Thanatos: Guardians of Hades Series Book 8

by Felicity Heaton

  It scuttled towards Thanatos, completely unharmed.

  He caught it and placed it back in front of her and she tried again, just in case it had been a fluke. She touched it with her cheek, and then with her shoulder, and even with her foot. It survived every time.

  “It has to be skin contact with my hands?” She cast Thanatos a hopeful look.

  He shrugged and picked the beetle up. “It does appear so, and in many ways, it would make sense. I cannot make fire with any other part of my body. My hands are the tool, the pathway for that power. If I were to say… stare at a log and will it to burst into flame, it would not. If I held my hand out to it and willed it, it would.”

  So her hands were the only route her power could take to reach another? If that were true, then it was a blessed relief. It meant she could wear thick leather gloves around others and her fear of hurting them would be gone. She wasn’t going to just accept it as fact though, not without further testing.

  The beetle seemed to sense her desire to continue experimenting as Thanatos set it down before her. It burrowed into the black sand, disappearing from view. She let it go. She had put its life at risk enough times, would find something else to experiment on.

  As soon as she stood, Thanatos stepped up to her and stooped, scooped her up into his arms again and spread his wings.

  “It is not far now.” He kicked off, beating his wings, carrying them back into the air. “Perhaps when this is over, you could test your powers on… You could test them on something in your family’s palace. I am sure your family would be able to supply you with living things.”

  Her heart ached for Thanatos as he refused to look at her, as he flew harder, his handsome face settling in hard lines and a deep frown knitting his eyebrows.

  He hadn’t wanted to talk about her testing her powers on things provided by her family. He had wanted to talk about him providing those test subjects for her. Had he been thinking about making more golems just for her?

  As far as she knew, golems were living but not alive. They didn’t have feelings or experience pain. They just existed to carry out the commands of whoever had made them. Thanatos had seen the pain it had caused her when she had killed the beetle, and had found a solution for her, one that would spare her the guilt and the hurt whenever she accidentally killed whatever she was experimenting on.

  It was thoughtful of him.

  Beautiful.

  What had stopped him from offering to do such a thing?

  It hit her that he thought she wouldn’t want to leave her family once she was back with them—that she wouldn’t want to continue seeing him.

  He thought that what they had would end once she was free of this realm.

  How wrong he was.

  Before she could say anything, he jerked his chin towards something.

  “There. Do you see it?”

  She turned her cheek to him and peered into the gloom, beyond the next mountain range, trying to see what he had. The shadows were too strong at first, but as he approached the cragged black peaks, something in the next valley began to take shape.

  It was a sprawling ruin for the most part. The large walls that surrounded the central building had crumbled in places, revealing it and rendering it vulnerable. That building was big, several storeys in places, and it looked as if it had once had a tower of some sort. It lay as rubble across one of the perimeter walls now.

  “I can see it.” She studied it as Thanatos flew around it, high above it. “We should set down and try to touch it. That way we will know if it is real.”

  She sensed the fear in him as he looked at it, together with pain.

  “No.” He banked right, beat his wings and gained elevation, taking her further from it. “You see it and therefore I am sure it is real.”

  She wasn’t.

  “The realm could simply be showing us the same illusion.” She leaned away from him and he growled and tightened his grip on her, so fiercely she gasped as pain speared her where his fingertips pressed into her thigh. She shifted her weight back towards him. “Sorry. I just wanted a better look.”

  She hadn’t meant to make him feel he was going to drop her.

  He blew out his breath and swept lower. “Do you think you could sense if anyone was inside it from a distance?”

  She nodded. “If they are in contact with anything joined to the ground, then yes, I think I should be able to sense them.”

  Thanatos spread his wings and glided down to the ground around two hundred feet from the building. He landed gently and walked a short distance, furling his wings against his back, and then set her down on the loose black ground.

  Calindria eased to her knees and pressed her hands to the dirt, closed her eyes and drew down a deep breath. She felt it when the connection between her and the earth opened, revealing Thanatos and then a multitude of small creatures as her senses sharpened, rushing outwards in a wave all around her.

  They reached the building and she focused on it, narrowed her senses down to that point so she didn’t miss anything. When she was sure of what she felt, she opened her eyes and looked up at Thanatos.

  “It is empty. No sign of life there at all.”

  He still looked as if he didn’t want to go near it. She stood and took hold of his hand.

