“I doubt he was thinking,” Keras muttered, earning a black look from a very drenched Valen.
“It worked, didn’t it?” Valen pointed towards the gate.
There was a hole in the barrier, the edges of it sparking blue and white.
An opening Keras was going to take.
He kicked off.
Was blasted backwards, thrown through the air with everyone else as Cass slammed into the grass in a crouch. The auburn-haired woman pinned beneath her struggled and pressed her palms into Cass’s chest. Light burst from them and Cass went flying. She disappeared in a swirl of black smoke and reappeared in Daimon’s arms.
“Work with me here, not against me.” Daimon lost his grip on her as she lunged forwards, her face a black mask of fury as her bright blue eyes narrowed on the witch.
Red tendrils of light snaked towards Cass and she swept her arm out as they reached her, sending them flying away from her as she advanced on the woman. The red streaks shot to her right, ripping through a group of daemons, melting them before Keras’s eyes.
The redhead launched another attack as Keras got to his feet for a second time that night, tempted to berate Cass too.
Blue see-through blades like sickles sliced through the air behind Cass, shot past her and spun towards the witch. The woman quickly waved her hand across the air before her and the blades struck a barrier, this one made up of multiple layers each a different shade. The outermost layer fractured, shattering like glass, and the sickles slammed into the next one, breaking the pale red construction. They struck the third green layer and this time they were the ones that shattered.
The witch hurled her hands forwards and light shot down from the sky, blazes of crimson that struck the earth and tore it up as Daimon grabbed Cass and stepped with her again, narrowly avoiding being hit by one.
Power charged the air, the tinny scent of magic filling it as it thickened.
Green lightning chased across the clouds gathering overhead as Cass clashed with the witch again, unleashing a barrage of orange spears at her. They slammed into the ground as the witch dodged backwards, nothing more than a blur.
Keras sent two waves of shadows rolling across the churned-up ground.
One aimed at the witch.
The other aimed at the three demonic males.
Enyo leaped backwards as they reached her, clearing the way, and the shadows struck at the males she had been fighting, driving them back again.
But not harming them.
The spells protecting them were still in place.
Keras turned his shadows on the witch as Esher focused on the gate and the furie again, ripping a startled, pained gasp from her. The ring that had opened on the gate began to close again as she lost control of it, as she clawed at her throat and turned wild eyes on his brother.
Esher’s knees gave out.
Keras caught him before he hit the dirt.
His brother couldn’t do this alone.
Keras growled as the opening in the barrier began to repair itself, mustered all his strength and commanded his shadows. They swept across the battlefield, snapping at the witch on their way past, causing her to leap away from them and into the path of one of the spears Cass threw at her. He didn’t pay attention to her as she screamed, or the weaker daemons as his shadows engulfed them, feeding on them and growing stronger.
He focused on the furie.
On the closing gap in the barrier.
Green lightning forked from the boiling black clouds, chased by an orange bolt that twined around it.
Keras didn’t see where it struck.
He only saw his shadows rushing up the side of the barrier, heading for that opening.
The ground shook hard, violent green light dampened his vision, and his ears rang.
Pain tore through him.
Through all his brothers judging by the grunts that sounded around him.
And Meadow shrieked.
Keras’s gaze darted to her.
To the gate.
Green lightning arced across the rings, sending them haywire. The colours shifted faster and faster, the rings spinning faster with them as bolts of magic chased over them, had some of the glyphs blazing white as others turned black.
“Look what you fucking did, you stupid bitch!” Meadow snapped, her violet eyes blazing as they landed on her witch.
A sizzling bolt of green shot from the gate.
Struck the furie in her back and hurled her forwards. She slammed into the fractured barrier, a pained grunt bursting from her lips. The three demonic brutes were quick to rush to her side, hauling her onto her feet as she muttered things Keras couldn’t quite hear. Violet-black smoke billowed close to her, spreading outwards to form a portal large enough for her and the males.
The redheaded witch made a break for it too, panic lighting her features as she rushed to reach the portal, her fear tainting the air as she reached for Meadow and her demonic bodyguards. “Don’t leave me. It wasn’t my fault.”
Cass raised her hand and a barrier shot up in front of the witch, cutting off her escape.
The witch turned with a snarl and threw her hands towards Cass.
Green lightning shot from the sky, rocketing towards Cass.
Daimon lunged for her as she stared at it.
Keras stepped.
He roared as he appeared in front of her and shoved her backwards, as the bolt struck him and an inferno swept through him.
Followed by darkness.
Beautiful darkness.
He turned on the witch with a snarl, baring his fangs, and launched at her. Her eyes widened and she stumbled backwards, mouthed something that had magic charging the air around her. She didn’t get a chance to finish the spell.
Keras slammed into her, knocking her off her feet, and grinned as his right hand closed around her throat. He shoved her to the ground, his grin only widening as her cry filled his ears, sweet music to his soul. He bore down on her, pinning her with one hand as she struggled, slapping at him, harder and harder, each blow laced with magic that only fed the darkness pouring through him.
Only made him want more.
He slashed at her chest, slicing the shoulders of her black dress, cutting grooves in her flesh that spilled crimson.
