Page 52 of Mantle (IMMORTAL FLAME #3)
~Ariana~
I drove the blade of the Wrath of Hades into the consecrated ground, in a sacred spot deep within Meforian Forest, right beside the hidden Celestial stone we would use as a conduit for the Severance spell. Celestial Eclipse Peonies surrounded it.
Just like that night I’d first shown it to the boys, as I brushed my fingers over the stone, silver glyphs shone across its surface and activated the Celestial Script.
Val’shuraen el’Martel. Fael’thi ka’reth nael. Shaddai ven eltharan.
“ Here fell Cornelius of the Celestial Flame. The stars grieved, the forest remembered, and the bloom rose from ash,” I murmured aloud.
The Hidden Stone was enchanted, sanctified by a Fallen.
Ketheron was right beside me studying it intently, taking in the split sun and moon carved above a peony entwined with flame marks.
He pressed his hand over the carvings and they glowed a bright white.
“The spell will be strong with this,” he spoke.
“It will, yes.” I looked out at Grandfather, Mom, and Dad standing back a little, trying to give us room. They’d been doing well with it so far, but I could see my mom was on edge.
I looked to Nyx who was standing with them and he shook his head, warning me that she was about to break from backing off.
Sure enough, she pulled from them and strode up to me.
I turned as my mom came to me.
“We’re ready for this. Don’t worry.”
“I know you are.” She smiled. “You’re protecting the supernatural world from the madness of the Celestial Plane and also ending a cycle of generational trauma that’s held our family—and Vorzyr’s—in a death grip for far too long.
” She hugged me to her. “So we’re not just proud of you, we thank you, darling. ”
I blinked away the emotion that her words had wrought as we eased back.
Ketheron came up on my left side and growled at my mom. “Stop. You’re hurting her.”
I stroked his arm. “I’m not hurt. These are happy tears.”
“Happy tears? How…”
“I’ll explain it to you once we’re done here.”
Nyx came to his other side. “We’ll explain a lot of stuff to you, don’t worry. You’re not alone to figure everything out now.”
Ketheron smiled. “I like that.”
I tensed as his smile faded, and he then swung his head, scanning all around. “They’re already here,” he gasped. “True Celestials and…” He shuddered. “And Corvin is with them. They’re coming.”
“Start the spell!” my dad called over.
“We’ll erect a series of wards to slow them down,” Mom told me.
“Do not break concentration,” Grandfather called over.
Nyx came to me and planted a tender kiss on my cheek. “Be careful.”
“I promise,” I told him, before watching as they all headed to the outer perimeter of the forest to erect protective barriers.
A spark of white light came into being and Cassius materialized.
He’d been here earlier to help me prepare the spell, but he’d had to take off after he’d felt distress from Velra through the Soul Brand.
“Is she all right?” I asked him.
“Yes. She was just concerned for me. She felt the weight of what we’re about to do, and me touching consecrated Celestial power. She mistook it for me leaving the mortal realm and returning to them to face their punishment.”
“You are returning,” Ketheron spoke.
“Not to face a tribunal. Just to plant a magical anchor for the other half of the Severance spell, because the tether to be severed exists in both realms . It’s key to making it permanent from the other side.”
“You’re still going back there. You should be very careful.”
“I will. Not to worry,” he said, so sure.
Unfortunately, it didn’t reach his eyes.
“Cassius,” I started.
He held up his hand to me. “It is what must be done. Don’t concern yourself with it.”
“Well, that’s a problem, because I care about you. We’ve become friends.”
He smiled. “That we have. But we cannot allow that to get in the way of something so important. And so necessary for us all.”
Ketheron turned suddenly. “The sorcerer and the dragon come this way.”
The words were barely out of his mouth when Vorzyr and Kai arrived in a blur of speed courtesy of Vorzyr.
“Lucian’s headed to Ryker at the Guardian Compound to have him send some reinforcements our way,” Kai reported. “The True Celestials are en route.”
“Coming in hot,” Vorzyr said.
“Hot?” Ketheron questioned.
“Quickly,” Kai told him.
“Use Valkrith,” he told Kai. “The dragon can use his fire to hold them back and his Primal Celestial Resonance. You have your ancient magic spell, but it will drain you too quickly. If the fight is long, you will fall.”
Kai looked to me, concerned about bringing that weapon into play.
“Do it,” I said. “I’ll cover any fallout once this is over.”
He called it to him in the next second and it materialized in his hand.
It was a good thing he’d acted fast because then wards shot up courtesy of Nyx, Mom, and Dad, a rainbow of colors forming a massive dome over the forest.
It was only moments later that the True Celestials arrived, flying above the dome, fifty of them.
One was nearly impossible for a non-Celestial being to take down.
“Fuck me,” Kai breathed.
A snarl sounded from Vorzyr, and then he was shifting into full dragon form, soaring up through the ward itself without actually harming it, and then his Primal Celestial Resonance shot out in white blinding light, spreading out and firing at five Celestials at once.
They screamed as he tore into them with it, essentially stripping their power away bit by bit.
I watched Grandfather head for the other side, out of the way of Vorzyr’s ability, as he let out a battle cry and went for our enemies.
Kai turned to me. “You’ve got this. End this madness, Ari.”
With that, he levitated up toward Vorzyr.
I saw Nyx holding up the wards, strengthening them with Dad right beside him, while Mom headed up, her wings out in all their glory, as she went to back up Kai and Vorzyr.
Cassius unfurled his wings, too. “Begin,” he said, before soaring up into the sky at incredible speed, headed not into battle on this plane, but to another on the Celestial Plane.
“Ready, Kindred?” Ketheron asked me, looking at me with so much concern as he saw my hands shaking.
“It’s just adrenaline. I’m okay.” I stepped up to the headstone and called my power, as he did the same, silver and gold fueling through the Hidden Stone and driving down into the earth as we established the anchor on this side of things.
We just needed Cassius to do the same on his end.
In the meantime, Ketheron would send his power toward the Celestial Plane to destroy the link while infused with mine and the lack of tether I had to them which would allow me to challenge it, challenge them—the thing that was allowing this spell to be possible at all.
The Hidden Stone pulsed beneath our hands, threads of silver and gold engraving themselves into the forest floor, spreading in every direction like a map of everything that had ever been broken.
I closed my eyes.
Felt the threads.
Felt them .
The tether between this world and theirs—spun not just from power, but from control .
No more.
My power flared white-hot, fed by rage, by love, by generations of silence ready to be shattered.
The Wrath of Hades glowed behind us, soon no longer to be an instrument of death to those like me.
Ketheron cried out, and I caught him with one hand while the other stayed on the stone.
Come on, Cassius.