Chapter 23

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

KAI

T he plan was a good one, bulletproof and watertight, so of course it went to shit the minute we crested a muddy hill and saw not just Cronus looming over the field below but an army that spread all the way from one edge of the field to the horizon.

"How many?" Haley breathed, the blood draining from her beautiful face. I brushed the small of her back, wanting to hold her hand but too afraid to restrict her movements. Plus, her dagger swirled with so much magic that I had no doubt it would sear my fingers.

"Ten thousand. Maybe twenty," Wynvail murmured.

"And how many do we have left?" I asked, angling my head towards the Queen of Hell who stood beside my mate, her leathers streaked with dark blood and her face so frozen with murder that even my snakes avoided the air around her.

"Two," she answered, her mouth thin. "But we have more magic than they do. Look." She pointed to the formations, perfect squares of soldiers wearing pure black. "They're shadow soldiers, not flesh and blood. They can't hold their own power. But those lines near the back, those are gods and titans, compelled by Cronus. Those are the real danger."

"How do you know this?" Harvey demanded, his wings snapping tight to his back, the edges sharp with iron.

"My halo shows me," the queen replied in a voice that sent a warning down my spine. What kind of power did she have? And why did she sound so fucking weird? Old and dangerous and immortal.

"Haley," Lili said, turning her head slowly—unnatural power gathered around her, throbbing in the fire that wound around her arms, spilling from her hands. "You and I will fight Cronus. Your mates and my men will be the front lines against the shadows. Maybe your shadow mate can dismantle them."

"I'll try," Wane said softly.

"Everyone who can fly," she said, raising her voice to carry back through the ranks of fighters gathered behind us. "I need you to fly over the shadow soldiers and attack those lines behind them but do not kill them. They won't stop until they're incapacitated. They're compelled to give their lives to win this battle."

I couldn't even imagine how it would feel to be compelled by a monster like Cronus, to fight to the death for a cause you didn't believe in.

"Great plan, but I'm not leaving my mate's side," I said, holding the queen's gaze when she seemed to stare straight through me. I got it. Cronus ate the man she loved. But she couldn't intimidate me into leaving the woman I loved. Not happening. "Non-negotiable."

She turned slowly, the full weight of her power settling on me. I didn't look away, just clenched my jaw and bore the prickling heat of her eerie eyes, the thump of magic writhing around her, seeking an outlet.

"Do you have a halo that shows you what will happen should you join your mate?"

I didn't bother replying.

"Join us and you will die. I can see it right now."

"How?" Haley demanded, the magic lashing higher from her dagger.

"It's a vision of silver that overlaps everything happening right now. I can see what will happen."

"So you know if we'll kill him," Emlyn asked, hope entering his voice for the first time all day.

"Something will happen in an hour or so," Lili said with a frown that sent a zip of warning down my spine. "It will block my halo, stop me from seeing whether he lives or dies. But if we keep standing here, I guarantee he will kill us."

Haley nodded decisively. I flexed my hand on her back and wanted to scream. We'd just lost Kaida and here we were marching into another doomed battle, risking losing another baby.

"My rose," I started, but I swallowed the words when she turned to me. The pain in her eyes knocked the breath from my lungs. She knew everything I would say and was struggling through the same pain herself. Worse, because while I loved Kaida and would do anything to get her back… Haley had carried her, given birth to her.

I pulled my mate into my arms and brushed a too-brief kiss to her lips. We would die down there. I think we both knew, all knew. It was better to be alive, even paranoid every second of the day, but Haley wouldn't live like that, and I refused to live without her.

Into the doomed battle we went.