Page 29 of Shadow Fall: Part Two

"I'm back," Wane yelled down the hall. "But something's wrong. The shields are eroded near the bottom of the path."

My heartbeat skipped; I felt the others' hearts quicken. Hands wrapped around weapons they only removed these days to sleep, and the air crackled as magic was drawn up. We were never at peace, never not ready for a fight. It would never end—the paranoia, the fear. And here was why: a broken shield. Someone had breached the grounds of the house.

"Is it Cronus?" Verena gasped.

"No," Harvey replied, slicing a hand towards the TV. "He's still destroying the Capitol. This is someone else."

I swallowed back my fear, surprised by how little there was of it. I knew it was a bad time to be making life-threatening decisions when loss made me hollow, but I didn't shy from the idea of a fight. I welcomed it.

The numb had buried it, but bloodthirst lurked in the pit of my stomach, patient and vengeful. I might seem calm, but deep down I was exactly like Kai. I wanted to take my anger out on the world. I wanted a fight, wanted my fist smacking flesh, wanted blood to spray and magic to clash. I wanted the whole world to pay for what it had done to us. For giving us Kaida and so cruelly ripping her away.

Calm washed over me, so different to the dull bite of numbness and grief. This calm plotted, it waited, and it encouraged me to unleash myself on my enemies. I knew what it was—battle calm. And I knew where it came from, and why my mum had been in as much danger as I was. She was his daughter; I was his granddaughter. It was why I loved fighting, why I was drawn to bloodshed and brutality. Ares.

It's the child of Ares we should worry for. Those were Typhon's words, another domino falling into place.

Every family of every god was under threat by Cronus, every one of us a little magic appetiser before he consumed the gods themselves. How many had he devoured? How many were left? Apollo had been imprisoned but not devoured. And there was something else, something I'd forgotten. A roar of anger that filled the prison just as we fell through the pool of velvet shadow and into the fake timeline. A roar that my magic had responded to, as if it recognised it.

"Haley," Wane said, as if it wasn't the first time he'd spoken. Cool hands cupped my cheeks and he peered into my eyes.

"We need to empty the rest of the prisons. We need to free the prisoners so Cronus can't devour them, and we need to find everyone who got out of that cave so they can—"

"There's no need," a husky female voice cut me off before I could finish, and we all jumped at the sight of the blood-covered woman who stalked into the living room, blackened armour laid over her chest and shoulders, heavy black plates of leather everywhere else. A strip of it was even tied in her soft brown hair, the ends of which were stained dark with blood. There was no joy, no life in her eyes, no mercy in the flat line of her mouth or the brutality written in all her features. I didn't know this woman at all. We all jumped when she sheathed her bloody sword with a rough movement and pinned us with an unyielding stare. It wasn't threatening, but I felt the command deep in my bones, and I swallowed hard.

"Renna, Tali, and Cerberus have already freed the prisoners."

"Lili," I breathed, jerking forward a step and gasping when Emlyn and Wane both stepped in front of me, Harvey and Wyn close at my sides, pushing Verena behind me.

I peered around Wane's shoulders at my friend, at the cruelty and wrath on her face, and understood her on a deeply personal level. This is what I would look like when the numbness tore the roof off my rage, when I let out all the fury and pain festering inside me. I knew I'd looked something like this when I resurrected the first time—joyless and empty, with only revenge and violence to drive me. But now, with Kaida gone and Erebus's words rattling around my head, if I lost a single person, I'd become as vicious as the blood-covered woman in front of me.

"I'm aware you're a descendant of gods," Lili said, her voice hoarse like she'd broken it screaming. My chest pulled tight; I met her eyes and didn't look away from the harshness there. "But you're also a Stygian demon, which makes me your queen and puts you under my jurisdiction."

"You're not taking her," Emlyn rumbled, deep with warning. His grey wings tensed, like he was preparing to dive at her. I knew that man; he'd sacrifice himself so we could get out. I curled my fingers in the back of his shirt and hoped it was enough to hold him back.

"I'm not here to take her," Lili replied in that husky, pitiless voice. "I am here, as your ruler, the Queen of Hell and all its realms, the Justice and the Balance of Heaven and Hell, to command you to fight alongside us. All of you."

I nodded, once, sharp. "He's still alive in there. Lucifer."

"I saw the footage," Lili replied, her voice like a serrated blade. "There's no guarantee everyone survived, but someone did, and it's the sign we've been waiting for. We have a plan, and armies ready, but every prophet we speak to insists we need you. A hellborn angel will deliver death."

I stiffened. Harvey sucked in a sharp breath behind me.

"How do you know those words?" Wynvail demanded, jerking forward a step. "Who told you that? Phoebe?"

"Apollo," Lili corrected, barely sparing Wyn a glance even when light gathered around him, his magic reacting to the danger she posed.

"Apollo?" Verena asked, derision in her voice. "He's a piece of shit. Don't trust him."

Lili tilted her head, and I noticed more blood splashed on her neck. Shit. It was a testament to how sneaky I was and how distracted my mates were that I managed to slip out of their huddle.

"Where are you hurt?" I asked my friend. "Is any of this blood yours?"

"None," she replied, her mouth pressing thinner. "This is the blood of every demon who disobeyed orders and sought to take me from Luc's throne."

I sighed, my shoulders slumping. "He could be alive in there, Lili."

Her eyes flickered with pain. "Either way, we will storm the Capitol and kill that titan. And you'll be with us."

I nodded. "We're with you."

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