Page 40 of Mantle (IMMORTAL FLAME #3)

~Ariana~

I closed the door quietly behind me as I stepped into Kai and Nyx’s shared dorm room, expecting to find Nyx deep in meditation, asleep, or doing something relaxing like reading.

Not reading Kai’s extremely heavy spellbooks or grimoires, but a few books that Vorzyr and I had procured for him from our personal collections.

Vorzyr’s were about tales of great dragon adventures, something he’d taken to reading since the traumatic experience he’d had with what we were now terming his faux family. He was trying to separate his draconic identity from them and House Titanus and seeking to see it in a positive light again.

And my books were all about mystical adventures of warrior princesses across the fictionalized worlds—go figure.

But Nyx wasn’t there, although some books were laid out on his unkempt bed. The messy bed aesthetic wasn’t a normal thing for him. That was usually Kai’s way when he was in obsessive mode.

Nyx had a break between classes right now, and for every one of those, every time we weren’t in class with him, one of us would come by to check in on him.

Ever since he’d started remembering his harrowing time in that Chimera Circle lab—especially after forcing it, triggering a cascade of brutal memories—we’d been keeping closer tabs on him.

Not to mention, he was holding Ketheron in a dreamscape as well.

And although Ketheron was still immersed in slumber, it was taxing, regardless, and it took a mass amount of mental fortitude.

As my concern began to mount all too rapidly, a groan from the closed ensuite bathroom door drew my attention.

Thank goodness.

He was still here.

I’d been worried about him heading to a Ruminat hut again, even though we’d advised against it. Kai had done more than just advise against it. He’d been furious and really freaked out that Nyx had endangered himself by using that to force his memories forth.

I made my way over to the bathroom door and rapped softly, something not that easy to pull off with my Celestial strength when I was in any sort of emotional state—especially when I was worried about my boys.

“I’m fine. I can feel your worry like a tidal wave coming at me,” Nyx’s voice sounded from within.

“You’re sure?”

“Come in, Halo.”

I turned the knob and pushed open the door.

And there he was, sitting on the edge of the bathtub, hunched over, his elbows digging into the knees of his leather pants.

He was shirtless, droplets of water all over his face and dripping down onto his chest.

Seeing me looking, he explained, “A few splashes of ice-cold water to the face that went a little awry.” He gestured at it all over his chest as I’d noticed, and even dripping from his vibrant- blue hair, some droplets cascading down one of his horns as well.

“You were trying to refresh yourself? Or were you, perhaps, trying to snap yourself out of something?”

He gazed at me for a moment, emotion flickering in his eyes.

Pain and vulnerability. He was skilled at recognizing it in others, but I could see right now that he was struggling to allow himself to feel his own because of what it was connected to—his horrifying trauma of being experimented on by those sick bastards of Chimera Circle.

“It was the latter. I had another memory flash.”

“I see.” I snatched a hand towel off the rail to my right, then went to him, intending to wipe away the water.

“It’s okay,” he said, grasping the towel before I could. “I’m gonna take a shower. I just… needed a minute.”

Our fingers brushed as I went to take the towel away with him not wanting it, and my gut twisted as he shuddered from the contact.

“Nyx?” I uttered carefully.

He grimaced and rose to his feet, then pulled the shower curtain aside and turned the water on. His back to me, he stilled and fisted his right hand in the monochrome curtain.

“The memory… it wasn’t them cutting into me this time. I was… I was chained in a pod…”

I knew the exact fucking disgusting things he was talking about because I’d seen them when Corvin had taken me to one of the labs.

It had been bad enough seeing them empty.

The damage, the stains, just the suggestion of what had happened to those who’d been trapped within them.

And now hearing about Nyx, the man I loved, a man who was so sweet-natured, so kind, and so strong, being forced into one of them… it was another level.

“I was naked and two of the scientists were there touching my body all over, drawing marks on me of where they would make incisions, pour chemicals into me… and I started crying. They… shoved a gag into my mouth so they didn’t have to hear it and told me I was just a thing…

a science experiment… not a… not a person and the sooner I accepted that, the easier it would be.

