That hair turned jet black, her eyes following it as her grin widened and she looked at the two male daemons now closing ranks with Nemesis. The colourful sash that hung from her waist, cinching her short black robe in, shone brightly.
The demonic brutes halted and slowly turned to look at each other.
Keras wasn’t surprised when they launched into a fierce battle against each other rather than moving to defend Nemesis.
Pleasure flitted across Apate’s face as she pulled her spear free and watched them fight. The goddess of deceit always had loved turning allies against each other.
Thanatos spun with Keras, swinging his broadsword at the same time, and Keras released his shadows, smiled as they tore through a female and took her down. He worked with the god of death, keeping his back to the male as they slowly moved towards Nemesis and the others.
When an opening appeared in the fray, he quickly scanned the battlefield, locating his brothers. Marek and Caterina fought back to back like him and Thanatos, and both had sustained injuries. Valen fought near them, blood dripping down the side of his face from a jagged cut across his forehead.
Esher and Cal were working together, battling a valkyrie that was blocking their path to Marinda.
Marinda had managed to get free and was fighting Meadow now, her violet eyes shining brightly as she viciously grappled with the other furie.
Cass and Daimon were ripping through the other remaining valkyrie and a daemon, striking both with spells and ice, barraging them and driving them towards Valen and Marek.
Keras twisted with Thanatos again and ducked as an arrow whizzed past his head and almost struck the god of death. Thanatos was quick to shift to his left though, the arrow flying harmlessly past him to clatter across the black ground.
“Sorry!” a soft female voice called.
Keras shook his head as his gaze landed on the youthful goddess, desperately trying to tell her to keep her distance.
Oizys bounced up to him regardless, all light with her bright blue eyes and shining halo of pale gold hair that had been styled around half a polished silver and blue Corinthian helmet that sat at an angle on top of her head.
The moment she neared him, a heaviness rolled through him, all thoughts about the fact they were clearly going to win this battle turning to doubts.
“Gods, sister, move away,” Thanatos grumbled and levelled a black look on her, blue fire flickering in his silver eyes as he grabbed a male by his head and closed his fist, crushing his skull. “My thoughts are dark enough as it is.”
The goddess of misery pouted.
“Come, sister.” Moros, a towering male with black hair that bled to crimson at the tips and eerie violet eyes, took hold of her arm with one hand and flexed the fingers of his other one around the hilt of his sword.
Rumours had always surrounded the two, tales that only the god of impending doom could withstand her presence without succumbing to depression.
She flicked another longing look at her older brother, Thanatos, before sighing and allowing herself to be led away by Moros.
The highly polished silver shield on her back acted like a mirror, and Keras tried to convince himself not to look into it, because it always showed a darker version of the world, including whoever was reflected in it.
He caught a glimpse of himself as he averted his gaze.
Crimson eyes stared back at him, but other than that, he appeared the same.
He wasn’t sure that was a good thing.
Oizys calmly nocked an arrow and loosed it. It nailed a Hellspawn over one hundred metres away in his head. Moros said something to her and she smiled brightly at him.
Keras left them to it. He mustered his strength as Enyo launched herself at Nemesis, and the goddess readied her whip, brought it back and struck hard. It caught Enyo’s side and her jade eyes glittered with pain as she pushed forwards, raising her sword.
He stepped and appeared before Nemesis, grabbed her and spun her to face him as his shadows shot outwards from under his boots. They were swift to seize hold of the goddess.
“Traitor,” he snarled, all the times she had punished him or one of his brothers flooding his mind, stoking the rage that flowed through him. “You will answer to my father for what you have done.”
To his left, the gate shone in a wave of colour and the power of it hummed in his veins. Nemesis looked at it, a rainbow reflecting in her crimson eyes as she gazed at the rings of the gate.
It was opening.
She brought her arm up and looped her whip around his neck, gripped the other end of it and dragged him forwards. Her forehead cracked against his, pain spiderwebbing over his skull as his ears rang again.
“This is not over,” she hissed in his face and kneed him in the stomach. “We will be the victors.”
Keras growled and commanded his shadows, savoured her shriek as they twisted tightly around her legs and a thousand thorns erupted from them to pierce her flesh. The scent of blood filled the air, goading the darkness as it rose within him again. He snarled as he seized hold of her throat with his right hand and shoved her backwards, wrestling with himself to resist the urge to strike her down as punishment for what she had done.
His father would want her alive, so he could make an example of her.
As much as he wanted to kill her, he had to take her to his father.
He kept telling himself that as he squeezed her throat, as he stared into her wild scarlet eyes as panic filled them.
Cold darkness coiled inside him, seeped into his veins and whispered words of seduction in his ear.
Words that had him tightening his grip.
Relishing the fear that built in her eyes as she struggled for air.
He wanted her dead.
She had to die.
On a vicious roar, he unleashed his shadows.
They burrowed into Nemesis, appearing as jagged black lines beneath her flesh that rapidly spread as she tossed her head back and screamed. When the tips of the tendrils of shadows reached her chest, that scream died on her lips.
