Page 28 of Shadow Fall: Part Two

Emlyn caught me around the waist when I flinched back from the sight of the titan's hideous twenty-feet-tall form. He was made of stolen shadows and malice, power flickering through his whole body as he trampled the lawn of the Capitol building.

"Turn it off," Harvey growled, grabbing the remote.

"Wait," Verena breathed, coming to stand beside me. She gripped my arm with a gasp. "Look at him."

"We're looking, kid," Emlyn replied as Cronus grew even taller, simmering with onyx magic and satisfaction, stomping his way through the Capitol building. It shattered and fell in chunks of ivory stone, and Cronus turned, like he knew exactly where the press was. He looked straight into the camera lens as its operator trembled.

Verena shook her head, her hair falling over her shoulders. She looked even younger than normal with her hair down, and my protectiveness surged. "No, look at him. Look at his body—that's not just shadow. There's something more. Something’s inside him."

My breath caught. I jerked closer to the TV, my heart starting to race. Energy filled me for the first time in days.

"The gods," I said. "They're still alive inside him."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Istared at the screen, my eyes fixed on those flashes of colour through ink darkness. Cronus, who had devoured so many gods and their descendants that it was impossible to count them. Cronus, who had hunted me—and hunted my family long before that. Noise rang in my ears, heartbeats thumping fast around me and mine the fastest as I made connection after connection.

Others who are yours are inside him.

Empty the prisons, and they will be saved, and you all might survive.

Those were Phoebe's words, the prophet titaness both creepy and eager to help—to win. To end Cronus once and for all. She wanted him dead, and seemed hellbent on insisting I was his downfall. She made the prophecy inked on my spine, the one still there even though I'd died, like fate was daring me.

Kill him, if you dare.

Others who are yours are inside him. I couldn't get that out of my head as I stared at the magic raging in Cronus's stomach—the gods rebelling inside him, their children fighting with everything they had to get out. Lucifer was in there. Poseidon, too.

Others who are mine. But my mates were all here, and Verena was safe with us, and Kaida hadn't existed when Phoebe warned us. All our families had died of old age years ago. Except Wane and Harvey's mum was an archdemon, and so was Kai's dad, and Em … his parentage was still murky and hidden, too painful for him to talk about, even to me. Were his parents still alive? Had Cronus devoured them?

I shook my head, avoiding the concerned look Wyn threw my way. No, the titan only devoured descendants of gods and titans. Archdemons were of no use to him; he had no interest in their power. But he was interested in me, and no matter how many alternate explanations I tried to find, I circled back to the same thing.

To the same dream, a memory unlocked by a being who raged, who protected, but was so distant all he could do was hint. Erebus had shown me the truth.

He's going to find me, Lyall, it's only a matter of time before he hunts us down. You have to go, take Haley to Hell; my grandmother will help conceal you. She hates Cronus.

Cronus hunted my mum. She didn't abandon us; she protected us. Protected me.

I remembered the trip to Hell through a hazy child's memory. I'd seen heartbreak and pain in my dad's eyes, and thought it was because Mum abandoned us. But maybe it was because we had to leave her behind.

"Haley?" Harvey murmured, brushing my back with a warm hand and pulling me into his side when I didn't respond. His lips met my cheek, warm and sweet.

Others who are yours are inside him.

"I want to talk to Phoebe," I said, my voice quiet but cutting through the noise I hadn't realised surrounded me, my mates and Verena in the middle of an argument.

"Phoebe?" Harvey asked, squeezing me tighter to his side. "That conniving bitch?"

"That conniving bitch helped us save our mate," Wynvail pointed out, giving me a calculating glance. "What do you want to ask her?"

Power trembled inside me, both blood magic and my other magic. Titan magic. I glanced away and said, "She said there are other people inside him—others who are ours. I think—it's my mum. Erebus was trying to tell me that in the dream he gave me."

"Haley," Em said with a heavy sigh. "Phoebe could have meant anything."

"That's why I need to talk to her again." I gave Wyn a pleading look. "Can you call her back?"

"A titan can't be summoned, honey," he said with apology in his eyes.

"Then, we'll—" I began, my eyes drifting back to the TV, but I jumped, the words trapped in my throat when the front door slammed open.

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