Chapter 31

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

I wanted to lay there forever, to pass out and escape the pain that rampaged through my body like a pack of wild wolves, but I was too conscious that I lay in the middle of a battlefield and I was carrying a baby that would survive long enough to be born. So I summoned my last dregs of strength and rolled onto my front with a scream-groan combo, somehow getting my hands under me. Shoving up out of the mud was an unpleasant experience, not least because the gouges cut into my wrists erupted with agony at the movement and the whole world flashed white.

The field spread around me, an ocean of mud, blood, and bodies. There were pockets of people, but a heavy mood hung over each of them. The shadow army was gone. What the hell happened while I was inside the house…?

I stumbled forward, breaths sawing from my lungs in worrying wheezes. I scanned the living, feeling sicker with every fraught minute that passed, until I saw Emlyn's broad back, and the slump of Harvey's tawny wings. My mates clung to each other, Em's lips against Harvey's forehead as he shook.

Kai stood beside them, the shape of his spine defeated, hopeless.

No.

Dread rocked me back a step.

Who had we lost?

I speared myself down my bonds, searching, searching, pleading, but my insides were a mess of golden magic and pain, and I couldn't grasp anything but power. I couldn't see Wyn or Wane anywhere, couldn't find them even as I stumbled across the field, choking back wheezing sobs.

"Em," I rasped, too far for him to hear me. "Harvey. Kai."

Kai's red head shot up, life returning to his posture, bleeding into his sallow face as he spun, like he'd heard me even across the distance. My eyes blurred with tears. I stumbled onward through the muddy field, choking on air that stank of death.

Who had we lost? Where were my mates? Where were Wane and Wynvail? Were they both—?

A sob made my throat burn. This loss was worse than any physical torment, worse than anything Cronus had inflicted.

Kai lunged towards me, proving he really had heard me. My bottom lip caved in, another sob burning my throat. He was too far away to touch me, metres and metres separating us, but I wanted to collapse into his arms.

"Haley!" he screamed, throwing up his arm in warning.

The ground shuddered. I threw out my arms, widened my wings, and turned to see what had made Kai blaze with fear and wrath.

Cronus.

The bastard walked towards me, his tanned face twisted with the same hatred as before but none of the magic, none of the strength. My heart skipped instinctually, but golden magic soothed me. He couldn't hurt me now. He was mortal, changed, and—I laughed in disbelief when I heard something new. A heartbeat.

Em's words came back to me, from what felt like years ago in the attic of the house in Edinburgh.

I need to watch him die, Hales. I want your magic to cut into every single part of him, and I want you to rip him apart until the whole goddamn world is covered in his blood.

I lifted my hand and reached into my magic, calling my first power, my blood magic. It was second nature to block out every other heartbeat but that of my enemy. It thumped fast, both fearful and furious. It was an ordinary heartbeat, nothing special, nothing remarkable.

Cronus took a breath to speak.

I clenched my fist, following the flow of blood through his body, pouring my magic into every drop, every pulse, every beat of his rotten heart. I forced more and more power into him and sensed the strain of his body, the familiar thrill going through my magic.

Kai's arm came around my stomach, holding me up when the pain threatened the stability of my knees, but I gritted my teeth and held on long enough to grasp every ounce of Cronus's blood. It was no effort at all to kill a mortal man. Blood exploded in all directions, scorching the grass, splattering my hand, my face, and it was ordinary, powerless blood.

King's final stand, titan's last breath. A hellborn angel will deliver death.

I fought the rise of pain in my body long enough to check no part of Cronus had survived, there was no hope of him returning, and then I slumped into Kai's arms.

"Wane, Wyn," I breathed, my tongue heavy, weakness pouring through my veins, replacing golden magic.

"Wane's hurt but he's alive. Wyn took him to the healers in Iarlon."

Alive. They were all alive. Relief gave the agony teeth, and they sank into me, ripping away my consciousness. I fell into black and shadows and even though pain followed me there, so did solace.

Cronus was dead.

I did it.