The shorter man, Eli she presumed, stepped to one side and waved his hand in a flourish towards it, his other one gripping a wide black umbrella that cast shade upon him.
The necromancer tipped his hat again and took a step back, and disappeared into it.
It was a portal.
Marinda was moving before she could stop herself, the darker part of her in control as her heart pounded. She couldn’t let them escape. The cold burned more fiercely inside her. The rage blazed hotter.
She needed to stop them.
This was the chance the brothers, and she, had been waiting for.
She needed to avenge her father. Cal needed to avenge his sister and find a way to save her.
She couldn’t let them get away.
She leaped over the wall, somehow easily clearing the twelve-foot height of it, and landed in the street beyond. She kicked off, launching up into the air, and her heart lurched as she landed on a low roof. She could really jump.
She didn’t have a chance to muse that before she was moving again, the hunger for revenge driving her, making her leap to the next building and then kick off again, jumping onto the roof where the enemy was waiting.
Eli stepped into the portal.
Marinda stretched a hand out as she launched herself towards it, her other hand going to her jeans pocket, checking the phone Cal had given her was there.
As soon as she was through, she would call Cal and tell him where she was.
She dived through the portal.
Or at least she would describe where she thought she was.
What if she didn’t know the location? Black swirled around her, the cold inside her growing stronger as she readied herself. What if Cal didn’t know it from her description?
Fear gripped her.
How many times had she thought Cal reckless? So much for careful planning. It turned out that her furie blood made her as reckless as he was when she felt her prey was in danger of getting away.
Strength surged through her. She had been feeling more and more powerful each day, and she knew how to fight now.
She was finally strong enough to have her vengeance.
Nothing was going to stand in her way.
But she wasn’t alone in this fight.
She hit grass and rolled across it, coming to a halt on her back in the shadow of a building she easily recognised as it speared the night sky.
She sensed the two men nearby.
Her hand flew to her pocket and she pulled the phone from it, fired off a message as the wraith and necromancer lunged for the device.
It contained one word.
Paris.
And a lot of hope that Cal would receive it and send the cavalry.
Because the strength she had been feeling suddenly drained out of her as two other people crouched beside her and grabbed her arms. They hauled her onto her feet and she fought them, but her limbs felt weak and unresponsive. What was wrong with her?
She glanced at the woman to her left and then the one on her right as Eli snatched the phone from her, dread pooling inside her as she spotted some unsettling similarities.
Blonde hair.
Blue-green eyes.
They even looked the same age as her.
The other Erinyes.
As the strength flowed out of her, darkness flowed in, great waves of it that bore down on her and had her slowly losing her fight against it. The power cycle. Thanatos had warned her about it. Why was it draining her though?
“Does she have what you want?” The necromancer nodded to Marinda as he looked at the women.
The one on her left dipped her head. “She has it, just as you planned.”
“Just as you planned?” Marinda looked at the man.
His golden eyes seared her and that need to fight rose within her, rage surging through her, but she barely had the strength to lift her head as another crushing wave of darkness pressed down on her and her strength flowed from her.
Into the other two Erinyes.
The necromancer cautiously came to her, lifted his hand and pressed his fingers to her chin, tipping her head up and supporting it.
“I cannot take full credit for it. It was Eli who first mentioned the power of the Erinyes to me, but it was I who set in motion events that led to the capture of the females.” He tilted her head back further and gazed down at her, his eyes impassive, giving nothing away. “Your mother was always the most trouble. She always fought me.”
He smiled softly. “She was my favourite.”
He brushed his free hand down his jaw, over two silvery streaks on his skin, a strange light entering his eyes that almost resembled fondness.
“I was… angry… when she escaped, but Eli and the others convinced me we could turn it to our advantage.” He shifted his hand and stroked the backs of his fingers over her cheek. “I had hoped to find her before she gave birth to you, ending her life as her powers transferred to you, but the male hid her well. I had almost begun to worry I would never find you so I could awaken you.”
Marinda swallowed hard.
Her birth had killed her mother.
Had her mother known it would happen? Had her father? She slowly shook her head as tears burned the backs of her eyes, the thought that her father had known she was going to kill the woman he had so dearly loved making her heart ache. She didn’t know how he could have loved her after what she had done to her mother.
The necromancer slowly canted his head to his left and stared deep into her eyes, his revealing pleasure. He was enjoying seeing her in pain. The bastard was savouring it.
She narrowed her eyes on him, refusing to let him see the hurt he had caused her or the grief that still tore her apart whenever she thought about her father.
“A little push and you would fall into the enemy’s hands, and into your place in this grand plan.” The man tilted his head back and stared at the night sky. “Now, you have what I need, and the cycle of power between you will gift it to your sisters.”
“I’m not giving you anything.” She spat in his face as he lowered it towards her again and he looked as if he wanted to strike her, but instead he gently sighed and wiped it away.
