her French accent making the words sound light when they fell like lead in the thick air.
Thanatos did not put her in her place. The furie was powerful, dangerous, and he had decided he didn’t want to die.
“Steady relationship,” Calindria murmured, and when she glanced at him, the look in her eyes hit him hard.
She wanted that.
She wanted to be his girlfriend.
He had never had a girlfriend before, only knew of the term by overhearing her brothers talking, using that word for some of their females. He wasn’t really sure of the protocols. Was he meant to ask her to be his girlfriend? Or was the title automatically applied once a relationship reached a certain point?
Was he boyfriend material?
He had heard that term too.
He felt disturbingly nervous as he looked at Calindria, unsure how to proceed.
“A male girlfriend is a what?” Calindria looked at her brother.
“Not Thanatos, that’s for sure.” Calistos gave him a hard look, one that told Thanatos he wasn’t boyfriend material in his opinion.
“Why not?” he growled and then cursed. “We are getting side-tracked.”
He tried to tug Calindria forwards, rage simmering in his veins now, his mind churning as he tried to figure out why Calistos didn’t think he was suitable for his sister.
She stood her ground, an immovable object as she glared at her brother. “I want to know.”
“Boyfriend,” Marinda supplied, her accent making it sound like something exotic.
“Boyfriend,” Calindria repeated, as if trying that word on for size. He stiffened when she looked at him, looped her arm around his and canted her head, her eyes locking with his. “Boyfriend.”
She almost growled that word, the possessive edge to it setting his blood aflame as she sidled closer to him.
“Come, boyfriend.” She pulled him forwards, into a room where his sword was waiting.
“Yeah, I can’t wait for Dad to hear about this,” Calistos muttered.
All the warmth Thanatos had felt on hearing Calindria claim him as her boyfriend drained from him, his blood turning to icy sludge in his veins as a chill tumbled down his spine.
Hades would kill him.
He tried to shut that out of his mind as he broke free of Calindria’s hold and grabbed his sword from the table in the centre of the room. He weighed the weapon, trying to shove his mind back on track, because he had the feeling that capturing the demigoddess was going to be more important than ever now that Calindria had decided they were boyfriend and girlfriend.
Thanatos could only hope she didn’t use that term for him around her father before he had a chance to speak with Hades about her.
For added peace of mind, he prayed to the Moirai that if she did use it, Hades wouldn’t know what it meant. The Moirai were Calindria’s protectors, which meant they had to be on her side, and that meant they had to offer him some protection too. Right?
A male could only hope.
He seized her hand in a grip as possessive as hers had been and stormed back the way they had come, forcing his mind onto the matter of dealing with the demigoddess. He cleared his head of thoughts of what came after that, because if he didn’t focus on winning this battle, there would be no facing Hades, no life with Calindria. There would be only death, or worse. Captivity.
Or, gods forbid, even worse than that.
Calindria might be killed.
So, he was going to focus on the here and now, on laying his past to rest in the only way he could now. Killing the demigoddess was no longer an option. That dream of vengeance was gone. Now, he would capture her and hold her instead, would make her talk and reveal everything. He would stop this enemy from completing its wretched plans for the Underworld.
They broke out into the open air and he released Calindria, bellowed as he swung his sword and cut down a male who had his back to him. Calistos and Marinda were quick to launch into action, breaking off to his left to fight the warriors cowering behind the wall there, hiding from the blasts of ice and magic that shot through the air at them.
Stone exploded outwards above him as one of the orbs of violet light impacted with the ancient wall of the building. Thanatos grabbed Calindria and tucked her to him, leaning over her and raising his wing to shield them both as black rock showered like rain onto them.
None of it struck him.
It bounced off the shield of