Marek: Guardians of Hades Series Book 4

by Heaton, Felicity

  “This is impressive work.” Keras shifted his hand, tracing fingertips that burned like acid over the mark.

  “Is it right to be impressed by something a daemon did?” Calistos voiced what was clearly on everyone’s mind judging by the way they all looked at Keras as if he had gone crazy.

  “I have never seen a ward created by a daemon before, and it did entirely shut down Marek’s powers.”

  When Keras put it like that, Marek was a little bit impressed too. The wraith had skills, powers that they hadn’t known about before or even thought possible for a daemon to possess.

  “I think it comes from his power to steal memories.” Marek leaned forwards, obeying Keras as he nudged his shoulder. The burning started again, but this time a tugging accompanied it, a weird sensation that made him feel as if Keras was trying to physically pull something from him and that something didn’t want to leave.

  “Stands to reason. He took Esher’s memories and now yours. He has pieces of your knowledge, enough to cobble together a ward.” Ares leaned towards Marek and peered at his shoulder, his eyebrows rising as he tried to get a look at the mark.

  “This is more than cobbled together,” Keras countered and the tugging sensation grew fiercer, until Marek couldn’t stop his shoulder from lifting with it. “This runs deep. A ward like this takes skill. He deciphered how to do this from whatever memories he managed to take from you two. That takes intelligence.”

  “So, the wraith is the Marek of the enemy?” Calistos hopped up to sit on the counter on the other side of the island to Marek and opened a cylindrical packet. He tossed one of the cookies in his mouth and pulled a thoughtful face as he ate it.

  Valen reached over and swiped one for himself. “What else do you think he knows?”

  Marek had a suspicion that the wraith knew a lot more than he was letting on, things that could prove vital to their enemy in the battle ahead.

  “He knows enough. He was able to break our wards to take the illusionist back and that makes him a threat.” Keras tracked one of the lines on Marek’s back and the whole thing lit up, ripping a pained snarl from Marek’s lips as white-hot fire lanced him and he doubled over, breathing hard.

  His vision wobbled, lights winking across it as he fought for air, to shut down the pain ricocheting through his bones.

  “All done.” Keras patted him on the back.

  “Lisabeta,” Marek murmured, his mouth and brain still fixed on what he had been about to say before Keras had attempted to kill him.

  “I thought her name was Caterina?” Calistos said.

  Marek swallowed hard. “Lisabeta. The illusionist. Caterina called her that.”

  “We have a name at last then. Think it might be of use?” Ares didn’t sound sure and Marek wasn’t either.

  A name was nothing to go on. He had pored over the knowledge in their servers when the illusionist had first made an appearance and he had no records of one of her kind.

  “Did you see her when you were being held captive?” Keras edged into view, his green eyes still sober, revealing nothing.

  Marek nodded.

  “I think all of this… it’s revenge.” He pushed up into a sitting position. “At least, what the wraith did to me was.”

  “A ward to take your strength and powers. He wanted you to suffer like she did.” Daimon cast a worried glance at his shoulder. “Does it feel better now?”

  Marek rolled it and focused on his body, and slowly nodded as he felt his connection to the earth inside him, felt the strength flowing through his veins.

  “Did anything happen while I was away?” He hadn’t had a chance to ask them when they had been at the castle before, because he had been too preoccupied with Caterina.

  Was still preoccupied by her as his focus drifted to the wooden floor at his feet.

  She was down there, close to him. Was she able to hear what they were discussing? He hoped not, but some breeds of daemon did have heightened senses, including hearing.

  “Daemon activity at the gates is increasing again.” Keras casually folded his arms across his chest, causing the sleeves of his black shirt to tighten over his muscles. “There have been several instances in the last forty-eight hours where we have encountered multiple daemons near each gate.”

  Which judging by the looks on his brothers’ faces was unnerving everyone.

  “We have to face facts here,” Ares put in as he drew Megan closer to him, curling his arm protectively around her shoulders to tuck her against his side. “The otherworld is looking worse again, daemons are attempting the gates more than once a night, and I’m worried. I can’t be the only one.”

  Daimon and Esher nodded in unison.

  Calistos lowered a cookie from his lips. “I don’t like it.”

  “I preferred it when it was quiet in Rome, just the odd stupid daemon.” Valen stole the cookie from Cal. “Now I can’t go a single night without killing double digits. Eva is helping as best she can, but it’s only getting worse. How long before it’s ten daemons at each attempt? Twenty?”

