As she looked at another male.
As she took his hand and clutched it to her.
As she drove a blade through Keras’s heart over and over again.
Just as she had that day.
He jerked to his left, and then his right, pain stinging his body as the daemons tore at him. He kept his eyes on the ring she had given him. A token of their friendship. She had called it that, and he had foolishly believed it to be so much more.
He growled when something obscured his view of it, ripped them away and shoved them. As soon as he could see it again, he continued to stare at it, aware of the daemons tearing at him but uncaring.
If they tore him apart and he died here, would she mourn him?
He stroked the ring he couldn’t bring himself to discard. The warmth of it was comforting, easing some of the noise in his head, the feelings tangled inside him.
A tie to Enyo that he couldn’t bear to sever.
Did she ever think of him?
She had never shared the feelings he had for her. He was certain of that.
She couldn’t even bring herself to look at him.
Couldn’t bring herself to speak with him.
She always chose Marek when she had information to relay.
Never him.
She would never choose him.
Because she belonged to another.
She belonged to that man he kept seeing her with, the one the daemon Lisabeta had revealed to him in one of her illusions.
Her husband.
The darkest part of him snarled at that and shadows exploded around him, instantly killing the daemons nearest him. He felt nothing as he slaughtered those who remained, ripping through them with his claws and his shadows, drenching his hands in their black blood.
Until only silence remained.
No daemons on his senses.
No matter how fiercely he wished there were.
He spun the ring around his thumb with his index finger, staring at it as he reached into his pocket with his other hand.
As he withdrew the small black stone box.
He slid the lid open with his thumb and plucked a single black pill from it, snapped the box closed and stared at the tiny oval balanced between his thumb and index finger.
At the ring that encircled his thumb just below it.
A ring that caused him pain.
A pill that took it away.
Keras closed his eyes, shutting out the sight of that ring, and placed the pill on his tongue.
Swallowed it.
Fell onto his back in the middle of the carnage he had wrought and flicked his eyes open.
Stared at the stars as the chilling cold slowly crept through him.
As that tangle of unwanted emotions unravelled and dissipated.
Leaving nothing behind.
Leaving him empty.
Just the way he liked it.
Chapter 26
Cass walked in silence, numbed not only by the frigid cold of the white world around her but by the thought of what she had done, and what she was about to do. She kept her chin up and shoulders back, refusing to let the witches who were marching her towards the grim grey building ahead of her see her fear. Her guilt. Her despair.
Her destiny loomed in that featureless block-shaped building that had never resembled a factory as much as it did now as she approached it, a soulless place built for churning out witches, keeping her coven strong. One of the most powerful in the world.
Her thoughts and her heart were back in the Aegean with Daimon.
She was falling for him, and there was nothing she could do about it, and gods it was frightening. He wouldn’t understand why she was doing this, and he wouldn’t forgive her for hurting him as she had.
She was sorry for both of those things, but this was the only way.
It hurt though.
Had tears threatening to line her lashes as she marched forwards, the pain in her heart in danger of rending it in two.
For a moment, she had been swept up in a glorious dream, one where she was able to love someone and have a future of her own choosing.
“Come now, Cassandra,” Belle said beside her, that motherly tone grating and making Cass want to glare at her. “This is your home. It is time you remembered that.”
Cass looked at the building again. It wasn’t her home. That feeling beat deep in her aching heart.
Her home was back on that island, with Mister Milos.
She looked at the witches around her.
This wasn’t her family. Her family was in Tokyo, probably worrying about her. She wished she could have spoken to Mari before coming here, could have had the chance to explain things to her and to tell her that she would be home soon, back with her.
Back with Daimon.
The ache in her heart worsened to a deep throbbing pain and she lowered her eyes to the path someone had shovelled. Would he ever forgive her? Would he ever understand?
Belle’s hand clamped softly around her wrist, pulling her focus away from him. “Cassandra, this is your duty.”
She nodded. “I know.”
“You must fulfil it, as everyone does. There are no exceptions. What we do, we do for the greater good of the coven.” Belle’s eyes remained cold as she smiled, one Cass assumed was meant to be reassuring.
At close to eight hundred years old, Belle was one of the most powerful witches in the coven and one who ran it with only two other witches. The blonde had been in charge of Cass since the moment she had been born, had overseen her upbringing and education. Belle was the closest thing to a mother that Cass had.
But she still wanted to rebel, to flee into the endless white and hope they never caught her.
It was pointless.
If they didn’t catch her, they would target those who were dear to her to draw her out of hiding.
Mari and Daimon would be at the top of that list.
“I know,” she repeated hollowly, sickness brewing inside her as she thought about what she was going to do.
Warmth washed over her as two of the witches opened the doors to the coven and she stepped inside with Belle still gripping her wrist. Wise witch. If Belle didn’t keep hold of her, she was liable to run, wasn’t sure she could stop herself even when she knew it would be a terrible mistake.
