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Kai froze too, crimson eyes darting between all of us as he stalked to my left and loomed there like a deadly shadow.
"I am Typhon," the monster replied, his eyes straying to Wane as one of his dragon heads stroked his dark chest. Silvery marks spiderwebbed around the place a human's heart might be. "I came to warn my friend. The titan is free now. Everything he has planned for hundreds of years will come to pass."
"Which means what?" Kai demanded in a hiss, his hand sliding across my back to hook me closer. Wane's fingers slid off my wrist; I grabbed his hand instead and squeezed tightly.
"Every offspring of the gods will be devoured," Typhon replied in a suitably sombre voice, his dragons hissing sparks of flame in clear disapproval. "He'll consume their power and force the gods themselves to bow to his superior power. The age of the titans was millennia ago, but some still call it the golden age. The titan will bring back that age."
"He's going to kill the gods, isn't he?" Wane whispered, rearranging the bones in my hand with his death grip. "No one will be able to stop him, he'll lock us up again, tortureallof us—"
Wane's terror snapped me out of my own misery, and I turned to him, blocking off his view of anything but me.
"Zivai, look at me. I promised you no one would hurt you again, and I meant it. He won't get to you again."
Wane sucked in a shuddery breath, his throat bobbing and eyes restless, frantic. Shadows thickened around his shoulders, a protective shroud.
"I will fight, if it comes to that," Typhon said, a hundred voices overlapping and making the statement eerie instead of reassuring. Hairs rose all down my arms.
"We all will," Emlyn agreed, wrangling his composure back together and stepping closer to us. We'd unconsciously huddled around Wane, their wings and fur brushing my arms.
"It's the child of Ares we should worry for," Typhon added, hovering strangely near the wall he'd melted through like a wallflower at a party.1
"Who?" Kai demanded, shooting the guy a hostile look.
"Your mate."
I jerked back.Child of Ares."Um."
"I've put my foot in it," Typhon said, startling a burst of laughter from my chest when his dragons wrapped around his buff middle. Protective, defensive. "You didn't know."2
"Child of Ares," Emlyn murmured, stroking my arm as clever thoughts raced behind his eyes. "So that's who your grandfather is. Adhiti—Rhea—ishisgrandmother. If your mother is the daughter of Ares, that would make you his grandchild—and Rhea's great-great-grandchild."
Oh god, it added up. It was insane.
"My grandfather isAres?"I demanded shrilly, gripping Wane's hand so hard I left marks."The god of war?That Ares?"
"That one," Typhon agreed, clearly not understanding rhetorical questions.
"Oh god," I whispered, wrinkling my nose. "That means Zeus is my great-grandad. Gross."
Wane laughed, the sound startled from his chest, and I felt the terror lift from his soul. His hands still shook, and I knew memories stalked him, barely a step behind him, but he lifted his head and searched for Typhon over Emlyn's wings.
"Thank you for the warning. But what can we do to stay safe? The titan will catch us."
Typhon edged forward a step, a few dragon heads trembling. Shit, no wonder he wasn't acting fearsome and monstrous—he'd been locked up too, and forfarlonger than Wane. Cronus had broken him.
"Run," Typhon said fiercely, holding Wane's stare. "Hide forever. Never come back."
Run. Hide. Why was it all so damned familiar?
We'd spent ten years running and hiding, and that had ended with all of us shot dead by a man who was equally despicable. I couldn't do it again. I refused to let my family revert to that jumpy, terrified state, always looking over our shoulders, scanning roads twice before we dared to walk down them, searching new faces at markets because any of one them could be an assassin sent after us.
No.
Not again.Never again.
I ground my teeth, my wings ruffling. Emlyn shot me a curious look, but it was Kai who gave me a nod of understanding. I summoned a grateful smile. But we couldn't go solo like last time; we had to talk about it with the others, convince them somehow.
"So he just gets away with everything?" I breathed, and the room went so quiet my whisper was as loud as a shout.
