Page 22 of Shadow Fall: Part Two

My heart beat so fast it slammed through my ears in stereo with my blood magic, roaring with protective rage. I flexed my hands, pulling up more magic and locking down my initial flinch when it surged faster, stronger than ever before. Stronger than even in Olympus.

I remembered Kai saying Cronus killed me to increase my power, and that I'd died twice. How much magic did I have now?

Let it be enough, I pleaded, wishing Erebus was here to smother Iapetus in shadow, wishing Wane was free. He could weaken him, and the titan bastard knew that. That was why he'd locked him in place. He was afraid of Wane.

Em was—he hadn't moved. He'd crashed to the floor, stabbed all the way through his middle, and he hadn't moved.

My chest caved in. Verena took two more steps, her hands shaking as she held them in front of her, spilling more magic in golden rivers, her red hair glowing, her skin illuminated with sunshine.

"You want to play, little girl?" Iapetus asked with a smirk. "Come a little closer."

"Verena," I warned, my arms shaking with the force of magic blasting through me. Would it be enough to shatter the barrier? "Just run, get away."

She swallowed, close enough to me now that her light cast over the barrier, jerky and bright. She was shaking and terrified, but determination wouldn't let her quit.

Verena took another step, but she jumped back with a gasp when Kai surged up from the ground with a hiss. The air quaked with a storm of snakes, the magic so thick I could taste it on the tip of my tongue.

I slammed my fist into the barrier, magic blasting from my hand, scattering across the solid pane of magic. It didn't erode, didn't even weaken. Fuck! My hand shook when I slammed it into the magic again, screams filling my head. The thump of justice, justice had been obliterated by blinding terror.

Emlyn hadn't moved. Harvey was still. I couldn't even see Wynvail. Wane was trapped. And Kai—Kai snarled, driving more of his venomous magic at Iapetus, throwing himself at the titan even though our deaths closed around us like a net.

Verena lunged forward a step, the whites of her eyes showing. Blood drenched Kai, all the way down his side. He was bleeding out, so pale, and I knew he must be weak even if I was too full of rage and panic and power to feel the bonds.

I threw myself at the barrier over and over, power pouring through my shaking hands, ricocheting off Iapetus's magic. My eyes blurred, making their forms hazy as Verena lunged forward and threw her hands out, sending a flare of sunlight so bright that my eyes streamed faster. I was losing them, all over again. Would I ever stop losing them, or was I cursed to endure this cycle forever? Love them, lose them, and be dragged back to life to relive it all over again.

Verena said something under her breath, her brow knotting. She gritted her teeth, and her magic flared so brightly that I winced and turned away.

"Just—die—" Kai snarled, the air quivering with his magic. "You—fucking—monster!"

Verena spoke again, louder, but I didn't catch it until she shouted, "It's not real! It's not real!"

Iapetus laughed, sending a chill down my spine. Kai roared in response, louder and more vicious than I'd heard him before. Verena's gasp was louder than all of them, but her words rang through my head.

It's not real.

Was this another fake timeline? Another trick?

Power shuddered out of me, tearing through my chest like a hurricane, and I swore there was more than one kind of magic howling in my veins, more than five. All at once, I understood what Erebus had been trying to tell me.

I didn't mean my descendant, Halwen. I meant his.

Wane's. Mine.

I didn't want to think about it, or what Verena suspected. I wasn't strong enough. But if what we saw right now wasn't real, and I had all this magic inside me...

Verena’s power flared, so bright it pricked my eyes through my closed eyelids, and my breath caught when Iapetus laughed, sneering and low and seething with evil.

I was trying so hard to break the barrier, trying to kill Iapetus, but if this wasn't real, if it was all a fucking illusion … it would never work. I drew my hands from the barrier and clenched my teeth at the pain in my knuckles. It wasn't real. I clung to that hope, shaking hard.

I dropped to my knees, driving my hands into the grass, into the ground Em had fractured apart. Or had he? Was any bit of this real? I shook as I reached deep, deep inside my power, plunging further than I'd dared to go in a long time and gasping when it wasn't a lake of power but a vast pit that waited for me, its power crashing over my hands and driving its destructive force into the ground.

Rip it apart, I snarled at my magic, my hands burning as magic roared from my palms, too fast, too strong. It didn't matter if I was injured. Emlyn was dead, Harvey was unconscious, and Kai had been stabbed but maybe—maybe it wasn't real. Rip this fucking timeline apart. Show me what's real.

Iapetus laughed, but his voice was different, muffled by the roar of water, the whistle of wind. I ripped my eyes open, staring at the island and startling at the movement. I hadn't realised quite how still it was moments ago until I saw it now, with the grass thrashing in the wind, the sea around us crashing and raging.

"Finally," a deep, unfamiliar voice said, thick with menacing glee. "I've been waiting for you, Iapetus."

I lurched to my feet, my heart pounding my ribs, and stared in shock as Wane strode through the long sea grass with a tempest of shadows around him, his eyes completely black. My heart skipped. Wane hadn't been frozen, hadn't been locked in place by Iapetus's magic. He'd been here, outside the timeline, waiting to kill the titan.

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