Daimon (Guardians of Hades #6) - Felicity Heaton Page 0,3

last rebellion against Hades, was involved, and now there were goddesses on the enemy side.

Where did it end?

Someone was behind all of this, and all they had to go on was that it was a female.

Their father had sent them a long list of possible enemies currently residing in the Underworld, far too many for Daimon’s liking. Discovering which of them, if any, were behind everything would take too long. It was quicker to get their hands on the wraith and make him talk.

An ominous creaking noise drew Daimon’s gaze to his left. His eyes tracked the jagged fault line spreading up the ice from a point where several daemons were clawing at it. Was he imagining it, or were there even more daemons now?

“You guys got this?” Valen said.

“Sure.” Daimon readied himself, shoring up the wall of ice but aware it wouldn’t hold, not against that many sets of claws.

The daemons’ black blood streaked the clear ice, the foul stench of it filling the air. Disgust rolled through him and he curled his lip.

Ares grunted in response from the right side of the pond as he slammed a daemon into the pavement that encircled the water.

“Good, because I’m not sure I can do this.” Valen sounded tired now, and when Daimon fixed his senses on his violet-haired brother, he felt it too. “Not without a little more juice.”

Daimon looked back at him.

Valen’s golden eyes glittered, glowing in the light shining from the gate as he raised one of his blades.

“No,” Ares snarled, pivoted towards him, and kicked off.

He wouldn’t make it. Neither would Daimon, not even if he stepped.

All he could do was watch as Valen ran the blade across his wrist and blood gushed from the wound.

“Stronzo!” Eva barked and lunged for him, her short black hair flying out of her face as she reached for the blade.

Valen sagged as blood poured from his wrist, splattering across the surface of the gate and spreading outwards, and Eva grabbed him instead of the knife. She caught him as his knees gave out.

He breathed hard from between gritted teeth, his eyes rapidly darkening as they narrowed.

Eva muttered soft words in Italian, sweet chastising ones coupled with a few strong swear words that Daimon decided his brother deserved.

Valen leaned heavily on her slender shoulders, his arm shaking as he tried to keep holding it out over the gate. Eva took hold of his arm for him, helping him, and he looked at her, a hell of a lot of love in his eyes that was still strange to see. Valen’s default setting for his entire life had been caustic, and it had only gotten worse in the centuries after their sister had died and Zeus had punished Valen for his insubordination by removing his favour from him, leaving a ragged scar down the left side of Valen’s face and neck, a permanent reminder of what he had done.

So it was weird seeing his brother looking at someone with genuine warmth in his eyes.

With love.

The blood Valen was spilling onto the gate seeped across the surface, muting the colours.

“I think it’s working,” Valen slurred.

Eva struggled to keep him on his feet.

Daimon wasn’t sure how their youngest brother, Calistos, was going to be able to handle closing the main gate in Seville if closing London was draining Valen this much. Cal had been out of sorts since they had lost the chance to discover the location of his twin sister, Calindria’s, soul and Esher had disappeared. Cal was blaming himself for both of those things. Daimon doubted he was strong enough to handle closing Seville on top of all that.

“Think I’m—” Valen cut off as he suddenly dropped, his knees hitting the bottom of the shallow pond, and Eva yelped as she was dragged down with him.

Daimon looked at the gate as he called on his power, summoning one last wave of ice. It rose up around the inside of the wall, the shards only seven feet tall but enough to keep the daemons at bay while Ares checked on Valen and the gate.

A gate which Daimon could no longer feel, not as he could before. The power that flowed from it now was muted, barely there. Had Valen done it?

The rings slowly began to shrink, the innermost one winking out of existence as it touched the central violet disc.

It was closing.

“Is he good?” Daimon hollered, keeping his focus on the wall of ice, aware the daemons were still there and still trying