Cass forced herself to look at the blonde, at the other witches who escorted her into the enormous foyer of the coven as the doors closed behind them, and at the groups of young witches who were silently moving across it, dressed in the same drab grey colour as the building.
She had been one of those children once, a little over two centuries ago, obeying the rigid rules of the coven and remaining silent, afraid of smiling in case she was reprimanded.
Terrified of laughing.
But there had been better times too, when she had been in the dorms with the other witches of her age, away from the scrutinising and firm gazes of the teachers. There had been laughter then, potions gone hilariously wrong, incantations that had gone awry with amusing consequences, and a hell of a lot of bonding over a mutual dislike of the teachers and the adults.
She had made friends here, ones she remained in contact with despite the fact many of them were now spread across the globe.
So as much as she hated it at times, this was her family.
She told herself that on repeat, hammering it home.
She had sworn to do this duty when she had been on the verge of embarking on her life in the wider world, reciting a promise in a ritual that took place for every witch who chose to leave the coven, and she would, for the sake of her family.
“We shall give you a moment to prepare in your old quarters.” Belle finally released her.
Cold swept through Cass. She swallowed hard.
They expected her to go to the man right now?
She had thought she would have some time to settle in at least, to gather her courage. She pressed a hand to her stomach, unable to stop herself from reacting, and B
elle’s dark eyes narrowed.
“This isn’t going to be a problem, is it?” Belle looked ready to seize hold of her hand again and drag her to the man if Cass said that it was.
She forced herself to shake her head.
Breathed through the panic that gripped her and tried to calm her mind. She had been prepared to do this for centuries, had known this time would come. She could do it.
She blew out her breath.
It fogged in the air.
She frowned and looked at the other witches, at the way their breath did the same, and then down at her arms as her skin turned to gooseflesh.
The doors behind her burst open and frigid wind blasted into the room, had her teeth chattering as she whirled to face that direction at the same time as Belle. She struggled to maintain her balance as ice rapidly spread across the floor and climbed the walls, chilling the soles of her feet and tearing shocked gasps from several witches.
Snow swirled into the building, as thick as a blizzard, obscuring her view of the outside world.
She peered into the storm as it battered her, tiny flakes stinging her eyes.
A shape formed.
Tall.
Lean.
Formidable.
The snow fell to form a thick layer on the floor, swirled around her ankles and piled up in the corners of the room and against the furniture.
The temperature dropped so rapidly that many of the younger witches collapsed and older ones rushed to help them, gathering them into their arms and transporting them away.
Out of the reaches of the god who strode towards her through the storm, his handsome face set in dark lines, his eyes as white as snow ringed with darkness and spikes of clear ice rising like a crown from his silver-white hair. Icy talons glittered over his fingers as he flexed them and fangs flashed between his lips as he sneered at Belle.
A god on a warpath.
A god who had never looked so damned hot.
Around Cass, the other four witches began muttering incantations and colourful light flared from their palms as the spells built.
Relief to see him gave way to dread.
Cass cursed him for coming after her and making this all so much harder on her. Just the sight of him had her wanting to run into his arms, but she had to go through with her duty. She couldn’t turn her back on her family. She couldn’t.
He raised his hands and ice shot up around her, numbing her skin, and the four witches spat foul words about him as it encased them.
Leaving just Cass and Belle for him to deal with.
She glanced at the blonde witch, a plea bubbling up her throat.
But Daimon held up his hands and spoke.
“I’ll give Cass the child you want.”
Cass rocked back on her heels, her gaze whipping to him as a single word burst from her lips. “No.”
Shock danced across his face, followed by darkness that invaded his irises, tainting them with more black.
“I’m not good enough for you?” His eyes searched hers and she cursed herself again as she caught the pain in them. “You’re rejecting me?”
No, she wasn’t. She shook her head, hoping he would see that in her eyes, afraid of putting voice to those words as her heart ached, throbbing painfully in her breast.
When he looked as if he might attack the coven to stop her, or do something worse like leaving without another word, she dragged her courage up. He deserved to know the reason she didn’t want him to be the one to impregnate her and provide the coven with the child they demanded.
She took a step towards him, regaining his focus, pulling his eyes away from Belle and the others and narrowing the world down to only him at the same time.
“It’ll kill you,” she whispered, her eyes leaping between his as her eyebrows furrowed. “Surrendering a child to this place… Sacrificing all ties to it.”
His eyes rapidly darkened and shifted to beyond her, to the place where the children had been when he had entered, and something built in them. Something dark and terrible.
“Is that what happened to you?” he said, his voice a low growl as his gaze edged back to her. “You said you didn’t have a family. Is this what you meant? You never knew your parents. You don’t know if you have siblings here.”
