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"You have no one?" Wane breathed, a flash of determination brightening his soul, followed by aching sadness and fierce protectiveness.
"Nope," she agreed blithely. I knew that tone, knew it was casual to mask a deep and endless hurt.
"You do now," Wane vowed.
Verena snorted. "Whatever. And good luck getting out of here. I've tried. A lot."
I eyed the solid door keeping us locked in, letting my rage spread through me, blood magic roaring in my ears until all I heard was heartbeats and then Emlyn's soft voice asking, "How old are you?"
"How is that your fucking business?"
A tiny smile tugged up one side of my mouth. Oh yeah, she was a mini me alright.
"We're not bonding, we're not gonna be best prison buddies, so whatever delusion you've got in your head, forget it."
Wane said, "We were moved into this room because we broke out of our first cell, and then weakened a titan so badly he couldn't move from where I threw him to the floor. We came so close to escaping that Aphrodite had to use a magical object to catch us."
A shiver went down my spine at the way Wane retold our failure—like he was proud to have gotten so far in the first place.
"I'm thirteen," she sighed. "Happy?"
Thirteen. Jesus.
"Far from it, Verena," Emlyn growled. "But we'll get you out."
"Whatever," she muttered, but all I heard was her age echoing around my head, over and over.
Power erupted from my curses so brightly and viciously that Em and Wane were pushed back, and I stalked to the door. I curled my fingers into fists and slammed both into the solid wood, a sharp breath whistling through my teeth when pain bloomed in my fingers. I punched the door over and over, my magic casting a blood-red glow on my fingers, on the wood.
It should have splintered. But no matter how hard I hit it, it didn't so much as rattle in its frame. Even when I drew a dagger and the blade lit up crimson, it didn't nick the wood.
Fuck!
I flexed my hands, swearing at the soreness, but I'd heal. I gave Em and Wane a glance loaded with dread.
"Let me try," Wane offered, something different about him—in his posture and the way he walked and—his eyes. His irises weren't silver but as black as ink.
Darkness erupted from him like when it had slammed through Iapetus's chest and incapacitated the titan, and the hairs stood on end all down my arms, fine hairs lifting on the back of my neck, too.
But when the ocean of darkness slammed into the door, it did nothing.
"Shit," Wane breathed.
"Told you," Verena said through the wall between cells. "There's no way out. We're all fucked."
I hated to admit it, but the kid was right.
CHAPTER22
KAI
"Does your crown have cows on it?" I blurted, staring at the woman—the goddess—standing by the window in one of the palace's highest rooms. Not quite a tower, but tall enough to give a view of the whole city, buildings stained purple by the setting sun. My family had been missing a whole day, and it killed me.
"Cows are far nobler creatures than you, Malakai Virex," the woman replied dryly, turning to face me. I shielded my eyes at the bright glow of her godly grace, so severe that I couldn't see a single one of her features until she turned the gleam down. "And this is a circlet, not a crown."
"Still sure you wouldn't prefer a crown?" Lucifer asked from where he leant against the doorframe, a dark eyebrow raised as he watched the goddess.
Hera shot him a narrow-eyed look. I could see all of her now, and I wasn't sure what I'd expected a goddess to look like but it wasn't … this. She was beautiful and regal, sure, but her chestnut hair was pulled into a messy bun and her caramel skin was lined, her face carved with tiredness. She wasn't dressed in a fancy, flowy dress but a pair of white linen trousers and a silver blouse.
