Daimon (Guardians of Hades #6) - Felicity Heaton Page 0,127
His head turned and he pressed a hand to it, squeezed his eyes shut as his vision blurred. He could do this.
He sent another command to the gate.
A third ring formed, rotating slowly counter-clockwise.
Fuck.
“Ares,” Daimon hollered. “Can you close it?”
Ares appeared beside him, his face etched in lines of concentration as he stared at the gate. Tense seconds trickled past, filled with the crack of lightning and the sound of grunts and screams as the battle raged behind them.
Ares looked at him out of the corner of his eye, defeat shining in his gaze. “I can’t. It’s not responding to me. It’s like someone is overriding me.”
Daimon stared at the gate, that feeling echoing inside him too as he watched another ring form, helpless to stop it. He tried anyway, gritting his teeth and grunting as he exerted all of his will on the gate.
“Go… go!” Meadow yelled, and Daimon sensed the wave of daemons rushing forwards, heard the thunder of their footsteps as they charged across the grass at his brothers.
Daimon fought harder, struggling to focus on the gate and his power over it as his head grew foggy, his body sluggish and slow to respond as he tried to lift his hands.
Ares growled and heat licked at Daimon’s back, a wall of fire that wouldn’t keep the daemons at bay for long. His brother would need to keep fuelling that wall of fire, draining himself.
Daimon had to get the gate to respond to him.
He raked one of his icy talons over his arm, drawing blood.
“Are you crazy?” Ares lunged for him and Daimon leaped away, placing some distance between them.
“I need more control over it.” Daimon dragged another claw over his arm and corrected himself. “I need some control. It will respond to my blood.”
He wasn’t sure that it would.
He had never seen a gate act like this. He had never felt as if it was ignoring him. Sometimes they resisted, but it was as if he wasn’t even here.
“Just keep the Erinyes away from it.” Daimon glanced at Ares, and the grim look in his brother’s eyes said that he was well aware of what might happen if the two furies managed to get closer to the gate.
They were already making it hard enough on him, their control over it something that felt impossible given the distance between them and it.
But it had to be them opening it.
Daimon strode towards the gate, intent on closing it and stopping them.
His vision tunnelled again and he shook his head, waited a moment for it to clear before he continued. Blood tracked down his arm and he grimaced as he raked a third line in his flesh, adding more, aware that he was going to need it.
Lightning rocked the ground and he wobbled, his left knee buckling. He staggered in that direction and managed to remain upright.
Daimon grunted as something smashed into him, knocking him onto his side.
His head whipped towards it.
A growl tore from his lips as the winged scaly daemon lunged for him again, sharp black talons slashing towards him. He rolled across the dewy grass, the scent of his blood growing thicker in the air as he evaded the daemon’s blow. Daimon raised his right arm and ice shot up from the earth, tinged red with his own blood.
Huge leathery wings beat the air towards him as the male lifted off, elevating himself away from the reach of Daimon’s ice, fading into the night.
Daimon scoured the darkness, remaining still on the grass, anticipating another attack.
When it didn’t come, he rolled onto his knees and pushed off, rushing towards the gate.
Air whooshed.
Daimon ducked, sweeping his upper body to his right as the daemon cut across him. Fire streaked across his back and he cried out, the fog in this head growing thicker as blood leaked down his side. He stumbled onwards, eyes locked on the gate as another ring formed.
The daemon swooped again.
A bright explosion of light struck the male and he flew through the air, fire licking over his wings as he tumbled and twisted.
Ares growled and launched another fireball at the daemon. “You all right?”
Daimon managed to nod.
Another two winged daemons plunged from the darkness, both of them aiming for Ares. His brother launched another two orbs of fire, hitting one but missing the other.
Daimon stretched his arm out to the gate as the daemon barrelled into Ares, lifting him off the ground and into the night.