  “Unless the people inside it can levitate, it is empty.” She squeezed his hand and looked in the direction of his gaze, over her shoulder at the building. “Touching it is the only way to know it is real.”

  When she looked back at him, he looked closer to agreeing to go near it, but still reluctant.

  “I could go alone.”

  The moment those words left her lips, his gaze leaped to her and darkened, his lips drawing back off his teeth as he growled.

  “You will go nowhere near that place without me.” He tightened his grip on her hand, interlinking their fingers, drawing her focus to their joined hands.

  She liked the way he held it so fiercely and possessively, as if he was silently staking a claim on her, declaring to anyone in the area that she was his. She liked how it made her feel as if she was silently staking a claim on him too as she pressed her fingers harder into his skin, tightly clutching his hand.

  He glanced down at her, a light in his eyes that said he liked it when she did that, when she held him as possessively as he held her.

  Because he thought that when they left this realm, when she was home with her family, this thing between them would end.

  She needed to find a way to convince him that wasn’t the case at all.

  He led her to the building and as soon as he was close enough, he touched it with his hand, shuddered and snarled, and then twisted away from it. “It is real.”

  She didn’t try to stop him as he strode away from it, knew in her heart that it hurt him to be here, that it had taken a lot of courage for him to get close enough to this place to touch it and see it was real and not an illusion.

  When they were a good distance from it, she looked back at it. “It looks like it was a castle.”

  “A castle?” He scoffed and glanced at her, some of the darkness lifting from his eyes. “It does not look like a castle. My castle looks like a castle.”

  She tried to picture what his castle might look like. It was probably grand and imposing, with towers that were high enough that they could be seen for miles across the black landscape.

  “I would like to see it someday… perhaps when you create me some golems to test my powers on. Of course, it might take months… possibly years… to master my power.” She smiled when he gave her a look, one that held shock but also pleasure.

  Because she wanted to spend time with him once this was all over? She took him in from head to toe and back again. Who wouldn’t want to spend time with him?

  Besides, she wasn’t done breaking down his walls.

  “You didn’t think you could get rid of me that easily, did you?” She stepped up to him, tiptoed and cupped his nape in both hands, and lured him

down for a kiss.

  He growled against her mouth and kissed her hard, banded his arms around her back and tugged her against him, holding her so tightly that she couldn’t breathe. She didn’t care. She loved the way he held her like this. It made her feel as if he would never let her go.

  Thanatos swept her up into his arms and kicked off, kissed her for a few seconds more as he flew. She broke the kiss this time. The thought of crash landing was frightening enough to make her relinquish his lips.

  He flew with her, over mountain ranges and across valleys. Those valleys grew larger and larger, the mountains smaller, and far in the distance there was a cluster of lights like golden stars.

  “It is a town.” Thanatos swept down to land with her and looked in all directions. “We should find somewhere to rest. The town looks close, but it is at least another few hours’ flight to the border of this realm where we will be able to teleport.”

  And he was tired.

  She nodded.

  Tensed as he set her down and her feet made contact with the earth.

  Thanatos went rigid too, his gaze darting in all directions. “What is it?”

  She yanked the dagger from his left vambrace as close to one hundred creatures, each as large as she was, closed in on them from just beyond the mountains.

  “We are not alone.”

  Chapter 25

  Thanatos’s first urge was to grab Calindria and fly, despite how tired he was and how deeply his wings ached, the muscles so fatigued that those closest to his shoulders trembled and twitched. His second urge was to grab her and run.

  He went with that one, seizing her hand in a bruising grip and turning in the direction of the mountains that formed a towering cragged wall between him and the nearest town.

  He didn’t need to tell Calindria to run. She was quick to break into a sprint beside him, her blonde hair bouncing against the shoulders of her black tunic with each long stride.

  “There are enemies this way,” she panted, her grip on the dagger she clutched tightening as her blue eyes scanned the mountains.

  “The ones behind us?” He wanted to glance that way to see for himself, but doing so meant slowing his pace and he trusted Calindria’s senses.

  “Closing in fast.” She threw a swift look over her shoulder. “I will slow them down.”

  Before he could ask what she intended to do, the ground shook beneath his boots, a tremor rocking it as the sound of stone splitting filled the thick air. He did glance over his shoulder now, his silver gaze widening as great vines burst from the ground, forming a wall at least four hundred feet wide across the valley basin.

  He cursed as the warriors appeared on the other side of it.

  Calindria looked back again and then faced forwards, her pace picking up speed in time with his. “That is not fair.”

