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Use your power, Halwen. All of it, every kind that lives inside you. You have more than he could ever dream to possess, even devouring most of Olympus. You have true, unbridled power, untainted by misery and pain. That's more powerful than any god he's swallowed.
That makes no sense! That was me, making a very valid point. Fuck it was weird to hear myself speak. Was that really my voice? I didn’t like it. I sounded like a right twat.
Trust yourself, and don't be afraid of your power. It won't hurt you; it will only do as you bid it. You have the strength to do this, I promise you. If you need advice, I believe the most appropriate counsel is a modern term: give 'em hell, Halwen.
And that was it.
The shadow retreated without an encouraging ripple of darkness or a foreboding looming shade. The shadow’s only contribution was a very swift shove, and I stumbled back, nearly falling onto my ass when my bare foot caught on a tree root.
The warmth of pale sunlight reached my skin again and I shuddered.
My head spun. That was it? That couldn’t be it. No fucking way. Erebus hadn’t gone to all this effort just to replay a conversation that boiled down to you got this.
"How is that helpful?" I demanded, out of breath like I'd just finished a workout as I stared at the slant of darkness but—
Ah shit, I understood. Erebus couldn't talk to me, couldn't help me in any way except replaying what he'd told me in the past.
Trust yourself, and don't be afraid of your power.
He was here because I saw darkness in my crimson power, and it scared the shit out of me.
I expelled a sigh, and a wry smile crossed my face. "Alright, consider your message received."
I didn't know how I had a tiny tendril of darkness in me, but I had three mates descended from Erebus himself, so it wasn't hugely surprising. Nothing to worry about. Everything’s normal here, folks.
"Thanks," I added, and hurried back to my mates before they had matching heart attacks. "I'm fine," I promised them. "I just—I saw something new in my magic when I lost control, and Erebus came to remind me not to be afraid of my power. He's like my magic tutor now. He'll probably drop by to help every now and then."
Because he was a bored busybody with nothing to do except involve himself in his family's lives. I smiled wider, at least until I turned back to the trees and found every patch of light and shadow exactly where it was meant to be.
Erebus was gone.
And since he hadn't come to warn us against saving Renna, we'd better get going. We had a prison to break into.
CHAPTER 25
HARVEY
Ijust met my ancestor, and I couldn't process that fact. Sure, he was a shadow between two trees, but—my whole family had come from him. I wanted nothing to do with my birth name, or any of the sick family members attached to it, but it was nice to know we had other family out there. Wane, Wynvail, and I weren't alone. There was someone out there looking out for us, someone who gave a shit.
It would have been even nicer to have backup from one of the most powerful beings to ever exist right now, because the prison where Renna was held was crawling with guards. And after hours in Hell, there was no sign of Asta anywhere, so it was just us. No deadly, volatile demon who’d kill to find her wife. No demon army. Just us.
A knot tightened in my chest.
"How do we get inside?" Kai asked, his red eyes narrowed on the wide cave mouth that led to the prison. The cave where Emlyn told us, far too casually, Zeus had been born and hidden from Cronus. The cave where Rhea had lived, where she raised her son, where she tricked her husband. No wonder Cronus had taken control of this place and tainted it by filling it with people he planned to devour. I still wasn’t sure what he devoured—their magic, their souls, or their meat. I didn’t want to think about it.
"Distraction?" Haley suggested, pressed to my side as we laid flat on our bellies atop a rocky hill covered in annoying little stones. They'd embedded themselves in my hands, my arms, and my shoes. Between that and the fact the prison was in a deep cave whose interior was full of darkness and laden with unknowable threats … I was a tiny bit on edge.
We could walk into anything. We might not walk out.
Wane knocked his shoulder into mine, drawing my attention. "Are you okay?" he asked quietly, while Em and Haley debated how stupid a distraction could be.
I swallowed, looking at my brother, seeing ghosts and anguish in his hard silver eyes. I didn't know how he kept going when I wanted to curl into a ball, scream into a pillow, or unleash my magic on the thirty three creepy men guarding the cave. The guards stood frozen in place, but their eyes scanned the hills, and each grasped a bronze weapon in their hand. Some were swords, others sickles, and one held a whip I didn't want Haley anywhere near. They were all eerily alike; I couldn't look at them for long before glancing away, instincts telling me something was deeply wrong with them.
And my mate was right beside me, so close to danger that my whole body thrummed with the need to grab her and run back to Hell.
"Harvey," Wane breathed.
I jerked my head in a nod, meeting my brother’s eyes. "I'm fine. Just need to beat the shit out of some enemies, and I'll be good."
