Calistos: Guardians of Hades Series Book 5

by Heaton, Felicity

  The necromancer grunted.

  Swept his hand forwards.

  Daemons rushed Marinda and Cass.

  Daimon launched into the fray, great spears of ice rising from the ground as the rain hit it, impaling the less fortunate daemons.

  Keras turned dark eyes on the necromancer and Cal was with him as Valen joined the fight, providing back up for Daimon, striking down daemons in blazes of white-purple lightning.

  “We need him alive.” Keras didn’t need to tell Cal that.

  But someone did need to tell Marinda.

  She leaped clear over the daemons, brought her feet down and aimed them at the necromancer’s chest. He dodged backwards, evading her, and she slammed into the ground in a crouch that shattered the flagstones. She was quick to push up onto her feet, a black snarl pealing from her lips as her nails transformed into claws.

  “You killed my father,” she growled, her voice laced with pain and fury, with that need for vengeance that shone in her eyes.

  “Mari!” he called, hoping to get through to her even when he knew that was impossible.

  The hunger for revenge drove her now, had her furie side firmly in control. He could tell by how swiftly she moved as she ducked and swept left and right, dodging the shadows that tried to seize hold of her, too fast for them. She slammed the back of her heel into the necromancer’s head, knocking him off balance.

  The moment her foot touched down, she launched a kick with her other one, catching the male in his shoulder, tipping him further off balance. He staggered sideways, shaking off the blows.

  “You belong with me,” he snarled back at her.

  She tackled him head-on, her fists a blur.

  The necromancer blocked most of her punches but made no move to hit her back.

  He wanted to capture her. With the other two Erinyes at his disposal, able to open the gates, he didn’t need her. She would make them stronger, but she would also prove troublesome. There was no way the necromancer would be able to control this side of her, no way she would ever calmly do his bidding.

  The male’s golden eyes narrowed on her. “You need to accept I’m your father.”

  Shit.

  That explained why she had gone nuclear. The Hellspawn had dropped a bomb on her, and it had shaken her, probably filled her head with a thousand doubts that had been chewing away at her all this time they had been fighting.

  “I don’t… You’re not… Eric was my father.” Her voice wavered. “You’re not.”

  She didn’t believe that. Eric might have been the one who had raised her and taken care of her, but some part of her had accepted that this male had sired her.

  A part of her that didn’t like it judging by how fiercely she attacked him.

  Her claws raked over his shoulder, slicing through his black shirt, and a flash of victory shone in her eyes as she hurled a right hook at his chest.

  She meant to punch a hole through it.

  It would kill him.

  “Mari.” Cal kicked off and then stepped, the need to stop her sending him into the teleport before he could hold it back.

  His legs gave out as he hit the ground on the other side of the necromancer, and he could only watch as the male calmly blocked her blow with the flat of his hand, captured her fist and twisted.

  He slammed her into the ground so hard that her impact caused a crater and she cried out.

  And then went dreadfully still.

  No.

  “You should have come quietly.” The necromancer looked down at her as violet-black shadows billowed outwards in the air behind him, sparked with purple light that sent a chill sliding down Cal’s spine.

  A portal.

  The other Erinyes had siphoned the power from Eli too.

  The necromancer picked Marinda’s prone form up and rested her over his right shoulder.

  Everything inside Cal screamed at him to stop the male as he turned towards the forming portal. He couldn’t lose Marinda. He just couldn’t.

  Beyond the necromancer, his brothers and Cass continued their fight against the horde of daemons.

  They wouldn’t reach Marinda in time.

  Darkness surged through his tired body, had his focus locking on the Hellspawn as the male slowly shifted his gaze to land on him. A cold smile curled his lips. A victorious smile.

  On a feral snarl, the darkness consumed Cal, had his arm sweeping forwards, the air gathering in its wake.

  The male wouldn’t take Marinda from him, not as he had taken Calindria.

  Cal wouldn’t let him.

  He was stronger now, and he protected what was his.

  The air that followed his arm compressed as he applied pressure, becoming a razor-thin invisible blade that he unleashed as he lifted his hand, as the male took a step forwards, towards the portal.

  Cal silently apologised to his sister.

  It was her or Marinda, and he needed Marinda. She made him whole again. Gave him a reason to live and keep on fighting.

  As the blade of air cut upwards and the necromancer halted, Cal made a promise.

  Together, they would find Calindria’s soul.

  Even if it took forever.

  A red line formed at a diagonal from the necromancer’s left biceps to a point above his right eye.

  The male slumped, the two pieces of him separating as he fell forwards. Marinda tumbled from his grip and Cal crawled to her as the daemons scattered, as the light from the gate faded as Keras finally managed to close it.

  As the heat of the battle subsided, cold stole through Cal.

  What had he done?

  The necromancer was dead, his one shot at discovering the location of his sister’s soul gone with him, and suddenly the fact he might never see her again felt all too real.

  He pulled Marinda into his arms and held her, cradling her to his chest as his heart grew heavy and tears burned the backs of his eyes.

  She was safe.

  He looked at the dead Hellspawn.

  But could he say the same for his sister?

