Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

HARVEY

I knew Cronus brought us here because he'd controlled the Damned Realm for a millennium, and it had nothing to do with us or Iarlon, but I couldn't stand the fact we were in Hell again. I couldn't stand that he was in the same realm as both my vulnerable mate and Verena. I couldn't fucking function with them both in danger. All in danger if I counted the fragile life in our mate's belly.

And Wane let her march to war.

What the fuck was he thinking? Even if Haley begged and pleaded, he should have said no. He should have fucking told me—I was his twin. I could have talked some damn sense into both of them.

"Put me down," Haley murmured, struggling in Kai's arms. "I feel—better."

She would, now we were back in Hell. The demon part of her would be stronger here, like the titan and god part of her was stronger in Olympus. But she shouldn't have been anywhere near this place.

Empty fields stretched around us full of rotten fruit, the scent sickly and sour—and bodies. There were bodies everywhere I looked.

"Angels," Wynvail breathed, noticing their armour, their wings splayed in the mud.

Angels withered in Hell, and they'd die if they stayed longer than a few hours, but an instant death? Cronus had done this. He ripped them away from the battleground knowing every last angelic soldier would die. How many allies had we lost? How small was our army now?

Had the gods even survived?

Wynvail's hand glowed suddenly. He threw a hard look at Kai, who nodded, uncommonly serious.

"What?" I began, dread knotting my stomach. But I realised their plan when a beam of bright moonlight split the air. Relief made my shoulders slump. Right, Wynvail could transport people with his magic.

"No," Haley protested, trying to twist away from the sudden flare. But Kai set her on her feet, tightened his grip on her shoulders, and pushed her into the beam of light.

I held my breath in the suspended second after Haley was sucked inside the moonlight, her eyes so wide with panic. That split second took an eternity, and I didn't breathe at all as I waited for the light to wink out, to carry our pregnant mate to safety, to—

"No!" Emlyn roared when a hand reached through the moonlight—and ripped Haley out of it.

Cronus. I knew it was him even if I'd only ever seen him twenty-foot-tall and made of stolen shadow. So this was what he looked like before he cut a swath of magic from Wane and stole it for himself.

Now, he grabbed Haley from within Wynvail's moonlight and stole her, too.

Her boots slipped in the mud, trying to gain purchase, to fight. I surged forward, plunging into that Feral part of myself, shifting between one step and the next. I was happy to be a mindless monster of fur, horns, and claws if it saved my mate.

Wynvail was the closest to her, close enough to leap across the distance and rip that murderous bastard's hands off her, but Wynvail's knees dropped from under him when Cronus touched a fingertip to the swath of moonlight and … it fell to ashes in the muddy field. Unmade, like Wynvail himself had been unmade.

I grabbed the back of Wyn's armoured jacket in my beast's teeth and hauled him back. Cronus already had Haley; we couldn't let him get Wynvail, too. Couldn't let him kill our brother again. Because no matter what he'd done, he was our brother. We were all bastards and monsters anyway; he fit right in.

Kai let out a war cry and threw himself at Cronus and Haley, the air full of so much magic, so many serpents, that it visibly rippled, obscuring Kai's face.

Cronus merely stepped out of Kai's path, taking our mate with him.

"No!" I snarled, plummeting into the burning part of me that had brought a city to its knees. My fur stood on end as pure gold sunlight shuddered across my fur, but I held the power tight, waiting, praying for an opening. One millimetre off target and I could hit Haley instead of Cronus.

Kai howled in rage and tried again, and again—and again. I couldn't breathe as he inched closer, almost within reaching distance of our mate. Safe, she was almost safe. Magic razed its way through my body to my paws, desperate to scorch the ground, to reduce the entire realm to ashes. Cronus flicked a finger on his free hand and—

Kai froze between one step and the next, his teeth bared, veins straining in his neck. Oh, god. I shot forward, pressing against his side, my whole body bristling. Kai's nostrils flared but that was his only movement. Hatred shone through eyes that promised Cronus's murder, even trapped in time.

Across the fields of the Damned Realm, sudden roars and screams cut the silence. Demon voices. Gods' power crackled through the air, making my eyes burn with relief. We weren't alone. We might just survive this and get our mate out of that monster's hands. And yet … Cronus still held Haley. A threat. A warning.

When a smirk curved my mate's mouth, my heart skipped. My knees went fucking weak when I saw what she held. What Kai had leapt across the distance to give her—her dagger. He wasn't trying to save her; he was handing her a weapon to save herself.

I froze, hope and fear clashing in my blood until I was too afraid to move and ruin this one precious chance. I barely breathed when Haley flipped her grip on the hilt and drove the deadly blade through the gap between her body and her arm.

Please, I begged the gods, the good titans, anyone who was feeling especially merciful.

Cronus screamed. Please. Haley spun out of the titan's grip when his strength faltered, however temporarily. Please. I shook my head, sure I was hallucinating when her whole body flashed with crimson light.

No, it was real. A million different symbols glowed on her body—not just her curse marks, but the prophecy on her back and every other sigil that decorated her body in black, impossible ink that hadn't been there an hour ago.

I was used to seeing her dagger glow red at this point, but my eyes widened when the blade shone every colour of the damn rainbow. She grinned wider, twisting the blade where it plunged into Cronus's ribs, carving a wider hole before she tore it free.

But Cronus was smiling, too.

And when another man stepped smoothly between us, between my mate and my family, trapping her with Cronus, the blood drenched from my face.

Please. Oh, god, please.

I knew that gait, knew that body. The man lifted his head to pass an intense, piercing stare over my family. Please. I can't do this. Please.

I knew those gunmetal eyes, knew the cruel mouth that parted and said, "If you want that girl, you'll have to go through me."

"Who the fuck are you?" Kai snarled, already calling up a deadly force of fangs and venom, the air quaking with the force of his wrath. And yet he held back, like we all held back. Terrified Cronus would kill our mate if we made a single move.

Wane had gone still beside me. The fact that my brother didn't reach for me, didn't hold onto me or even look my way, twisted a dagger in my heart like our mate had twisted hers in Cronus's ribs.

"He's Gauvan Locke," I forced out, each word like a thorn, the barbs cutting up my throat until I tasted blood.

Emlyn didn't glance at me for further explanation; his body bristled as he stepped in front of me and Wane and snapped out his wings. Blood dripped from the metal tips of his grey feathers. "Don't you dare fucking look at them."

Gauvan laughed.

Our uncle laughed.

Please.

"I'll do far more than look at those boys."