And she died with it.
Keras stared at her, pleasure rolling through him, satisfaction beating in every inch of him as he realised she was gone. She had paid for her crime against his family, for her betrayal and her plot against his realm.
Justice had been served.
He dropped her and she crumpled on the ground, the shadows bleeding out of her pores to pool on the black earth beneath her.
“Keras,” Enyo whispered.
His head jerked up, his eyes darting to her where she stood just beyond Nemesis.
With her hand pressed to her side.
The urge to go to her was too strong to resist, the need to know she would be all right consuming and controlling him. He stepped over Nemesis’s body and placed his gauntleted hand over hers.
Her jade eyes remained fixed on his chest.
On Nemesis where she lay behind him.
Dead.
He knew what she wanted to say, knew that he should have spared Nemesis so his father could deal with her, but he hadn’t been able to stop himself.
A commotion beyond Enyo caught his eye and he glared at Meadow as the blonde female made a break for it.
Heading for the gate.
He couldn’t let her reach the other side.
He stepped around Enyo and rushed forwards, moving to intercept the furie, an easy task given that she was still over one hundred feet from the gate.
His eyes widened as he noticed that she wasn’t heading for the gate. She was heading for a portal between her and it. The violet-black oval blended with the terrain, visible only because of the sparks of green and purple lightning that chased over its surface.
Cal sprinted after her, hot on her heels.
His youngest brother’s blond hair streamed behind him as he leaped over fallen Hellspawn, hitting the black dirt on the other side without losing his balance. Cal hurled his right hand forwards and wind blasted the bodies in
his path, scattering them and leaving a clear run at Meadow.
The furie glanced over her shoulder, panic shining in her tropical blue eyes.
Keras shifted course, banking right and heading for her, determined to stop her from reaching the portal and escaping. She had been in contact with his brothers, would have the power to open the gate for weeks. She would have enough time to muster her forces again, or make another attempt to get her hands on Marinda or Cassandra.
If she managed to capture Cassandra, she might be able to raise her fallen comrades, using necromancy to restore them.
Keras wasn’t about to let that happen.
He was going to capture her.
Not only because he didn’t want her escaping, but because he wanted to hand her over to his father. Hades could make an example of her.
Keras focused to step and grab her.
Cal launched another attack and his brother’s blue eyes widened as instead of scattering the bodies and clearing his path, the blade of air sliced right through them.
And right through Meadow as she leaped for the portal.
Cal skidded to a halt and Keras stumbled to a stop, both of them staring at Meadow as she fell into the portal.
In two pieces.
The swirling violet-black cloud shrank as Keras stared at it, shock running through him.
Marinda hurried to Calistos, said something Keras didn’t hear as he continued to stare at where the portal had been.
Marek helped Caterina, his arm around her waist to support her as she hobbled towards Keras. Blood tracked down Marek’s thigh from a dent in his armour, but his brother was more concerned about her injuries than his own, his earthy eyes fixed on her hip.
Cass rushed to her and colourful light shone from her palm as she ghosted it over Caterina’s wound.
“Thanks,” Caterina wheezed and gave Marek a look, one that clearly told him to stop fussing.
She had no hope of that happening.
Daimon received the same look from Cass as he caught up with her, as he touched a cut on her cheek and his pale blue eyes warmed with worry.
Valen and Esher made their way towards him too, both of them covered in black blood. Valen lowered his head, his violet hair falling forwards to obscure his face as he fingered a hole in his armour above his left hip.
“Shit was a close call. Bastard went right for my heart,” he grumbled and looked at Oizys as she strolled beside him with her brother, Moros. “Cheers, Little Miss Dreary. You’re a damned good shot with that thing.”
He jerked his chin towards the bow she gripped.
She shrugged and smiled.
Enyo joined Keras and looked him over, concern shining in her jade eyes.
“I’m fine.” He gave her a slow once over. “You?”
She nodded and looked at the dead that surrounded them. “It is over?”
He surveyed the battlefield, his gaze lingering on Thanatos as the towering god stooped and picked up Nemesis’s body and Nyx led Eris and Apate in rounding up the survivors. A gift for his father, but not the one he had really wanted to give him. Nemesis’s body and the thirty or so Hellspawn who had survived would have to do.
He was sure his father was going to enjoy holding them in Tartarus for the rest of their lives.
Thanatos brought Nemesis to him and he took her from the god of death.
Looked down at her ashen, blood-splattered face.
He had been fighting this war for two hundred years.
“It’s over.” He didn’t hear the congratulations that passed between Nyx and her children and his brothers.
He continued to stare at Nemesis, the weight that had been on his shoulders slowly lifting as he kept telling himself it was finally over.
His duty was done.
And rather than stepping into the abyss as he had been contemplating, he had a future to look forward to with the only woman he had ever loved.
Enyo took hold of him and teleported, and when they touched down, he stood before the great black temple of the palace.
