Page 23 of Shadow Fall: Part Two

Iapetus didn't stand a chance when Wane slammed a force of shadows into him. Grim satisfaction filled my chest when the titan was knocked back a step. Shadows shoved down his throat, up his nose, and filled his head so brutally that his eyes exploded.

I couldn't breathe. Hope choked off my air as Wane's shadows tore into every part of Iapetus and ripped him apart.

"Fuck," Kai breathed, stumbling to my side.

"Kai," I gasped, grabbing his arm, scanning his body for wounds and finding none. Silence filled my head. I tore away, scouring the ground, searching for—

"Harvey," I sobbed, stumbling towards him. He wasn't in his beast form; he was demonic and unhurt, climbing to his feet with dazed eyes.

I turned when movement drew my eye and swallowed the lump in my throat.

"Wyn," I rasped. Rage burned in his silver eyes as he stood, pinning me with a searching stare, true fury filling my soul at whatever he found.

I spun, shaking as Iapetus started to scream, his panic obvious as Wane drowned him with darkness. "Verena? Em?" I searched the island, shaking harder when Kai pulled me into his arms.

"There, my rose. He's there. He's okay."

Frantic, I followed Kai's line of sight, and my knees weakened when I found Emlyn racing through the grass towards us, his grey wings tight to his body, his hands curled into fists, and pure thunder on his bearded face. My bottom lip wobbled. Alive, not dead.

"How—how do we know this is real?" I asked, jumping hard when Wane bared his teeth in a smile and drove more shadows into Iapetus until the titan screamed louder. Darkness covered him until he was in the eye of the shadow storm, and I held my breath when Wane stalked forward, murderous and merciless.

When he clenched his fist, letting the typhoon of shadows fall, all that was left of Iapetus were bleached bones in the grass.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when Kai pinched my ass. Hard.

"There," he said, kissing my cheek, then my jaw, then my shoulder, obsession and panic in every brush. "Now you know it's real."

My bottom lip wobbled when Verena sat up in the grass, a deep gasp coming from her throat. "Are we dead?"

"No," I answered, choked and raw. "We're not dead."

We’d made it. All of us. No—not all of us. Pain carved my insides until I was hollow. I’d held Kaida in my arms, carried her for nine months, and every second of it was all a lie.

My breath hitched, then broke apart entirely. I stared at Wane, at the torrent of shadows swirling around him, at the place where he’d cradled our daughter in his arms less than an hour ago.

I squeezed Kai in apology before I pulled away from him, my first step trembling, my second stronger, and my third throwing me into a sprint.

Wane's eyes were still black, and the dark storm howling around him was a clear warning, but there was nothing in this world that could stop me throwing my arms around him.

"You saved us."

His arms closed around me, a rough breath leaving him as he pressed his face to my shoulder, drawing a deep breath. "Barely," he replied, a tremor going through him. "Barely."

CHAPTER ELEVEN

HARVEY

Irolled the corpse over with the toe of my boot and bent to retrieve my mate's blade, brushing my thumb over the pink fabric wrapped around the hilt. It was worn and dirty, peeling at the edge. This dagger had been through as much as we had. And the other was in Cronus's possession. That fucking—I didn't have a word strong enough for him, for the monstrous shit he'd done to us.

I clenched my jaw, crouched there staring at the trampled grass, the bloody holes burned into Iapetus's goon's eyes. Pride tried to curl through my chest at the mess Haley had made of them, but awful, screaming loss crushed out the emotion. My hand burned where it gripped Haley's dagger, remembering the fragile weight of her. Kaida.

Fuck, it hurt to think her name.

Piece of shit. I flinched from my uncle’s voice, flinched from the others that followed—Locke’s and my own. Worthless excuse for a man. You couldn’t even detect trickery. Couldn’t keep your own daughter safe.

"Harvey," Haley rasped, resting her hand on my shoulder. We should have been covered in blood after the fight we'd just had with Iapetus. It was a mind fuck being so clean.

I swallowed, my dry tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth. "None of that fight was real," I said, "but this was. His goons were here. We must have been surrounded, and even—even with the tricks and mind games, you still managed to kill them."

---