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All the blood drained from my face, and it was a miracle to even have blood, to have a face but—
"Great," I drawled. "You brought me back to die."
CHAPTER 2
Now
"Inside," I urged Harvey, Wane, Emlyn, and Kai, scanning the street on which our safe house sat in Edinburgh. "Quickly."
The second the door shut, I exhaled a rough breath, relieved to find my shields still intact even though I'd died. Most of them were built from relics I'd gathered over the years like the bone comb I stole from Halwen.
Halwen … she was so still and pale, her body cold in Emlyn's arms. Her eyelids were closed now, but I couldn't purge the sight of her empty, staring eyes from my memory. My hands trembled when I pressed them flat to the door, pulling up a bright beam of power—and hissing when my magic sputtered, slashing pain through my chest.
Fuck. Fuck. A few jumps to a portal, and I was already drained. Persephone warned me it would take weeks to recover most of my strength and months before I was back at full power, but this was pathetic.
"Wane," I called, jogging up the stairs and biting back my pride. It tasted bitter. Poisonous. "Can you shield the house?"
A furrow formed between his dark brows when he turned to me, no suspicion in his eyes when he looked at me unlike at the Damned House. "I thought this house was warded."
"It is," I replied begrudgingly, trying not to stare at the blood dripping from his back onto the carpet at the top of the first flight of stairs. He was always bleeding; it never stopped. "But I want it armed to the teeth and it turns out being unmade plays havoc with a man's magic."
Wane just nodded, and shadows darker than any I'd ever seen gathered around him. Was I delirious, or was his magic blacker than even Cronus's?
I frowned even as relief loosened a knot in my chest when his magic spread out to cover the whole house. I couldn't help but remember the giant, void-dark form Cronus took in Olympus. I'd seen him enormous twice before but never made of pure black magic. Was that darkness of Cronus's making? Or was it stolen?
I knew how he worked, knew his obsessions. I'd heard of him trying to break his favourite pet for decades, trying to steal his magic. Did he succeed?
"Wane," I said haltingly, quietly, as the others rushed up to the second floor, eyes on Haley in Emlyn's arms.
Wane paused, shoulders hunching around his neck. "The house is covered."
"I know," I said, jogging up to stand on the step below him. "Thank you. I—shit, I want to ask something that's probably traumatising, but tell me to fuck off and I will."
He stiffened, rising to his full height. He stared me down, stony and defiant. "Ask it."
"When Cronus—had you locked up." Tortured you, I'd almost said. "Did he take any of your magic?"
Shadows bound around Wane's shoulders, wrapping around his arms, his stomach, a protective veil. But he stared me straight in the eyes and said, "He tried for years, and I managed to hold out. Do not repeat this."
He waited for me to nod until he continued.
"When I felt Haley for the first time in a century, it gave me mental strength but—"
"It fucked with you physically," I guessed, my stomach sinking. She could never find out.
Anger slammed his brows down over his churning eyes. "He took advantage of me when my strength wavered—him and Andryas fucking Revairs."
"That snivelling little rat," I hissed, my face twisting into a sneer. "I almost killed him once. He's only alive because Cronus intervened."
Wane's anger cut through with satisfaction. He smirked. "I did, too."
"Shame the fucker's still alive," I said genuinely. "So, he managed to get some of your shadows. And now Cronus has them." The muscle flickering Wane's jaw was confirmation. "Can you sense them? Even when he has them? Did you sense them on Olympus?"
Wane shook his head, his stare snapping up when something shattered upstairs. Kai's snarl followed, Emlyn's growl matching it. How long had it been since Haley died? Twenty minutes? Thirty?
I grabbed Wane's shadow-wrapped shoulder and squeezed, braced for him to slam a fist into my stomach and surprised when he didn't. "Cronus will suffer for everything he's done."
Wane laughed bitterly, turning away from me and taking the stairs two at a time. "Does it even matter when Haley's gone?"
