Page 1 of Shadow Fall: Part Two

PART I

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CHAPTER ONE

HALWEN

Inside the cave was … a cave. Okay. Not what I'd been expecting when Emlyn and I flew inside to rescue our friend from a prison that belonged to a power-hungry titan.

I slanted a glance at Em as he flew beside me, his grey wings driving powerfully through the stagnant cave air, his bearded face set in a ferocious glare that would have scared me if I wasn't in love with him.

The entrance chamber was nothing but craggy rock. There were signs that someone had been here—stairs carved into the stone, a disused track for a miner's cart, and tools left on the ground, but no cells. No prisoners.

Yet.

"Through there," Em said, pointing to a smaller mouth that led deeper into the cave.

I swallowed a swell of dread and nodded, failing to hide my panic when he flew ahead of me, cutting his wings tight to his side as he plunged into the darkness on the other side. I mirrored his movements, my wings sleek at my sides as I propelled myself through the opening, snapping them back out when I emerged and—

"Gods," I breathed, my wings faltering.

I regained control enough to set myself on the dark ledge this side of the opening, my heart slamming against my ribs in a panicked beat as I stared at the enormous space opposite us.

Well, I'd wanted a prison. I'd wanted cells.

In front of the ledge where Em and I stood stretched a chasm around fifty feet wide. On both sides of the black chasm, rising a hundred stories high and sinking lower than I could even see, were rows upon rows of cells made of sharp, glossy black stone. Every cell was lit a faint midnight blue, outlining the figures locked within.

I tilted my head back, trying to count the rows, failing to estimate how many cells were on each line. Fifty? Ninety? More? With how many rows were visible and how many more must lay in darkness… thousands of people were imprisoned here.

"Fuck," Emlyn breathed in horror, grabbing my arm to keep me close. A shudder went through his wings, brushing mine. "There must be thousands of them. Hundreds of thousands."

I swallowed and nodded, weight pressing on my chest. "How do we find Renna?"

And how did we ever stand a chance of surviving Cronus when this was only one of his prisons? How many people did he have locked up, ready for him to devour for power?

Give 'em hell, Halwen.

I bit my lip, remembering Erebus's presence this morning, remembering everything he told me. Cronus was obsessed with Wane's shadows because they were raw power, able to be moulded into anything, including this prison. But he only had a swath of shadow; Wane had hundreds of them.

We could undo this. Couldn't we?

Both Em and I jumped when movement scuffed the ground behind us, the rest of our family scrambling through the opening and seeing the full extent of what we faced.

"Holy…" Kai trailed off, the blood draining from his face. "How does he have this many prisoners?"

"He's been planning his escape for millennia," Wynvail said bitterly, staring at the cells. "I knew it would be bad, but this—" He clenched his jaw. "Where do we start?"

I swallowed, not even my mates’ proximity settling my dread. "Wane," I breathed, caressing his soul. "Can you feel the magic that made this place? Is there any way you could—" I couldn't say unmake them. "Dismantle the cells?"

"Without bringing the whole thing down?" he murmured, biting the inside of his lip as he stared at the prison in horrified contemplation. The cells covered the whole cave, from top to bottom. There were more hanging above our heads and yet more sinking into the blackness below us, each one lit deep blue, interrupted only by the cave mouth and the ledge. "I don't think so."

"The creeps outside can't have been the only guards here," Harvey said quietly, his hands fisted at his sides. "Where are the rest?"

He was right.

"Shields," Emlyn ordered, and I responded automatically, reaching deep into my blood magic—and falling back with a cry when ten thousand heartbeats roared in my ears, thunderous and rapid. Endless.

Arms caught me before I could plummet off the edge of the platform, but I barely felt them. Heartbeats drummed through my skull, so loud and cruel that I felt blood trickle from my nose.

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