Thanatos: Guardians of Hades Series Book 8

by Felicity Heaton

  Bile rose up her throat as she glanced to her left, at the two males now suspended a foot off the ground by the sharp, black needles that punctured their bodies in multiple places. Sightless eyes stared at the roof of the tunnel, their mouths gaping open. She pivoted and hurried away from them, glared at the cage as she passed it and grabbed one of the wooden torches stuck in the ground. The warmth of the fire heated her right side as she held it before her, as she moved as quickly as she could manage to the other side of the cavern.

  Another tunnel came into view there.

  She followed it, picking up pace as her body recovered from the drain of using her power, as she set her mind on reaching the other side of the mountain range and the town she had seen in the distance.

  Every step she took that carried her further away from Thanatos tore at her. She didn’t want to leave him, ached with a need to go back the way she had come and find him instead of finding help. She battled that urge, trying to resist it. She would be no help to Thanatos by herself.

  She needed backup.

  She needed her brothers.

  Fear gripped her as she hurried through the tunnels, as the seconds ticked into minutes and then into hours. She tried not to think about what Thanatos was doing, tried to shut it from her mind, focusing on her task.

  Reach the town.

  Get help.

  Save Thanatos.

  She broke out onto the enormous black plain and into a run that had her legs feeling unsteady beneath her, but had hope soaring in her heart. The edge of the realm was here somewhere. Thanatos had told her that. She just had to keep running and she would find it.

  Her feet ached, every tiny stone biting into her sore soles sending pain shooting up her legs, but she kept on running, her gaze fixed on the cluster of lights in the distance. She tossed the torch away when it began to feel heavy, wanted to summon her power as she had before so she could ride a vine but didn’t dare risk it. She couldn’t afford to black out, not now she was so close to help.

  She felt it when she breached the border of the realm, skidded to a halt and looked back at the dirt just a few feet from her that looked the same as that on her side of the invisible barrier that surrounded it.

  Calindria closed her eyes and focused, tried to picture the palace to teleport there, but she couldn’t remember it. She turned wild eyes on the town instead and the world around her disappeared, and suddenly she was in the middle of a square. She tucked her hands beneath her arms as her pulse jacked up, the thought of the innocent people bustling around the busy street accidentally touching them sickening her.

  Calindria backed away, careful to avoid touching any of the people who were coming and going, struggling to breathe as they all seemed to close in on her. Too many people. She fought for air, gasping for it, but couldn’t get enough into her lungs. There were too many people. Staring at her. Scowling at her. Eyes filled with disgust, or heat as they dropped to her bare legs.

  She backed into something, tensed and turned, exhaled hard as she saw it was only the black wall of a building. She needed to get a grip. So many people though, all of them close to her, crowding her.

  Calindria drew down a breath and held it, tried to calm her mind and ease her fear. She wouldn’t touch them. She would be careful. She had to move though. She needed to find help.

  She looked around at the people, scanning their faces and their outfits. None of them looked like guards. There had to be guards here somewhere. She frowned as she recalled that whenever she had visited towns in the past, there had always been males who had kept order in them.

  And sometimes she had even seen her father’s soldiers.

  She tried to recall where she had seen them. What town?

  It pinged into her head and darkness swallowed her before she could even will the teleport. She landed at the edge of a larger town, one she recognised. There was a barracks here. She remembered Calistos telling her as much when he had brought her here to buy her a present as a reward for keeping still while a pretty female had painted her portrait at the palace.

  Calindria kept her hands tucked beneath her arms so no one could brush them and get hurt, and hurried into the town, her tired legs throbbing with each stride. Her eyes darted around and she ignored the way three males outside a tavern looked at her as she searched the streets for soldiers.

  There had to be someone.

  She was close to desperate when she reached the other end of the town and hadn’t seen a single soldier, turned to look for somewhere to rest and paused as five males walked out of a building, all of them dressed in fine black armour that hugged their lean figures.

  Relief swept through her, so strong her knees almost buckled. She stumbled towards the males.

  “Help. Please help me.”

  Chapter 27

  Calindria wanted to reach for the soldiers and grab them to make them notice her when they didn’t seem to hear her. She fought the urge. Killing one of them by mistake wasn’t going to help her cause, even though it would get her noticed.

  And probably killed or tossed into Tartarus.

  “Help me,” she growled, her tone hardening as panic and fear gripped her tighter, spurred by the thought of being locked away and unable to help Thanatos.

  One of the soldiers looked at her, his eyes dark, and as he turned towards her, she noticed the others had females tucked close to them. They weren’t here to patrol. She glanced at the building they had exited. A tavern. They were off duty, but that didn’t mean they weren’t able to help her.

  “I need you to take me to Hades’s palace.” She hurried up to the one male who had noticed her.

  He curled his lip and scowled as he raked his gaze over her. “What business does a beggar have with my god-king?”

  “A beggar?” Her mouth flapped open and then snapped shut. She looked down at herself and couldn’t blame him for thinking she was a pauper. She was filthy, wearing a torn tunic, and looked desperate. “I am no beggar. I am the daughter of Hades.”

