Page 53 of Mantle (IMMORTAL FLAME #3)

~Cassius~

This plane was no home to me.

In truth, it had been more akin to a prison.

Especially lately.

As I’d been awakened to the injustice and the true brutality that they manipulated from view so well.

It looked like paradise forged from starlight—towering spires of gold and glass reaching through clouds spun from magic, suspended in the cosmos like constellations.

Bridges of radiant energy stretched between citadels, gleaming with authority older than time.

Everything shimmered, but not with warmth. With precision. With dominion .

I stepped forward, light solidifying beneath my boots on the path.

I didn’t have long.

I had to move incredibly quickly.

I pressed my hand to the path, the center point that connected to all others across the Plane.

My magic radiated out and I jolted as I felt the anchor settle into place, providing an invisible bridge from this plane to where Ariana and Ketheron were performing the Severance spell.

I watched as my magic spread through the Celestial Plane.

It was done.

Ariana could complete the spell now that my anchor was in place also.

It wouldn’t be long now.

And it was impossible to undo—even at the will of the Plane itself.

I went to turn back now that I’d done what I’d needed to, and take my leave before all hell broke loose—pun intended.

But I was too late.

A blast slammed into my chest—divine fire burning through me.

It hurled me backward, right through the white marble palace, and deep into its depths.

I crashed through a wall, stone and gold fracturing around me, and I landed hard on a polished floor.

Of a chamber that wasn’t supposed to exist.

What the—

Silence descended.

An eerie silence that sent a chill through me.

The room glowed faintly, enough for me to look around as I pushed back to my feet, and wiped debris from my pants.

A strangled gasp escaped me as I caught sight of rows of what looked like coffins at first glance, in the center of the odd space that I’d never seen before.

With a sweep of my magic, I opened each coffin at once—all thirty-one of them.

“Hades,” I breathed.

Inside each was a child enveloped in white light—in magical stasis.

“No,” I choked. It was beyond reprehensible.

It was utterly horrifying.

Boys and girls. Infants. Adolescents.

All bearing the unmistakable traits of Celestial heritage.

All kept —hidden from the world, hidden from truth .

The Celestial Plane had continued their experiments after the Draco failure.

Not just through Chimera Circle, but here also, making pure Celestial children.

They’d obviously failed to rob them of free will, they hadn’t managed to find a way to control them to their liking, so they’d done this to them.

Set them aside like they were objects and not living things.

They couldn’t kill a Celestial being, so they’d kept them here in a suspended state—neither alive nor dead.

It was absolutely despicable.

It was beyond redemption.

I couldn’t allow this… I could barely stomach the sight of it.

I gathered my power and sent out a Celestial shockwave.

Cries and gasps sounded a moment later as it woke all of the children up.

As they began to sit up, some climbing out of their confined spaces, a blast just like earlier slammed into my chest, forcing me to double over.

The children screamed.

“It’s.. okay…” I forced out, holding my hand out in a bid to reassure them.

But then white light streamed down upon me, tearing through the roof and pouring in.

I screamed as it bore into every part of me, like molten fire through my veins.

As it poisoned me from the outside in.

As it stripped me of what I was.

I was becoming Fallen.

It graduated to blinding pain.

I dug my fingers into the floor, trying to drag myself away.

But it was impossible.

It wouldn’t release me until the punishment was complete.

I stared out at the children, wanting to reassure them again.

But I couldn’t summon a word this time.

And then the pain took me and I passed out.

My eyes snapped open and I sucked in a stilted breath.

Everything hurt, ached, screamed in protest.

Especially as I pushed to my feet.

I could feel the difference immediately.

The weakness.

That I just wasn’t the same.

I staggered a couple of steps before I was able to stabilize myself.

And then I saw the children from earlier huddled together over on the far side of the room.

Terrified.

I cursed under my breath.

How was I going to get them out of here now?

Getting them past the True Celestials when I was now lesser would be difficult enough.

But to send them through a portal down to the mortal realm would be impossible in my current state unless one remained open.

