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He literallycouldn't dieand Cronus was evenmorepowerful than Iapetus.
My hands shook, the dagger in my right hand trembling.
Don't you fucking dare, my rose. You stab that fucker in the eyes, the skull, the dick—whatever it takes to keep him down—and you get the fuck out of there and come back to me.
I inhaled a shaky breath and nodded, like Kai was really here talking to me.
"I was going to be nice," Iapetus snarled, pushing off the stone floor outside the cell and not seeming to care that his right foot was on the floor and his left arm hung by a single sinew. He looked right at me, violence in his green eyes. "ButnowI think I'll bleed you as I fuck you. Force you to come right as I snuff out your miserable existence."
Don't let the words stick. Don't think them. Don't even acknowledge them.
But I felt sick, and dirty, like an oily sheen covered my skin, and the horror made me shaky, my soul spiked with dark, primal fear.
Wane took my hand, lifting it to his mouth to feather a kiss on my knuckles, surprising me enough that I was slow to react when he brushed past me. He approached the bars, shadows thickening, lengthening until they trailed behind him, the train of a cloak made of pure, impenetrable darkness. I watched, too slow, too shaky.
When he lifted his hands, shadows poured out of him like a storm, and even frozen where I was, I saw Iapetus's eyes widen. He stumbled back, unease tightening his features.
"So it's true," he breathed, lifting his hands.
I flinched, movement slamming back into me with a suddenness that made my head spin. I stumbled across the cell for Wane, desperate to stop him, to protect him. Em right at my side, bristling with a constant growl.
But Iapetus hadn't raised his hands to attack. He bared his palms, like he was pleading for his life.
Wane's storm of inky shadows slammed into the titan like a battering ram, sending him skidding across the stone hallway outside our cell. It knocked him off his feet, drove him to the floor, and forced its way into his chest until darkness sprayed from his nose and mouth like vomit.
It was an unpleasant sight, but an evil satisfaction hummed in my chest. Iapetus deserved every bit of unpleasantness.
"I think I can push the bars," Wane breathed, his voice deep, enraged. Shadows roared around him like the waves of a stormy ocean, slamming into the bars once, twice, three times. I caught my breath in surprise when the metal dented and warped, Wane's darkness assaulting the gap until it was wide enough for someone to step through.
I fought to stop my body shaking, to get back in control. Iapetus just threatened to rape me, and so casually that it sliced beneath my skin and made my stomach twist.
"We'll need to be careful not to touch the bars," Emlyn said, a furrow between his brows as he watched Wane's shadows spray like a fountain from Iapetus's orifices. I didn't know how Wane had done it, how his power was strong enough to take out a titan when he'd been weak and healing only yesterday, but I didn't stick around to ask. The threats slid through my head, primal fear making me jerk into motion. There was an opening; we needed to get the hell out of here.
"He's not dead," Wane breathed, hesitating before he glanced at us. I wasn't sure what he expected to see, but relief spread through his silver eyes. "Iapetus. He's just weakened. I don't think I can kill him."
His grave stare drifted to the pink hilts of my long daggers, and I straightened with a sharp intake of breath. He couldn't kill him, but could I?
"The Furies said they were god-killers, not titan-killers," I pointed out, but I drew them anyway, their weight comforting.
"Quicker, Hales," Em urged, ushering me towards the warped gap in the bars.
I edged closer, my palms throbbing in warning, screaming not to get close, that my skin would burn away.
"I'll go first," Wane said urgently, giving me a hard look, his voice no longer deep and ominous but normal.
"Don't!" I panicked, racing after him as he wrapped himself in shadow and squeezed through the gap. "Wane? Are you hurt? Did it burn you?Are you hurt?"
A sob crawled up my throat. What if the burns were everywhere? What if the pain was too much and his body shut down? I'd just got him back, I couldn't—
"I'm okay," Wane said quickly, dropping the shadows around his hands and face so I could see him—on the other side of the bars. "I think the darkness shielded me."
Em blew out a relieved breath, scanning the austere stone hallway outside the cell. How long did we have before someone noticed Iapetus was taking too long to return?
"You next, Hales."
"I don't like this," I told him, but moved towards the gap in the bars anyway. Emlyn always went last whenever we needed to escape anywhere, like he thought he was the least important. Ihatedit. But only one of us could fit through the bars at once, so I edged into the gap, gasping when darkness wrapped me in a protective cocoon.
An instant weight fell off my shoulders. Fuck, I'd missed being wrapped up in these cool shadows, the velvet press of them around me. My eyes burned as I took step after step. I only knew I was out when the shadows peeled away, tendrils brushing the tears from my cheeks with a lingering touch.
