Esher (Guardians of Hades Romance Series Book 3)

by Felicity Heaton

  She was safe.

  He would make sure of that.

  He pressed a kiss to her lips and rose spread across her cheeks when she pulled back, her eyes leaping to their company.

  Cal grinned like an idiot, all I-told-you-so.

  He wiped it off his brother’s face with nothing more than a glare, and a small dousing of rain, just enough to wet him through again where he stood near the coffee table.

  “Esher.” Ares’s deep voice rolled through the room and everyone stilled.

  Aiko tensed.

  Esher turned his head to his right, leaned back and peered past Marek to his older brother.

  Ares’s grim expression had a sense of foreboding trickling through Esher’s blood, foreboding that turned into dark inky tendrils that snaked around him as his brother spoke again.

  “You want to hurt the daemon? Keras is giving you the chance.”

  Aiko was quick to get off his lap, clearing the way for him. He rose to his feet and looked down at her, at that darkness in her beautiful eyes, and lingered.

  “Stay here.” He swept his knuckles across her cheek, holding her gaze, needing to see in it that she would do as he asked, because he didn’t want her seeing what he was going to do. “I’ll be right back.”

  She didn’t nod, so he looked down at Marek, who answered his silent plea with a tilt of his head, letting him know that he would make sure Aiko didn’t follow.

  Esher broke away from her, taking deep breaths to steady himself as he crossed the room to Ares, and followed him to the small white building where they were holding the daemon. His heart pounded as he neared it, memories of passing days at a time shut inside it, wild with a need for violence and bloodshed, pressing down on him.

  Daimon stood sentinel outside the closed wooden doors.

  His brother’s icy blue eyes warmed with concern as Esher approached.

  He nodded to let him know that he would be fine.

  Ares paused on the threshold as Daimon reached for the door. “Go and get Megan to deal with that wound I know you’re trying to hide from me.”

  Daimon huffed and scowled at Ares, and Esher gave Daimon a look that backed up what Ares had said, asking his younger brother to see Megan about his wound, because he needed to focus and right now he was worried about Daimon and it was making it hard to keep himself level.

  Daimon nodded and opened the door for him and Ares.

  The female shrieked and banged against the sides of the cage, not moving it even when she put all of her strength into each attack. She gripped the thick bars and growled as she pulled on them, her desperation lacing the air. Fresh black blood rolled down her cheek from a cut across it, and splattered across her bare arms, and a rip cut from the hem of her black dress up to her hip, exposing her thigh as she fought to get free.

  “Is she not being cooperative?” Esher couldn’t keep the hint of sarcasm out of his voice as he approached her, because his brother should have known better than to expect a daemon to talk.

  Keras shifted green eyes edged with obsidian to him and they narrowed as his black eyebrows dipped, the corners of his lips turning downwards as he stepped back from the cage.

  The wooden doors slammed behind Esher, sending a ripple of fear down his back that he breathed through. He wasn’t going in the cage this time.

  The daemon hissed at Keras.

  Screamed as shadows lashed out at her in response, slicing her legs and her arms.

  As he watched, a sense of satisfaction rolling through him, Esher considered what they knew about her, searching for a way to make her speak.

  One other than hurting her.

  Which was a first for him.

  Normally, violence was the only viable option, the only one he wanted to pursue.

  But he found himself hunkering down in front of the vile wretch, pulling all of her focus to him.

  She swiped at the shadows as they slithered away from her, breathing hard and fast, and then she stilled and her eyes slowly lifted to meet his.

  “I want to go home,” she whispered, her silvery eyes growing wilder as she edged towards him, clawing at the stone floor. “I want to go home.”

  Her demeanour changed, her face softening, and she held her bloodied hands out to him.

  “Let me go home, Esher. Take me back to the clinic. It’s too frightening here.” Her eyes darkened, a vicious sneer pulling at her black lips as she looked around her and then at him.

  “Your powers won’t work when you’re in the cage.” It was what he despised most about it. At the height of his strength, when he needed to let it all flow out of him before he burst, he couldn’t use a damned drop of his power.

  She hissed at him and launched at the bars, her hands clearing them to reach for him. She fell just short, her hands harmlessly clawing at the air inches from his face.

  “I want to go home. It’s all I want,” she snapped, her eyes glowing as she struggled to reach him. “If I can’t have it, I’ll make the world burn… you want the world to burn, don’t you, my beautiful pet?”

  Esher spat at her. “Pet? I’m not your fucking pet.”

  She chuckled and eased back, her lips splitting in a wide grin. “But you will be… mine… she promised.”

  “Who promised?” He was getting somewhere, further than Keras judging by the way his brother huffed behind him.

  Her eyes grew wary and she ran her fingers down her violet hair, clawing at it and pulling knots from it as she looked around her, eyes darting everywhere, her fear flooding the room with her vile daemon stench.

  “Who?” he bit out and she tensed, shrank back and then exploded forwards, her arms flying between the bars of the cage to reach for him again.

  “My pet!” She swiped at him, desperation etched on her face as she struggled to reach him.

  Esher smacked her hands away, so hard her left arm hit the cage and bent backwards, and she shrieked.