  He laughed in her face. “Good one. Hades does not have a daughter. Did you hear this?”

  He leaned backwards towards the other soldiers, his near-black eyes remaining locked on her as he swept his hand in her direction.

  “This here is the daughter of Hades everyone!”

  The females took one look at her and laughed, and two of the males joined them. She scowled at them all, hurt welling inside her, filling her with a need to back away and leave so they would stop laughing at her, but darkness was swift to devour it and use it as fuel.

  Calindria stared the male down, knew it the moment crimson ringed her pupils and that darkness crossed her face, because he was quick to close his big mouth. Another male exited the tavern, muttering about having to pay, and stopped when he found the group of males and females blocking his path.

  “What is going on here?” He tucked a black Corinthian helmet with a gold plume that ran down the centre of it under his arm and scowled at the males.

  A commander.

  Maybe luck was with her after all.

  “This one thinks she is the daughter of Hades.” One of the males almost laughed those words.

  The commander pushed him aside and stalked towards her, placed his hand on the right shoulder of the male before her and moved him aside too. The moment his eyes met hers, he looked as if he believed her.

  And gods, it was a blessed relief.

  “I need to reach the palace. Thanatos was sent to rescue me by my father but he has been taken captive. We must save him.” She took a step towards the commander and his dark green eyes searched hers as his blond eyebrows drew down, narrowing them.

  “I will not take you to the palace.” Those words leaving his lips came close to breaking her hold on the darkness as it writhed and hissed in response, goading her into attacking him. He looked her over again and added, “I will bring someone from the palace here to speak with you though.”

  She wanted to fall on her knees and thank him
for that, but forced herself to remain standing, not wanting to appear weak. A child of Hades would never act in such a way, and she didn’t want him changing his mind about her and deciding not to help her.

  He disappeared.

  Leaving her with the other soldiers. They all gawped at her now, exchanging muttered comments about her that were hard to ignore. She knew she didn’t look like a child of Hades, that her appearance wasn’t befitting of her status, but she hadn’t exactly been staying in a luxury abode for the last six centuries.

  She flexed her fingers beneath her arms, a restlessness growing inside her as she waited. Who would the male bring to her? She imagined it would be another soldier, perhaps someone higher in the ranks than himself, or possibly even her oldest brother.

  The male who had first laughed at her and had called her a beggar cast her another look that said he hadn’t changed his mind about her—he still thought she was a pauper, or someone trying to trick her way into getting close to Hades.

  She glared at him, on the verge of putting him in his place.

  But then awareness arced down her spine, a lightning bolt that struck her hard and shook her as a sense of power swept around her. The hairs on her nape and arms rose on end and she couldn’t breathe, told herself she had to be imagining it.

  It couldn’t be.

  Tears filled her eyes as she felt that heart-wrenchingly familiar power.

  Heard a voice she had believed she would never hear again.

  “What’s all this about anyway?”

  She slowly turned towards the owner of that light voice, laced with a teasing note he never had been quite able to erase, even when he was trying to sound serious.

  Swallowed hard as her gaze fell on him.

  Her left hand shook as she covered her mouth with it, as her eyebrows furrowed and her heart drummed harder.

  “Gods,” she whispered against her palm, still unable to believe her eyes.

  He froze and his stormy blue eyes darted to her, and an unfelt breeze teased the tips of his blond ponytail as he stared at her.

  Looking as shocked and overwhelmed as she felt.

  Calistos swallowed hard and took an unsteady step towards her, his mouth falling open as his fair eyebrows knitted hard and a stunned look entered his eyes as they brightened like a summer’s sky.

  “Calindria?” he breathed and swallowed again, looked as if he didn’t know what to do.

  Or maybe he didn’t know what to believe.

  She did.

  Thanatos hadn’t been lying to her. Her twin was alive. He was alive and as grown as she was, had become a handsome male, much taller than she had expected.

  His eyes filled with tears.

  The ones that had been in hers slipped down her cheeks as she smiled shakily, trying to show him that it really was her. She couldn’t find her voice as all the hurt she had nurtured over the last six centuries fell away and warmth and light swept into the void it left behind, filling her and lifting her up. Tears blinded her as emotions whirled inside her, tearing down her strength, making everything that had happened to her roll up on her now.

  She had thought she would never see him again.

  And while Thanatos had told her that he was taking her back to her family, a part of her had refused to believe it would really happen.

  The way Calistos looked at her, as if she was a ghost, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing either, made something else Thanatos had told her hit home.

  Her family hadn’t abandoned her.

  They had thought her dead.

  Her twin had thought her dead.

  That feeling grew when Calistos whispered, “Thanatos found you.”

  Gods, she wanted to hurl herself into his arms and sob against his chest as he stood there, still as a statue while she wept, her feelings out of control now, sweeping her up in a maelstrom that was too powerful for her to fight.

  But she couldn’t and it killed her.

  She couldn’t risk it, feared she would hurt him if she did, even if she didn’t touch him with her hands.

