Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

T wo days later, I stood in the doorway of our bedroom watching Kai sleep for so long that it verged on stalking. He'd burned up all his rage, stopped starting fights at every opportunity, and now he just slept, rarely leaving the bed. I couldn't tell if he was asleep or faking, but my nightmares and Wane's woke us all at night, so he needed all the rest he could get.

I finally stepped back and closed the door, wrapping my arms around myself to pull my black and pink cardigan tighter around me. It was a new gift, along with an accompanying pile of gifts, from Wynvail. He couldn't talk about Kaida, didn't know how to help us deal with the loss, so he left most days and came back with bags full of presents.

My feet carried me into the garden, where Harvey and Verena spent hours every day, honing her raw magic skills into something just as raw but more skilled. I plopped my ass on the back step and wasn't surprised when Emlyn appeared a minute later with a steaming cup of tea, this one peppermint and fragrant.

Before he could vanish again, I reached up and hooked my fingers around his wrist and drew him onto the step with me.

"Just … stop for a minute," I said, resting my head on his shoulder. "Sit with me."

Em stiffened, but he didn't move away when I rested more of my weight against him, blowing my tea to cool it. He knew—about the baby. He might not have consciously known but on an instinct level, he knew. I sensed it in his reluctance, his panic to be so close to me.

Without a word, I entwined our fingers and squeezed hard, watching Verena thrust her hands at the trees, sending a burst of golden light into the forest. It was nowhere near as powerful as what she'd summoned on the island, but more controlled than she'd been days ago. I still wasn't sure if that really happened, or if it was part of the illusion. I'd certainly burned the eyes out of Iapetus's minions, though.

"What did you tell me when we left the timeline?" I asked Em, my voice low and gentle.

He didn't reply for a long time, until Harvey coached Verena into summoning another flare of sunlight, and Em finally murmured, "I said we'll be okay. But we're not, Hales. We're not okay at all."

I brought our joined hands to my lips, brushing a kiss to his broken knuckles. I didn't ask what he'd punched. He was hurting, and that was enough to kill me.

"Not yet," I answered finally, the only glimmer of hope I could find.

We both jumped, tea splashing over the rim of my mug, when Wynvail yelled inside the house. I couldn't hear what he said, only the volume of his voice and the panic in it. I threw the mug down and raced inside, Em on my heels and Harvey and Verena close behind us.

"What?" I demanded, skidding into the living room.

My heart skipped and I went cold all over when I saw that he'd turned on the TV. The news was playing, reporters no longer in the studio but reporting from their homes on current affairs. And on Cronus's rise to worldwide domination.

Emlyn caught me around the waist when I flinched back from the sight of the titan's hideous twenty-feet-tall form. He was made of stolen shadows and malice, power flickering through his whole body as he trampled the lawn of the Capitol building.

"Turn it off," Harvey growled, grabbing the remote.

"Wait," Verena breathed, coming to stand beside me. She gripped my arm with a gasp. "Look at him."

"We're looking, kid," Emlyn replied as Cronus grew even taller, simmering with onyx magic and satisfaction, stomping his way through the Capitol building. It shattered and fell in chunks of ivory stone, and Cronus turned, like he knew exactly where the press was. He looked straight into the camera lens as its operator trembled.

Verena shook her head, her hair falling over her shoulders. She looked even younger than normal with her hair down, and my protectiveness surged. "No, look at him. Look at his body—that's not just shadow. There's something more. Something's inside him."

My breath caught. I jerked closer to the TV, my heart starting to race. Energy filled me for the first time in days.

"The gods," I said. "They're still alive inside him."