Daimon (Guardians of Hades #6) - Felicity Heaton Page 0,122
grave voice pulled a hard sob from her as she stumbled to the block of ice and sank to her knees before Daimon.
Everyone fell silent.
Ares crouched beside her, but she couldn’t bring herself to look at him. He growled as he scrubbed at something on the floor and she looked down at it.
At the circle drawn on the wooden boards.
Pain and sorrow twisted inside her as she pieced together what had happened. The enemy had trapped Daimon here. Unable to attack them because of the ward, he had turned his power on himself.
He had sacrificed himself to save the gates, to protect his world and this one.
She cursed him for that.
Pressed her hands to the slick ice and stared at him.
Her beautiful god.
She closed her eyes.
Tensed.
Her breath rushed from her.
She lunged for Ares’s hands, muttering a protection spell at the same time. He tried to break free as she grabbed him but she refused to let go, fielding a black look from him.
“She gone crazy?” Valen frowned at her as he leaned towards Marek.
“Maybe,” she muttered and brought Ares’s hands to the ice, desperate to know that she wasn’t imagining things. “Melt it.”
Magic never lied though.
She closed her eyes.
Saw the faint, pulsing white outline of Daimon in the centre of the ice.
Each pulse of light was paler than the last, and the time between them was growing.
“Hurry.” She shoved Ares’s hands harder against the ice.
“Back off then.” Ares jerked free of her grip and glared at her. “I’m not doing this with you in the firing line.”
She shuffled away from him and everyone else backed off.
Ares closed his eyes and blew out his breath, his dark eyebrows drawing down as he moved his hands over the ice. Heat shimmered over them, starting to rise off his shoulders too as he worked to melt the ice.
“You’re doing good,” she said, hoping to encourage him, partly because she wanted him to keep going and partly because she didn’t want him to burn the building down.
She had never seen him try to control his fire before, hadn’t realised how difficult it was for him.
Sweat dotted his brow, fizzled and turned to steam, and his face set in hard lines, concentration etched on it. His shoulders tensed, arms shaking.
She looked at Daimon, more aware than ever of the similarities between him and Ares. Her heart went out to both of them, always having to hold back their powers and fight to keep them in check so they didn’t hurt the ones they loved.
She was going to do something about that once this was all over.
If Daimon came back to her, she would move heaven and earth to find a spell that would allow him to have physical contact with his brothers again.
She would do the same for Ares as a thank you for helping her save the man she loved.
The ice creaked and then cracked, great fault lines spreading across it as it gave under the heat of Ares’s power. Water pooled around them, slipping between the cracks between the floorboards, dripping into the empty building below them.
The faint pulses of light grew stronger as the ice melted away from Daimon. She swore she wasn’t imagining it.
Cass jerked right, towards Ares, as a huge chunk of ice crashed down and tumbled across the floor. More followed it and Marek pulled her backwards as one came right at her. She gasped and looked at Ares, relief washing over her as none of them struck him. They melted as soon as they neared him, falling as water that hissed as it touched his skin.
The moment the ice was gone from Daimon’s upper half, she pulled free of Marek’s grip and rushed to him. She pressed her fingers to his throat, shivering as the cold numbed them, desperately seeking a sign of life.
She whipped her head around when she found it.
“It’s weak,” she said, voice wobbling as emotions collided inside her, fear fighting the hope that had dared to rise.
Marek and Valen grabbed Daimon and hauled him from the ice, laying him out on the floorboards. They shook their hands, flexing their reddened fingers. It seemed even when he was close to death, Daimon’s power still affected his body.
Ares moved to him and held his hands palm down above his brother, ghosting them over him as Cass joined him. She kept her fingers to Daimon’s throat, studying his pulse.