“Cassius.”

I spun to see Ketheron bursting into the space.

“What are you doing here? Ariana needs your power or this spell will drain her.”

“The spell is done. The link is broken. She sent me here because you’re taking too long, and the portals are closing. Forever.”

I gestured at the dozens of children cowering and hugging themselves, some huddled in groups together, so much fear. “They were keeping them here. Caging them.”

A roar tore from his throat. “We must help them.”

“That’s what I’m trying to do. But I can’t get them out alone. There are too many enemies to fight through, and the children could be harmed.”

He stepped forward and walked right up to the children. “They hurt me too. Like you. They trapped me. You can trust me. Come with me and you’ll be free. No one will ever harm you again, little Celestials.”

They all stared at him, gauging his words, and I watched in amazement as some sort of connection was formed to him. Were they imprinting on him, like he had on Ariana?

They walked to him, gathering around.

Yes, they were seeing him as a savior, somebody to be trusted.

“Let’s go, little ones,” he said, and then he was leading the way out, blasting back anyone in his way.

I covered the children while he fought brutally and impressively.

We were a few feet out from one of the shimmering portals when Ketheron had to shield the children with a quickly erected golden dome as three dozen unconscious bodies of True Celestials were tossed through from the other side.

I smiled through my shock.

They’d done it.

Back on the mortal plane, they’d beaten back the onslaught.

Returning them here just before the portals shut forevermore was absolutely necessary. They couldn’t afford to remain on the mortal realm. They were too far gone and indoctrinated unlike me, Ketheron, and the little children with us now.

I thrust a wave of my magic at the unconscious and drove them out of the way, sending them miles into the distance, and clearing the way for Ketheron and the children.

They reached the same shimmering white portal that was already struggling to remain open because the Severance was almost complete.

Ketheron hurriedly helped them through, while I blasted back more enemies trying to stop it from happening.

When the last one was through, he turned back at the portal and held his hand out to me. “Come on, friend.”

I was about to step forward when a blast of white light tore into my chest, burning the hell out of me and blasting me back.

Ketheron bellowed and went to assist, but then he was pulled into the portal back to the mortal plane.

And then it sealed and disappeared entirely.

Because I was no longer allowed passage.

I was Fallen now.

I heaved a sigh, and turned to see hundreds of True Celestials closing in, all calling their divine fire.

It wouldn’t be a quick death.

I’d defied them several times over.

The punishment would be unimaginable agony and then I’d be held in eternal damnation and torture. In stasis, similar to how those children were, but being aware of every little thing, time passing, feeling every second of agony that they inflicted upon me.

A fate worse than the release of death.

I dropped my hands down to my sides and put my wings away.

And then I braced myself as they began to close in.

A burning at my chest had me grunting.

Then something wrapped around my wrist and I looked down to see shadow magic curling around it and traveling up my arm.

It couldn’t be.

I turned and looked behind me again, and I was stunned beyond comprehension when a door made of shadow and purple magic formed right in the space where the previous portal had been.

It was rebuilding it.

Rebuilding it in its own way.

A violating way, no doubt.

But I was beyond caring about any of that.

Especially when I recognized who the power belonged to.

I lurched forward, just as the Celestial soldiers closed in.

A hand ripped through the portal.

Her hand.

“Velra,” I uttered, as I managed to grab at her.

In the next second, she was pulling me all the way through.

I heard screams of indignation behind me.

I was too weak to call my wings again.

But I needn’t have worried.

We were hundreds of feet in the air, and she held me to her in all her black leather glory as her shadow and purple magic surrounded us both.

I looked out as the glow of the Celestial Plane faded away entirely.

The link had been severed completely.

We’d done the impossible.

I looked out at Velra as she guided us slowly back down to the mortal plane. “You saved my life, little shadow.”

She winked, darkness and mirth shining in her eyes in equal measure. “I guess that means we’ve come full circle.”

I chuckled.

A hearty, unencumbered chuckle without all the weight that had plagued me for so long.

And it felt truly incredible.