Daimon (Guardians of Hades #6) - Felicity Heaton Page 0,62

ground rocked as a boom echoed across the hilly landscape of Lantau Island, rolling into the pitch darkness.

The second daemon reached him and Daimon threw his hand forwards, unleashing three spears of ice that pierced the male in his thigh, stomach and chest at a diagonal.

Daimon breathed hard as the male hit the dirt, sliding to a halt just a few feet from him.

There were too many of them.

He checked on his brothers, tracking Cal and Valen as they battled the daemons who were attempting to keep them away from the gate.

A gate which the two Erinyes were trying to open.

A wall of daemons stood between him and his brothers and the goddesses. So far, the two furies had only managed to make the gate appear, at which point Daimon had felt it and had ordered Cal and Valen to come with him while Ares remained with the women. He hadn’t expected to find the Erinyes here, with at least four dozen daemons surrounding them. He had thought they would be long gone, teasing him and his brothers again, drawing them out before running away.

Gods, he was glad he had demanded Cass stay at the mansion with Marinda.

The sorceress had had a few choice things to say to him in response to that, and he knew her anger hadn’t all been about him ordering her to remain where she was, sidelining her again in order to protect her from their enemy.

She was still angry with him for reading the letter, and he deserved it.

“I can get closer.” Cal’s voice broke into his thoughts and Daimon shook his head.

They couldn’t risk approaching the gate, because it would open if they got any closer to it. They also couldn’t risk attacking the Erinyes with any of their powers, just in case the gate was caught in the crossfire. The two goddesses were standing too close to it.

And on top of that, they couldn’t risk spilling their blood, just in case that was the reason the Erinyes had remained this time, hoping to injure one of them so they could get their hands on some of their blood. It would give them the power to open the gates again.

The best thing they could do was leave, but it was their duty to protect the gates and they couldn’t leave this one vulnerable. He wasn’t sure whether the Erinyes would be able to coax it open given enough time, and he wasn’t about to risk it by withdrawing.

One of the two blonde females looked over her shoulder at him, fury shining in her violet eyes.

He wasn’t the only one who was pissed.

Were the furies angry because he and his brothers were evading more than they were attacking, keeping the daemons busy while they kept an eye on the gate to make sure nothing happened to it, or were they angry because they had expected more than just Daimon, Cal and Valen to show up to fight them?

The central purple disc of the gate flickered, weakly glowing, and he focused on it as Valen and Cal launched another attack on the wall of daemons, attempting to weaken their forces enough that the Erinyes would be forced to withdraw.

Daimon struggled to focus as his thoughts kept shifting course, veering back to the angry sorceress he had left in Tokyo.

One who had looked as wounded by his demand she remain there as she had by his announcement that he had seen the letter on her desk.

He scrubbed a hand down his face and fixed his mind on the gate, on closing it. He felt the hum of power running through him as he connected with it, a comforting touch that boosted his strength, enough that he felt he could force it closed. If he could make it disappear, they could attack the Erinyes.

He could get back to Tokyo.

To that damned sorceress who had him tied in knots, going in circles, hating himself each time he completed a cycle of drawing her closer and pushing her away. He needed to get his head straight and his heart back in line.

He couldn’t shake how relaxed she had been with him in that cramped kitchen. She had been so open, offering smiles that had warmed the coldest parts of him, making him feel things he had no right feeling.

So he had ruined it all.

But gods, he had needed it out there, in the open between them.

He had needed her to know that he was aware she was meant to return