Daimon (Guardians of Hades #6) - Felicity Heaton Page 0,118

on Cal. “Daimon went to pay penitence for me. Maybe it was more punishment than usual. Maybe he’s still there.”

“For twenty-four hours?” she bit out, her temper fraying as she hugged Milos to her chest.

“It’s possible,” Esher retorted.

The rest of his brothers looked as if it wasn’t. They looked as if they felt the same way as she did.

He was grasping at straws, clinging to hope that Cass couldn’t feel as she stared at the garden, as that unsettled feeling condensed inside her into full blown fear.

Something had happened to Daimon.

She looked at each of his brothers in turn.

Keras’s eyes verged on black as he twisted the silver band around his thumb, his jet eyebrows knitted hard and his lips compressed into a thin line.

Ares looked equally as troubled, sparks of gold and red lighting his brown irises.

Valen looked ready to rip someone apart.

“You think the enemy might have managed to…” She didn’t want to finish that sentence.

“I think the enemy has been in our sights all this time,” Ares growled, his face grim and fire raging in his eyes.

She wasn’t sure what he meant by that until Calistos spoke.

“Nemesis wouldn’t turn against Father… would she?” He didn’t look sure about that, his blue eyes turning stormy as he looked between Ares and Keras.

Keras snarled, “Anything is possible.”

“I don’t like the sound of this,” Marek put in. “We need to send a Messenger to Father to ask whether he can feel Daimon in the Underworld. While that’s happening, we need to search for him. If he’s not in Hong Kong, and he’s not here, maybe they took him to one of the old safehouses. We could check there.”

“They took him to New York.” Keras sounded certain of that.

Everyone looked at Keras. Valen and Eva rose to their feet, giving him the whole of their attention, and Mari pushed to hers at the same time as Caterina stood and went to Marek.

“The enemy attacked Hong Kong when Esher was absent. They know which gate is bound to each of us.” Keras looked at Ares, Marek and then Valen. “We head to New York.”

“I’m coming too.” Esher broke away from Aiko and outside the rain grew heavier again, pelting the earth and filling the air with the scent of it.

“No.” That single word fell hard in the room, spoken in a commanding tone that had Esher’s shoulders stiffening as he levelled a glare on Keras. Keras didn’t give him a chance to argue. “You are in no fit state to step there, let alone fight. On a battlefield, you are a liability right now. I will not risk you.”

All of the fight fled from Esher’s eyes as the last five words hit him, uttered in a soft tone that had her, and everyone else in the room judging by their faces, aware of the depth of Keras’s feelings for his brother.

Keras went to Esher, placed his hands on his shoulders and looked deep into his eyes.

“I know you need to be there, Esher, because it’s Daimon… but you are still recovering. You need to sit this one out.”

Esher’s black eyebrows furrowed, pain dancing in his dark blue eyes as they darted between Keras’s.

A need to do something to ease him filled her, had her moving towards him to touch his back. The moment she made contact with him, he turned his face towards her.

“I’ll go with them,” she said in a low voice, one filled with the compassion she felt inside as she looked into Esher’s eyes and saw the conflict in them—the need. The thought of sitting this one out was killing him. Keras was right though. Esher was a liability. He couldn’t go into battle, but she could, and she would do it for both of them. “I’ll make sure he comes home.”

Esher nodded stiffly.

“We’ll take care of the ladies,” Cal said and came to Esher, slapped him on the back and nodded when Esher looked at him. “Got to keep Megan and the others safe, right?”

Esher’s eyes rapidly darkened and he growled as he nodded. “The babe.”

Gods help the world if Aiko ever fell pregnant. The beast would probably coddle her to death and kill anyone who so much as looked in her direction.

Ares looked as if he wanted to hug his brother for being so concerned about Megan and the baby, but settled for saying, “Thanks. She’ll feel better knowing you’re both here.”

“I’ll kill any bastard who sets foot near here.” Eva checked her gun was loaded, her