Page 3 of Shadow Fall: Part Two

I might hate her, might resent her, but if I ever saw her again, none of that would matter if she wanted me. If she apologised and said she loved me.

So, I gestured at Em to move aside. One look at Verena's face and I knew she remembered the prophet's words, too.

"You look so much like her," Apollo said, his voice a wreck of emotion.

Wane lowered his shadow, setting the god of sunlight, poetry, and whatever the fuck else down on the ledge. When Wane met my eyes, I saw my own heartbreak reflected back to me.

We'll be fine, I tried to tell him, sending comfort through all my bonds. We've loved and lost before. We'll be fine.

"Like who?" Verena asked, her voice rough as she took three steps towards the god. Towards her father.

"Ruelle. Your mother."

Verena sucked in a sharp breath, and I knew she no longer noticed the endless prison cells, or the people locked away in them. The only thing she saw was her father, her only family.

"You're my dad," she said, crossing the distance between her and Apollo. She didn’t take her eyes off him.

"I am. I'm honoured to call myself your father."

Verena smiled. My stomach lurched. Every step seemed to take her away from us, to force us kicking and screaming back into that unbearable loss. She was family, and we were losing her.

She took the final step towards her father, her head high, and slammed a fist into his face.

Apollo staggered back in surprise, clutching his nose as it spurted blood. It was strange to see a god bleed, but they weren't superior beings anymore. After the war, they were reduced, their power diminished. And Verena broke his nose as easily as she would a mortal’s.

"Where the fuck were you all my life?" she demanded, snarling at Apollo, sunlight trickling down her fists to the floor. "When I got my head kicked in by bullies, when I was starving and desperate, when I ran away because I couldn't stand my foster home anymore. Where the fuck were you?"

Heat built behind my eyes and poured out in tears. I let them fall silently, but a hitch in my breath gave me away and Em was there in an instant, folding his warm hand around mine and squeezing tight.

"I'm sorry," Apollo said gravely, his golden head bowed. He had no comeback to Verena's words. Asshole.

"Keep your 'honoured to be your father' shit to yourself," she laughed bitterly. "It means nothing. If you want to do something halfway decent, tell us how to destroy these cells."

Apollo's throat bobbed. He looked less like a god and more like a man right now, mortal and ordinary and—broken. Because he'd been locked up in this prison for fuck knows how long, exactly like my mate had been.1

The god glanced from Verena to the rest of us and said, "You don't need to destroy them; you need to open the cages."

CHAPTER TWO

WANE

The titan was everywhere, his signature all over this prison. It echoed from every cell, oozed from every inch of glossy black stone that trapped thousands of prisoners. I fought a shudder, battling memories that pelted me like rocks. He wasn't here; I had to keep telling myself that. But his magic was here, evil and merciless, corrupting the shadow he stole from me. The shadow this hideous place had been built from. It might have looked like jet, but it was magic—my magic.

"Why are you crying?" Verena asked, giving Haley a strange look.

"I'm not," Haley replied thickly, her voice scattering some of the panic clutching my chest.

"You clearly are."

The magic poisoning the cave flared, a violent thump that made my heart stop and my magic erupt. It reverberated through my rib cage, and I was so scared that I didn't hear Haley's response, didn't hear what Apollo said next.

I jumped so hard that I veered dangerously close to the platform's edge when Harvey squeezed my shoulder.

Open the prisons, Apollo said.

My magic was frantic, screaming inside my blood. I could do it. These cells had been made with a poisoned version of my shadow—I could do it. But reaching out to brush a tendril over the dark stone made the titan’s presence sharper. I inhaled raggedly and moved away from the edge, but one glance at my mate and I brushed my fingers over the hilt of my dagger and forced myself to be brave.

His magic coated mine like a sheen of venom when I reached for the shadow around us. My stomach roiled. I could feel him, hear his low, rumbling commands, and worse, his rich, sneering laugh. He was everywhere, his magic pressing on me. He was going to kill me again, cut my body apart with his power, make me scream for mercy that he'd ultimately deny me.

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