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"You remind me of my mate, and you were there in Aphrodite's cells with us. You're one of us now. We're all—we have nothing except each other, but we're family. Hales, she—she wanted to bring you home with us the second she heard you have no family. She grew up in care, too, and she—"
Fuck. My voice collapsed, choking off in my throat.
Keep it together, Emlyn. You can't break now; you can't break ever. There are too many people relying on you—
"What happened?" Verena asked, her tone completely changed and her green eyes wide as she stepped closer. "When you went back to Olympus. What happened?"
I dragged my teeth over my bottom lip, fighting back every ounce of emotion. I needed to be cold, to be in control, not the bloodied carrion of grief.
"Cronus won," I answered finally, my voice choked and deep.
We both flinched when another explosion rocked the palace, unsettlingly close. The rebels were going to bring the whole thing down. Was that what they wanted? Wipe out all traces of Lucifer and build a new palace on its grave?
The man hadn't been dead a day. Vultures, the whole fucking lot of them.
"We need to leave," I said, clearing my throat.
Verena's freckled face was pale, her features drawn. "They're going to get in, aren't they?"
"Yes."
She came closer to me, her thumb brushing the handle of a kindjal, over and over. "Is Cronus taking over Hell, too?"
"No. This is demons, circling the bloodied body of a wounded animal."
"That's graphic," she muttered, her posture stiffening further. "Why are they doing this?"
"Cronus devoured Lucifer. Hell is without a ruler." I reached out and took the heavy sword from her, holding it in one hand, my mace in the other. "They’ll try to kill the queen and steal the title for themselves. Demons are ruthless animals, and Hell was at war only months ago. The realm's too unstable for something as big as this."
"Shit," Verena whispered, her eyes wide like a doll's. "How do we get out?"
I didn't know. That was the issue.
"Just follow me," I said after a too-long pause. "And stay close. If you get hurt, Hales will—"
Kill me. Except she wouldn't, because she was dead.
"I'll stay close," Verena promised, her voice careful and soft, like she was speaking to a spooked horse. Like she—like she knew. Or had guessed the truth at least.
I turned back to the door, gripping the weapons so hard my knuckles popped and—I staggered back from the door when a stampede of spirits hissed past, so thick that I couldn't see through them. Fuck, how many of them were there? A hundred? Five hundred?
I remembered the spirits Lucifer called on to fight Cronus and a knot unravelled in my chest. Backup—and a distraction for the rioters. Thank fuck. We could use this to—
Screaming began, so loud and guttural that I flinched back into the armoury and hastily shut the door. Wood wouldn't keep out an incorporeal spirit, but I felt better with it closed regardless.
"Emlyn?" Verena breathed.
"Shh," I whispered, not wanting to attract the army of spirits in the hall.
Guttural screams tore through the palace in a rippling wave; the spectres were undeniably attacking the palace's occupants. Torturing them by the sounds of it. They weren't even remotely on our side.
And how the fuck were we supposed to fight spirits? In all the books I'd read, there were only stories of vengeful spirits getting their revenge, never anyone surviving their wrath.
"Emlyn," Verena repeated in a squeak.
I spun—and my heart skipped.
Rage slowed everything, my numb soul freezing completely. A male spirit with short hair, square glasses, and psychopath eyes had his arm around Verena's throat. His lips were against her ear, and I couldn’t hear what he told her, but all the colour bleached from her face.