  Marek hadn’t realised things had gotten that bad in his absence. “If all the daemons hiding in the cities come crawling out of the woodwork, then we are going to be in trouble. Taking down a few daemons is one thing, but an entire horde of them? They could use sheer numbers alone to overwhelm us.”

  Ares stroked Megan’s arm. “They must be being drawn out by the activity of our enemy. They’re gaining confidence. The daemons I’m seeing are older. Stronger. It won’t be long before something goes down. I can feel it brewing.”

  Marek wanted to mention that he sounded like the real god of war now, but held his tongue, aware that talking of Enyo’s brother might end with Keras finally losing his temper again.

  “We will devise a plan,” Keras said and his gaze shifted from Ares to Marek. “Perhaps we can get some information from Caterina?”

  “She’s awake. I left her eating, but she’s weak. Whatever is happening to her, it’s taking its toll physically and emotionally.” He flicked a glance at Esher to check on his brother and found him glaring at the floorboards, murder in his eyes. “I can take you to see her, but she won’t talk with this many of us around.”

  It seemed like a valid excuse to get rid of some of his brothers and he was glad when Keras nodded.

  “I want to take Megan home so I can get a Messenger to relay the news to our parents.” Ares shuddered, and he wasn’t the only one. Valen and Calistos both joined him.

  “Creepy bastards,” Valen muttered beneath his breath. “Always popping out of thin air.”

  Marek couldn’t agree with him more. While he and his brothers could teleport, there was something about the way a Messenger did it that disturbed him. Their appearance didn’t help. Messengers were all male and all shared the same appearance, as if they had been cloned, their short black-blue hair and heterochromatic eyes, one green and one blue, and their defined features making it impossible to distinguish one from the other.

  One second you were alone, the next there was one of them right next to you.

  Their ability to know the exact location of whoever they were to contact was what made their teleporting so unnerving.

  And they had zero boundaries.

  One had even appeared while he had been in the shower once.

  “Plus, I have to get you home to rest.” Ares swept Megan up into his arms and she scowled at him, her dark eyes and soft features hardening as she huffed.

  “Don’t get overbearing straight away.” She pouted and stroked his shoulders, working black magic on his brother judging by how Ares instantly softened, the determination in his eyes morphing into something else. “Can’t we just enjoy this?”

  Ares grinned. “I know a way we can celebrate.”

  Daimon glowered. Calistos retched. Valen smirked.

  “Esher, return to Tokyo and cover it and Hong Kong.” Keras was all business as usual as he crossed the room, passing Ares and Megan as they disappeared. “Cal,
take care of London and Paris.”

  “I’ll cover Rome and Seville.” Daimon stepped, leaving black swirls of smoke behind him.

  Cal and Esher both nodded and teleported too.

  Leaving Marek with Valen and Keras.

  Marek could live with that.

  He relayed everything Caterina had told him to Keras, and everything that had happened, filling him in as Valen demolished the rest of the packet of cookies.

  When he had brought both of his brothers up to speed, he led the way down to Caterina’s cell.

  He gripped the bolt, his pulse pounding faster as he looked at Keras and Valen and grew aware of what was about to happen. This wasn’t going to be easy, but he needed to let Keras near her and he needed to let his brother do his thing. He had to stand by and watch without interfering, even if Caterina was hurting.

  Interrupting Keras and severing their connection would only cause her more pain.

  He pulled the bolt back and stepped into the room, and Caterina’s gaze leaped from him to his brothers as they entered behind him.

  “Caterina, this is Valen and Keras. Keras is going to take a look at your memories.” Marek stepped aside to let him pass.

  Caterina shot backwards, her spine hitting the stone wall as she clutched the blanket to her. “He’s going to do what now?”

  He wanted to go to her as she stared wide-eyed at Keras and shook her head.

  Valen shoved him in the back, propelling him towards her.

  Marek focused on her rather than the urge to glare at his brother for intervening. He eased down to kneel beside her, by Keras’s feet.

  “We just need to see that everything you’ve told me is true. You don’t have anything to worry about. I’ll be right here.” Marek resisted the desire to place his hand on the cot beside her, tempting her to take it, mostly because Keras was watching him, observing him closely.

  It struck him that hiding what he felt for Caterina was pointless.

  Keras would see it soon enough.

  Through Caterina’s eyes.

  He was jealous of his brother as he realised that Keras was about to find out exactly what her feelings for him were, how she felt whenever she looked at him, what she thought about him. He knew his brother wouldn’t focus on such things, not when he was looking for the truth about their enemy and her involvement, but it still grated.

