The goddess dodged most of the spells that zoomed at her and grunted when one struck her shoulder, spinning her backwards. She found her footing and came at Cass again, faster this time.
Cass bit out a curse in Russian.
She summoned a barrier spell and shoved both of her hands forwards, sending a glowing blue wall at the female.
The furie broke straight through it as if it was paper and barrelled into Cass.
“Cass!” Daimon yelled and she wrestled with the goddess, using her magic to give her a boost in strength.
“I have this,” she shouted, not quite sure that she did have it when the furie caught her with her talons, raking them across her side and cutting through her corset. “Take care of the gate.”
Because it was almost closed.
The furie threw a desperate look at it.
And then off to her right.
The second goddess was on her feet again, running for Daimon. Shadows chased her and lightning shot up from the ground all around her. She nimbly dodged and rolled, leaped and managed to evade all of the attacks as she closed in on Daimon.
Cass threw a spell at her.
Regretted it when the one she had been using to boost her strength faltered, the drain on her magic proving too much.
The barrier around them shimmered and she focused on it, shoring it back up again, aware that she couldn’t let it fall, no matter what happened to her. It was all that stood between the brothers and close to one hundred daemons.
The second furie reached Daimon, lashing at him with her claws, driving him back as he tried to reach Cass.
Cass looked at him as the furie she had been fighting got her in a chokehold and dragged her backwards.
Power vibrated in the air. A portal.
She craned her neck to look behind her as she grabbed the furie’s arms, cursed when violet-black clouds billowed outwards from a point only a few feet away. She clawed at the goddess’s arm, drawing blood, and pressed her hands to the crimson liquid, forming a connection between them.
The goddess shrieked in her ear as the spell seeped into her and Cass wove it with another, turning it toxic, hoping to weaken the furie enough that she could break free.
She kicked and scrambled with her legs as the bitch pulled her backwards, as the power of the portal grew heavier in the air.
Cass looked at Daimon, awareness washing through her, leaving her cold.
She couldn’t stop the furie in time.
He paused as he grappled with the second furie and stared at her, hurt welling in his striking eyes, laced with despair and hopelessness that crashed over her too.
A vicious roar cut through the night as the barrier flickered and faded.
Daimon’s head jerked up and he ducked as the furie he had been fighting released him and threw herself to the ground.
Cass stared wide-eyed as a huge lion-like creature with feathered eagle wings and gleaming talons shot past him.
Heading straight for her.
This wasn’t good.
Those talons flexed, aimed right at her.
It was going to rip her to pieces.
Chapter 37
Daimon ducked and then popped to his feet as the winged lion shot past him, heading for Cass. She froze in the furie’s grip, horror shining in her blue eyes as she stared at the beast that was zooming towards her.
Daimon had never been so glad to see the little bastard.
Mister Milos swooped upwards, grabbing the furie with his talons and hauling her up into the night air on hard beats of his feathered wings. The guardian deity growled as he sank fangs into the female’s shoulder, as he raked at her with his claws. The goddess fought him as they twisted in the air, scratching at him with her own talons, hissing and snarling the whole time.
Cass sagged to her knees, eyes fixed in a blank stare ahead of her and her skin far too pale for Daimon’s liking.
He kicked off, determine to grab her before Meadow could recover from the blow he had delivered when Mister Milos had distracted her with his overly dramatic, and extremely late, entrance.
He left the second furie in the dust as blood rained down from the sky.
The battle that raged there slowly drew Cass’s stunned gaze upwards.
Heat licked across his back and he didn’t need to look to know Meadow was on her feet and coming after him. Ares grunted as he hurled another fireball at her, and she screamed as this one connected, blasting her towards the gate.
Daimon’s breath hitched and he skidded on the grass, twisting towards the gate.
Meadow shot straight through the lingering ring and central violet disc, tumbled across the ground and rolled to a halt.
The ring shrank into the central disc and it began to grow smaller, burning brighter as the power of the gate was condensed down into a single tiny orb. That orb flashed, the violet light blinding him as it filled the darkness, and then it was gone.
Meadow scrambled onto her feet and glared at where the gate was hidden.
A pinprick of purple light burst back into existence.
“Shit,” Ares muttered and raced past him, Valen hot on his heels. “I’ll handle this.”
Daimon nodded and pivoted, hurried to Cass and helped her onto her feet.
She continued to stare up at the sky, watching Mister Milos as he fought the furie. More than just her blood was splattering them now. The guardian was taking heavy damage too. He willed Milos to fight harder, and to survive. As much as he couldn’t stand the cat, he had to make it through the battle. Cass would be devastated if something happened to him.
Someone whimpered.
And then Melody plummeted out of the sky, landing hard on her back on the grass, blood bursting from her lips as her body jerked upwards.
Daimon figured the goddess was done for.
She was still for a tense minute and then she coughed and rolled over, pressed her hands and knees into the dirt and shook her head.
Damn.
Twin orbs of twisting green and purple light shot past Daimon and slammed into the goddess, sending her flying.
“Bitch,” Cass muttered and sagged in his arms.
