And her arm regrew.
The female flexed her new talons and grinned down at Cass, flashing sharp teeth in her direction. On an ear-splitting shriek, the valkyrie launched towards her.
Keras swept his arm up and hit her with a wave of shadows before she could reach Cass, knocking her flying back into the air again. She struck one of the other valkyries and both of them turned on him with a hiss.
White-purple lightning blinded him as it shot down from the sky and hit one of them. She screamed and shuddered, her entire body juddering as arcs of electricity coursed over her.
Valen aimed the next bolt of lightning at her companion, but the female was swift to move, hit the speed of a train as she beat her wings and swept over the battlefield in a broad arc.
Keras tracked her.
As his gaze followed her, the force Nemesis had amassed reached them.
And several of them went down screaming, clutching their chests and vomiting blood.
Esher.
“Do not overdo it.” Keras turned on his brother.
Esher’s blue eyes narrowed on him, and he looked as if he wanted to refuse that order, but then he nodded stiffly. Esher’s power over water gave him the ability to control the fluid within another person’s body, but it drained him. Using that attack too much would render him weak and vulnerable.
Marek joined the fray with Caterina, cutting through the gathered Hellspawn and other species who had sided with Nemesis. The blood from the ones Esher had taken down rose into the air, fist-sized spheres of it that rippled as they obeyed Esher’s command. They were still a moment and then shot towards the bulk of the enemy forces, splitting into smaller spheres along the way. Those bullet-sized balls of blood ripped through the enemy, punching holes in the ones who were too slow to dodge.
Trusting that his brothers had this, Keras glanced at Enyo.
And caught her looking at his wrists as she battled one of the demonic brutes.
She didn’t have to worry. He was more than powerful enough to deal with any from the enemy’s side.
Even Nemesis.
Enyo bent forwards to duck beneath the meaty fist of the daemon and straightened, leaned back immediately to avoid the leathery wing that cut across the air in front of her, her jade eyes widening as it came close to striking her.
Keras sent a wave of shadows at the daemon just as Enyo drew her blade. The silver sword shone in a dazzling arc as she dropped to a crouch as the male twisted back towards her, lashing at her with his claws. She sliced across the daemon’s shins. A frustrated bellow erupted from the brute and she threw herself forwards and rolled as the male tried to stomp on her.
Keras’s shadows barrelled into the male’s foot before he could bring it down and shoved upwards, flipping the daemon into the air.
Enyo rolled onto her feet in front of Keras and glanced around them at the battle. “It seems to be going well.”
Famous last words, if ever he heard them.
A roar off to his right had his focus zooming there and he glared at the two daemons who had managed to get their hands on Cal. His brother fought like a wild thing, battering them with blasts of wind that almost managed to free him, his stormy eyes fixed ahead of him on Meadow as two more of the demonic males dragged Marinda along behind her.
Cal hit his captors with another blast of wind and one of them lost his grip on him.
A valkyrie seized Cal from behind, her golden talons pressing into his throat and spilling blood down his black armour.
Keras stepped with a growl that echoed through the brief flare of darkness around him and summoned his shadows, pulling them from that darkness. He blasted out of the teleport close to the valkyrie, the shadows that had been rising up behind him shooting past him as his boots hit the black basalt.
They tore into the valkyrie, their hunger echoing inside Keras as they swarmed around her, lashing and cutting her, feeding on her panic.
He didn’t have to know what her charm was if his shadows ripped at everything she wore. Eventually they would find it and break it, and then they would break her.
Keras swiftly blocked the fist of one of the two daemon’s as it flew at his face, grabbed it with his other hand and twisted, slamming the male onto his back on the black ground. He dropped hard, landing with his knee on the demonic male’s throat, and punched him. Once. Twice. A third time. Glyphs shimmered over his skin each time, but the percussion caused by his rapid hits was enough to cause some damage. Blood burst from the male’s lips, the smell of the fetid black liquid rousing rage in Keras’s veins.