“We don’t have much time,” Eli said, the screen of her phone casting sickly pale light over his face, turning his eyes lilac and his hair as black as night. “The message was sent. He will be coming.”
The necromancer didn’t look pleased to hear that. “Very well. We shall move things along.”
He motioned to Eli.
Eli tossed her phone and cast another portal. The dark smoke spread like an ominous cloud above the grass, obscuring her view of the Eiffel Tower.
“Everything else is set?” The necromancer glanced at Eli.
Eli pulled a phone from the pocket of his long black figure-hugging coat, checked it and nodded. “In motion, as planned.”
What were they planning?
Fear made her bold. “The brothers will be here soon, just as you said. Just let me go now and maybe you’ll live.”
Eli grinned, revealing short fangs. “If the young god is coming, he is coming alone.”
“What does that mean?” She threw a panicked glance at her phone where it lay on the grass. Could she reach it and warn the brothers that the enemy was up to something?
The necromancer pressed his hand to her cheek, keeping her eyes on him. “I am afraid the wretched spawns of Hades have something of a pest problem at the gates. The things you can do with a few wards and some magic. Eli does wonderful work.”
Eli tilted his head as the male looked at him and stepped through the portal. The necromancer turned back to her.
Her pulse picked up.
“I won’t go with you.” She struggled against the hold the two women had on her as the cycle poured power back into her, harnessing the darkness this time instead of fighting it.
She twisted her arm and yanked the woman towards her, and hope bloomed inside her as she rocked her head forwards and cra
cked her brow against the woman’s temple. The woman’s grip loosened.
The necromancer seized hold of Marinda’s throat.
She turned a glare on him and fought the women, mustering all of her strength as rage kindled once more and the cold returned as his words rang in her mind, stoking her fury.
“A little push?” she bit out. “You murdered my father!”
And he was going to pay for that.
He chuckled softly as he pivoted and shoved her through the portal.
His words echoed in the darkness.
Taunting her.
Weakening her.
“Murdered your father? I am your father.”
Chapter 31
Cal woke to the sound of his phone vibrating, and no Marinda. Where had she gone? How long had he been asleep? It felt like only minutes ago that he had drifted off with Marinda tucked safely in his arms.
He scrubbed sleep from his eyes and fumbled for his phone, trying to find it on the tatami mats.
He found it, lifted it and squinted at the screen.
The message was from Keras.
Thanatos had contacted him to tell him something he had remembered about the Erinyes.
They could siphon powers from others through physical contact.
Cal flopped back onto the bedding. The surge in strength he had noticed in Marinda over the last few days suddenly made a lot of sense.
She was more powerful because she had been stealing power from him.
He pushed the covers off him, rose from the bed and pulled his underwear on, following it with his jeans and a T-shirt. He needed to find Marinda and tell her about this power she had.
He padded barefoot from the bedroom and yawned as he banked right. When he reached the end of the short corridor, he scanned the main living area. She wasn’t there.
Maybe she was in the garden.
His phone buzzed again.
He pulled it from his jeans. It was probably another message from one of his brothers.
He frowned.
It was from Marinda.
One word.
Paris.
Paris?
His stomach sank. His senses stretched around him, charting the vicinity. Within the grounds of the mansion, he could only detect four signatures. Him. Esher. Aiko. Cass.
His pulse surged, heart slamming against his ribs as he sprinted towards the doors to the garden and slid the panels open. He scoured the garden, frowning against the brightening sunlight, sure Marinda was there and he was just tired.
The same result.
Only four people, including himself.
He looked down at his phone again.
Paris.
Did that mean she was in Paris? It wasn’t possible. None of his brothers would have teleported her without waking him and making him aware of what was happening.
Unless.
The weight in his stomach doubled, had him closing his eyes as he breathed, “No.”
Darkness rushed through him, causing his canines to transform into short fangs, and he snarled as he teleported to the front porch, shoved his feet into his boots and stepped again.
To Paris.
He landed on top of the Arc de Triomphe, his heart thundering, blood rushing.
Where in Paris would the enemy take her?
His eyes slowly widened.
Erinyes could siphon powers.
He didn’t need to search for her. He knew exactly where the enemy would take her.
Because there was a chance she could now open the gates.
He looked up at the dark sky and cursed. The time difference between Tokyo and Paris meant the bastards had most of the night ahead of them.
He cursed himself for letting the darker side of his nature take control when he should have taken a moment to think things through—or at the very least speak to his brothers. Keras was going to rip him a new one about running off without backup.
But Marinda was in danger. He could feel it in his gut, like a sword through his heart, and he needed to find her.
He fired off a message to everyone, hoping they would think he had sent it before rushing headlong into a fight alone, but aware all of them would know he had been reckless.
Again.
Only this time he wasn’t the only one who had leaped before looking.