Her panic swept over him, a delicious drug that had him clawing at her, grinning as she tried to fight him. She would pay for striking him.
He raised his hand to strike her back, to punch a hole in her pretty skull.
A strong hand gripped his wrist, holding back his blow.
He looked up with a snarl pealing from his lips.
A snarl that died as his eyes met soft jade ones.
“We can use her.” Her voice curled around him, sank deep into his flesh and burrowed into his bones, warming them and chasing away the numbing cold.
The darkness.
He looked back down at the witch as she gasped beneath him, her face reddening as he continued to hold her throat.
Keras yanked his arm free of Enyo’s grip and felt the weight of her gaze on him. Not only hers. His brothers and Cass were watching him too, waiting to see what he would do.
He planted his left hand on the witch’s forehead, splayed his fingers and gripped her hard.
“Sleep.”
The moment that command left his lips, he felt the connection form between them, felt the power flow from him into her, and felt her suddenly relax beneath him.
He released her and sank back, glared down at her as he battled the lingering darkness, fighting to subdue it again.
Enyo was right. The witch was more useful to him alive than dead. Alive she might be able to tell him how to break the spells she had carved into the daemons who protected the furie. Or at least she could tell Cass.
Keras looked at his brothers. Frowned. Daimon clutched his arm as Cass fussed over it, crimson rolling from the long sleeve of his navy roll-neck to drip from his fingers. He wasn’t the only one who had bled. Ares bore a few cut
s on his left shoulder that looked like claw marks. Esher had a laceration across his thigh that might have been dealt by either a sword or an axe. Valen sported several wounds, including a nasty looking one that slashed across the side of his neck.
His violet-haired brother placed his hand over it and crimson was quick to squeeze from between his fingers.
The only one who hadn’t bled was Enyo.
He looked down at the tears in his black shirt. He didn’t think the daemons had caused the cuts, felt sure it had been the witch beneath him, but he couldn’t be sure.
He pushed off the witch, pulled his phone from his pocket and messaged Marek. His brother appeared a split-second later with Aiko and Caterina.
Aiko hurried to Valen, clutching a small medical box in front of her, her black pigtails bouncing with each step. Esher growled when she touched Valen’s hand to ease it away from his neck, and she hesitated.
“Sorry,” Esher muttered and scrubbed the back of his neck as he closed the gap between them.
She smiled softly and touched his hand. “I will tend to you next. You look tired.”
He nodded, his face sombre, his blue eyes dull with the fatigue Keras could feel in him.
His brother looked as if he needed a distraction while Aiko tended to Valen, so Keras turned to him and said, “Do you have enough power left to make it rain? We need to clear any blood from this place.”
Esher nodded and a gentle rain began to fall. Ares stepped in to help, burning sections of the grass to destroy not only the daemon bodies that were littered everywhere, but the blood that was soaking into the ground too.
“Take the witch to Scotland.” Keras looked at Marek.
Marek nodded and stooped, grabbed the witch and hauled her over his shoulder.
Cass pointed to a thick leather band around the woman’s wrist, one that had silver metal scrollwork running around it, forming leaves and branches, and ornate clasps that held blue stones that shone faintly in their hearts.
“I would say she is with a Swedish coven. I met a witch once who wore such a protective trinket and she hailed from one deep in the north of that country.” Cass shook her head, her pale blue eyes grave as they shifted from the witch to Daimon. “I worry she is not the only witch seduced by the thought of gaining power and a place in the new world the enemy wants to create.”
“Do you think she can use necromancy?” Keras looked from the unconscious redhead to Cass.
Cass was still for a moment, a thoughtful edge to her expression, and then she shook her head again. “I do not think so. Very few have dared to seek information on the art and I never came across anyone who was looking into it in the time I was studying it.”
“I don’t think so either,” Daimon put in as he frowned at the place where the portal had been and was now gone. “The daemons seemed pretty intent on grabbing Cass.”
That was true.
“I’ll go with you.” Cass took a step towards Marek. “We need to make sure her powers are sufficiently contained so no one can find her and she cannot escape.”
Marek nodded.
Daimon took hold of Cass’s arm and stepped with her at the same time as Marek teleported with Caterina and the witch.
Esher’s blue gaze narrowed on the gate. Keras looked there too. Grimaced at the sight of it.
Glyphs sparked and sent rainbow light arcing across the surface of the half-open gate, and he could feel the power leaking from it. Power that had the grass beneath it blackening.
“I have no choice now.” Esher kept his eyes locked on the damaged gate. “I have to close it.”
His gaze finally shifted from it, landing on Keras, a wealth of concern in it.
“I am getting better,” Keras reassured him, wanting to alleviate his brother’s worry. “The Tokyo gate will be able to handle the strain.”
He wasn’t sure it would, but he didn’t want his brother to know that, didn’t want any of them to see his worries, aware that it might stop Esher from closing the gate or might push him too close to the edge again. Esher needed to hear that he was getting better, so Keras would keep telling him that.
Esher nodded, flexed his fingers at his sides and swallowed.
