gave up.
“Brace yourself against me.” He tucked Calindria to his chest, holding her head to his shoulder as the ground came at them fast.
Too fast.
She curled into him just as they hit it, desperately clutched at his shoulders as he clung to her, trying to keep hold of her. He rolled with her, tumbling across the hard ground, and grunted as he struck a boulder and lost his grip on her. She shrieked as she was launched from his arms and he lost sight of her as he continued to roll, kicking up black dust into a cloud that blinded him.
The moment he stopped rolling, he tried to push himself up, bellowed as his right wing blazed with an inferno that stole his breath and had him dangerously close to blacking out. It wasn’t his only injury. His right tibia ached too, was probably fractured.
And he had lost his sword somewhere.
He fumbled and drew his remaining dagger, shook his head and blinked hard, trying to clear his hazy vision. He had to find Calindria.
He needed to know she was unharmed.
Safe.
When his vision cleared, coming into focus, at least twenty pairs of booted feet filled it. He growled and launched at the warriors, barrelling into one to take him down and slashing his blade across the throat of another. His head turned again and he fought the warmth rolling through him, heat that was sickeningly familiar.
Drugged again.
He gritted his teeth and fought the toxin, lashed out at another warrior and caught him across his bare chest, leaving a deep groove in his muscles that spilled crimson. The warrior staggered backwards into another, taking him down too. Thanatos whirled as he sensed someone behind him, threw a hard right hook and slammed it into the male’s face, shattering his nose. He followed it with a swift strike of his dagger to the male’s throat, plunging the blade deep before tugging it out again. Blood burst like a geyser from the wound and the warrior fumbled with his throat, panic lighting his rugged features as he tried to stem the bleeding.
Thanatos kept on fighting, battering any warrior who dared to come up behind him with his one good wing, and cutting and punching his way through those foolish enough to stand in his way.
Where was Calindria?
He tried to locate her, but the damned realm muddied his senses. All he could feel were the warriors crowding around him. Maybe if he killed them all, he would be able to feel her. He grinned at the pleasing thought of butchering them all.
Two more warriors met death by his blade, one going down screaming while the other gagged on his own blood.
By his count, he was down to only ten warriors.
He rolled his shoulders and readied his blade, flashed his teeth at one of the larger warriors, picking him as his next victim.
“Stop.” That familiar female voice had him turning on a vicious roar to face the owner of it.
The silver-haired female stood a short distance away, her violet eyes showing no trace of fear.
He went to launch at her.
Froze as she lifted her right hand higher.
Calindria winced as the tip of one of his own daggers pressed into the underside of her chin, angled her head back and stared at him through eyes flooded with fear and regret, with anger too. He instantly backed off, held his hands up in a faux act of surrender, buying himself time to assess the situation.
A situation that didn’t look good when he noticed Calindria’s hand covering the one the demigoddess had twisted tightly in her hair.
Just as his little goddess had feared, the drug had suppressed her powers.
Around him, the warriors closed in. Thanatos kept tabs on all of them. If any of them strayed too close, he would kill them. His gaze lowered to meet Calindria’s. Or maybe he wouldn’t. He couldn’t risk the demigoddess hurting her.
“It was not time to set you free yet, my little bird,” the demigoddess hissed in her ear. “Perhaps we should put you back in your cage.”
Calindria kicked at her for that, the fear in her eyes increasing, hitting Thanatos hard as she tried to fight her way free. She stilled again as the demigoddess pressed the dagger close enough that it nicked her skin.
“No.” Thanatos lifted his hand, holding it out facing the bitch. “Do not hurt her.”
The female’s violet eyes slowly narrowed in a look that chilled him to the bone. She knew. She knew he had feelings for