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"We're not going to die, Halwen Vakhara," Emlyn said fiercely.
But he was just lying to himself.
* * *
The world was ending,life was bleak and not worth living, and I no longer wanted to exist—until, suddenly, I did.
"What the fuck?" I gasped, shaking my head as a dark cloud lifted from my mind, chest, and soul. This was … weird. A second ago, I was fully prepared to be consumed by the dark abyss that was death, and now I was rolling my eyes atthe dark abyss that was death.1
"Hales?" Emlyn asked in a rush, surging closer to me, his big hands on my shoulders. "Are you okay? What can I do? What do you need?"
"I'm fine," I replied, turning my head to brush a kiss to his clenched jaw before I hooked my arm around the empty darkness in the corner of the room, pulling Wane's body into mine. "It hurts like a bitch, but I'm alive. We're all alive."
A huge breath punched from Emlyn's chest, and he rubbed his face. "You sound like you again."
"Yeah, let's not touch the bars okay? They fuck with your head."
Not to mention my hands throbbed so viciously it was like being burned all over again with every second that passed.
"You should be lucky that's the only thing they're fucking with," a new voice remarked with twisted amusement.
I jerked to my feet, Emlyn right with me, and we subtly positioned ourselves in front of Wane as we faced the brunette stranger watching us through the bars. He was taller even than Emlyn, but slim where Em was broad, his hair short and slicked to his skull, and there was an ugliness to the slash of his mouth and the light in his green eyes.
A warning rang through my instincts, telling me I was unsafe and this man was dangerous. His smile as his bright eyes travelled down my body told me exactly what kind of danger he posed.
"Look at her like that again, and I'll rip your throat out," Em promised, lethally soft. When Em stopped growling, you knew you were fucked.
"Quiet, mincemeat," the stranger replied, his voice whip-sharp. A sense of foreboding unfurled in my stomach; I reached for Wane through the bond, relieved when he sucked in a sharp breath and reached back. "You're coming with me," the man told me, and my skin crawled when he met my eyes.
I drew both my daggers, the ring of volcanic steel settling my heartbeat a fraction, as if Kai was right here with me.Cut him to shreds, my rose. We'll barbecue the slabs of his flesh and feed them to Harvey's beast.
"Like fuck I'm going anywhere with you," I spat, tightening my grip on the pink hilts of my knives, plunging into the pool of my magic. I speared power through the clamour of heartbeats thumping around us—so many, oh god, why were there so many?—and shot it like an arrow at the leering man's heart.
I didn't slam into an ironclad shield so much as slip right off him like water off a duck's back. A tremor went through my hands, my stomach sloshing with fear. I couldn't touch him with my magic. And something about the brief feel I'd got of his heartbeat—too fast, too frantic, andexcited—made me think he wasn't mortal.
Was he a god? I almost didn't want to think it but … a titan?
I swallowed, stepping forward and pushing Em back with the hilt of my blades. "You're Cronus," I said, my pulse drumming in my ears, louder than everyone else's heartbeats.
The man laughed, his tan face crinkling like I'd told a joke. "Do you really think it would be that easy? That my brother would parade himself here for you to kill?" The smile fell, his face serious in an instant. He leaned closer, unnaturally long fingers wrapping around the bars of our cell. My breath hitched; the magic in the metal didn't affect him at all. "He’s more clever than your tiny, useless mind can possibly imagine."
"So who are you?" Emlyn demanded, a dangerous light in his eyes when he matched my step forward. "Cronus's servant?"
"Cronus's servant," the man laughed, first quietly and then growing in volume until the cell was full of the sound, and it pressed on my chest until all the air was crushed out of my lungs. "I am his equal in every way, his brother in blood and strength, his—"
"No, Emlyn's right," Wane said suddenly, his voice raspy and hard. "You're his servant. I know who you are. You're Iapetus, the brother the titan sends to do his dirty work."
Wane got to his feet and wrapped his fingers around my wrist, needing the contact, but his voice didn't waver and silver eyes glared murderously at the man on the other side of the bars. "You're the one he risks when he won't risk himself, the one he sends after his enemies like a rabid dog."
"I amthe Piercer,"Iapetus roared, the bars crunching as he squeezed his hands into fists, glaring at Wane so furiously I had no doubt he would break the bars and try to kill him. Power rushed through me at the thought, crimson and incensed. "I am the titan of mortality and violent death. I ruled the world before you were even a speck of stardust,pet."
Wane flinched, his darkness trembling around him.
"The Piercer?" I sneered, waiting until blood-red magic washed down my arm and across my stomach before I took another step. My heart slammed against my ribs, but I needed the show of strength. The only way to stand up to assholes like this was to show no fear. They were intimidated by strength, by victims who fought back. "The Piece o' Shit more like."
Emlyn laughed abruptly, like I'd caught him off guard. Affection swelled in our bond, like a brush of sunshine, and I drew straighter, using it as strength—the true kind, not the kind I'd been faking all day.
"You'll pay for that remark, cunt," Iapetus snapped, spittle flying from his lips.
