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The armoury smelled of herbs and magic, the air biting my skin. The light of Wynvail's silver-white magic made the shelves of bottles, strange objects, and magic shit even more unearthly than before. I gave the tables a wide berth as I followed him inside, not wanting another annoying sapphire guy to spring to life.
I reached deep inside me for the place where my curse magic—or titan magic, if I believed Cronus, which I’d rather not—lived, grasping it in a tight enough grip that my forearm glowed crimson, a built-in torch that I swept over the shelves I passed.
"Listen to this," Emlyn murmured, jogging down the corridor and into the room, and I jumped when a crackly, distorted voice came from the vague outline of a radio in his hands, the aerial pointing straight up like a rapier. Em twisted the dial until the radio was loud enough for us all to hear, and I edged closer to Verena just in case she needed a hug. Fuck, I needed a hug.
“—can now hear from Rone Evans, our New York correspondent. Rone, can you describe what happened when the curtain of darkness fell?"
"It all happened in the space of a few minutes, Sarah. We're still putting the pieces together, but the curtain, as it's being called on social media, blocked out all light sources in various cities across the world. New York was one of the worst hit, and there have been numerous casualties, the majority of which were caused by road collisions where drivers were unable to see the cars around them, or pedestrians unaware they'd walked into the road."
"Shit," Harvey breathed, scrubbing his hand over his jaw. "This is fucked up. So it's everywhere."
"Before they spoke to this woman," Em murmured, "they were talking about London, Paris, Seoul, and Rio."
"Fuck," I breathed, wanting to stay strong and confident for Verena but just … unable to.
Wynvail struck a match to light one of the candles beside a row of strange, brass globes, but the second the match was lit, darkness swallowed it. I couldn't tell whether the candle was lit. It was like a ghost in Wyn's moonlight. It cast no light.
He blew out the match and threw it aside, his jaw clenched.
Rone Evans continued to talk about the people who'd been caught in accidents because of the curtain, and how stocks were crashing because stockbrokers couldn't see their computers to track the numbers, and even how opportunists had begun to loot shops. Every word she spoke twisted my stomach—and this was happening all across the world.
"Maybe this is a good thing," Wane said quietly. "Maybe we won't have to fight him; all the countries he’s hit can send their armies."
"Maybe," Harvey agreed gently.
It seemed unrealistic.
"Well, keep us updated on—" Sarah, the radio presenter began, but a woman's sharp, piercing scream cut her off. "Rone? Can you tell us what's happening? Are you safe? Rone?"
It wasn't Rone who answered; it was a man, and a local judging by his accent. Panic coloured his voice, quickening his words until my hands started to shake.
"The whole road just turned to dust," he screamed. "All the buildings are gone. Some of the people are gone, too. It's the end of the fucking world! I said we shouldn't have made all those memes about the aliens; we pissed 'em off, man."
"I'm sorry," Sarah said to her listeners. "We'll go back to events in New York when we can recover our connection with Rone. It seems her mic was stolen—"
"It's the fucking aliens. The next street just collapsed. Oh fuck, I'm dead. The whole borough's falling. Run for your lives!"
The audio cut off before he could continue, but the damage had been done.
I swallowed, wrapping my arms around my middle, and jumped when a warm hand brushed up and down my back. I leaned into Em with a shaky breath, resting my head on his chest. His heart beat fast but strong—but for how long? How long until Cronus found us, and snuffed us out? He'd just destroyed a whole fucking borough in New York.
"We're—hearing reports of similar events in Moscow," Sarah said, having a hard time keeping her voice calm. Had Rone Evans just been murdered live on radio? Had Cronus turned her to dust like he did to Wyn?
If he wanted us dead, how would we stop him? We had no real shields, no plan, no weapon that could harm him. I only had one of my god-killers, and it hadn't done much good when I had both anyway.
"Oh fuck," Verena choked out, backing up until she bumped into a table. Wyn launched forward and caught her, moving her swiftly out of the way and steadying the jars and potions before they could smash. "That Asta woman was right. He's going to find us, he'll kill us—"
I might have just had those exact same thoughts, but they were sobering coming from a thirteen-year-old.
"He won't," I said gently, my heart pulling tight when Wynvail held Verena’s shoulders, looking like he wanted to hug her but wasn't sure how. "I promise you," I swore, having no right to make such promises. "I—I might have an idea how to beat him. I just don't know how the hell to do it. And Wyn has this room—it's full of deadly shit that'll give us an edge."
"What's your idea?" Kai asked, riding a sharp edge of intensity. I held my hand out to him, and he rushed across the narrow room to clasp it. I sent as much calm through the bond as I could when the radio was still listing the damage Cronus had wrought on the world.
"I told you what happened when I died," I murmured, glancing at my family and wishing I could see them properly, not just cast in silver and red by magic. "My soul was protected by shadows—the original darkness. The guy who literally invented darkness. Erebus. I get the sense he used to be a super powerful god thousands of years ago. He told me about Cronus, and what his plan is and—why he wanted your shadows so badly, Wane."
Wane straightened, his expression impossible to read in this light and his soul forced calm. Shielded. I hated that his shields were back up.
"Cronus wants your magic because your darkness is inherited from Erebus, and it's true power, in its rawest form. I think that's how you were able to weaken Iapetus," I said, and shut out the memories of that vile bastard. "Your power's different to ours—it's not demon or god or titan or any of that. It's magic from the very start of the universe, and Erebus said it can be used to unmake the world. And remake a very different one."