  He prayed to the Moirai to be kind for once, to let his sister’s soul be somewhere safe, somewhere free of torment and danger, and to keep it that way until he could find her.

  Because he would find her.

  His brothers came to him, grave looks on all their faces that told him he wasn’t alone in what he was feeling, but none of them shouted at him as he had expected.

  Keras crouched before him, warmth in his green eyes for once. “You did what you had to do.”

  But that didn’t make it any easier on him.

  He had forsaken his sister.

  Daimon came to stand over him and Cal looked up at him, surprised to find warmth in his blue eyes too.

  Belief that stirred something similar inside Cal as he spoke.

  “Esher will find the wraith. You can count on that. Our brother has never failed in a hunt.” Daimon ghosted a hand over Cal’s shoulder. “He will bring the daemon back with him.”

  “Which means we will find her,” Valen put in. “Even if we have to get a little help from our uncle.”

  “Father will help too,” Keras said.

  Cal nodded. He was sure of that. But there were regions of the Underworld and Olympus where Hades and Zeus couldn’t see. It would take time for the legions to scout them, searching every inch of the lands for Calindria’s soul. Time in which she would be alone and unprotected. Vulnerable.

  Marinda’s nose wrinkled and her eyelids fluttered, and he breathed a little easier.

  Her blue eyes opened, sorrow washing across them, telling him she knew what he had done for her sake, and then resolve filled them. Her hand lifted and pressed to his cheek, and he stared down at her.

  “My father told me something once.” Her soft words were quiet, hoarse, a reminder that she needed healing.

  She smiled for him.

  “Have faith when times are tough and be strong.”

  He pulled down a slow breath.

  He co
uld do both of those things, or at least he would try. His sister wouldn’t want him to be sad, to drown in the fear that she was forever lost to him now and he had failed her again. She would want him to have faith, to be strong.

  So he would have faith.

  Esher would find Eli and his brother would bring him to them.

  And then he would be strong.

  He would break the wraith, wouldn’t stop until Eli told him where his sister’s soul was.

  And then he would save her too.

  Chapter 35

  Everyone was quiet as they appeared one by one in the Tokyo mansion, a shadow hanging over them.

  Aiko came in from the garden, a bounce in her step that faltered as she locked gazes with Daimon. Her dark eyes widened, her face falling as she shook her head. Her brow furrowed and her hand covered her mouth as tears filled her eyes.

  Daimon was quick to go to her, frowned as he hovered his hands near her shoulders. “He’s fine… He’s just… Eli made it through the gate.”

  Aiko sank to her knees and burst into tears.

  Daimon kneeled beside her, a lost look on his face, tears welling in his eyes as he husked, “He’ll come back. He will come back. He has to come back.”

  Aiko leaned over, curling into herself as she sobbed, and Daimon sagged, as if all his strength and his hope had just washed from him too.

  “He’ll come back,” Keras said, his deep voice filled with the belief that Daimon lacked right now.

  It was understandable. Daimon was close to Esher, the two sharing a bond that had started out strong and had only grown stronger over the years. The sort of bond that Cal had once shared with his sister.

  Cass took Marinda from him and sat her down near the dining table to his left, leaving him standing there alone in the middle of the room, the weight of everything that had happened pressing heavily on his shoulders.

  “It’s not your fault.” Valen clamped a hand down on his shoulder. “Esher is stubborn. Nothing you could have done would have stopped him… not when that side of him is in control.”

  “I know that,” he murmured. “But I still feel as if I should have tried.”

  “He would have hurt you,” Daimon whispered as he sat near Aiko, a torn look on his face as his hand ghosted over her back. Pain filled his blue eyes. Not only pain caused by his worrying about Esher, but pain caused by the fact he wanted to comfort Aiko and hold her, and he couldn’t, not without hurting her. “I’ll stay here until he comes back. He’ll come back.”

  Those last three words lacked conviction, sounded more like a plea for reassurance as he glanced up at Keras.

  Keras nodded. “He will. I’ll send Messengers to father and uncle directly. Do not lose faith… either of you.”

  Cal’s big brother looked from Daimon to him. Cal forced himself to nod, even when he wasn’t sure he could hold on to the delicate threads of his hope. They already felt as if they were wearing away.

  “I’ll go get some things.” Daimon disappeared.

  Cass glanced at where he had been, a flicker of concern in her pale blue eyes. Was she worried about his brother?

  Valen gently helped Aiko onto her feet, brusquely muttering, “Esher will be back and causing us more trouble again before we know it.”

  She nodded, her dark hair falling down around her face as she scrubbed her eyes. Cal watched as his brother led her away, down the corridor that led to Esher’s room over the koi pond.

  This place wasn’t going to be the same until Esher was back.

  Nothing was going to be the same until then.

  Keras came to him, lifted a hand and squeezed his shoulder. “You did the right thing.”

  His brother could tell him that as many times as he wanted, it didn’t change the fact he had just killed their one good shot at finding the location of their sister’s soul.

  He glanced at Marinda as Keras disappeared.

  His heart whispered that he had done the right thing. He had fallen apart when Calindria had died. If he lost Marinda, well, it didn’t bear thinking about. He wouldn’t survive that.

