Page 44 of Shadow Fall: Part Two

I pressed the sharp tip of my dagger to his stomach.

"Safe," he finished.

"Sorry, Walden, but you're the first guard I've met. It's unlucky, really. I need someone to take me to the Capitol. So how about you show me where the closest rift to the fight is, and I won't separate your balls from your body?"

I dropped my knife lower and added pressure, so he got the message.

"I can't lead a kid into battle," Walden argued, his sternness returning.

"This kid will draw blood if you don't," I countered, dropping the sweet routine and letting him see the darkness that lived inside me. It had been growing for most of my life, but it had thrived while I was locked in the Olympus cell, planning gruesome revenge on everyone who led to my captivity. "You don't have a choice, Walden."

His mouth pressed thin. "You're bluffing."

"Alright," I agreed, and drove my knife downward, burying it in his thigh.

He choked back a cry, his eyes flaring wide with pain. His jaw clenched, nostrils flared.

I pulled my knife free. "Now we've proven I'm definitely not bluffing, how about you take me to that battle?"

Clearly against his better judgement, the guard turned, scowling, his square jaw locked. Blood dripped down his grey uniform trousers as he walked. It was his fault for not listening to me the first time. He learned a valuable lesson.

"It'll get you killed," he warned, even more serious than before if that was possible.

"Yeah, well," I muttered, gesturing Walden down the hallway with the bloody edge of my knife. "I'm willing to take that risk."

A battlefield is no place for a teenager. We need you safe.

"Sorry, Wynvail," I murmured and kept my knife pointed at the guard, leaving the palace and Iarlon behind.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

HALWEN

Caught between two monsters, I wasn’t sure who was worse. The titan who locked up and tortured my mate, who’d imprisoned fuck knows how many people … or the other Locke, who’d done things so vile they were unspeakable. Unthinkable.

I'll do far more than look at those boys.

Not if I rip out your fucking throat.

Strength filled me the longer we spent in Hell, even if it was the Damned Realm I hated with a vengeance. The pit of ashes that opened inside me when I poured magic into Cronus was bigger, deeper. It was like dry tinder to my rage; when struck, it burst into flame in so many colours I lost count. I had so much of it, I didn’t know what to do with it, but I turned to keep both Cronus and Gauvan in my sight and eyed the latter. Actually, I did have a few ideas about how to use this magic.

“Back the fuck up,” Kai snarled, his voice deep and resonant, a tone I’d heard so rarely. “Wynvail, get them out of here. Now!” he yelled.

“I believe,” Cronus said, tilting his head as he watched us all—the bleached terror on Wane’s and Harvey’s faces, the rage and horror on everyone else’s, the pure murder in mine, “this is what is called a checkmate.”

I inhaled a slow, steadying breath and felt more of the ashes catch fire inside me, flickering emerald and scarlet and silver. Cutting him open, weakening him, had awakened something in me. Let’s see what you can do.

I needed to kill them both, needed to attack them at the same time, but that was impossible. The second I moved for Gauvan, Cronus would kill me. The second I went for Cronus, Gauvan would hurt my mates. And he’d hurt them enough for multiple lifetimes.

“Checkmate?” I mused, unable to keep the fury from my voice.

The Fury…

I blinked and the fire doused in my blood, replaced by something ancient and dry and cold.

“Cronus, lord of time,” I said, and my voice wasn’t entirely mine. “You are an insult to life, your crimes so vast they cannot be listed.”

Cronus tilted his dark head, amusement flickering in eyes that shone with power. “Is that so?”

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