  She sniffled and swallowed, fought back her tears, aware of everyone staring at them. The moment her eyes left his and darted to the males watching her, Calistos’s eyes darkened and he growled at them all, baring fangs.

  The soldiers were quick to leave, herding everyone away from them and giving them some privacy.

  His eyes met hers again, a corona of crimson around his pupils that faded as he stared at her, as he stood there trembling as badly as she was.

  He shook his head. “How is this possible?”

  He reached out to her and she backed off. Hurt crossed his handsome face and she wanted to lay her hand on him to soothe him.

  She settled for explaining herself instead. “I have a power. One born of death. If I touch anyone, they die… except Thanatos. Thanatos is immune to it. I don’t know how to control it. I wish I did. I want to hold you so badly. I want to touch you and know you are real.”

  “Are you real?” he murmured thickly.

  She nodded. “I am.”

  “But I saw you die.” He leaned his head back slightly and frowned at her, conflict shining in his eyes now. “I saw it. I felt it. It was my fault.”

  “No.” She shook her head again. “You died. I saw it. All these centuries I thought you gone… I have been dreaming up ways to save your soul.”

  His blue eyes widened, shock dancing in them, but then darkness crossed his face again. “An illusion. We were both shown an illusion, one powerful enough to convince us.”

  “An illusion… Only I do not think my death was a lie.” She looked at her hands. “I did die, but I am alive.”

  He growled now. “The necromancer. He said he was holding your soul and we would never find it. It wasn’t hidden in a vessel somewhere. He put it back in you.”

  That wasn’t comforting at all. She prodded her chest. She was dead then, but had been resurrected, which was why her soul had never crossed over and why she had never passed into the veil. The necromancer must have restored her soul as soon as he had killed her, using her death to sever the bond between her and Calistos and make her death seem real to him.

  Just as it had made his death seem real to her.

  Even as close to her as he was now, she only felt a faint sense of the bond they had once shared.

  “I must take you home.” He stepped towards her.

  She backed off and shook her head, panic lancing her at the thought of leaving Thanatos in the hold of that female for any longer than she already had. She wasn’t ready to face her family yet either. Seeing Calistos had been overwhelming enough. She could only imagine how she would feel when she saw everyone else, and she couldn’t do it alone. She needed Thanatos beside her when it happened.

  “There is no time. The enemy has Thanatos. I have to save him. He surrendered to them to protect me and now I fear he is in grave danger, Calistos.” It was strange saying her brother’s name again, and the look in his blue eyes said it had felt just as strange for him to hear it.

  Her heart beat faster as she thought about Thanatos, as she kept fighting the images that wanted to pop into her head. Nothing would happen to him. She would find him somehow. But how? She didn’t know where the demigoddess had taken him, and he had spent years trying to find her in that realm. She didn’t even have wings to help her cover the ground more quickly.

  And what if the female hadn’t taken him anywhere in that realm?

  What if he was somewhere else?

  Panic mounted inside her, making her hands shake. She cursed Thanatos as she realised that he had known there was a danger the enemy would take him somewhere she wouldn’t be able to find him, but he had gone through with it anyway, sacrificing himself to save her.

  Was he out there now, thinking she wouldn’t come to save him?

  Well, she was going to prove him wrong if he was. Nothing was going to stop her from finding him and rescuing him.

  “Where do they have
him?” Calistos stepped up to her, a breeze swirling around him, rustling his strange clothing.

  He wore what looked like a drab, thin off-green tunic that only reached his biceps and ended at his waist, and black trousers with far too many pockets. His boots made her think of Thanatos though, black leather with lacing up the fronts of them.

  She shook her head as her heart ached with a need to see him again. “I do not know.”

  “Who has him?”

  She frowned now, fury roaring to life inside her. “A demigoddess… She is working for the enemy you all fought and controls the realm where I was held. Thanatos knew her. He said she was the one who defeated him in battle and held him captive before.”

  “The one who used him to spawn the necromancer line?” Calistos’s words hit her hard, shaking her to her soul. “Big guy hates it when you mention that breed around him and I can kinda understand why.”

  The female had used him to create a new breed?

  A chill tumbled down her spine and her eyes widened.

  Gods.

  That was the reason he distanced himself from everyone and had found it so hard to be with Calindria. The demigoddess had drugged him and had abused him, had seduced him by force. He had brought walls up around himself because of that, had shut even his twin out of his life because he was ashamed of what she had done to him and what he had done with her.

  No wonder he had found it so difficult to speak to her about it.

  She felt sick to her stomach, had to clutch it because she was sure she would vomit, as it hit her that he meant to put himself through that torment again for her sake.

  Around her feet, black brambles shot from cracks between the deep grey cobblestones, and she bared her short fangs as anger surged through her, as her thoughts turned dark with pleasing images of finding the demigoddess and ripping her apart with her bare hands.

  “I need to find him. Now.” She pulled her right hand into the sleeve of her jacket and risked it.

  She grabbed Calistos by his shirt.