  He would have changed.

  Just as Esher had done all those centuries ago.

  The darker side of their blood, the fiercely protective and possessive side, had grown to become another side of his brother, splitting his personality into the slightly crazed Esher and the violent, unpredictable and savage one.

  Cal would have ended up the same if the necromancer had taken Marinda from him.

  The darker part of him had already been pushed too hard by his torture at the necromancer’s hands when he had been young and vulnerable, and by watching his sister being put through hell and then murdered.

  He wouldn’t be able to resist it if something catastrophic happened to Marinda.

  Or any of his family.

  He could still hear Aiko crying, each sob tearing at his heart.

  He looked down at his forearm and the blue script that tracked up it, the language of the Underworld.

  He wanted to use it. He wanted to bring his brother back to them.

  He had the power to enter the Underworld and go after him. He had to do it.

  So why was he still standing in the middle of the main room of the mansion?

  Why couldn’t he bring himself to be reckless and live up to the expectations of his brothers? He was sure they all thought he would use his favour mark to go after Esher.

  He glanced at Marinda and the answer hit him.

  He didn’t want her to cry for him the way Aiko was crying for his brother. He didn’t want to put her through that, to make her hurt like that. She had been hurt enough for a lifetime.

  Was still hurting judging by her haunted eyes.

  Cass helped Marinda onto her feet. Marinda said something to her, brushed off her hand and walked away, heading towards the garden as she wrapped her arms around herself.

  “I think she needs a moment,” Cass said when Cal looked her way.

  Didn’t they all?

  But the moment he needed was with Marinda.

  He needed to hold her and have her reassure him that he had made the right decision, that everything would work out. He needed to hold her and make her see that whatever thoughts were filling her head, they were wrong. This wasn’t her fault.

  This wasn’t the end.

  He trailed after her, weaving his way across the stepping stones that snaked across the gravel in the courtyard of the house, passing the elegantly clipped topiary. He brushed his fingers over the neat green balls of leaves that topped the twisted stems, a hollow feeling opening inside him. They would look like hell by the time Esher returned. He would have to take care of them for his brother.

  He wouldn’t be alone either. He was sure of that.

  Everyone would do their best to keep this place as it was now, awaiting Esher’s return.

  He sensed Ares appear in the house behind him, and heard Megan say something about Aiko. It was good of her to come to comfort Aiko, to be there for her. Cal couldn’t imagine what sort of job Valen was doing of cheering her up and giving her hope.

  Cal found Marinda on the vermillion wooden bridge that spanned part of the koi pond, her eyes on the water.

  She sucked down a shuddering breath as he approached her and when he stopped next to her, she refused to look at him. She kept her head bent, her focus on the fish that swam beneath her.

  Aiko would take care of them. They were precious to Esher.

  Marinda sniffled.

  Cal placed his arm around her shoulders. She jerked backwards, dislodging him. He frowned at her, his irritation swiftly fading as a tear tracked down her cheek, cutting through the dirt and catching the sunlight.

  He tried again, this time refusing to release her when she attempted to break free. He curled his hand around her shoulder and pulled her to his side, tucked her there and held her.

  She wanted to be alone, but it wasn’t what she needed.

  He had been in her shoes, more times
than he could count. It had taken him a long time to realise that pushing everyone away wasn’t the answer, and being alone wasn’t the solution to anything. In the end, it only ever made him feel worse.

  It only ever gave his darker feelings a stronger hold over him.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered and scrubbed the heel of her hand across her eyes. “Everything is ruined because of me.”

  “No, it isn’t.” He knew she couldn’t see the light right now, even he found it difficult to see it through all the darkness that surrounded him, but it was there.

  She spun free of his grip and faced him, pain in her blue eyes as they locked with his and she bit out, “This is all my fault, Cal. Don’t tell me it isn’t. I was stupid… weak. I let my rage get the better of me when I should have controlled it and look where it got us. The Erinyes have the power to open the gates. The wraith escaped. Your brother is missing… and your sister’s soul…”

  “We’ll find her soul.” He lifted his hand and grasped both of her shoulders, held her in place when she looked as if she wanted to fight him. “My brother will find the wraith. When that side of him is in control, he’s a formidable hunter. The wraith won’t be able to hide from him. I don’t know how long it will take, but he’ll find him and he’ll bring him to us. I’m sure of it.”

  She didn’t look convinced.

  Cal raised his right hand and cupped her cheek. “I’m sure of it, Mari… but if he isn’t back in a few weeks, I’ll speak with the others about using my ability to cast a portal. I’ll go in search of him.”

  That had the opposite effect to the one he anticipated. Instead of looking comforted, her eyes widened, a wildness in them as she launched forwards and grabbed his arms.

  “Don’t go there,” she murmured, pleading him with her eyes as her brow furrowed.

  He couldn’t promise that. “I’ll wait and give him time, but I will go looking for him if he doesn’t come back. I have to, Mari. If it comes to it, I’ll be careful.”

  “I’ll go with you,” she blurted, the first flicker of determination entering her eyes, brightening them and chasing some of the shadows away. “We’ll go together.”