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"Haley," Wane said weakly, his fingers tightening around my wrist. "He's a bad person. He's—like Locke."

I sucked in a breath through my nose.

"Say it, coward," Iapetus challenged, twisting the bars in his hands until they were a crumpled snarl of metal. "I have no shame for that word."

"Killer," Wane breathed, his shadows writhing, restless. "Rapist."

Iapetus grinned, like the words were badges of honour. "That word kills you, doesn't it pet?"

"Call my mate that name one more time," I breathed, my heart slowing, eerie calm washing over me. "I dare you."

"Will it truly kill you, I wonder," he went on, sneering at Wane, "when I take your mate's cunt? Will your heart cease beating when I make you watch as I break both her legs, so she can't even crawl away when I force myself upon her?"

Wane's shadows pulsed once, a deep thump of warning. "The only thing left of you will be a smear of blood."

Emlyn roared, tearing away from my side and slashing his arm through the air. Emerald power slammed into the bars so hard that the cell rattled and the walls shook around us like an earthquake gripped the ground. The bars didn't shatter, didn't fall apart when his magic sliced into the metal, but Iapetus's fingers were cut at the knuckle, and the dismembered tips tumbled to the floor of the cell with sick thuds.

But Iapetus laughed, flexing his hands in front of his face. Horror bled like ice water through me, making the magic in my curse marks stutter when flesh regrew from the bloody stumps until he was unharmed.

"Is that all you've got?" he taunted Em.

I stumbled back a step, but if Wane could be brave, I could be, too. I didn't know where my curse magic lived, didn't know why I'd woken up with it as well as two curse marks, but I gave it a silent command, refusing to let the power fade when there was a threat to my mates separated by only twisted iron.

It rose to my command, like it had been holding its breath waiting for me to call on it. I sucked in a sharp breath at the scope andscaleof my power. I hadn't been this powerful in the arena in Alphaven, not even in the Labyrinth.

Well played, Cronus,I thought sourly. My magic was fattened for him to devour, exactly as planned.

"Don't evenlookat my mate," I hissed when the titan smirked at Wane, lifting my dagger and hoping he'd heard everything that happened in the Labyrinth. These knives had killed the Erinyes. Now they were god-killers.

Iapetus grinned, the smile too perfect for the vileness of his soul. I sent a tug to both Wane and Em, telling them to be ready as I gathered power. If I couldn't explode every blood vessel in his body, fine. It was time to find out if my curse magic could kill a titan, too.

I jerked forward when Iapetus leaned against the bars to taunt or threaten us again. I didn't allow his hideous words to echo through my head for a single second as I dove towards the gap in the twisted bars and aimed my knife for his heart.

He jumped back with atskbefore my blade could pierce him, safely out of range of my god-killing knives, but he hadn't accounted for Em and Wane. I let a little of my own rabidity show in a grin as Em's emerald magic scythed through the bars and slashed a deep, gouging wound across the titan's middle.

He split in two before I could ask if he was dead, and I guess that answered that question.

"Fuck," I gasped, letting out my breath and sheathing a knife so I could grab Wane, wrenching him tight against me. He was so cold, and trembling all over. His shadows pulsed and shook against me, furious, almost violent even when I kissed him.

"It's not enough," he seethed, his voice sending chills down my spine. "For what he threatened to do. It's notenough."

"Calm down," Emlyn said firmly, grabbing us both in a squeezing hug, his magic settling now the threat was removed. "We're alright now."

I sighed with relief, still full of power but shaky, scared.

I flinched when a scraping sound came from the other side of the bars. Wane's breathing increased, his magic churning faster. Em just froze.

My strength waned as we stood there, imprisoned, watching the two halves of Iapetus pulling back together, his severed torso repairing at an alarming rate.

CHAPTER18

Itensed my arm to throw my knife, but I couldn't lose my volcanic daggers. Emlyn must have been thinking the same thing I was—kill him now before he heals!—because his eyes flashed and he pulled away from us to send another vicious arc of magic through the bars. This time he severed an arm, but it didn't stop the mess of Iapetus's dismembered torso repairing until there was only a red seam where he'd been cut. And then his arm began to reattach, too.

"Fuck," Em grunted, hitting the titan with slash of magic after slash of magic, but as soon as he opened a wound, another healed.

It hit me then, as fear bloomed colder and worse than before, what the wordimmortalreally meant. My mates were near-immortal, and could survive a lot, butthis?This was unnatural. Fear froze my blood, my feet, until I couldn't move.

We didn't stand a chance.