And that was why I’d come here tonight.

To immerse myself in that.

To look around and take mental notes of how to incorporate the renovations that they’d each brought up.

To focus on living.

On making it beyond all of this.

On the four of us being together in our love without all of this wearing on us.

And on me surviving it.

I shuddered as Sylas’ warning echoed hauntingly through my mind.

“Death circles you.”

It wasn’t unfounded now.

It wasn’t something I could discount.

The Wrath of Hades was here on this very plane.

It shifted things.

It made the threat all too real.

I sucked in a breath and made my way toward the porch steps.

A rush of power stilled me before I made it up the second step, and I spun around to see Kai teleporting in.

“Hey,” I said, beaming out at him. “I thought you were pulling an all-nighter at Arcanum Conclave.” With Grandfather indisposed, the work was being overseen by Maelira.

Kai stared at me rather intensely.

“Kai?”

He blinked then walked the remaining distance to me.

“You and I are a lot alike with our ingrained tendency to internalize pain, trauma, and burdens. We both learned to handle things on our own, to withdraw. And even though we’ve come a long way, it’s something that’s going to take time to go away fully. ”

“What are you—”

“I know about Sylas Morgrave’s warning to you.”

I started, my gut twisting. “Kai, I—”

“I get it. I understand why you didn’t tell us.”

“You… do?”

“Yes, it connects to what I just said. I’ll admit that when I first found out, when he accidentally revealed it to me, I was fucking upset.

That you didn’t come to us and share the burden, especially with the warning being so dire—about your actual death , Ari.

” He scrubbed his hand over his face. “But I took a step back and I saw it as you would have when you made that decision. It wasn’t out of a lack of trust in us that you kept it secret.

It was from love and protection. There was a lot burdening all of us at the time and you wanted to spare us.

I get that. Deeply.” He reached out and took my hand.

“But look at V. He confided in us about his awful situation with his family. That added thing upon us wasn’t a burden, it arguably brought us closer together.

And V needed it, he needed our support. Just like you need our support with this, instead of carrying it alone like you used to carry everything before we developed into our foursome. ”

He released my hand and then surprised me as he jerked down his shirt to reveal a nasty burn scar—a third-degree fucking burn—in the shape of his parents’ Maven Coven crest. “And I need to remember to do that too.”

“No,” I choked. “They didn’t.” I reached out, my hand hovering over the mark. “This is punishment.”

“Yes,” he said. “It’s actually more insidious than that. It happens whenever I use my magic.”

That was sick on so many levels.

Kai Hunter was somebody who lived for his magic.

It was everything to him, a core part of who he was.

“It started when Blackline Protocol was invoked and I didn’t return home to the Maven Coven.

But it wouldn’t just be returning. Under the current situation, with what’s happening in the supernatural world, it would be expected that I take up the mantle at this specific point.

Under their control and tutelage , of course.

For many years, before they believe I’m ready. ”

“You’re beyond them, beyond that fucking Coven. You always have been, Kai. Especially these days.”

“And they see that, Ari. That’s what this extreme reaction is about. Word has reached them of what I’ve been up to, the feats I’ve performed, the connections I’ve made. And it has them worried. Afraid, actually.”

“And when your parents are afraid,” I said, my voice low and fierce, “they react dangerously. Just like they did when they created that legacy enchantment. When they branded you the day you were born.”

He reached out and cupped the side of my face. “We fight for each other, right?”

“Of course.”

“Well, we can’t do that, sweetheart, unless we know what we’re truly fighting.”

“I know,” I said, grasping his hand on me.

“I discounted that warning and I convinced myself that it couldn’t even be a possibility.

I convinced myself that there was also no point speaking of it.

But it had been weighing on me. And now…

after not only discovering that the Wrath of Hades is here, but seeing it used just like it could be used to kill me…

I don’t want to hold on to that alone anymore. ”

“Then you won’t. The three of us will be with you, endure it together.” Emotion flickered in his eyes. “About what else happened… what Corvin did, even just you seeing him again after the trauma of those few years back… I’m here to help you sit with that, to process it, okay? All three of us are.”

“I need tonight, Kai. I need tonight and maybe a couple of days to… process, to come down from it all first.”