Aiko came to him and slipped her hand into his, held it gently as she looked up at him, her dark eyes warm with love and worry.
And fear.
Esher smiled tightly at her, stroked her hair with his free hand and swept it down to her jaw. He tilted her head up and bent to capture her lips, kissed her softly and slowly.
Keras averted his gaze to give them a moment of privacy.
It landed on Enyo.
She looked at him, heat building in her green eyes, heat that had him thinking about kissing her like that. How would she react if he did? Would she accept it as Aiko did? Would she reject him?
He told himself that she wouldn’t reject him.
He might have been blind to her feelings before, but there was no denying she felt something for him now.
There was no denying he felt something for her.
He wanted to kiss her.
Craved the feel of her in his arms again.
Hungered to know the taste of her lips at last.
Esher broke away from Aiko, pulling Keras’s focus back to him, and Keras steeled himself as Esher stepped forwards, approaching the gate.
Valen went with him, drew a short blade from the holster beneath his arm, and held it out to him. “We’re right here with you, buddy.”
Esher nodded and took the blade, sucked down a breath and blew it out as he held his left wrist out above the gate.
Flinched as he drew the blade across it.
Aiko rushed to him, fisted his wet shirt and pressed her forehead to his spine as she held him from behind.
Esher closed his eyes as blood dripped from his wrist, hit the gate and slowly began to spread across the horizontal rings, muting the colours.
Agonising minutes ticked past as Esher worked to seal it, an eternity in which he sliced his vein open two more times, in which Aiko wrapped her arms around him and clutched him tightly. Esher’s face twisted into a sneer and Aiko tightened her grip.
Keras moved forwards in time with Ares, placed his hand on Esher’s shoulder as Ares mirrored him, and gripped Esher tightly, showing his brother that he was there, supporting him in the only way he could.
Hoping it would keep him grounded and keep his other side at bay.
There was no telling what that side of Esher would do if it woke now.
Esher slashed his wrist a fourth time. Blood ran freely from the wound, splattering across the gate, dulling the colours of the rings as they rotated a few feet above the grass, taking the blood with them, spreading it for Esher.
The innermost ring began to contract, the gate pulsing as it sank into the central violet disc.
“It’s working,” Keras murmured and palmed Esher’s shoulder. “You’re doing great.”
On the other side of him, Ares did the same. “Almost there.”
Keras could feel it as the power the gate emitted stabilised and then began to fade.
Esher gritted his teeth and leaned forwards, and Keras held him upright, keeping him from falling. His brother snarled and bared fangs at him, crimson invading his eyes as he locked them on Keras.
And then he looked down at the delicate hands pressed against his chest.
His face crumpled and he dropped the blade, reached for Aiko’s hands with his free one and clutched them. He closed his eyes again and another ring receded.
The gate sparked with bright arcs of electricity and Esher grimaced.
“You’re doing great,” Ares whispered and rubbed his shoulder. “You have this. Just a little more.”
Esher nodded stiffly.
The gate settled again, but Keras could feel the drain on Esher’s strength, the effort it took to simply get it back under his control. Keras’s gut twisted and clenched hard. If it was taking this much effort to just control the damaged ga
te, was draining Esher this much, he didn’t want to think about how badly closing it would affect his brother.
He had the terrible feeling Esher was going to be asleep for a long time.
The next ring shrank into the gate, the power it emitted falling again, leaving only one ring left. It shone crimson, completely covered in Esher’s blood, and Esher wavered on his feet as it began to contract, the rotation of it slowing.
When it seeped back into the gate, the violet disc pulsed brightly and then grew darker, and darker as it too contracted.
It winked out of existence.
Keras couldn’t feel the gate.
Felt nothing as he stood there.
As Esher collapsed and he sank to his knees with him.
Aiko sobbed against his brother’s back, and Keras shifted his hand to her shoulder.
“He will be all right.” Words he couldn’t quite bring himself to believe, not as he gazed at his brother’s ashen face.
He willed Esher to be strong, to fight to return to Aiko, and to him.
Valen stepped forwards. “I’ll get him home.”
Keras nodded, grateful for his assistance.
He moved aside and pushed onto his feet as Valen helped Aiko onto hers. Ares took hold of her as Valen lifted Esher into his arms, and they all disappeared.
Keras lingered.
Enyo did too.
She came to him, silent but he could feel her support, felt it as strength that flowed into him as he stared at where Esher had been.
He had wanted to close a gate and draw the enemy out, but now that it had happened, he felt it was a bad idea. Fear for Esher and fear for what was to come combined inside him to strip him of the strength Enyo poured into him as she touched his hand, as her fingers grazed his palm and drew his gaze to her face.
He worried that Calistos was right.
He was being reckless.
And it had cost Esher dearly.
Tears filled his eyes as a thousand emotions erupted inside him, as they tore down his strength and seemed to consume every part of him, a whirlwind that had him spinning.
Lost.
Enyo gathered him into her arms.
Keras wrapped his around her and clung to her, the anchor he badly needed as he weathered a terrible storm, as he struggled to keep his head above water and stop himself from drowning.
Keras: Guardians of Hades Series Book 7 Page 20
