So he looked for her, seeing nothing but the valley. Dead trees. Glowing crevasses. He sensed nothing but her either.
“What is wrong?” The fact he couldn’t sense anything didn’t put him at ease. He thought about the fact she was connected to nature in a way, that Persephone was able to sense all things that were in contact with the earth if she focused. It was possible that Calindria had that talent too.
She shook her head. “I thought I felt something.”
Her eyes met his again, the trace of fear in them enough to have him unfurling his wings and taking hold of her hand. He started with her back towards the tunnel, but she stood firm.
“No. We have to keep moving forwards.” She pulled him in the other direction, towards the open ravine-riddled basin of the valley.
He didn’t like the idea of that. Walking into the open when she felt something was in the area was a sure way of exposing themselves to danger. The spark in her eyes said she wasn’t going to do as he wanted though, so for the first time in his life he would compromise.
“We can skirt the edges of the valley, cross it that way.” His plan was to get her into the cover of the trees that lined the lower slopes of the mountains.
What he really wanted to do was pick her up and fly with her, but she had that mulish twist to her lips that warned him not to even mention it.
Her gaze shifted to the trees to his left. “It will take us twice as long to reach the next mountain range.”
That didn’t stop her from starting towards them, leading him by his hand. He pursed his lips and canted his head to his right. Apparently, compromises could work. Thanatos took the lead, gaze scouring the lands ahead of them as his senses reached all around him. What he wouldn’t give to destroy whatever power dampened them, hindering him.
But not Calindria.
He slid a look at her. “Can you feel things further away than that clump of trees?”
He pointed to the edge of the black forest ahead of them, one that clung to the base of the mountain they had exited. She nodded.
“How far can you sense?” He looked around to find something else to use as a marker, but she answered before he could pick one out.
“The whole of this valley with ease.” She frowned, a little pout to her lips as she stared at the black ground. “I think…”
She looked as if she didn’t want to finish that sentence, so he finished it for her.
“You can feel everything that is connected to the ground.” He glanced at her again when she looked at him, met her curious gaze and almost smiled. “Your mother can do the same. I believe using your power over nature has helped you hone it and made you grow more accustomed to it, unlocking its full potential.”
She stiffened again, her hand tightening against his. “My full potential says that something is in this valley. Many somethings.”
“Can you tell how big they are?” He scowled past his right wing, searching the gloom for movement.
“No. They’ve moved again. It’s like they keep disappearing.” She cast a worried look over her shoulder.
“Not disappearing,” he growled as it hit him. “Taking flight. They keep landing and you feel them, and then they take flight, breaking their connection with the earth and therefore you. Are they those winged black creatures we saw in the caves?”
She shook her head. “Bigger… and they feel… darker. Hungry.”
Great. Hungry beasts of undetermined species were tracking them.
He huffed. “I think they are the creatures we keep hearing.”
Ones that had begun to sound more and more familiar to him, although he couldn’t put his finger on why. The last time he had heard them shrieking was more than a day ago and he had put the building sense of familiarity down to the fact he kept hearing them. Now, he was sure he had heard these beasts before entering this realm.
He pulled her into the trees.
She was looking backwards at the time and she knocked against one of the broken branches and flinched as she gasped.
“Sorry.” He turned towards her, guilt flooding him as she frowned and lifted her free hand to touch a cut on her forehead.
Blood beaded along the ragged gash.
Time seemed to slow as he stared at it, an uneasy feeling swift to grow in his gut as he watched it trickle down her forehead, although he wasn’t sure why.
It hit him when distant shrieks sounded.
A chill swept over him.
“Keres!” He pulled Calindria into a run as he felt them entering the sphere of his senses, his heart pounding hard as he thought about them getting their hands on her.
“Keres?” she breathed and he could feel her confusion.
The female death spirits his mother had birthed were vicious and easily roused into a feeding frenzy when they smelled blood, had been used by Eris in the battle that had taken place between her side and Hades’s sons. There, they had preyed upon anyone who had bled, had descended on screaming howls to rip at them and feast.
He doubted these Keres were here of their own accord. Someone had brought them here, was using them to track him and Calindria, and he had the terrible feeling he knew who it was. The demigoddess. She had to be working for the enemy, part of the remaining forces that Hades had been trying to learn about from Eris. His sister had only revealed that others would rise up to take her place, had refused to say any more than that.
Maybe if he could get his hands on the demigoddess, he could take her to Tartarus and force her to tell them everything. It might go some way towards convincing Hades not to remove his head once he discovered what Thanatos had done with his daughter.
Another shriek sounded, far too close for comfort.
Calindria stumbled.
Of course, he still needed to get her back to her family in one piece to start with.
Thanatos swept her up into his arms and broke out from the cover of the trees, beat his wings and kicked off, launching into the air but remaining close to the black ground. He scoured the route ahead of them, seeking an opening in the next mountain range.
