remaining ashes far from them.
“This doesn’t look good, Cass.” Daimon helped her onto her feet. “Any way to stop this?”
Cassandra looked as worried as he did. Her black eyebrows furrowed as she stared at the spreading black mist. It was gaining pace.
“I think so. Maybe.” She looked back at Thanatos.
Thanatos shook his head and curled his wings around Calindria, making it clear the witch wouldn’t be having access to her again. Calindria’s hurt tore at him. He couldn’t understand why she felt guilty whenever she killed with this power, but he was damned if he was going to let anyone make her feel worse than she already did by forcing her to see what her power was doing to these people. She was going to stay in his arms until it was over.
Thanatos’s gaze scanned the falling warriors, seeking the demigoddess. When he spotted her, he jerked his chin in that direction.
“We need her alive, witch.”
And the black mist was drawing dangerously close to her now as she desperately tried to break through the barrier.
Cassandra nodded and closed her eyes, held her right hand out and extended her index finger. Wherever her finger went, golden light appeared in its wake. She was drawing something. It took shape. A plain circle at first, and then another within it, and three circles that intersected the outer ring. Inside those circles, she drew a symbol.
She was making a glyph.
“Faster, witch,” Thanatos growled as the black mist reached the warriors nearest Harleena as she battered the barrier with her fists.
“Going as fast as I can,” Cassandra snapped. “Perfection takes time. You want this to be perfect. One small error and your demigoddess is dead.”
“And whose fault is that?” he snarled back at her.
The temptation to fly and grab the demigoddess to pull her out of the reach of the deadly mist sweeping towards her was strong, almost overwhelming, but the way Calindria clung to him and the fear he could feel flowing through her kept him in place. She feared for him, even though she knew this mist couldn’t harm him.
She needed him here with her.
Cassandra tapped the centre of the glyph she had drawn in the air and it rolled into a ball that shot towards the demigoddess. The moment it reached her, it expanded, wrapping around the female. Harleena began battering it instead, trying to break free of the sphere as it lifted her into the air and slowly bobbed towards them. She lowered one hand to the curved bottom of the sphere, pressing it close to her black-leather-clad knee.
The onyx mist devoured the last of the warriors and Calistos swept the ashes away with the vortex.
The sphere holding the demigoddess gradually lowered, coming to rest just a few feet above the black ground, hovering there as the female inside it screamed and pounded at its shimmering golden walls.
“Is it over?” Calindria murmured against his chest.
Thanatos rubbed her shoulders. “It is over. Would you like me to make the witch pay?”
Cassandra gave him a look that dared him to try.
Calindria shook her head, drew down a breath and rubbed at her face. Thanatos gave her a moment, keeping her concealed with his wings while she pulled herself together, aware that she didn’t want her brothers to see her like this and know how shaken she was. She wanted to look strong to them.
She didn’t need to worry about that.
She was strong.
She proved that by emerging from his wings with her chin tipped up and by walking right up to the demigoddess and looking back at Cassandra. “Can you make a cage?”
The witch nodded and went to her, painted another glyph with her fingers that shone yellow too, and tapped it. The orb struck the ground and a golden cage appeared.
“It will be strong enough to contain her and will stop her from using her powers.” Cassandra opened the door of the cage.
Calindria looked back at Thanatos as he walked towards her, keeping his eyes on her as Harleena cursed at him. There was an edge to Calindria’s blue eyes that said he wasn’t the only one who needed closure. This demigoddess had held her in a cage for almost six centuries and it was only right that Calindria be the one who put her in a cage this time.
“Do it.” Thanatos nodded when she looked into his eyes and he saw the question blazing in them. “You need to be the one to do this.”
She pulled down a deep breath and pressed