Daimon (Guardians of Hades #6) - Felicity Heaton Page 0,50

females and unlatched his rich blue cloak. It dropped to the mosaic floor and another attendant was swift to stoop and gather it into her arms before backing away from him.

Ares grumbled as he unfastened the leather straps of his golden chest piece, removed it and inspected a dent in the moulded metal that had been crafted to mimic his body. A body he now proudly displayed as he turned to his aides, causing a wave of blushing and heated glances at his muscular torso.

“Take this to the blacksmith. I want it repaired immediately.” His deep voice rolled through the room with authority as he held his breastplate out with one hand and snatched his goblet back with the other. “Leave us.”

All four females immediately obeyed.

Ares lapped it up, his twisted smirk telling her how much he enjoyed having the females do his bidding without question, leaping to execute whatever order he gave them.

When his blue gaze shifted back to her, that satisfied edge melted into something akin to disappointment.

Because as the centuries they had lived together progressed, his dominating nature had begun to chafe and she had begun to defy him?

“You do not ask me for news from Olympus. It is not like you to not want to know the rumours spreading through the city.” Ares quaffed his ambrosia, a twinkle entering his eyes as he studied her over the rim of the goblet. “You seem out of spirits since that last war in the mortal realm ended.”

“Not at all.” Enyo smoothed her black skirt down as she shifted her legs over the side of her seat and sat up. “It is a little too warm for my tastes today and I am tired.”

Unlike her brother, she didn’t feel the need to wear her full armour when in Olympus. Her black leather and silver breastplate and matching boots were enough protection for her.

She glanced back over her shoulder.

It wasn’t as if anyone would dare attack her in Ares’s home after all.

She couldn’t remember the last time he had allowed her to venture into the city without him plastered to her side, there to take whatever gratitude was offered to them for their assistance in wars and disputes, stealing every drop of it for himself.

“Hermes has been getting into trouble again.” Ares sank into a throne-like armchair on the other side of the low wooden table to her and swirled his ambrosia, a thoughtful look on his handsome face as he pursed his lips. “Morpheus has been off causing trouble in dreams again. Predatory bastard. Apparently this time, he targeted many Nereids.”

Enyo wanted to snort at that. Her brother had the gall to call Morpheus predatory because he had been inserting himself into the dreams of the sea nymphs? Ares had tried to insert himself into their lives countless times, had stalked the most beautiful of them and had managed to convince many of them to open their thighs to him.

“And the Underworld is in an uproar of course.”

Enyo jerked to attention, her jade eyes fixing on her brother.

The glint in his blue eyes told her that he had known she would react to the mention of that realm, and that he was going to torment her by drawing out this news because she wanted to hear it.

“Ares,” she whispered, imploring him, not above begging him now. Her heart drummed a sickening rhythm against her breast and she fought to calm it, aware that if Ares noticed the urgent tick of her pulse that he would only make this more agonising for her. “What news comes from the Underworld?”

Ares hiked his bare shoulders and crossed his legs as he eased back in his chair.

Her lips compressed, anger spiking in her blood and igniting a hunger to leap at him and force him to answer her.

His wicked smile said he had sensed that in her too.

Before she could warn him not to torment her, he spoke.

“The third-born of Hades has re-entered the realm, apparently in pursuit of a daemon. Hades has his legions hunting for the male.”

Esher.

Esher had once again ignored the terms of his banishment, but this time to hunt down a daemon. One of their enemy?

It worried her.

She knew Hades.

She knew the weight of what Esher had done, along with everything else, rested firmly upon Keras’s shoulders. She couldn’t imagine the pressure he was under now.

Her dark eyebrows furrowed as she thought about him, about how Hades would expect him to take full responsibility for whatever mayhem Esher caused