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"Yes," I answered fiercely, wrath pouring through my chest, roiling in my stomach like acid. "He doesn't get to torture, manipulate, scar, and kill, and get away with it."
"Shut the fuck up!" Kai screamed down the hallway, louder when we reached the second floor landing.
Wane shook his dark head, giving me a pitying look. "He already has. He's the king of the gods and my mate is dead."
"So was I," I reminded him, stalking down the hallway to the bedroom the guys had gathered in. My heart stuttered at the sight of Halwen on the bed, her arms at her sides and her face turned to the ceiling, eyes closed. All she was missing was the coffin.
Fuck. My hands shook even though I knew what was in my pocket.
"No!" Kai exploded, hurtling himself at me like a bullet when I entered the room. I didn't take my eyes off my mate to defend myself, and I was emptied of power anyway; I had nothing to counter the army of snakes Kai unleashed at me.
"Kai!" Wane snapped, his face hard as he slashed his arm through the air. A dark, still wall of shadows slammed from ceiling to carpet in front of me, blocking Kai's venomous magic.
"I’m sorry, Kai," Wane added, and flicked his fingers. A rope of darkness coiled rapidly around Malakai, too fast for him to escape as it bound his arms to his sides. He hissed and snapped, pure murder on his face, but he couldn't reach me.
"What did you mean?" Wane asked urgently, giving Harvey and Em a meaningful look before he faced me. "You said so was I. What did you mean? You can bring her back the same way you returned?"
"No," I disagreed, keeping an eye on the feral men in the room as I crept closer to the bed, a stake stabbing me right in the heart at the sight of Halwen's still body. "For some reason, the queen of Hell decided I needed to be saved."
"That's where she went," Emlyn said hoarsely. He looked like shit, like a ghost. I probably did, too. "That day Haley ran away to Hell. The queen disappeared for something."
"If she brought you back, she could bring Haley back too," Harvey breathed, scrubbing his bronze face, hope bleeding into his eyes.
"She didn't," I said, swallowing hard as I perched on the bed beside my dead mate. It fucking killed me to see her like this. "Hades and Persephone are her in-laws, or at least something like that. They found my soul and did some weird mumbo jumbo death shit to give me a new body."
"So we find them," Wane decreed in that same hard voice. "We beg them to bring her back."
My hand refused to stay steady as I reached into my pocket and pulled out the tiny velvet box. What if it didn't work? What if the prophecy was wrong?
"Malakai, you incessantly demanded I tell you why I wanted a resurrection pearl," I breathed, my voice raw.
Kai sucked in a sharp breath, his eyes wide, all the violence draining from his expression until only the truth showed: devastation, grief, and brittle, aching desperation.
"It was part of why I obeyed Cronus no matter what," I told him, told all of them. I swallowed the lump in my throat and explained, "I'd pretty much had enough of my existence years ago. I pissed him off a few times just to see if he'd kill me, but I had a job to do, and he never let me forget it.
"Anyway," I added, clearing my throat. They didn't need my whole life story. "I obeyed him without question because thirty or so years ago he had me check up on Phoebe, one of his prized pets. And by check up on I mean threaten and terrify so she wouldn't dare to disobey him."
I waited for their disgust, but all I saw was desperation and confusion. "She's a titan, too, and the one who wrote the prophecy on Halwen's back. She told me some of what I already knew: Cronus had created me in part to be the mate of a woman called Halwen Vakhara and in part because I was to manipulate her into freeing him from his prison. She also told me this complete stranger whose soul I'd been bound to would be the person my entire world revolved around. I laughed in her face. Well, the joke's on me," I added with a sad little laugh, reaching out to brush dirty pink hair out of Halwen's face. My stomach shrivelled at the cold temperature of her skin.
"She told me my mate would die," I said, finally getting to the relevant part. Harvey was utterly still beside me, not even his wings shifting. The others stared, waiting, silently pleading with their eyes. "And with her, all hope of there ever being a free world. Without her, we would be ruled by Cronus, but unlike the golden age of his first rule, this one would be tyrannical, and everyone would suffer. Surprising absolutely no one," I added dryly.
"She knew Haley would die," Emlyn said, his voice gravelly as he knelt on the other side of the bed, taking her cold hand in his. "What else?"
"She didn't tell me how she'd die or why, or even when, but she said I'd need a resurrection pearl if I stood any chance of bringing her back. I honestly could not have given two fucks at the time. I scared her like I was supposed to and went on with my life. You three were in Alphaven at that point, and you'd forgotten Halwen, which meant you weren't a threat to Cronus. He didn't even bother checking on you.
"I only remembered Phoebe's warning when I met Halwen, and she consumed every single thought I had. I told Cronus I'd stop 'acting out' as he called it, but only if he gave me a pearl."
Eyes burned the side of my face; I shot Kai a wary look, checking he was still tied by shadows. He had yet to speak but there was no shadow gagging him.
"Did he give it to you?" Wane rasped. "The resurrection pearl?"
"Cronus?" I scoffed. "No. The bastard led me on and promised he'd give it to me when I delivered you all to the Damned House and fulfilled my task. I managed to convince him I wanted it to bring back my—your mother. I'd never met her, so it was easy to put on an act about wanting the mother I'd never had. He'd never have agreed to the bargain if he thought I'd use it on Halwen. He bought the lie, but mostly so he could keep me in line when I started prioritising Halwen over his commands. He never planned to give it to me."
I turned the velvet box over in my hand, stroking a knuckle down my cold mate's face. All their eyes zeroed on the box. "So I asked Hades and Persephone for one," I said casually, my swollen throat and tight voice somewhat undermining the flippant statement. "I told them Cronus would win unless they gave me one, and they didn't even hesitate. They want Cronus dead as badly as we do. They didn't even ask who it was for."
I snapped the box open, swallowing hard at the supernatural gleam on the lilac-silver pearl inside. Bodies pressed close behind me—my brothers, I thought. But were they really my brothers when I was made, not born, a creature ripped into existence from their sun and shadow? I wasn't their blood, wasn't even born, not the first time and not this second time either.
"It might not work," I forced past my swollen throat. "There's no guarantee."