Rage that demanded he surrender to it and destroy everyone present for daring to enter his father’s realm.
Sullying it with their presence.
Rage that demanded he deal with the traitors by gutting them, using the entrails from one to strangle the next, a fitting punishment for what they had done.
Enyo’s bright silver blade cut up the back of the second daemon and his furious bellow as she caught his wings satisfied the rage building inside Keras, bringing it back down to a more manageable level. He fought to suppress it further as he raked talons over the throat of the daemon he had pinned beneath him, but it spiked again as glyphs appeared in a wave over the daemon’s skin.
The protection spells needed to go.
“Cassandra!” Keras bellowed.
Daimon appeared with her a few seconds later, his brother swift to spin her away from him when the daemon Enyo had been fighting made a lunge for her. Daimon took the blow, staggered backwards as the male’s fist slammed into his chest.
Ice spikes erupted from the ground between them.
Shattered as they struck the male’s skin rather than piercing it.
“Damn it,” Daimon muttered. “We really need to do something about these bastards. Baby?”
“Working on it.” Cass sounded strained.
Keras looked up at her where she stood over the daemon, her hands moving slowly and rhythmically between her and the daemon who looked up at her too, his crimson eyes growing wider by the second. Ribbons of colourful light formed between her fingertips and the daemon’s chest, danced in the air, undulating and twisting, growing brighter as Cass’s eyes fell shut and she wavered on her feet.
Enyo barrelled into the daemon that Daimon had been fighting, taking him off his brother’s hands just as Cass’s legs gave out.
Daimon caught her and held her up, his black armour blending with her leathers and corset, and the tumbling waves of her hair as she leaned her head back against his chest. “You good?”
She nodded and swallowed, some of her colour returning as Daimon held her. “I know the spell. I did not cast it, so I cannot reverse it. Piecing together a counter-spell for it now.”
Beneath Keras’s knee, the daemon struggled, his desperate actions jostling Keras as he tried to keep him pinned. It seemed he didn’t want to lose the spell that was protecting him.
Enyo and the other daemon danced back into view, her blade glancing off his skin as the male blocked her with his bare arms. Glyphs shone wherever she struck, her face a picture of growing determination as she narrowed her jade eyes on the male and hit harder, putting all of her strength behind her next blow.
A wave of dazzling crimson and aqua light burst outwards from Cass.
Enyo’s sword cleaved right through the arm of the daemon as the spell passed through him and sliced at a diagonal into his chest, from his shoulder to his heart.
The huge demonic male looked down, his scarlet eyes wide, shock washing across his rough features.
He lifted his one remaining hand.
Didn’t make it as far as touching the wound.
He fell to his knees and crumpled, the action yanking Enyo forwards as her sword went with him.
Keras stared at the dead male.
Cassandra’s counter-spell hadn’t only made the daemon beneath him vulnerable as Keras had expected. It had made all of the furie’s bodyguards vulnerable.
He didn�
��t take his eyes off the dead daemon as his shadows tore through the one beneath him.
The valkyrie his shadows had been attacking suddenly screamed and then went silent. He looked over his shoulder at her as his shadows flowed away from her, tendrils of them snaking across the ground and seeking their next victim.
Two daemons and one valkyrie down.
They could do this.
He looked up at Enyo.
Roared as a thin rope of silver wrapped around her neck and she shot backwards. The horde of males and females who were on the enemy’s side swallowed her, stealing her from view, tearing another feral bellow from him as his darker side surged to the fore.
Snarled at him to find her.
Protect her.
Because Nemesis had her.
He barely spared a glance at Cal, looked at him for just long enough to see that he was fine and that Daimon and Cass had joined him, together with Esher.
Keras kicked off and teleported, growled as he landed in the middle of the enemy forces, the darkness inside him building faster as a muffled grunt reached his ears.
Enyo.
