Daimon (Guardians of Hades #6) - Felicity Heaton Page 0,126

revived.

Gods, he had never beheld a sweeter sight than her sitting beside him.

Fighting to bring him back to her.

He owed her a thousand apologies when they were back together.

And they would be back together.

Lightning crashed down just off to this left, spraying black blood and pieces of daemon across the slick grass. To his right, flames blazed a path through another group of males, filling the air with the stench of burning flesh.

Shadows rushed across the ground, blending with the night before they shot upwards to impale a male and dragged him down as he screamed and writhed, fighting their hold.

Beyond the first wave of daemons, a second wave spilled out of the portals.

He cursed.

Marek appeared beside him.

A wall of baked earth rose up, encircling the field, cutting off the daemons he and his brothers were fighting from the next wave. Those daemons growled and snarled on the other side of the ten-foot-high wall. It wouldn’t hold them for long, but hopefully it would slow them down enough that Daimon and his brothers could deal with making sure the gate was safe.

He turned towards Marek to thank him.

One glance was all it took to see that something had gone wrong.

“I lost Cassandra,” Marek said, guilt and pain shining in his dark eyes. “She broke free of me during the teleport.”

Daimon’s heart lurched and icy talons formed over his fingers. “What do you mean, she broke free of you?”

“She hit me with a spell that sent me flying. There was nothing I could do.”

Daimon couldn’t breathe.

He bent forwards, clutching his knees as his mind whirled, thoughts spinning so quickly that he felt sick.

He didn’t know what might have happened to her, where she might be.

Gods, he didn’t need this.

He was tired, in constant pain as his body tried to complete the healing that Cass’s spell had set in motion. Remaining focused on keeping the daemons from the gate had been taxing enough, now that fragile focus was split between the battle and fear for Cass.

What if she had landed somewhere in the Underworld?

If she had, she could take care of herself. She was strong, a powerful warrior, one who had proven she could handle anything life threw at her. He had to trust that she would make it through or at the very least survive long enough for him to finish with these daemons and go after her.

A portal formed on the inside of the wall.

The Erinyes stepped out of it.

Their violet eyes fixed beyond him.

On the point where the gate was hidden.

Could this night get any shittier?

It felt as if the Moirai had answered that question with a mocking laugh as he felt the gate opening behind him.

Impossible.

He twisted to face that direction as Marek joined the fray, teaming up with Ares and Valen.

He glanced at Keras where he fought a few feet away, taking on six daemons by himself.

None of his brothers were close enough to the gate to trigger it.

It shouldn’t be opening.

He looked back at the Erinyes. The two blondes stood in front of the portal, an entire legion of daemons forming behind them, at least three dozen strong.

Was it their doing?

He looked his bare chest over, focused on his body, sure that they hadn’t managed to cut him and take his blood. Had Nemesis given some to them? Had they taken it before he had tried to kill himself?

Even if they had, he wasn’t sure it would be enough for them to trigger the gate from such a vast distance.

It wasn’t responding to him and he was standing closer to it.

He backed off, leaving his brothers to deal with the daemons as he turned all his focus on the gate.

A blinding pinprick of violet light burst into existence in the middle of the field before him, spreading rapidly to form the central disc of the gate. It hovered flat above the grass, at least five feet wide, and pulsed brightly, birthing the first colourful ring.

“What the hell?” Ares snarled from behind him. “You doing that?”

“No,” Daimon snapped. “It’s not me opening it.”

But he would be the one to close it.

He focused on the gate, narrowing the world down to it, trusting his brothers could deal with the daemons without him. The gate flashed again and another ring formed, growing outwards. Glyphs shimmered to life around the ring, swirling with colour.

Daimon commanded that ring to shrink.

It grew larger.

Fear threatened to seize him, but he pushed back against it and focused harder, demanding that the gate close itself.