  “I’m not your pet. I never will be. Your friends aren’t coming for you.” He leaned towards her and sneered. “Your only hope for survival now is to tell us everything we want to know, and then maybe I’ll make you my pet.”

  Her skin paled, the colour leaching from it as she began tugging at her hair again, frantically looking at his brothers and then him, and then around her at the thick blank walls of the building.

  “Would you like to be my pet?” He canted his head to his left, and her eyes landed on him, her fingers pausing in her hair.

  She blinked.

  Hesitated.

  “Or maybe you want to die?” He raised his hand.

  She flinched away, curling into a ball, clutching her head. When he didn’t strike her with his power, she slowly uncurled and fixed him with terrified eyes. “She’ll kill me anyway… kill me for failing… you can’t protect me.”

  “I can. No daemon can reach you here.”

  Keras stepped forwards and she hissed at him, her eyes darting up to him as she backed away, towards the other side of the cage. “You know what happened to the others who faced us?”

  She swallowed hard, dipped her chin just a fraction of an inch, enough to reveal she knew what had happened to her comrades.

  “Your wraith friend killed Trickster,” Ares put in and moved to flank Esher, folding his thick arms across his broad chest, stretching his black t-shirt tight. His eyes glowed with crackling flames as he glared down at the daemon. “You think he won’t kill you too if you get out of here, away from our protection?”

  She clawed at the ground again, eyes flickering between him and his brothers, and he could see she was close to talking, was afraid the wraith would kill her just as he had dealt with Amaury before they could get him to speak.

  “It’s why we brought you here, where you’re safe… protected.” Esher emphasised the last word, because it seemed to hit her in just the right spot, had her fear fading a little whenever she heard it. “I can protect you from the wraith.”

  By killing her first.

 
But she didn’t need to know that.

  “He won’t hurt me.” There was a certainty about her that had him feeling she was telling the truth, that she knew the wraith wouldn’t hurt her. “She will.”

  “Who is she?” He edged closer, holding her focus as he felt his brothers tense.

  “She promised me a kingdom in exchange for taming you, my pet.” The daemon reached through the bars to him, her eyebrows furrowing as she stroked her hands down the air, as if she was caressing him.

  Petting him.

  He managed to stop himself from snapping and lashing out at her, and held his ground, letting her think he was fine with her wanting to touch him, calling him a fucking pet.

  “A world within our old home to call our own, and I could bring you all the humans you desired. You would like that, wouldn’t you?” she husked.

  He leaned closer, mind filling with a vision of his fortress in the Underworld, bathed in the blood of humans, the air filled with their cries.

  Keras’s hand came down on his shoulder. “We should take a break.”

  He jerked back, baring his fangs at the bitch as he realised she had been luring him under her spell, and he had been close to answering her and claiming everything his heart desired—revenge upon the humans.

  No. He didn’t want revenge now. It had been all he had craved once, but no longer. Aiko had opened his eyes, had made him see the good in mortals again, and now he wanted to protect both her world and his from the machinations of his enemy.

  He pushed onto his feet, schooling his features so she didn’t see his anger at her for trying to play him, and his fury at himself for almost falling for it.

  Keras opened the doors and stepped out into the early morning light, and Ares followed.

  Esher lingered, looked back at the daemon and held her mercury gaze that promised him all the destruction, all the bloodshed, his darker side had once desired.

  But now it wanted something else.

  He turned away from her, closed the doors and locked them, and followed his brothers into the main house.

  Aiko rose onto her feet as he entered, leaving the couch to cross the room to him. He sighed as she wrapped her arms around him, lowered his head and pressed his forehead to hers as he held her, using the feel of her nestled close to him, where she belonged, to soothe himself and ease the hold his other side still had on him.

  “Has she said anything?” Valen looked over the back of the couch at Keras.

  Keras sighed. “Nothing much. She confirmed we are dealing with another female, one she seems frightened of too, just as Benares and Jin were, and one who promised her a kingdom if they succeeded.”

  “I will hazard a guess this mysterious female desires father’s throne, and gathered this group to assist her, offering them the one thing they wanted.” Marek looked from Keras to Valen, and then Ares as he joined Megan, slumping onto the arm of the armchair where she sat.

  “Benares and Jin wanted to rule this world.” Valen leaned back into the couch as Keras rounded it, and Esher settled back on the other couch with Aiko, wedging himself between her and Marek.

  “This one wants to rule a part of the Underworld.” Ares slid his arm around Megan’s shoulders. “Like we would let that happen.”

  “Any clue what the wraith wants?” Cal leaned against the wall and shoved his hands in his pockets.

  “No.” Keras was quick to say that, and everyone kept quiet, not mentioning his involvement in what had happened to Calindria.

  When Cal’s eyes grew stormy, Esher snagged his attention.

  “My blade in his gut. I owe him,” Esher said, tugging a grin from his youngest brother, and wary looks from the rest of his brothers.

  He wanted to say it had been a poor joke, but it wasn’t. The hunger to hunt down the wraith and kill him was still there, burning in his heart, blazing in his soul. Something pressed against his side, and he looked down, stared at Aiko’s delicate hand where it covered the spot where his scar was beneath his blue-grey shirt.