He clutched her to him with one arm and raised his other one, and ice shot up from the ground as Melody ran at him. The furie managed to dodge the first shard, but the second caught her calf, and the third pierced her thigh, sending her toppling forwards.
Just as the fourth jagged spear of ice shot up from the ground.
One he had intended to use to block her path to Cass.
The thicker shard impaled her chest, crimson swift to roll down it as it sliced clean through her and the pointed tip emerged from her back.
“Melody!” Meadow yelled, pain and fury in that one word.
Together with fear.
The furie cast one last look at her fallen sister and then spun on her heel, sprinting for a portal that formed just a few feet ahead of her. Ares growled and hurled a fireball at her, and lightning shot up from the ground just in front of her. She threw herself to her left, rolled and came onto her feet, kicked off and leaped.
Straight through the portal.
Keras snarled, a black growl that had Daimon focusing on his brother to see what had him so upset.
The daemons were fleeing.
It was over.
At least for now.
He gathered Cass to him, held her close and pressed a kiss to her messy black hair, a thousand feelings crashing over him as his battle instincts waned. Fear was at the helm, had him clinging to Cass as his mind filled with all the ways things could have gone differently.
Gone wrong.
He had come close to losing her too many times tonight.
When she pulled back and looked up into his eyes, pain shimmering in hers together with tears, he knew that feeling echoed inside her too.
Mister Milos landed as his brothers strode towards him, Keras helping Marek as he pressed a hand to his thigh, and Valen and Ares arguing about who had let th
e other furie escaped.
Cass slowly turned towards the winged lion, tense at first. Fear ran through her and a glow lit her palm, chasing back the night. He smiled as he realised she didn’t know who had been the one to save her.
As the beast limped towards her, blood tracking down his left front leg, and the light of her spell washed over him to reveal scars on his face and the notch in his ear, recognition dawned in her eyes.
“Milos,” she breathed, her face crumpling as she broke free of Daimon’s grip and hurried to him.
The guardian deity shrank back to his other form as she rushed to meet him, his wings disappearing into his back and white splotches growing on his fur.
By the time Cass had reached him, he was a cat again, purring loudly as Cass swept him up into her arms and fussed over him, using a healing spell on his injuries.
She looked at Daimon. Frowned.
“You don’t look surprised.” She glanced at his brothers. “None of you do.”
Ares and Valen shrugged. Marek grimaced as he applied pressure to his thigh. Keras didn’t react at all. He was too busy scouring the darkness, where shadows lashed at the bodies of the daemons, devouring them and leaving nothing more than withered husks behind that broke down in the gentle breeze that swept through the park.
“How long have you known?” Her gaze drifted back to Daimon.
“From the moment I met him.” Daimon went to her and rubbed Milos between his ears. The mangey thing hissed at him, baring three yellowing fangs. Daimon let that one slide. “Thanks for taking care of her. You couldn’t have hauled arse here a little quicker though?”
Milos meowed, the sound indignant.
He supposed it was a long way between Tokyo and New York when you couldn’t teleport great distances. Milos must have teleported close to a hundred times to reach Cass as quickly as he had. He could only imagine how tiring that had been for him.
Daimon made a mental note to treat the beast to some sushi-grade fish later.
Cass turned her frown on the cat. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”
Daimon knew she was talking to the cat, but the way she glanced at him made him feel she was talking to him instead.
She was right. He did have a lot of explaining to do.
Or at least a lot of apologising.
“What happened after you slipped my grasp?” Marek finally lifted his head and Cass went to him, crouched before him and tucked Milos against her with one arm.
She held her free hand over Marek’s thigh and warm light glowed from her palm.
Beneath the rip in Marek’s dark trousers, the long gash in his thigh healed.
Cass stood and gave him a black look. “I landed in the Underworld.”
“Shit,” Ares muttered.
Marek looked at Daimon.
Daimon shrugged it off. “Not your fault, man. She has a will of her own and apparently a knack for getting into trouble.”
“Did you meet Father?” Concern lit Ares’s dark eyes.
She nodded and petted the cat. “He was not charming. Has a personality as black as yours.”
She flicked Keras a look.
Keras narrowed green eyes on her. “I hope you did not upset him.”
Daimon wanted to flash fangs at his brother for being more concerned about their father than her, but he knew where Keras was coming from. Hades in a bad mood was trouble for them all. His father had a short leash on his temper and it snapped more often than not.
“I was delightful. He was not.” Cass cuddled the cat and Daimon went to her. Just the thought of her facing his father left his blood cold and filled him with a need to hold her and know she was here now, safe with him again. “I told him what had happened since he thought Daimon had died, and presumed I was responsible because someone dropped me in the Underworld with his blood on me.”
“I didn’t drop you,” Marek grumbled.
“Semantics,” she countered, sighed and continued, “I told him everything, and he was… displeased… upon hearing Nemesis is a traitorous bitch.”
Ares looked at Keras. “I’m guessing Esher didn’t get a chance to send that Messenger.”
“For all we know, all Messengers are now working against us.” Keras twisted the silver band on his thumb, spinning it around, his gaze locked on it. “What if others are too?”