  He had to agree with her on that one. The males had simply teleported beyond her barrier, could use an ability that neither he nor Calindria could in this realm. The fact that they were unaffected by certain powers in this realm had to mean they were working for the demigoddess.

  “They look like the ones who guarded my cage.” Calindria’s breaths came faster and he could sense her fatigue as she summoned another wall of vines, one the warriors easily teleported past again.

  “Conserve your strength.” He eyed the wall of warriors again. All of them wore only leather pants and all of them were large, their builds powerful. Each grasped a long black spear.

  He ducked and pulled Calindria to the right when one of the brutes launched one of those spears at them. It thudded into the ground where he had been, narrowly missing Calindria, and a curse pealed from his lips again. That had been too close. He had pulled Calindria into the line of fire when he should have moved her to her left instead, ensuring her safety.

  They had to be close to the mountains now.

  He looked ahead of them.

  “Godsdammit,” Calindria spat as she spotted what he had and skidded to a halt.

  Warriors had appeared at the base of the mountain, forming a wall between them and the only route to freedom.

  “Prepare yourself.” He released her hand and drew his sword, pulled down a breath and readied himself, emptying his mind and honing his battle instincts.

  Beside him, Calindria readied her dagger. Her hand shook, betraying her nerves. He placed his hand on her forearm to steady it and she glanced at him, lingered as her eyes locked with his.

  “It is you or them, little goddess. Remember that.” He didn’t want her getting ideas about pulling her punches because she didn’t want to hurt other living souls with her touch. If she succumbed to her softer side, to the good heart that still beat within her chest despite the ordeal she had been through, then she was as good as dead.

  Again.

  She nodded, but her hand still shook, and fear lit her eyes as she glanced at the warriors closing in on them.

  “We can do this. Together.” He cupped her cheek with his free hand and turned her face towards him, waited for her to look into his eyes again before he finished what he had wanted to say. “I need you to fight, Calindria. I need you to live. I do not want to be in this world without you.”

  Tears lined her lashes and the fear that had shone in her eyes disappeared, replaced with resolve as she stopped shaking.

  She nodded. “Don’t you dare die on me either. Gods only know how much I need you, Thanatos. I might have to go to that veil place just to bring you back.”

  Hell, this female knew exactly how to strip him of his armour, knew the path to his heart without fail. He tugged her to him and pressed a brief, hard kiss to her lips. He wasn’t going anywhere and neither was she. They were going to get through this. Together.

  He released her and turned, assessed the warriors closing in on them and their options. It was easily one hundred against just two, but they could do this. With his skill as a warrior and her ability to kill anyone she touched, these brutes didn’t stand a chance against them.

  “Ready?” He turned and the world seemed to slow as she looked at him.

  As something hit her left shoulder and knocked her backwards.

  He lunged for her, felt as if he was moving through molasses as he reached for her, as she twisted and fell, and blood burst from her shoulder. She hit the ground, her head cracking off the hard surface, and he slammed into it beside her on his knees, his breathing rough in his ears as he pulled her over onto her back and sought the wound. His heart clenched, fear at the helm as he stared at the long gash in her tunic.

  Thanatos leaned over and tugged the two sides of the material aside, revealing the top of her shoulder. A groove cut over the muscle there, but the wound wasn’t deep. The spear had only grazed her.

  “Calindria?” He patted her cheek and she frowned and groaned, her face screwing up. “You really need to wake up now.”

  Her eyes fluttered open and she winced, clutched her shoulder and dug her fingers into the black material of her tunic. “What happened?”

  “You were hit. It is only a graze.” He swallowed his racing heart and kept telling himself that, trying to convince himself that she wasn’t about to die on him even when it felt as if she was. He was overreacting, but he couldn’t help it. The sight of her going down had shaken him to his soul. “Come.”

  He took her hand and pulled her to her feet, ducked as another spear flew over his head. She winced and stooped, picked up her dagger and frowned as she stood again. When she pressed a hand to her forehead, worry arrowed through him.

  “What is wrong?” He pulled her towards him when another spear came at her, shielding her with his wings, gritting his teeth as the blade of it sliced through his feathers, shortening a few of them. He couldn’t afford to take another hit like that. If they clipped any more of his feathers, he wouldn’t be able to fly.

  “I feel.” She squeezed her eyes shut and grimaced. “I think the blade… toxin.”

  His gut clenched and heart seized. “Toxin?”