Lightning struck around him as he tore through the Hellspawn between him and her, lashing at them with his talons and his shadows. The white-purple bolts hit hard and fast in a line, and Keras silently thanked Valen for helping him as they cleared him a path.
A pained grunt burst from his lips as a valkyrie slammed into his right side, knocking him into a group of males and taking him down. They leaped on him and he curled up, defending himself as best he could with his shadows and his armour, deflecting blows from both blades and fists.
The darkness surged deeper this time, seemed to sink into his veins, down into his bones, and black needs filled him, spun around his mind in a twisted pleasing spiral that had him falling deeper into the abyss.
“Keras!” Marek bellowed.
Around him, shards of black earth shot up, ripping pained screams from both the Hellspawn males and the valkyrie.
Keras was quick to launch to his feet again, made a mental note to thank his brother later as he threw his hand forward and sliced through the wall of earth that protected him with his shadows, cleaving a great hole in it.
And the enemy on the other side.
Several of the males went down.
He stepped through the hole and scanned the battlefield, seeking Enyo.
Marek and Caterina fought nearby, tackling the valkyrie who had attacked Keras, taking her and her small group of males on with blades and spears of earth.
Keras looked left.
Snarled as he caught a glimpse of scarlet.
Nemesis.
A flash of silver followed, together with a battle cry that roused his blood, had his heart pumping harder as adrenaline surged.
Enyo.
He tried to step to her and growled when his head turned, warning him that teleporting would be a mistake. He couldn’t afford to pass out on the battlefield. He would have to reach her through other means.
A grin stretched his lips, splitting a cut on his lower one.
His shadows shot forwards, a seething mass of spikes that snapped at and pierced any who lingered in their way. Keras followed behind them, sprinting towards Enyo, his gaze locked on her. He caught glimpses of her as she battled Nemesis near the gate.
A gate which shone brightly, rainbow colours chasing across its surface as he neared it.
He skidded to a halt.
“Damn it.”
If he went any closer, the gate would open. He wouldn’t get a say in it either. He could try to control it, but it would take effort, and focus, far more than he would have as he tried to battle Nemesis.
It had to be her plan. She had used her whip to snatch Enyo in order to draw him to the gate. He cursed again, spitting the foulest one he knew in the language of the Underworld. This wasn’t good.
He blocked the blade that came flying at him, deflecting it with his vambrace and ducking left, leaning to avoid being cut by it. Another male thrust a dagger at him, and Keras bared his fangs and hit him with his shadows. The thin tendrils pierced his chest and came out the other side, wrapped around him and dragged him down.
Strength flowed through Keras as his shadows devoured the traitor.
Some of these Hellspawn were strong.
If he could kill enough of them and feed them to his shadows, he might be strong enough to control the gate and fight Nemesis at the same time.
It was a good plan. The best one he had.
He turned to call out to Valen and Marek.
Heat bloomed in his shoulder.
He looked down at it, at the silver barb that protruded from it.
“Keras!” Enyo screamed.
He grunted as he shot backwards towards her, the pain in his shoulder blazing outwards as the four points at the base of the tip of Nemesis’s whip dug through his armour and into his flesh.
Not good.
If Nemesis managed to get him near the gate, it would open.
She would win.
Chapter 27
A ripe curse spilled from Nemesis as Keras’s back slammed into something.
Something solid.
A wall?
“I had expected more from the firstborn of Hades.” Thanatos’s deep voice rumbled against Keras’s back.
Relief flooded him.
Pain followed it as Thanatos grabbed the tip of Nemesis’s whip and yanked it forwards, tugging it from Keras’s shoulder. He threw his head back and unleashed an agonised bellow as fire swept through him, his mind blanking as his ears rang and his heart laboured. The pain only grew more intense as the god of death crushed the barbed tip in his gauntleted fist and grabbed the silver metal rope of the whip in his other hand.
And broke it.
Thanatos discarded the barb and released the main length of the whip.