Those words were spoken so quietly she almost didn’t hear them.
Ares ghosted a hand over Keras’s shoulder. “You know she wouldn’t.”
Keras’s green gaze snapped to his, rapidly darkening. “Do I? I thought I knew her once. It turned out I was wrong.”
He disappeared, leaving black wisps of smoke behind that swirled in the air.
Ares heaved a sigh. “I’ll track him down later. Give him five minutes to cool off.”
Daimon nodded in agreement. He couldn’t remember the last time Keras had actually spoken of Enyo. While he didn’t know what had happened between them, he knew it had hurt his brother.
Still hurt him.
Marek scrubbed a hand around the back of his neck. “At least she’ll have to come to Tokyo if she wants to pass information to us now. That’s me off the hook.”
Which sounded a lot like a catastrophe waiting to happen to Daimon.
Valen nudged the dead furie with his boot and jerked backwards when she slid further down the melting ice shard. “One down, eh?”
“I’m not sure this is a good thing.” Daimon looked at his brothers. “We have one less enemy, but Nemesis is powerful and the remaining furie is going to want her sister back.”
“Mari will be in danger,” Cass said, worry shining in her blue eyes. “They’ll need her more now than ever.”
“You too.” Daimon brushed his palm over her cheek, fighting the darker side of his blood as it snarled at him to protect her. “Meadow looked desperate when she left. I have a bad feeling she’ll come after both Mari and you. She’ll want Melody back.”
“So we take the body, stick it on ice. Draw them to us.” Ares’s eyes glowed in the low light as he growled, “If she wants Melody back, she’ll need the body.”
“Maybe. I’m not sure. Some forms of necromancy work in other ways, using the soul as the catalyst.” Cass leaned into Daimon’s side and he rubbed her arm, held her to him and silently offered her comfort he hoped would allay her fears.
No one was going to get their hands on her.
Or Mari.
“We should take it anyway,” Valen put in and lifted his gaze to the tree tops and the buildings beyond them. “Just in case. Things are still looking sketchy.”
Daimon nodded in agreement as he glanced at the horizon, seeing the otherworld. The sky blazed red, distant screams ringing in his ears, carried on the hot wind that blasted against him and sent flares of gold sparks spiralling up into the sky from the broken burning buildings. He had expected it to look better, but he swore it looked worse. Because the final battle was drawing near?
Maybe they could use Meadow’s rage against her, using Melody’s body to lure her into the open. Maybe being in possession of the bodies of both one of the furies and the wraith would work in their favour in other ways too. They were two powerful allies that the enemy would definitely try to take back if they were determined to use Cass to revive their fallen.
As far as Daimon could see, his side were holding all the cards.
The enemy would be the one to make the next move.
And it would be the first move of the final battle when it happened.
He could feel it.
“What do we do about Nemesis?” Marek said.
“Your father dispatched legions to hunt for her. He believes she’s still in the Underworld.” Cass stroked Milos.
“She’ll be coming.” Ares’s hands glowed, flames licking over them as he clenched them into fists at his sides. “Now that she’s revealed herself, they’re not going to rest. They’re going to come at us with all they have to get a gate open and allow her through it, toge
ther with whoever else is on her side.”
Ares was right.
The enemy were going to make one last stand.
He and his brothers would be ready for them.
He held Cass to him and amended that thought—he and his side would be ready for them. Everyone was a part of this war and everyone was going to want to do all in their power to make sure that when it was over, they were victorious.
“I should close this gate.” Daimon glanced over his shoulder in the direction of it.
“Tomorrow,” Ares said. “Tonight, we rest and we plan. We go over everything we know and we make sure we haven’t missed anything, and we wait for word from the Underworld. If the legions fail to find Nemesis, then we’ll call in a favour.”
Daimon didn’t like the sound of that. “What sort of favour?”
Ares’s grim look said it all.
“Shit, man,” Valen muttered and pulled his phone from his pocket. Charms dangled from it, one of a sword and shield catching Daimon’s eye. “I could just send her a message right now.”
Ares shook his head. “Give him time.”
Daimon had the feeling that Keras was going to need far more time than they could afford to give him. They needed allies in this war.
What better ally was there than a goddess who had been born for battle?
“Tokyo,” Ares muttered.
Marek nodded and disappeared. Valen huffed, grabbed the dead furie and followed him.
Ares hesitated. “Don’t linger too long. Esher will want to see you’re all right.”
Daimon dipped his chin, grateful for a few moments alone with Cass. His brother stepped.
Daimon slipped his hand into Cass’s and teleported with her, landing on the terrace of his hillside home in Hong Kong.
All of the strength seemed to leak out of Cass and she looked up at him, tears catching the sunlight as they lined her lashes.
Daimon sighed and brushed them away with his thumbs, turning them into diamonds of ice. “I’m sorry. I never want to hurt you, but I just keep doing it.”
She smiled tightly. “I like to think I give as good as I get.”
She did. He had lost track of all the scares she had given him and they had only known each other for a few short weeks.
Daimon: Guardians of Hades Series Book 6 Page 34