She closed her eyes, drew down a slow breath, and fixed them on him as she opened them again. “It’s the way of all covens.”
He stared deep into her eyes, the pain that built in his a reflection of what she felt inside. She watched as it all dawned on him, as he realised that she was right and that he hated it.
He couldn’t let the coven take a child of his and strip everything from it—the love of its parents, its family—to mould it into a witch loyal to the coven and the coven alone.
“Go,” she whispered, pain expanding inside her, spreading through her until it filled all of her and she had to fight back the tears.
“I can’t.” Two words, spoken with an edge that said he meant them. “Not without you. I can’t leave you here, Cass… knowing that you don’t want this.”
She swallowed hard.
He held his hand out to her, his eyes softening, the darkness in them fading to reveal ice-blue.
“Fuck this place. Fuck this duty.” The ice talons that covered his fingers shattered and he flexed them, tempting her to take his hand. “Do you really want to bring a child into this world only to abandon it?”
War erupted inside her, a battle between two sides of her heart, one that needed her family, her coven, and was afraid of losing it, and one that feared losing him and Marinda.
He was asking her to choose between them.
If she went with him, she would be turning her back on her coven. They had been there for her for two centuries, had raised her and supported her. While she didn’t agree with their methods, they were her blood.
Her family.
If she didn’t go with him, she would have to do something abhorrent, something that might end up destroying her. Giving herself to another man. Sacrificing a child. Losing Daimon.
“She wouldn’t be abandoning it,” Belle snapped and closed her hand over Cass’s left shoulder. “This coven would be its family, just as it is Cassandra’s family.”
Cass looked at her, at the children now gathered on the landing at the top of the stairs beyond her as the snow finally settled, at the faces of her friends who had remained at the coven to work there with the children.
Hurt rolled through her, because whatever path she chose, she would be losing something dear to her. If she went with Daimon, she would be ostracised, exiled from the coven. She would no longer have their protection, and they would order everyone to break all ties with her.
She would no longer have her family.
Her life would completely change.
“This is her family,” Belle said.
Daimon snorted. “A family? This isn’t a family. Look at it.”
The power in the room grew, buffeting her as the older witches with the children began to ready spells and the four who flanked her and Belle broke free of the ice Daimon had used to cage them.
Belle’s grip on Cass’s shoulder tightened, pinning her in place.
Cass looked at Daimon, the fear rising inside her filling her head with images of him bloodied and broken, killed in the battle that would break out if he didn’t leave now.
“Go.” This time, that word lacked conviction as it left Cass’s lips, as she struggled with the polar desires that warred inside her, no longer sure whether she really wanted him to leave her here.
Fearing he might.
He folded his arms across his chest. “I can’t. Not without you. If you can honestly, hand on heart, swear to the gods, say that you want this, that you’re fine with it… then I’ll go.”
She felt the weight of everyone’s gazes on her.
Daimon stared at her.
She looked into his eyes, knowing what he could see as his softened further, warming this time, and a hint of
concern surfaced in them. He could see her wavering. He could see that the confidence and courage she had always worn was missing now, stripped from her.
She swallowed hard again and opened her mouth, only to snap it shut.
Daimon didn’t take his eyes off her, didn’t say a word as she fought with herself, shutting out Belle as she tried to convince her to do her duty and the other witches as they all demanded permission to attack him.
“I can’t,” she whispered and shook her head. “I can’t.”
Her shoulders suddenly dropped, all the tension rushing from her.
“You’re right.” She smiled slightly, gave a mirthless chuckle that seemed so out of place in the thick silence, but she felt as if she had lost her mind, because she was on the verge of doing something crazy. “I don’t want this. I don’t want to abandon a child. I don’t want to inflict the upbringing I had on another. I don’t want any of this.”
She looked deep into his eyes, the numbing coldness she had felt upon letting Belle take her away from him giving way to warmth as it filled her, as hope buoyed her and chased the darkness from her heart.
“I want you.”
He held his hand out to her. “You got me.”
“Cassandra,” Belle barked and when Cass shirked free of her grip, the witch snarled, “Stop him.”
Daimon stepped, appearing barely an inch from Cass, and banded his arm around her waist.
Kissed her as darkness embraced them.
Stole her away from her old life.
To a new one where she could have the future she wanted with all her heart.
A future with Daimon.
Chapter 27
The heat of Hong Kong embraced her as Cass’s feet touched solid ground again and she kept hold of Daimon, kept kissing him as she tried to quieten the voices at the back of her mind, the ones that ran over what she had done. She didn’t want to listen to them. Her heart already felt heavy, the thought of never seeing her coven and her friends again a weight that pressed upon it.
Would any of her friends visit her, risking punishment from the coven if they were discovered?
The coven was strict about such things, liable to exile whoever was caught visiting her.
Daimon: Guardians of Hades Series Book 6 Page 24
