Page 26 of Eternal Night

"Sorry, Sugarplum," he murmured, the only warning he gave before fire lanced through my head, my face, my ribs, and every part of my damaged wings.

"Fuck!" I shouted, his healing magic burning me to ash and rebuilding body parts from the ruins.

We both jumped apart at the low, grating roar of walls parting. I exchanged a glance with Harvey and Em. Looked like we had a way onwards. But was Cronus leading us to Kai, or further away from him?

Wynvail didn't hang around; he stalked through the gap in the giant wall without a word. I wanted to leave him to his grisly death or whatever awaited him on the other side, but my damn instincts wouldn't let me.

So I groaned and followed the bastard.

13

Wane

Shadows itched over my skin, an early warning I'd developed over the last hundred years.Pain,it hissed.They're coming. Hide.

I pressed tighter into the corner of the dark room, my knees to my chest. I couldn't stop my hands shaking, even after so many years that pain and suffering was everyday. It was a constant, throbbing from every cut I made on my own skin, each one snarling her name.Halwen, Halwen…

"Halwen," I whispered when footsteps came close enough to echo around the endless corridor outside. I knew it was Andryas Revairs from his furious gait, and I pulled my knees tighter to my chest, my ribs protesting the pressure. He broke them yesterday, and left me here to cry and scream. I'd refused to give him the satisfaction of screaming for longer than five minutes, clenching my teeth to keep the noise in my chest instead.

I didn't want to scream today, either, but they would force it out of me. Andryas andhim—the titan. My heart beat faster at the thought of him. I prayed to every god listening that Andryas stepped into the room and closed the door instead of barking for me to leave.

If I stayed, it was guaranteed pain, far beyond what I could handle. But if I left? It would kill me. Again.

I didn't want to die again. I wanted it to finally end, but the titan never let me stay dead. I was an archdemon; it took a lot to kill me. And the titan knew exactly how to walk that line between dead and true, irrevocable death. He knew how to break me, over and over.

My heart quickened, hands shaking as I gripped my knees. The door creaked open and Andryas hovered on the threshold, a sneer on his brown face and a trickle of blood coming from a cut on his bald head.

Andryas bleeding meant the titan was in a vicious mood. My heart stopped for a second; I couldn't breathe.

"Get the fuck up. Follow me, and don't fuck around. You’ll regret it."

I didn't bother speaking. My voice was a blown-out husk anyway. Sometimes it hurt just to speak my mate's name.

Halwen,I reminded myself, pressing on a fresh mark on my arm and sucking in a sharp breath. She was with me. Even if she wasn't beside me, even if I couldn't remember the sound of her voice or the exact shade of her grey eyes, she was here.

So I got up, and followed Andryas, and neither of us mentioned the fact he was bleeding, too.

* * *

The tunnels led three ways;one would take us to the Damned House where Cronus's enforcers lived, one led all the way across the realm and fed out near the fields on the outer ring, and one took us on a long, winding route to the seat of Cronus's power.

Every ache in my body throbbed fiercer, slashing deeper, when Andryas took the third route. I wanted to run, but I'd only ever made it four steps—and that was when I'd had rage and strength in the beginning. I'd be lucky to make a single step now I was so weak.

"Faster," Andryas snapped, ahead of me in the darkness.

I quickened my pace as much as I could, but my ankle had been broken days ago and it slowed me down. So did the lethargy that never left my bones. I wanted to curl up on the floor, go to sleep, and never wake up.

Halwen,my inner voice breathed.

I kept walking.

The tunnels were completely black this far into the realm, and it was impossible to know how far we'd walked, and how close the exit was. There could have been nightmares and beasts snapping their teeth around us. It wouldn't be the first time something had gnashed my hand off. I'd had to begin all over again marking my skin with Halwen's name.

"If he kills you for being so slow, that's on you," Andryas muttered, but the fact he was talking at all gave away his nerves.

"You broke my ankle," I rasped, "and expect me to walk miles. That's onyou."

Silence was his only response, and panic closed around my chest, crushing out my air.

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