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"I missed you too, itzaia," Wane murmured, kissing my cheek as I approached him—and the weak titan on the ground. Whatever Wane's magic had done—and however the fuck ithaddone it—Iapetus stared at the ceiling with palpable anger, but he couldn't get to his feet, couldn't hurt us like he was obviously imagining.
I reluctantly pulled myself from Wane's arms and twirled my blades so they were gripped in my fists, blade downward. A better person might have hesitated, might have baulked at murdering a man who couldn't defend himself. But his threats rang in my mind, scarring me no matter how hard I tried to push them out of my head.
My body burned, violated even though he'd never set hands on me. Hewantedto, and that was bad enough. So I swallowed the bile in my throat, and picked up my legs to take the last two steps to Iapetus.
With the skin crawling all down my body, I drove both points into his torso, one blade buried in his gut, and the other driving into his heart. I didn't know what my blades had become when they rebounded off the hippocampi in the Labyrinth, but now they sliced through bone and ribs like they were cobwebs.
"Thanks," Em murmured, even his soft voice making me jump and throw a shifty look over my shoulder. Shadows peeled away from his big body. He was out—we all were.
I tore my wavy daggers from the titan's body, giving him a long, hard look in his eyes—vacant, dull. But dead? I couldn't tell.
"He might still come back," I murmured, taking two steps back and startling when Wane wrapped his fingers around my wrist, his skin cool and dry—and thrumming with power. Mine was hot and clammy, heat burning through me that I couldn't explain.
"He's down for now," Wane replied quietly. "Come on, itzaia. Let's get out of here."
I pushed down the disgust and terror still crawling through my body, and met Wane's eyes. He'd survived Cronus and was here—strong, powerful. I could be strong, too.
"Which way?" I asked, looking at Emlyn for guidance.
He sighed, glancing in either direction. The corridor was the same—a flat stretch of bleak stone with one cell on either side of the one we'd been condemned to. It was a tiny dungeon compared to the tunnel Wane had been locked in for a hundred years. I sent a wave of comfort through the bond, wishing I could hold his hand but too wary to drop a single weapon.
He wasn't okay—far from it—but he didn't let it show when Em chose a direction and led us away from the cells. And if Wane wouldn't break, neither could I.
"We'll be okay," I promised him, glancing up at his bronzed profile—stoic and harsh, like any softness had been chiselled away. I knew the truth though, felt it in the storm raging through his soul. The cell, the corridor, the confinement—he’d thought he would be locked up for another hundred years. Was that why his shadows were stronger? Because his fear had fed them?
"Keep up," Em barked quietly, leading us carefully around a bend in the corridor, his hands curled into fists like he planned to pummel his way to freedom.
Wane and I quickened our steps until I was close enough for Em's paper and ink scent to wrap around my lungs, easing a knot in my chest even if the paper was burnt and ink old. We'd get out. We’d escaped the cells with pitiful odds, after all. We'd be fine. Completely fine.
But my hands were shaking, and my mates could feel my panic through our bonds. Could Kai and Harvey sense it, too, or were we too far away? They'd find us—the bond was a beacon, calling them to me. But if they found us now, they could be caught, and that thought made me want to cry, scream, and burn this place down—in that order.
"Faster," Em growled, skidding around another corner. Was he following an animal instinct? Was the Feral side of him guiding him to freedom, like an animal's senses guided them to water? Or was he guessing?
Oh gods, please don't let him be guessing.
Panic flared, crimson light splashing my shirt—my curse was glowing. I gasped when it poured power into me, responding to my fear even though there wasn't a visible threat. Why was my magic so much stronger here? It made no sense.
We flew around the next corner so fast I had to snap my wings out to stop myself falling. Wane's shoes squeaked on the tiled stone floor. Columns lined the corridor on either side of us, carved with beautiful figures and draped with pink tulips. This place was too pretty to be a prison, nothing like the ominous darkness of the Damned House. It sent a shiver down my spine.
"Fuck!" Em roared, grey feathers flapping and his hands snapping out to catch the wall on either side of him.
I dug my heels in to stop momentum slamming me into Em’s back, and Wane staggered to a halt beside me, breathing fast, his panic spiralling so out of control that it escaped his calm mask.
Beyond Emlyn, the pretty tiled floor dropped away like a giant had hacked it off, and on the other side was a sheer drop so high that even my stomach twisted up despite the wings on my back. I'd never flown from this high up before.
"Em," I breathed, stepping away from Wane and sheathing a dagger so I could latch onto the back of my mate’s shirt and haul him back from the edge. My heart thudded, every beat hitting my ribs.
Emlyn’s nostrils flared with rough, panting breaths like a spooked horse, his skin bleached with fear when he took slow, careful steps backward. Scared that even that tiny movement would send him back over the edge.
Like it was furious we’d escaped the perilous fall, a vicious wind howled outside, its greedy fingers tearing at our clothes, wings, and hair. A small, frantic sound escaped as I threw trembling arms around Em and tore him away from the edge, my whole body like jelly.
His wings snapped out for balance as we backed up, and I could barely breathe until Wane grabbed each of us in a bruising grip. We were on solid ground. We didn’t fall.
"We could fly," I breathed. "Right?"
"From that height, Hales? With that wind? It would rip us out of the sky."
I knew that, but I didn't want to hear it. My stomach churned, hands shaky. I dredged some positivity from the black pit in my stomach, and said, "We'll find another way."
