Page 30 of Shadow Fall: Part Two

But Wane snagged me with a thick tendril of shadow and pulled me away from her. "No," he growled, deep and ominous.

"Cronus needs to die," I said, not looking away from Lili's blood-soaked face. "He crossed a line," I told her, "and I don't particularly feel like explaining what he did but I've had enough."

"You already died trying to kill him!" Harvey shouted, reaching me and thrumming with so much panic that he shook.

"Because," I said, voicing something I'd suspected all week, "we weren't ready. The time wasn't right, and it—" I couldn't look at Wane, didn't dare. "I understand that line in the prophecy now. When archdemon's final seeds are sowed—king's final stand, titan's last breath. I can kill him, I'm the hellborn angel in the prophecy, but I couldn't kill him until the final seeds were sown. Until now. Don't." I choked out, pleading with Wane. "Don't."

But he ignored me, reaching up to brush his fingertips along my cheek.

"It won't change anything," I said, choked. The backs of my eyes burned. "We don't get to keep anything, we only ever lose, so—so why should this hold us back? We can kill Cronus now, really kill him. Erebus told me I could, that I have all this magic inside me, and I can use it to murder him."

"Isn't it…" Verena said haltingly, quietly, "too much to lose?"

"The outcome will be the same either way," I replied, hollowness returning. We lost Kaida, we lost six babies before her, and we'd lose this one too."

"What if it won't?" Wane demanded in a rush, his silver eyes round and frantic. His hands dropped to my shoulders, holding tight. "What if it won't be the same outcome? All those other times were different, I don't know what changed but when you were reborn the first time, when Cronus brought you back without us, your body changed."

I held up a hand to stop him.

"What's he talking about, Hales?" Emlyn asked, wary, afraid.

"Remember the cell in Olympus," Wane pleaded, throwing his stare to Emlyn, too. "Haley was burning up, wracked with cramps so painful that there was only one explanation, and it only stopped when Em and I—"

He cut off, eyeing Lili warily. She'd frozen, listening but not interrupting. Her expression was neutral but with blood splattered all over her, she still looked deadly.

"You know why the pain stopped," Wane said, squeezing my shoulders. "This time is different, Haley."

Because that was a mating cycle, because that could have been why none of our pregnancies had been successful before. Could. That word was too big to take for granted.

All we ever did was lose. Maybe Cronus's cruelty had been a gift in showing us what we could have had. At least we'd experienced it once.

"What's going on?" Harvey asked, stepping closer but slowly, hesitant, like he could feel how big this was, how much potential it had to destroy us. "Haley?"

"Nothing," I choked out, meeting Lili's eyes. "It's just so soon after we lost Kaida, that's what Wane means."

Disapproval shone in Wane's eyes, but he clenched his jaw and forced out, "Right."

"And Lucifer isn't the only one inside Cronus. If the gods all survived, everyone else must have, too."

I was forcing optimism, pasting positivity across my face to hide the panic inside. I couldn't afford to love the baby growing in me, because it would shatter me all over again when I lost them. And it would be worse—so much worse—if I let Wane's words fill me with hope. Yes, this time was different. We conceived with a mating cycle. My body was different, my magic was heightened, and so much had changed.

But we didn't get to keep beautiful things like this. That was the truth I could trust.

"Who else?" Lili asked, her hoarse voice deeper. "Who else is inside?"

"My mum," I said, and had to forcibly swallow the knot in my throat. "My mum is trapped inside him."

And I might not have trusted my body not to betray me, but I trusted Erebus. My mum was in there, and I would get her out.

It was the least I owed her after she gave up everything to protect me.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

WYNVAIL

Iexpected a fight from Verena when we took her to the palace in Iarlon where the whole building was surrounded by guards and protected by a hundred different kinds of magic. I waited for her eyes to fill with defiance, for outrage in the form of shouting. I didn't expect her to nod with easy acceptance.

"I wasn't any help in the prison," she said, her eyes downcast on the pale floor as riotous conversation came from the room beside us, where the vulnerable people of Hell crowded, safe from the oncoming shitshow. "I'll just get you guys hurt."

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