And a heavy part of him felt he deserved it. He deserved far worse. Lagos had been there to helphim.It had beenCyrus’splan.
Cyrus had been the one to close the tear. To abandon Lagos to his fate.
It was his fault. The burden of that loss would rest on his shoulders for the rest of eternity.
Cyrus would never be able to escape it.
Mona and Evander remained silent during their journey. Tears streamed down Mona’s face, and Evander’s mouth was set in a grim line, his hand clutched tightly in hers. Cyrus wondered if his brother was thinking of Lagos, or the bargain he now had to fulfill with the Wild Spirits.
When Cyrus’s face and lips were caked with sand, and his legs throbbed so painfully he thought they might snap in two, he finally recognized the entrance to the fire witch coven. Wind whipped around them, flinging sand particles into their eyes. Evander descended first, climbing between rocks until he found the hidden cavern underneath. With a hand on his arm, Mona guided Cyrus down, ensuring he didn’t fall while carrying Prue.
As soon as they entered the cave, darkness and cool air greeted them, a blessed respite from the heat and sand of the desert. The fire witches surrounded them, peppering themwith questions. Thankfully, Mona answered most of them. Cyrus could only stand there, holding Prue, his body numb and unresponsive. Now that he’d made it here, he wasn’t sure what to do with himself. He didn’t want to think about the next step.
The Titans were still out there. Two had perished from the attack, but that still left three—Atlas, Oceanus, and Prometheus. They were few in number, but they were still powerful. Dangerous. Hell-bent on exacting revenge on Cyrus for tricking them.
There was nothing more deadly than a vengeful Titan.
“Cyrus!” shouted a voice.
Cyrus blinked, realizing Farah stood in front of him and had likely said his name several times. He blinked slowly at her. “What?”
Farah gestured to Prue, still lying limply in his arms. “Would you like our healer to tend to her?”
Cyrus’s gut response wasno.He didn’t want to part from Prue. He wanted to keep holding her, touching her, proving to himself that she was real and she was alive.
But her body was covered in blood. He had no idea how much of it was hers. Her eyes were sunken and her skin pale. She had clearly been through an ordeal.
Reluctantly, Cyrus nodded, the motion stiff. Farah sent for the coven healer, and Cyrus insisted on remaining by Prue’s side the entire time. The healer used poultices and elixirs, murmured incantations, and spread a balm along Prue’s split lip and the jagged gash on the side of her head. Only when the healer had cleaned away the blood did Cyrus realized what had happened.
Prue’s ear had been sliced off.
White-hot fury raged through him. He wanted to ram his fist into the wall. He wanted to flip over the table and smash the bottles on the shelves.
He wanted to gut those Titans one at a time, making them suffer for what they had done to Prue.
When the healer was finished with Prue—who still hadn’t woken—she asked to inspect Cyrus for injuries. He waved her away. Oceanus had managed to strike him in the abdomen, but the blow had only grazed him. The trek through the desert had exacerbated the wound, but it was the least of his concerns.
“Mona,” Cyrus said, gesturing to the earth goddess who was speaking in hushed tones with Farah. Evander lingered nearby, and Cyrus wondered if he felt the same desperate need to be alongside the one he loved, just to ensure she wouldn’t disappear. “Please see to Mona’s injuries.”
The healer nodded and shuffled away, leaving Cyrus to sit on the bench next to Prue’s prostrate form. He looked at her, then gently tucked a few loose curls behind her ear.
Her only remaining ear.
Hot tears stung Cyrus’s eyes, and he quickly blinked them away. Gods, this was his fault.His damn fault.The Titans had taken Prue because ofhim.It had all been about negotiating withhim.
If Prue wasn’t his wife, this never would have happened. She never would have been caught up in this war.
She would have beensafe.
“Gods, Prue,” Cyrus said thickly, running his thumbdown her jaw. “You would have been better off if you had just stayed on that island.”
Prue did not respond. Her chest barely moved with her shallow breaths. Cyrus kept checking often to ensure her pulse was steady. He was so terrified she would simply wither away in her sleep.
At some point, he leaned his head against the rocky wall and fell asleep. When a hand came down on his shoulder, he jerked awake with a sharp gasp.
Farah raised her palms and backed up a step, her eyes full of concern. “I have spoken with Mona. She relayed the events of your battle to me. I am so sorry for your loss.”
Cyrus could only nod. His throat was so tight he couldn’t speak.