Maybe Marinda could siphon more than powers and had absorbed the worst of his personality traits too.
A message rolled in from Ares.
Be right there.
Valen’s message would have made him smile if the situation had been any less grave.
Takes balls to hit that gate. Kudos to the fuckers.
Cal couldn’t agree more. Attempting to take down the Paris gate was seriously stepping up their game. Not only was Paris the gate that Keras protected, but it was the second most powerful.
If the enemy could get it open, it would cause mayhem in the world, upsetting the careful balance between the realms. The fallout would be devastating, and would make it more difficult for him and his brothers to protect the other gates and stop them from falling. It only took either Tokyo or Paris, the two oldest gates, being shattered to cause a ripple effect across all the other gates.
The enemy must have figured out which gate was bound to which of his brothers by researching their age.
Cal could only hope that he could reach the gate in time and that he had the power to keep the enemy busy long enough for his brothers to arrive.
He stepped again, aware that teleporting would drain his strength but needing to get to Marinda and the gate as soon as possible.
When the darkness receded, he stood in the middle of the square before the white basilica of Sacré-Coeur.
Hope bled from him when colourful light shimmered across the square in front of the basilica and he lifted his head, his eyes landing on the gate that hovered at the edge of the terrace. Only three rings had opened, each of them filling the air between him and the panoramic view of Paris. This was the only gate that stood vertical rather than horizontal, and as it slowly grew in size, it began to obscure the city beyond it.
His gaze sought Marinda as he mustered his strength, aware he was going to need all of it as his gut swirled, his sharp senses pinpointing not only the wraith nearby, but the necromancer too.
And two others.
Two who were fighting to restrain Marinda, wrestling with her as she struggled, attempting to break free of their hold as they grappled with her, keeping her facing the gate.
The two blonde females had to be the other Erinyes.
Which meant they were now using the cycle of power that linked them to steal Marinda’s ability to open the gate.
The outside ring of the gate shrank slightly.
If she had enough time, could Marinda close it? He wasn’t sure, but he had to try to buy her that time regardless.
Marinda bit out a rather ripe curse that was unlike her and managed to yank her right arm free. She backhanded the woman on that side of her. The woman bared her teeth, her violet eyes bright as she seized hold of Marinda again and hissed at her.
The instinct to draw the air to him and blast the two bitches with it was strong, but he suppressed it, aware that if he sent them flying, Marinda was liable to go flying with them. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he hurt her. He wasn’t sure how strong she was. She could take blows, but her body bruised and bled as easily as a mortal’s did. If he accidentally sent her over the edge of the hill with the other two furies, there was no way of knowing if she would survive the fall.
“Stop fighting us. It won’t achieve anything.” One of the women wrestled Marinda back under control.
Cal growled. “Keep fighting, Mari.”
Marinda stiffened and looked over her shoulder, beyond Eli and the necromancer, to him. “Cal.”
“I’m here. Going to get you out of this. Just keep trying to close that gate. I’ll help you.”
That didn’t go down well with Eli or the necromanc
er. He kept his eyes off the Hellspawn, aware that if he looked at him, there was a chance the rage burning inside him, the need for justice and to avenge his sister, would seize control of him.
Or that his memories would hit him and he would black out.
Marinda needed him awake and fighting.
So he kept his eyes firmly away from the necromancer’s face as he said, “Tell me where my sister’s soul is being held.”
The male chuckled. “She died too easily, and then you resisted death. It wasn’t exactly my finest hour. Nothing went according to plan. She should have lived a little longer, just enough to ensure your mind and soul had been shattered enough to complete the next step of the plan.”
The next step?
He snarled and bared emerging fangs when it hit him. “You wanted me to take my own life.”
The male softly chuckled again. “It would have been beautiful. Your parents were devastated by her death. Imagine what would have happened if you had done as I had planned.”
It would have torn his family apart.
It would have given his father’s enemies the chance to rise up against him and tear him down.
Something else struck him.
That plan had failed, and in its place the necromancer and his cohorts had devised another one, something far more dramatic.
Destroying the gates to weaken Hades and the Underworld, and form a new realm they could rule.
Rage blazed a path through Cal, drawing out his darker side, stoking it until he couldn’t hold himself back. His brothers would be here any moment, but he couldn’t stand here and let these two bastards open the gate. Time was against him. He had to act now.
“Cal, the other gates—” Marinda’s voice cut off in a grunt and he glared at the furie who had smashed an elbow into her stomach.
What about the other gates?
The cold smile that stretched Eli’s lips said it all, but part of him still refused to believe it. In Seville, the wraith had used some sort of magic to force the gate open once it had started appearing.
Paris wasn’t the only gate under attack.
The wraith must have used the Erinyes and their power to trigger more gates, setting traps for his brothers.
Calistos: Guardians of Hades Series Book 5 Page 30