When they finally walked away and closed the pod, I saw him there.

Ketheron. He was smiling at me while he was bound and in pieces from what they’d begun to do to him as well.

He coughed and choked whenever he struggled to speak, but he still did it and kept telling me that I was somebody, that they were bad men, to hold on. ”

Oh my God. “I’m so sorry.”

He turned around. “He kept trying to save me. I’m gonna do my damnedest to do the same for him. Thank you for protecting him from them all… he deserves it.”

“And you need it?”

“Yeah, I really think I do.” He smiled at me. “I’ll be okay, Halo. I can handle it.”

“You being able to handle anything has never been in doubt. But you suffering is what’s concerning.”

“I know. I’ve thought about it, and I want to see the Healer Kai recommended.”

“We’ll set it up ASAP.”

“Thank you.” He gestured at the shower. “I’m gonna wash that memory off me… can you… would it be okay if you stayed with me? Hearing your voice… I think it’ll help me to stay in this moment, rather than flashing back to that memory. I need to process it before risking a flash like that, you know?”

“I understand. Of course. I’ll be right here.

If you want, we can talk about us witnessing Kelsana moving all her stuff out of her dorm room two days ago because she was forced to leave the Academy after that stunt during Professor Morrigan’s Combat and Power Suppression class.

We could extend it to Rennick and the impact on her clique. ”

“You hate gossip. You think it’s mean and lacking empathy.”

“But it interests you—and not for mean reasons. You’re curious about people. Or we could discuss the renovations to Solumira instead.”

He beamed out at me. “You’re incredible.”

“Me? You’re the one holding Ketheron in a dreamscape to protect him. You do realize that if that wasn’t the case, they would all be hunting him now? He’s only safe because of you. That’s how much power you have here. And not just power—power coming from a good place and being wielded well.”

“If we can act to save rather than destroy, that’s damned important.

And I also know how personal this Ketheron situation is to you as well.

Not just because he’s imprinted on you and you see who he really is, but because you were treated—and still are in some cases—as somebody to be feared because of what you are and the great power you hold, not who you are. ”

Yeah, there was a lot of that involved with my stance on this.

I smiled out at him for getting that. I knew all my boys did, from various comments they’d made about it, but also from them coming to the Guardian Movement black site with me where Ketheron was being held and advocating for him right alongside me.

Even Vorzyr who had taken some nasty hits going toe-to-toe with Ketheron.

He saw what he likely wouldn’t have been able to several months ago when he’d just come fresh from the Dracoryn Realm—that there was so much more to it than just eliminating a threat.

And the fucking threats were Corvin and the Celestial Plane anyway.

Nyx stepped into the shower still wearing his leather pants—until a flicker of vibrant blue magic flashed, and the next second, those pants were hanging neatly from one of the empty towel rails.

Several moments went by where he didn’t say anything.

I’d wanted him to take the lead, to establish the boundaries, to talk about the lighthearted topics we’d mentioned in the way that felt best to him.

But the longer the silence went on, the more worried I became.

I couldn’t just rip the shower curtain aside to see what was happening for myself. That would be majorly violating, especially with the content of the memory he’d just recalled.

“I’m here, cutie pie, all right? You’re not alone. Not in any of it.”

I heard a sniffle, and then his choked voice sounded, “A parkour playground… like what the guys joked about…”

I swallowed down my upset at hearing the broken emotion in his voice, and forced out, “That’s what you’d like for your part of the renovations?”

“Yeah… it would… it would be cool.”

“Then you’ll have it. We’ll make it happen. We can start sketching out the exact design you want whenever you’re ready. I might actually be able to use my shadow weaving for that. I can make shapes so it stands to reason it could be used for more than that.”

“Something fun, rather than prophetic and all intense.”

I smiled. “Yes, absolutely. You’ve got it.”

Silence fell again and I heard more sniffling.

I clenched my fists down at my sides to prevent myself from going to him when he hadn’t called for it. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.

And then I started as he spoke again—softly, barely audible.

“Halo?”

“What can I do, cutie pie?”

“I can still feel them on me… crawling on my skin… touching me. I can’t… I can’t shake it… alone. Would you… can you… be with me?”

