Daimon (Guardians of Hades #6) - Felicity Heaton Page 0,119

sapphire eyes bright as she stared lovingly at it and then at Valen. “You give them hell.”

Valen swept her up into his arms and kissed her. “Always do.”

Something deep inside Cass ached, the need to see Daimon was safe and alive burning more fiercely and flooding her with impatience.

“Let us go.” Cass walked to Aiko and handed Milos to her.

Her bastard cat continued purring contentedly as Aiko petted him, evidently uncaring about the change of hands. Traitor.

Cass began to form the incantation in her mind.

Stopped when Ares towered over her. “You stay here.”

She scowled at him. “I will not.”

A few of his brothers looked as if they wanted to voice an objection too, so she glared at them all, making sure they knew she was serious. It didn’t matter that the enemy wanted to get their hands on her. All that mattered was bringing Daimon home safe.

“I know the risks, but none of you get a say. This is my decision and no one can stop me from going.” She planted her hands on her hips, digging her fingertips into her black leather trousers, and dared them all to speak.

Calistos and Esher both looked as if they wanted her to go, probably for different reasons. Mari looked concerned but unlikely to say something. Valen looked bored.

Marek and Ares looked ready to argue with her about this.

Keras.

Well, he looked as if he was considering tossing her into the cage.

So Cass played her trump card.

She tipped her chin up. “I can use a spell to locate Daimon.”

Marek glanced at Ares. Ares huffed.

“You want to find Daimon quickly, you’re going to need me.” She glared at them all, stoked her magic so it shone in her eyes, making sure they were aware of the hell she would unleash on them if they tried to bench her this time.

Keras’s black eyebrows drew down. “The first sign of trouble, and you are off the field.”

“I can live with that.” She swept her fall of black hair over her shoulder and then held her hand out to Marek. “Shall we go?”

“Wait.” Ares looked at Esher as Cal went to the porch, grabbed everyone’s shoes and tossed them at them. Ares shoved his feet into his boots. “Summon a Messenger and send it to Father. Tell him to dispatch a legion to Nemesis’s domain and secure her. Just in case our hunch is right. We know she can’t come here with the gates closed to traffic, so she has to be somewhere in the Underworld. I’d rather she didn’t get the chance to run.”

The moment Esher nodded, Ares and Keras disappeared. Valen followed them.

Marek took hold of her arm as she finished zipping up her calf-height leather boots and stepped with her, darkness embracing them for a heartbeat before it parted to reveal a shady corner of Central Park.

The humans jogging along the pathway that cut through the enormous park in the heart of New York gave her and the gods at her back strange looks as they stepped out of the trees.

She scowled at them all.

She hadn’t been up to any funny business in the bushes with four men if that was what they were thinking.

A few of the female joggers slowed, and one almost tripped over her feet as Keras stepped into the fading light, lifting a hand above his green eyes to shield them as he assessed the position of the sun.

Ares shook his head.

Valen sighed. “I can practically see their panties melting away as they run past him.”

Cass looked at Keras. He was beautiful, but only on the surface. Beneath that perfect exterior beat a black, dead heart that was twisted with a need for pain.

He would probably destroy any woman he came in contact with, sucking the light right out of them.

“The light is fading fast. We have perhaps an hour at most before the daemons can walk in it.” Keras turned his back on the women, apparently not noticing, or uncaring of, the way they gawped at him.

She supposed he had probably had females fawning over him his entire life, first in the Underworld and now in the mortal one.

“We could wait until it gets dark,” Valen put in as he raked his fingers through the longer lengths of his violet hair, pushing it back from his face. “The enemy is bound to want to hit the gate and bring Daimon with them.”

He drew a few glances from the women too, ones that rapidly turned to fear as they noticed the