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Cronus laughed louder, the sound stabbing the tender place behind my eyes until my whole skull hurt and I gasped at the sharp spike.You would die.
Yeah, well. I'd rather be dead than lose my rose. I had no interest in the person I would be without her. Where she went, I followed, even into death.
You're no use to me dead, Malakai Virex, so you will persist.
"Give me back my mate!" I screamed, my voice giving out on the final word.
Anxiety made me shake, make my insides sharp and jagged and fast, so damn fast. I spun and reared back my fist, slamming it into the solid wall beside me. I roared at the pain, at the panic of losing my rose.
I punched the Labyrinth again and again, wishing it was Cronus's face. I didn't care that I was fucking with a titan who'd ruled Olympus, waged war on the gods, and eaten his own children. He was my sworn enemy, worse even than Wynvail.
Wynvail held me captive, made me fight my family, and shaped me into a feral creature, but I didn't give a shit what happened tome.Haley, though? That made me so furious that the walls trembled, and my snakes sank their fangs into the ground under me.
Fuck with me and I'd raise my fists. Fuck with my mate, and I'd raise all of Hell.
Best of luck, Malakai,Cronus said with a laugh that told me he didn't rate my chances of survival high.
I was no use to him dead? Yeah, 'cause he'd ordered his littlebitchto kill me. For what reason, I didn't know. I got that Cronus was furious because we killed Rhea, his captive/wife. But the Labyrinth hadn't been modified and updated today. No fucking way. He might have been an all-powerful titan but the additions to the Labyrinth were visible, which meant he'd put one of his minions on the job. Magic would have been seamless. This maze had been created in advance.
Because he planned to drop someone else in here? Or because he was always going to come for us? For my girl?
I couldn't forget the prophecy emblazoned on her back—a future of greatness and terror. One I could read because it was written in the same language as my family’s stories. What was written there scared the shit out of me. I shut it out.
But Rhea said Haley could kill Cronus. And it was inked right there on her back. What were the chances the titan knew it, too? All this shit was intentional. All of it was to get to Haley.
And that made me insane with rage.
I drew my fist back to slam it into the wall again—I'd punch my way out of this place if I had to—but the ground roared and shuddered beneath me, and I was forced to throw both arms out at my sides for balance.
"Motherfucker," I gasped, still breathing short, my magic rioting inside me as the ground movedup.
A square of stone in the floor I'd naively presumed was solid and unmoveable detached and soared up through the maze. I threw out four snakes, anchoring them to the platform to hold me up. Haley would be angry if I returned to her broken.2
"Haley!"I screamed as the platform soared, taking me high in the Labyrinth. Was my mate up here, too? I was close to the place where she vanished; I reached up, desperate to touch the barrier and follow her wherever she went.
I needed to crush her body to mine, needed her to hug me like she did when we dropped into the Labyrinth. She'd wrapped both arms and wings around me, and I'd felt whole for the first time, more myself even than when I was buried inside her.
My fingertips strained for the barrier, my heart pounding fast, hands trembling, but the platform jerked suddenly right, and a square opened up in the wall to carry me away. I was ripped away from the passage where Haley vanished. Taken somewhere new.
"No!" I roared.
My throat burned. I shook harder, energy and anxiety frantic inside me. I screamed wordlessly, my stress erupting as rage. I wrapped power around my fist, coiling the snake tightly to my skin, and drove punch after punch into the platform. Who cared if I fell? It was taking me further from her.
Animal hisses of fury poured up my throat, but it didn't matter that I sounded like the mindless beast of the pits. I couldn't get back to Haley from here. I needed to get back to the other—
The mammoth brick that had slid free of the wall slammed back into place with a resounding crash, and my voice choked off with a gasp.
"No." I shook my head, my shoulders slumped and arms limp. My hand throbbed, bloody knuckles broken.
I was trapped here, locked away from Haley.
All at once, my fury and panic was replaced by despair. At least when we fought through the Wailing Caves we were together. All my family was with me. I hadn't been alone since Haley stormed through Alphaven and claimed us, hauling us to safety.
I didn't want to be alone.
10
Halwen