  The scar burned.

  He knocked Aiko’s hand away and gripped his side, a growl tearing from his lips as the wound blazed white-hot, stealing his breath.

  “Fuck.” He gritted his teeth.

  “What’s wrong?” Marek was on him in a flash, clutching his shoulders as he struggled against the pain.

  He wasn’t sure.

  “It hurts,” he bit out.

  Went cold.

  The wraith.

  It wasn’t possible.

  Esher shot to his feet, head whipping towards the cage, and teleported just as internal alarm bells rang, warning him that something had broken through the wards.

  Not possible. Nothing was powerful enough to break the wards. No one knew the counter-wards.

  He and his brothers, Daimon and Cal, had marked the shapeshifter with counter-wards but they were on her back where she couldn’t see them, and with the cage stealing her powers, there was no way she could have told the other daemons even if she did know them.

  He flung the wooden doors on the white building open and stared at the cage.

  At the wisps of violet smoke that hung in the air where the daemon had been.

  “Fuck,” Ares growled as he appeared beside him and saw what he had. “How the fuck did he get through the wards?”

  “Counter-wards,” Marek offered as he raced from the main house, followed by the others.

  “Father created the wards. We’re the only ones who know which ones he used.” Cal had a point.

  Their father wouldn’t have told anyone about them.

  Esher pressed a hand to his side as another cold wave rocked him.

  His voice was distant to his ears as he stared blankly at the empty cage. “What if the wraith knew? What if… when he… his blade… it feeds him souls.”

  Keras sharply turned towards him. “Esher, this isn’t your fault.”

  “If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine.” Valen moved in front of him, raked fingers through his violet hair and blew out his breath. “It’s my fault for bringing Eva here when she was hurt. You left because of it.”

  Esher shook his head. The blame didn’t lie with Valen. Eva had made him want to leave, that was true, because he hadn’t wanted to hurt her, knowing it would hurt Valen too, but he had been the one to let the moon distract him.

  He had been the one to lower his guard and allow the wraith to plunge the blade into him without him noticing.

  Gods, the thought that the bastard had managed to devour a fragment of his soul before Megan had been able to reverse the damage done to him and save him sickened him, had darkness pouring through his veins and that hunger returning to consume him.

  The things the shapeshifter had known, the details of his past that only he knew, made sense now. The wraith had told her everything, must have been able to show her somehow, revealing the memories locked in his soul so she could use it against him to weaken him.

  To bring him over to their side.

  “I’m a liability,” he whispered, heart aching as he considered what he needed to do. He couldn’t bring himself to look at his brothers, didn’t think he could bear seeing their faces as they told him he was right, as they pushed him away to protect themselves. “The wards are useless now… they know everything I do… all of our tactics… and they know how to affect me. They know fucking everything… and that means... I have to…”

  Go, he had to go. He had to leave and get as far from his brothers as he could. He needed to protect them, and it was the only thing he could do. He would never let them come to harm, would leave to keep them safe, even if it killed him.

  The shapeshifter had been right and the wraith had chosen to take her rather than kill her, which meant she was important to him, and gods, maybe he could somehow use that against him. It also meant she was out there, recovering, and she would come for him again. He had to leave before that could happen.

  Keras clutched his shoulder and squeezed it hard, and Esher
looked at him, braced himself for a world of pain but found only love and understanding in his older brother’s green eyes. “It means you have to get working on new wards.”

  “I’ll help.” Ares lightly tapped him on the arm. “I’m good with wards.”

  “We can each pick one, keep it to ourselves.” Cal’s suggestion had everyone nodding.

  “Like I’d tell you my ward anyway.” Valen grinned. “You’d be jealous of how amazing it was and I’d never hear the end of it.”

  Daimon smiled. “I’ve seen your wards.”

  That earned him a scowl from Valen and electricity arced across his fingers. “What’s that meant to mean?”

  “It means your wards are shitty.” Ares kept a straight face. “Father always said you were the worst at them. Lacked finesse… I think those were his exact words.”

  Esher couldn’t believe what he was hearing, stood mute as his brothers joked around him, no trace of the anger he deserved in them, no hint of distrust.

  Even Keras smiled as he looked at the horizon. “It’s getting light. We should get to work.”

  The rest of his brothers moved away, and Esher watched them go, stared after them as they broke apart and scattered, each choosing a different route around the garden, seeking something they could use to contain a new ward.

  “It was not your fault, Esher.” Keras remained where he was, and Esher looked at him, wanting to say again that it was, but held his tongue when his brother approached him. “This war will not be easy. It will test us, but we knew that. I worry it will test you the most though.”

  Because he was a liability, and he had the feeling the enemy wasn’t done with him. He had resisted them this time, but the daemon had still been intent on making him belong to her, and now she was gone, returned to the mysterious female who was in charge.

  Who had ordered her to turn him into her pet, into a weapon they could use to bring about the downfall of the gates and the future they wanted.

  They needed to know who that female was.

  “When the wraith came…” Keras started.

  “I felt him,” Esher finished for him and lowered his hand to his side. “I knew he was close.”