He growled and swept right when a Ker descended upon him, diving from the sky on a keening cry. The wretched female almost hit the ground, beat her bloody wings and stared across at him as she kept pace with him, looking like a grim spectre with her white skin that stretched taut over distorted muscles and too-angular bones. Her glowing all-white-blue eyes narrowed on him and she bared sharp teeth that dripped with saliva.
“Gods,” Calindria muttered and moved in his arms, clinging to his neck as she twisted towards the Ker.
The death spirit spotted the cut on her forehead and her eyes went blood-red as she shrieked and lunged for Calindria, raking sharp talons through the air in her direction.
A series of vines exploded from the black earth and the Ker cried out as one impaled her. Thanatos left her behind, beat his wings harder as he grew aware of the sheer number of them that were closing in on him and Calindria.
The air trembled around him, the currents shifting as Calindria pulled herself up to peer over his wings. He didn’t need to look to know what she was doing. She was using her powers, trying to impale more of the death spirits and stop them. He sensed their numbers dwindling, but there were still too many, and they were closing in fast.
He struggled to fly faster, pushed himself to the limit and dragged Calindria down beneath his shoulder, tucking her to his chest as a Ker dive-bombed him. He grunted as the female collided with him, veered left as his wing dipped, his body twisting from the blow, and flapped his wings harder, righting himself and leaving the Ker behind.
“There’s too many of them.” Calindria moved in his arms again.
“Keep still,” he barked. Manoeuvring to avoid the Keres was difficult enough without her throwing him off-balance or filling him with a fear of accidentally losing his grip on her.
“No.” She wriggled harder, shifting in his arms, and he growled and glanced at her to see what she was doing.
She pushed at
Cold liquid trickled onto his neck.
The Ker shrieked.
Calindria looked disgusted as more cries sounded, as the one she had injured wailed and he sensed the whole group falling behind. “They eat their own.”
That didn’t surprise him. Keres didn’t care where the blood they needed to survive came from. They only cared about feeding, were driven by a relentless hunger, never satisfied by the blood they consumed. He was going to have words with his mother about that when he returned. Nyx could have at least given them a point where their hunger would be sated rather than giving them an endless thirst. He doubted it would have affected their effectiveness on the battlefield.
Calindria swiped at another Ker that launched herself at his back, missing her this time. He gritted his teeth and grunted as the death spirit raked cold talons down his spine. Heat bloomed in their wake. The Keres shrieked in what sounded far too much like joy.
Thanatos flew harder, but it became difficult as several of the death spirits descended on him at once. Calindria tried to fight them off as he banked left and then right, adjusted his speed and did everything he could to shake them as they clawed at him, hungry for his blood now. When one of the Keres caught Calindria with her claws, cutting her hand, he tucked her back against his chest and kept her there, refusing to let her place herself in danger again.
“I can handle it.” He wasn’t sure that he could, but he would rather he was hurt than she was.
He grimaced as a Ker ripped at his left wing, hit her with it and banked right, away from her, his gaze scanning ahead of them. His eyes locked onto something.
“There is an opening. Two… maybe three hundred feet away. I need you ready to seal it as soon as we are through.” He didn’t glance at Calindria, just kept his eyes on the opening that was starting to look far smaller than he had first thought. It was going to be a tight fit.
“I will be ready.” Her words were muffled by his chest, but he was damned if he was going to loosen his grip on her.
He cried out as a Ker landed on his back, pressing her feet into his lower spine, and sank her talons into his right shoulder. She hissed and clawed at him, held on tight even when he rolled and tried to shake her. He bellowed again when the female lunged and bit into his left wing, tearing through the muscle, weakening it.
Ahead of him, the tunnel loomed closer.
He swept lower to the ground, rolled over and beat his wings as he descended further. The Ker hissed and grappled with his shoulder as he dragged her along the ground, her bloody wings battering his as she pressed against him and tried to force him upwards.
His eyes widened as another Ker dropped towards him, her glowing white-blue eyes fixed on Calindria, talons stretched towards her.
On a vicious roar, he clutched Calindria to his chest and forced the Ker on his back into the dirt, clung hard to his precious cargo as he crash-landed on top of the death spirit and tumbled. A cry burst from his lips as his wings bent at painful angles, one of the bones in his left one breaking, and curled into a protective ball around Calindria as she screamed. They bounced and rolled across the black earth together for what felt like an endless amount of time as he feared Calindria would be hurt. The moment he stopped, he lumbered onto his feet with Calindria still tucked close to him and ran, using his one good wing to propel him forwards, increasing his speed.
The Keres shrieked and shot towards him.
He pumped his legs harder, pushed himself far past his limit, desperate to reach the opening that was only a few feet away now.
Behind him, the death spirits suddenly screamed.
He peered at Calindria where she had pulled herself up in his arms again, her face and golden hair dark with dirt on one side, her blue eyes shining bright with fury. She held her right hand out over his broken left wing, rage written in every line of her face as she used her powers against the Keres, buying him the time he needed to get them both to safety.