His father stood at the edge of the raised base near the steps, flanked by the huge onyx columns that supported the triangular roof. His mother stood beside him, the soft waves of her scarlet hair a contrast to his father’s armour as she looped her arm around his and leaned towards him, and her green eyes shining with warmth as she looked at Keras.
Keras sensed everyone appearing behind him.
Looked deep into his father’s blue eyes and strode forwards, leaving them behind and approaching him alone.
Persephone released Hades and he slowly descended the black steps, his heavy crimson cloak flowing over them behind him as the pointed tips of the obsidian boots of his armour scraped against the marble. She followed him down, flowers blooming around her bare feet as they touched the earth.
Keras laid Nemesis down on the ground before his father and stood.
Waited.
His father’s blue eyes warmed, filled with something that warmed Keras too, sank deep into his bones and eased all the tension from him as it flooded his heart with light.
With pride.
Two words he had been waiting to hear for two centuries fell from his father’s lips as he placed a hand on Keras’s shoulder.
Words that stirred a wealth of emotions in him that brought him close to tears.
“Welcome home.”
Chapter 28
Enyo idly studied the gilt-framed panels that filled the gaps between the gold-streaked obsidian columns set into the walls of the grand banquet hall in Hades’s palace, enjoying the gentle murmur of the conversation that flowed around her.
Whenever Keras spoke, her attention locked on him, and she couldn’t stop herself from glancing at him to check on him.
When they had been dressing for the celebration, he had told her several times that he was fine, but she refused to believe him.
Because she could feel how much Hades welcoming him back to the Underworld, to his home, meant to him and how it was all too much for him.
Her god was strong, but that strength was fragile where his emotions were concerned. They had gotten the better of him again, and she knew that he hated it because it made him feel weak. He wanted to hide from her the fact that he was still struggling to control his feelings, to stop them from overwhelming him, some foolish part of him clearly believing it would somehow mar her opinion of him.
Nothing could change how much she loved him.
He didn’t have to be strong around her all the time. He could rely on her, as he had back in Tokyo. She would be his strength when his faltered, would forever be there to guide him through and lift him up again.
Her gaze strayed to him, the heat that had been slowly filling her picking up pace along with her heart as she drank her fill of him.
He looked handsome in his mortal clothing, the pressed black slacks and crisp tailored dress shirt showing off his figure, but it was the light in his green eyes that entranced her as he rubbed the back of his black hair and smiled awkwardly at something someone had said to him.
Most likely Thanatos.
The winged god of death had taken to teasing Keras the moment they had entered the banquet hall.
Enyo surmised that Thanatos had hit the ambrosia while everyone had been preparing themselves for the feast. Unlike his mother, Nyx, who had changed into a beautiful deep blue robe with flecks of silver stitched into the fine material and a matching silver sash that circled her waist, Thanatos had remained in his armour.
If she could call it armour.
The enormous male wore black armour only on his lower half and his forearms, which would hardly protect him from a blade.
But then she supposed the god of death didn’t need protection of a more conventional means. Rumour had it that he self-revived if he was killed.
Even Hades had changed out of his armour, had dressed in a fine black tunic and tight trousers and knee-high riding boots. The same sort of clothing Keras had worn once, before
he had been sent to the mortal world. She recalled how handsome Keras had looked in his tunic, and looked him over, deciding she preferred him in his figure-hugging black shirt.
Modern mortal fashion was wonderfully revealing.
Keras glanced at her, his gaze settling on her face for only a second before it fell to her body. Heat filled his green eyes as he raked them over her, desire that had shone in them more than once since she had donned the dress Persephone had given to her. The black layers of the robe crossed over her chest and twisted around her waist, cinched with gold there. They flowed over her hips in sheer layers that left her feeling a little exposed whenever she moved and she could see her thighs through the layers as they parted.
But it was the amount of cleavage the top half revealed that made her feel deeply aware of her own body.
Part of her had wanted to find Persephone and ask for a different dress, something a little less revealing.
But then Keras had seen her in it, and she had recalled when Cass had wanted to lend her a dress and she had refused because she had feared how Keras might react.
It turned out that she loved the way he reacted whenever he looked at her.
Loved it so much she itched to find a quiet place where they could be alone.
“I think we have lost him,” Nyx murmured.
“Who can blame him? Look at her. She is radiant. Even I would not say no to that.” Thanatos’s deep voice rolled over the room.
Followed by Keras’s black snarl.
He twisted away from her and had Thanatos’s throat in his grip before the male could react. He flashed emerging fangs in the god of death’s face, another vicious growl rumbling from him as he tightened his grip, digging short claws into Thanatos’s throat.
“Keras,” Enyo whispered as she sensed the darkness rising inside him, as the light in the room dimmed and everyone felt silent, their focus shifting to Keras as he stared Thanatos down.
She gently placed her hand on Keras’s shoulder.
Keras: Guardians of Hades Series Book 7 Page 31