Keras sank against Thanatos’s front, his breath sawing from his lips as he struggled against the fierce waves of fire crashing over him. Thanatos gripped his left shoulder and pushed him forwards, and bile rose up Keras’s throat as the whip slid free of his right shoulder.
“Enyo,” Keras muttered, mustering his strength and battling the pain, aware that he couldn’t afford to rest.
He had to reach Enyo.
“Taken care of. Mother is in a bad mood.” Thanatos chuckled.
It was just like the brutal god of death to laugh on the battlefield.
Keras had never fought beside the towering male before, but his father had told him stories of their battles together.
And of his battles with Nyx at his side.
He turned slowly, coming to face the seven-foot-plus wall of muscle. As always, Thanatos wore black armour only on his lower half and his forearms, leaving the heavy ropes of muscle of his torso exposed. Hades had asked the god of death about his habit of forgoing chest armour in the past, and the black-haired male had blamed his wings.
Keras had to agree with his father’s theory—Thanatos liked all on the battlefield to see his strength and not just feel it.
Amusement shone in the male’s silver eyes as he glanced at the battle, and his huge onyx feathered wings shifted as he turned slightly to block a male who swung a sword at him, the change in his position revealing the gate.
And Nyx.
The beautiful slender female fought fiercely, her navy-to-aqua eyes shining with a battle high as she worked in tandem with Enyo. Both goddesses moved as one, as if they had practiced this fight a thousand times, their silver swords cutting through the air towards Nemesis.
The scarlet-haired goddess lashed out at them with her whip, striking both of their swords, knocking them back as she inched away from them. Her blood-red sandals scraped over the loose ground, her scarlet eyes leaping between Nyx and Enyo as she readied her whip again.
The sheer layers of her black dress parted to flash her thighs as she hurled her whip forwards, her face twisting in a sneer as Enyo batted it away again and advanced.
Determination flashed in Enyo’s jade eyes, and gods, she had never looked so beautiful.
Keras tackled another male who dared to attack him and Thanatos, cutting him down as the god of death went to town on another group, his enormous black broadsword making easy work of even the stronger Hellspawn.
Together, they cut a path through the throng, heading for Nyx and Enyo.
Two of the surviving demonic males and a valkyrie joined Nemesis.
The shift in favour towards Nemesis didn’t deter either Enyo or Nyx.
Nyx’s flowing black hair lifted into the air as she gracefully spun away from the valkyrie, the silver threads in it catching the colourful light of the gate. That light chased over her alabaster skin, painting it with soft hues, and glinted off the swirls of silver-blue metal that formed a breastplate over her long black dress. The sheer layers of it split at the front, flashing her long legs as she dropped beneath the blade the valkyrie aimed at her throat.
Enyo struck that blade with her own, knocking it upwards, sending the blonde female off-balance.
A petite raven-haired female dressed in a gold and black breastplate and skirt leaped on the valkyrie’s back and drove two gold daggers into her shoulders.
Eris.
Apparently, Thanatos wasn’t the only child Nyx had brought with her into battle.
The diminutive goddess of strife was vicious as she clung to the hilt of one dagger and drew the other out of the valkyrie’s shoulder. She stabbed the female again, driving the blade into her neck this time. Blood spurted from beneath the dagger, splattering across Eris’s face and soaking into her twisted braids, turning the threads of gold in them scarlet.
Her amber eyes brightened as she struck again.
And again.
The valkyrie didn’t stand a chance.
A gold and black spear pierced her side and a high battle cry reached Keras’s ears as the one who wielded it drove forwards.
Eris scrambled up onto the valkyrie’s shoulders, gripping her wings to avoid being skewered by the deadly tip of the spear as it punched out of the female’s back.
“Watch it,” Eris snarled.
Apate just grinned at her, a wicked twinkle in her sky-blue eyes as she brushed loose auburn hair back from her face, tucking it behind the thick plait that arced up from her temple to a knot in the back of her head that held the rest of her hair in place.
Keras: Guardians of Hades Series Book 7 Page 30