Thanatos didn’t slow, not even as he ran into the tunnel. He unleashed another bellow of agony as jutting rocks caught his limp wing and snagged his right. Pain blinded him and he lost his balance, tripped and staggered and managed to twist with Calindria so she landed on top of him instead of being crushed by his weight.
His rapid breaths filled the tense silence in the gloom, mingling with Calindria’s as she swiftly leaped off him, moving to his feet. Relief flowed through him, easing some of his pain, as the shrieks of the Keres grew muffled and he felt them remain at a distance.
Their path blocked by Calindria’s vines.
“Thanatos.” She dropped to her knees beside him, feathered her fingers over his brow, and he cracked his eyes open and looked at her. “Oh, thank the gods.”
She sank against his chest, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. He flinched and sucked in a breath and she was quick to jerk away from him.
“I’m sorry.” She looked away and then back at him, guilt shining in her eyes as they lowered to his shoulder and then his wings. Her brow furrowed and she reached a hand out, slowly ghosted it over his feathers. “Oh gods, Thanatos… your beautiful wings.”
He grimaced and tried to sit up, dropped back against the dirt as his body failed him, the pain too much for him to handle. He would rest a while and then perhaps he would be able to move without fear of blacking out.
“They’ll be fine.” He sounded tired, slurred those words. “Just going to rest here a while.”
The concern in her eyes only grew as he stumbled and tripped his way through speaking, and she shook her head as her gaze fell to the ground beneath him. “You are bleeding badly, Thanatos. We need to take a look at your wounds. Come on.”
She stood and grabbed his left arm, pulled on it gently at first, just shifting him in the dirt, but then her beautiful face set in a hard, determined look and she gripped him harder, clutching his wrist in one hand and just above his elbow in the other, and heaved, leaning back into it.
Dragging him up onto his feet.
He tried to help her rather than hinder her, but gods, he was tired. Every bone in his body felt too heavy to lift. It didn’t deter his little goddess. She showed him just how strong she was, hauled him up and draped his arm around her slender shoulders, and damn near dragged his boots through the dirt as she walked with him.
“I can hear water ahead.” She glanced at him, worry in her eyes. “If we can get you there, we can clean the wounds.”
That did sound good.
He put more effort into dragging one foot in front of the other.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured again, her voice thick, heavy with guilt she had no reason to feel.
“My fault.” He pushed those words out. “Cut you in my haste. Should’ve been more careful.”
His vision tunnelled and he shook it off, refusing to black out. He didn’t want to frighten Calindria like that. He forced himself to keep moving, each step taking a herculean effort, and was sure he wouldn’t have made it more than two without collapsing if it hadn’t been for Calindria.
Most females would have baulked at the sight of him bleeding, would have fainted long before this point, shocked by the creatures that had attacked them. Not Calindria. She truly did have her parents’ blood in her veins, faced everything that happened head-on and without flinching.
They reached a cavern, another one that glittered with huge black crystals that made it resemble the inside of a geode. In the far-left corner, stalactites dripped into a pool, crystals clustered around the points where they met the domed ceiling.
Calindria hauled him over to the pool and set him down near the edge. The water was shallow, not deep enough to hide a serpent, but she still closely peered at it and stabbed at it in places with her dagger. Satisfied that no beast lurked within it, she bent and scooped water, drank from her palm and repeated the process. She scooped more water and offered it to him this time, and it was cold and soothing as she tipped it into his mouth, seemed to quench some of the fire in his bones.
“More,” he uttered, tempted to tip to his left and just sink into the water so he could drink his fill like a beast.
She obliged, alternating between giving him water and drinking some herself. When his thirst was sated, she moved around behind him and gasped. He felt the warmth of her as she sank to her knees close to his back, flinched as she dabbed her fingers against one of the gashes down his spine.
“I don’t have anything to bind them with.” She sounded upset about that, so he shook his head, trying to show her that it was fine.
She cleaned his wounds for him, was careful as she washed each one on his back and his shoulders and then did the same for his wings. The cavern air was cool against his wet back as she tended to him, soothing his overheating flesh, taming more of that fire in his bones.
“I wish I could heal as my mother can.” She traced a hand over his left wing, her touch incredibly light, her voice tinged with regret. “Maybe I can do something.”
She shuffled away from him and he wanted to turn to see what she was doing, but he was too tired and too sore to move. When she came back, she pressed something to his skin. It was soft and cool, and not her hand.
For a heartbeat, he worried she had removed what little clothing she had, but then she applied the same thing to his shoulder and he caught sight of it. A black leaf. She had used her power to make this for him, something she had never created before. It was broad and flat and soft, very pliable. Nothing at all like her vines and brambles.
And it was soothing.
She worked in silence, using thin vines to bind the leaves to the worst of his injuries. When she was done, she moved to his left wing, and he wanted to tell her to leave it, but the look in her eyes as she stood before him said that wasn’t going to happen.
“Take a deep breath.” She broke a thicker vine in two and handed him a piece.
Thanatos sucked down a breath, placed the branch between his teeth, and bit down hard on it.
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