The Rising (The Rising #4) - Kristen Ashley Page 0,156
light gleaming out of the hole stopped.
And they again stood in a day that was night.
“You would have defeated him,” Faunus said dully.
They would have.
Mars didn’t verbally confirm.
And he did not, for they would have, but it was without a doubt Faunus would have been lost to the fight.
And his Teddy knew this.
So, he took his place.
“Fucking Teddy, he always has to be the gods-damned hero,” Faunus bit.
Mars had nothing to say to that either.
But from what he knew of the man, this seemed to be his bent.
They were attacked from the side by a brunette.
Only then did Mars let go, for Faunus now had someone to hold up.
She grasped his man’s arms as she peered over the mouth and screamed, “Teddy!”
“Moira,” Faunus murmured.
“Teddy!” she shrieked.
Pain for another shredded Mars’s insides.
Fortunately, as this occurred, Mars felt Silence slide her arms about his middle.
He guided one of his around her shoulders and held her close.
Saturn approached them and sandwiched the woman between the two warriors, his eyes cast down into the mouth.
Mars felt his friends gather at his and Silence’s sides.
“T-Teddy,” she sobbed and then collapsed to her knees.
Faunus and Saturn went down with her.
The rays of the sun pierced through the night as another angmostros appeared over the side of the cliff.
Atop one of the heads was a stunning, redheaded woman with a mermaid’s tail glittering brilliantly in the increasing daylight.
“He was always one to make the most of an entrance,” she called.
Right before something shot out of the hole.
It darted into the air, then speeded down like a javelin, before it twisted, arse aiming down, and landed on the head of the other angmostros, which dipped slightly on impact, but mostly held strong.
And there sat a man who looked a lot like Aramus, except he had a head of short, tight, curly black hair and a much longer black beard.
Not to mention, the lengthy, winding tail of a Mer king.
“It is done!” he pronounced grandly.
“You took love!” Aramus shouted in fury.
“I did not take it, Sea King, it is love!” the mermale shouted back. “It gave itself!”
“You’re a sirens-damned son of a bitch!” Aramus raged.
“And I made your many-greats grandfather king so I could get to you,” the mermale returned.
Aramus had no retort to that.
The redhead smiled benevolently down at them through all of this.
The mermale tugged on a spike of the head of the beast he sat atop, and it swung toward her.
The instant they got close, he reached for her and took her into a hearty embrace.
“Erm, am I watching Triton and Medusa have a snog?” Silence asked.
“Yes,” Mars answered.
“Faith,” she breathed.
Dragons floated down to the stone all about them and Silence broke away from him to approach the trio holding onto each other at the edge of the mouth.
She crouched, knees together, legs to the side, and murmured, “Let us get you to the castle.”
“I-I-m not l-l-leaving him,” the woman called Moira declared. “N-not yet. He never left me. Not ever. Not ever. So I need to stay with him.” There came a sniffle before she finished, “For a while.”
“All right, love,” Silence said soothingly. “Then we’ll all stay for a while.”
She received no response to that, but Mars heard a sob come, stifled against Faunus’s throat.
Faunus dropped to his arse on the rock and Saturn shifted with him. They arranged the woman so she was somehow seated in both their laps, with their arms all about each other.
The men stared into the abyss.
The woman kept her face tucked into their bodies.
And Silence rose to stand behind them.
Mars joined her, pulling his mantle from his shoulders, wrapping it around hers, this before taking his wife in his arms.
Elena and Cassius came up on his right side.
Aramus and Ha-Lah to their right.
True and Farah to Silence’s left.
Serena and Chu to their left.
Lahn, Tor, Apollo and Frey gathered around.
Jorie came to stand behind his sister.
The lieutenants walked (or limped) to join them.
Cassius gave Mac and Hera a look.
Mac, one side of his face bloodied and scraped, that side of his leathers jagged and torn, gave Cassius a shrug.
Gnomes pushed to the front.
Pixies drifted.
Sprites zinged.
Zees walked forward boldly, as was their wont, and sat at the edge of the mouth, feet dangling.
If Mars was correct, there were five Airenzian highwaymen amongst them.
The angmostros carrying risen gods shifted from the cliffs then slunk under the sea and swam away.
“Bloody hell, Aramus,” he heard a man say. “What the fuck happened here?”