Page 42 of Shadow Fall: Part Two

"No!" I snarled, plummeting into the burning part of me that had brought a city to its knees. My fur stood on end as pure gold sunlight shuddered across my fur, but I held the power tight, waiting, praying for an opening. One millimetre off target and I could hit Haley instead of Cronus.

Kai howled in rage and tried again, and again—and again. I couldn't breathe as he inched closer, almost within reaching distance of our mate. Safe, she was almost safe. Magic razed its way through my body to my paws, desperate to scorch the ground, to reduce the entire realm to ashes. Cronus flicked a finger on his free hand and—

Kai froze between one step and the next, his teeth bared, veins straining in his neck. Oh, god. I shot forward, pressing against his side, my whole body bristling. Kai’s nostrils flared but that was his only movement. Hatred shone through eyes that promised Cronus’s murder, even trapped in time.

Across the fields of the Damned Realm, sudden roars and screams cut the silence. Demon voices. Gods’ power crackled through the air, making my eyes burn with relief. We weren’t alone. We might just survive this and get our mate out of that monster’s hands. And yet … Cronus still held Haley. A threat. A warning.

When a smirk curved my mate’s mouth, my heart skipped. My knees went fucking weak when I saw what she held. What Kai had leapt across the distance to give her—her dagger. He wasn't trying to save her; he was handing her a weapon to save herself.

I froze, hope and fear clashing in my blood until I was too afraid to move and ruin this one precious chance. I barely breathed when Haley flipped her grip on the hilt and drove the deadly blade through the gap between her body and her arm.

Please, I begged the gods, the good titans, anyone who was feeling especially merciful.

Cronus screamed. Please. Haley spun out of the titan's grip when his strength faltered, however temporarily. Please. I shook my head, sure I was hallucinating when her whole body flashed with crimson light.

No, it was real. A million different symbols glowed on her body—not just her curse marks, but the prophecy on her back and every other sigil that decorated her body in black, impossible ink that hadn’t been there an hour ago.

I was used to seeing her dagger glow red at this point, but my eyes widened when the blade shone every colour of the damn rainbow. She grinned wider, twisting the blade where it plunged into Cronus's ribs, carving a wider hole before she tore it free.

But Cronus was smiling, too.

And when another man stepped smoothly between us, between my mate and my family, trapping her with Cronus, the blood drenched from my face.

Please. Oh, god, please.

I knew that gait, knew that body. The man lifted his head to pass an intense, piercing stare over my family. Please. I can’t do this. Please.

I knew those gunmetal eyes, knew the cruel mouth that parted and said, "If you want that girl, you'll have to go through me."

"Who the fuck are you?" Kai snarled, already calling up a deadly force of fangs and venom, the air quaking with the force of his wrath. And yet he held back, like we all held back. Terrified Cronus would kill our mate if we made a single move.

Wane had gone still beside me. The fact that my brother didn't reach for me, didn't hold onto me or even look my way, twisted a dagger in my heart like our mate had twisted hers in Cronus's ribs.

"He's Gauvan Locke," I forced out, each word like a thorn, the barbs cutting up my throat until I tasted blood.

Emlyn didn't glance at me for further explanation; his body bristled as he stepped in front of me and Wane and snapped out his wings. Blood dripped from the metal tips of his grey feathers. "Don't you dare fucking look at them."

Gauvan laughed.

Our uncle laughed.

Please.

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

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

VERENA

More than one pair of eyes flicked my way as I turned the bronze sphere over and over in my hands. I hadn't budged from my spot leaning against the pale wall in the palace sitting room for three hours, even when the volume of everyone talking grated my nerves, or when people tried to start conversations—or worse, reassure me that everything would be alright.

No, everything would not be alright. The only people in the world who gave a shit about me had gone to war. And I let them.

My stomach twisted into a knot. Bile scorched up my throat. Inside, my magic shifted, restless.

Don't be a fucking idiot, Verena. Don't do anything stupid.

But I turned the sphere over in my hands again, remembering what Wynvail had said about it. Wynvail, who took me in, along with the rest of that weird family, and accepted me like I'd always been one of them. Wynvail, who was a total dick and had hurt them but still showed up to save them, again and again, and ultimately sacrificed himself to save Wane. Wynvail, who had become a shell of himself when Haley died.

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