Page 38 of Shadow Fall: Part Two

Futilely fighting the sluggish pull of my own body, it felt exactly like being in Olympus, unable to wound him no matter how many times I stabbed him. But I couldn't let doubt kill my hunger for blood. I needed to bleed him, to make him pay, to get justice for every unspeakable thing he'd done.

Justice, justice…

I screamed, putting more force behind the knife, but time slowed and stretched until I didn't move even a millimetre. Everything became a cacophonous noise around me, shouts buzzing like bees until I flinched, but my body refused to make even that movement. Frustration made my magic boil inside me, made my soul scream. I was so close. I was—

His descendant. I was Cronus's descendant, and I'd already used his magic once. I’d ripped apart the fake timeline: I brought the whole thing crashing down around us. Thoughts of Kaida made my chest spike with pain, a tear forming impossibly slowly in my eye, but the memories gave me back my strength and renewed my rage.

I'd managed to undo his power once. I could do it again.

I'm coming for you, you fucking bastard. For what you put us through, for what you made Wynvail into, for every single scar and drop of blood you made on Wane. For his horns. His wings. His peace of mind.

Justice, justice…

I sank inside myself, encouraging the flames of my anger. Cronus’s control ran so deep I couldn’t even close my eyes, but I grasped enough magic to make my skin buzz and my teeth rattle. How did I sort through the tangled mess of it to find a single blue thread? I didn't know how to isolate the magic I inherited from Cronus; it was like searching for a single raindrop in a storm.

I couldn't do this.

I needed my mates. Even when I didn't believe in myself, they believed in me. The only thing I had to cling to for confidence was the sight of Lili driving a broadsword through his skull and Erebus's assurance that I had weakened him. Cronus was already weak long before the gods and titans brought him down, before Lili drove her sword through him.

Like it had in the prison in Olympus, Kai's voice came to me, and a minuscule smile formed on my face.

I swear to every higher being, if you don't find that time magic inside you and kill this bastard, I'll bite every inch of your body until you're high on my venom and so needy it could kill you, then I'll bring you to the edge of climax and leave you there.

He'd threatened me with that before. Had gone through with it, too.

I sucked in a rough breath, ignored how slow it was, and dove back into my core of magic, reaching past thumping heartbeats and merciless sunlight and patient, dangerous shadows. I couldn't see them, but I felt each magic as I brushed past, sensed its heat or ice or chaos or calm. They clashed inside me, but instead of shattering, they fused into something far more potent than anything I'd ever held before.

Where are you? Come on, come on.

I reached through cold, lonely moonlight and volatile emerald, vaguely registering that I held each of my mates' magics inside me, that they'd all contributed to this maelstrom. Roaring alongside them was the violence that had always driven me and the calm that washed over me when things got really, really, bad. The two sides of battle, I realised—howling screams and ringing silence. I surged past it, feeling rage and motherly love and then—there.

I recognised the elusive brush of Cronus’s time from the fake timeline, but here it wasn't electric and sharp. It was quiet, unknowable. Changeable.

Change into something that can rip me out of this immobility, I snapped.

But it didn't work like that. I needed to direct it, shape it myself. I didn't know what I was doing, but that wasn’t new. I'd never known what I was doing. And yet … this time I was driven by instinct and thousands of years of knowledge, passed down through the magic inside me.

That’s not daunting at all…

I held tight to that electric blue thread of time, coaxed it into my free hand, and when my palm gleamed blue, I exhaled roughly. My breath left me in a plume, rapid and cold and all at once. Not excruciatingly slowly.

It was working.

Instinct, don't let me down, I pleaded as I twisted the blue cord of time into a knot, the tangle of thread resembling a Celtic knot. I didn't waste time, shaking too hard now, terrified Cronus would crush my tiny progress like he'd crushed Wynvail into nothing.

I drove my palm at his chest as hard as a punch, and my eyes fluttered with visceral relief when my hand actually collided with his chest.

Time began to resume around me with a jolt I felt deep in my bones. I flinched when shadows writhed over my hands and up my arms, hitting me with shocks that made me gasp, made my whole body tighten. So that was how he’d frozen me in time. His shadows were full of malice and dark magic, and I hoped he choked on them.

The moment I could rip my right hand free, I drove my volcanic dagger into the space under Cronus’s ribs, gritting my teeth at the pain that rattled up my blade and through my arm from his magic.

"I don't think so, asshole," I panted, the flare of agony making my whole body tense. "I'm used to pain at this point. I've lived through it, trained in it, all thanks to you."

I twisted the knife deeper and pulled more magic from my core, so much blowing out of me that my hair danced around my face even soaked wet. My wings fluttered as more and more power gathered, stroking the sensitive skin beneath feathers.

I shuddered as a shiver rippled down my spine like a premonition. I ignored it and poured the maelstrom of power through the blade and into the bastard, praying Ares was right. I actually prayed to Ares, like that would do any good as I gripped the pink hilt in both hands and heaved my dagger sideways, cutting a tiny slash.

Blood pounded in my ears. Sweat beaded on my upper lip and dropped onto the titan's writhing shadow form. I fed more and more magic through my dagger, cutting a deeper slash. Noise erupted around me when time snapped fully back into place, and my head spun. Were my mates' voices among those shouting? I wanted them here, wanted them beside me. This no longer seemed like a quick, easy task before returning to their side. I sought them through the bond, my soul immediately flooded with panic and love and violent rage. It gave me the strength to push more magic into the dagger and cut Cronus’s enormous stomach deeper, further.

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