Page 20 of Shadow Fall: Part Two

Justice—the word thumped through my chest, my blood magic pulsing in time to it.

Justice, justice...

I swallowed, and tightened my arms around Verena, fighting the urge that clawed under my skin, tearing me towards Iapetus.

"Patricide," I breathed, the word torn from deep inside me.

"What?" Wyn breathed, but I was staring at the titan, my heart beating so loud that everyone else should have been able to hear it.

"Murder," I went on, the words dragged from me, searing my tongue with heat and rage. The island fell away until all I saw was the bastard who attacked the people I loved.

"Oh, shit," Verena gasped, hugging me tight.

"Treason. Rape. You have committed sacrilege, Iapetus the Piercer, and you will suffer for your unforgivable crimes."

Iapetus laughed, scorn thick in his voice as he twisted away from Emlyn's severing blow and drove a spike of magic at Kai's stomach, too fast for him to evade it.

Kai screamed. The sound was all I could hear. It drowned out even the furious thumps of every beating heart on this island, drowned out everything except the ancient voice screaming, Justice, justice...

"Wane," I said in the deep, guttural voice that scared me.

Don't be afraid of your power. It won't hurt you; it will only do as you bid it.

"Wane," I repeated stronger, and hauled on our bond until he grunted in pain. "Wake up."

"Do you remember what that woman said?" Verena said in a rush, her eyes wide as she stared at me. "She said we were descendants of gods and titans with Fury in our hearts. I always—I thought that was a capital F. Not anger or rage. Fury."

I blinked, the words barely penetrating the howling rage in my blood. A heartbeat quickened in excitement, a split second's warning. I twisted Verena aside, my hand curved around her head, and snarled when a spear of piercing magic—titan magic—barely missed us.

He tried to kill Verena. He tried to take her from me like Kaida had been taken from us.

"Stay with Wane," I ordered her, my voice even deeper, richer.

Verena swallowed and nodded, rushing to his side as I summoned magic from deep inside me, calling up every kind that lived in me—even the glimmer of shadow I'd seen in Hell.

Don't be afraid of your power.

Justice, justice...

Furies exacted justice from those who'd committed heinous crimes. I killed the three Furies.

I dragged in a deep breath and raised my hand, not shying from the magic that welled from me as I strode across the island. With half a thought, I killed Iapetus's minions, their eyes no more than burned sockets and mouths open on screams they hadn't had a chance to form.

Iapetus watched me with a sneer, frozen in the act of attacking Harvey. Kai stopped screaming, panting now as pain burned through him, but that scream still echoed through my head.

"You think you can stand against me?" the titan asked with a dismissive laugh. "You tried before and failed, didn't you, cunt?"

"Don't call her that," Emlyn breathed, lethally soft. A blur of movement and his big hands wrapped around Iapetus's throat, squeezing the life out of him, but Iapetus just smirked.

He had no backup; his minions were dead. It was over, and he had to know it. I lifted my left hand, where the thread of blue magic still wriggled, and crushed it out of existence. It wasn't just my blood magic that rose to snuff out Cronus’s thread, but the tendril of darkness I saw before, and something more—a golden warmth, deep purple flashes, and a taunting blue power I wished I could ignore, wished I could deny.

But I was Cronus's descendant. I had his power in me. But his or not, it let me snuff out the magic he'd used to trap us in the false life. I watched the thread crumble to nothing, and Iapetus showed his first signs of unease.

Justice, justice...

My pulse loud in my ears, I stalked across the grass towards him, letting hatred fill my heart. He twisted away from Wynvail's shard of moon-silver magic, and when Harvey slammed into him, fangs open, Iapetus grinned and embraced the bite. But I'd seen that glint of unease; he was shaken.

His heartbeat quickened, and I only realised it was with excitement and not fear when he glanced at the grass at my feet, and—I realised I'd walked into a trap.

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