“Yes, of course.”

I stripped myself with a flare of my silver magic, leaving my clothes in a heap on the floor, and then I was easing the curtain aside and stepping into the shower.

There Nyx was not even soaped up yet, standing with his back to the shower water, his arms wrapped around himself as water drenched his hair and skin. I could see the stains of tears down his face despite the shower water trying to shield it.

His eyes roamed over me and he sucked in a breath, grimacing as the natural arousing reaction he’d normally easily have toward me or one of the guys being naked in his space didn’t come this time.

He unwrapped one of his arms from his body and reached out a trembling hand to me.

I took it loosely in mine and he eased me forward toward him.

“Don’t look away,” I told him.

He swallowed hard and gave a nod, then I eased my hand from his and pressed both to his chest over his pecs.

He hissed.

“No,” he said, when I went to pull away. “Please don’t go.”

“I’m not going to go, no matter what. Even if you’ve changed your mind. Especially not because of that.”

Emotion welled in his eyes. “I love you. I love you so much.”

“I love you, too.”

He slid his hand into my hair and leaned in, brushing his lips over mine. “Touch me,” he whispered. “ Please .”

I cupped his face and he groaned, then grasped my hip for support to center himself to the moment.

Holding his gaze, I brushed my thumbs over his cheeks, then trailed my fingers along his shoulder blades, down to his pecs, gliding along his biceps, before skimming down lightly over his abs.

Another groan came from him and as I reached around and stroked his hair with one hand, then his back with the other, he sank into me, his chin on my shoulder as pleasurable, needy moans spilled from him.

I felt him hard against my thigh and a tremble of need rolled through his body.

I looked to see his beautiful horns glowing.

“Yeah,” he breathed. “Ariana.” My name spilled from his lips like a broken prayer.

And then he grasped both my hips and pushed me up against the tiled wall, the shower water spraying over my face and body in a refreshing and warm encompassing way, before he was then crowding me.

He lifted my thigh, angling it to his hip.

He needed to take control, but uncertainty flickered in his gaze and he hesitated as he held me there, positioned to take him with one definitive thrust.

“Fuck me,” I uttered, the intensity of the moment rolling over me, the intensity all over him bleeding into me.

It seemed to be exactly what he’d needed to hear as, in the next moment, he tightened his grip on my thigh then sank inside me.

“Ah… shit… damn…” he uttered, holding still deep inside me.

I stroked his horns carefully and he threw his head back. “More… more,” he pleaded.

Tightening my grip, I rocked on him.

The moment I did, he not only fell into it, he pulled almost all the way out, then slammed back inside me.

And he didn’t stop.

Fucking me into the wall, his eyes blazing at me with need and the reclamation of power that should never have been stripped from him in the first place… reclamation of his body as his, not theirs.

It was rough and hard, but so overwhelming passionate and emotional, and I crushed my mouth to his. His tongue tangled with mine, taking and receiving in equal measure, as his need built and built, until he was trembling with it, while never breaking his determined rhythm.

Pleasure surged oh-so quickly and I was crying out blissfully, uttering his name.

He shifted his weight to hold me up with one hand, then dipped the other down between us, making me jolt at the sparks of glorious sensation as he dragged his fingers through my folds.

Something about it, about what was happening between us, had me coming so quickly, soaking his hand.

“Fuck… oh my God, Halo,” he breathed in rapture.

His hands were all over me then, tugging at my hair, roaming all over my highly-sensitized skin, as he filled me over and over, getting lost in it.

His rhythm faltered, a haunting and profound roar tore from him that was much more than just sexual release, and then I felt him spill inside me.

A long moan escaped him and he slipped from me, then held me to him and buried his face in my chest.

I wrapped my arms around him and stroked his hair through it.

“It’s okay. It’s all okay. I’m here. You’re here.”

“Thank you, Halo,” he uttered, all choked up.

“I’ve got you. We’ve got you. Forevermore.”

“I know. And it means everything to me.”

Silence fell then, but it wasn’t the worrying kind like before.

And I just held him like he needed, staying in the moment with him.