  Keras crouched in front of her and she kept her eyes fixed on Marek, even when his brother spoke.

  “Caterina, I need you to look at me.”

  She shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut.

  Marek lifted his hand and placed it over hers where it clutched her knees. “It’ll be fine, Caterina. Relax. If you relax, it won’t hurt. You won’t even notice it happening.”

  If she didn’t relax, it was going to hurt like hell.

  Both her and him.

  “Can you do this for me, Caterina?” He squeezed her hand.

  Her eyes slowly opened and locked on him, and he didn’t hide how much this meant to him, how badly he needed to know that she had been telling the truth about everything.

  That everything had been real.

  “What if he sees things I don’t want him to see? My memories are private. I’d like to keep them that way.” She swallowed hard and looked as if she wanted to glance at his brother as her heart rate spiked in Marek’s ears. “I don’t want him prodding around in there, but I’m getting the feeling I don’t get a choice.”

  He couldn’t blame her for being nervous, or upset. He didn’t like the thought of Keras poking around his head, and he had been angry the few times his brother had done it without permission.

  “You’re right. Your memories are private.” He caressed her hand, his eyes lowering to it, locking on his fingers as he stroked them along hers. “And it’s hard for me to ask you to do this… but I need you to do it, Caterina. I need to know everything was… is… real.”

  Her eyes leaped between his and her features softened as understanding dawned in them, and then resolve bloomed in their hazel depths and her fear faded. She shifted her hand beneath his, feathered her thumb along his fingers, and held his gaze, staring so deep into his eyes that he felt connected to her.

  She nodded, lingered for a few seconds, and then shifted her eyes to Keras.

  The moment she met Keras’s gaze, she relaxed, her hands going lax beneath Marek’s touch. Her lips parted and her eyes dulled, losing focus. Marek kept up with the pressure of his hand on hers, hoping she could feel that he was there with her still, even as she felt the presence of Keras in her mind. He was still here for her and he wouldn’t let anything happen to her.

  As the minutes trickled past, Valen started pacing, his boots loud on the stone floor.

  It did nothing to help Marek’s nerves.

  He kept his focus on Caterina’s face, on her eyes as she stared at his brother, her pupils gradually dilating until they devoured the earthy hazel of her irises. She slowly leaned forwards, towards Keras, as if she was experiencing that same powerful pull Marek had when Keras had been removing the power of the ward carved on his shoulder.

  Marek bit back a growl when Caterina kept leaning forwards, her hand falling from beneath his to press against the bar of the cot as her legs fell open. She moved closer to Keras, and then closer still, until their faces were only inches apart.

  Too damn close for comfort.

  Marek did growl when she leaned further forwards, looking for all the world as if she was about to kiss his damned brother.

  Keras eased back and Caterina blinked, and looked herself over, a confused crinkle forming between her eyebrows before she quickly sank back against the wall.

  Marek glared at his brother.

  Keras toyed with the ring on his thumb, twisting the band around it, his handsome face etched in pensive lines as he stared at Caterina, his eyes shining like emeralds.

  He blinked, and when he opened them again, they were fixed on Marek and were dull again, back to their normal colour.

  Marek braced himself, preparing for the worst, for all of his fears to come true in the next instant.

  “She is telling the truth about everything.” Those words rolled over Marek and it took him a moment to realise his brother was telling him something positive.

  The complete opposite of what he had feared.

  Caterina muttered things in Catalan under her breath, calling his brother a devil, stating that he was the daemon as she clawed at her dirty hair, pulling it back from her face.

  He wanted to go to her and comfort her, but Keras wasn’t done.

  “We can use her.” Keras pushed to his feet. “She is a valuable asset. She will be able to get us information.”

  Marek shot to his feet as fire blazed through him, burning up his blood. “No!”

  Keras slowly turned to face him, a shadow passing over his features that had Caterina whispering a prayer and had Marek regretting what he had said. He hadn’t been able to stop himself. Caterina had been through enough.

  She proved that by falling on her side, her arms draped over the edge of the cot in a tangle.

  Marek eased down beside her and checked on her, his heart thundering in his ears as he made sure she was still breathing and had only passed out.

  “I was not making a suggestion,” Keras snarled, onyx invading the edges of his irises as he rose to his full height and glared down at Marek. “I was making a decision.”

  Marek had to be an idiot, because he stared his brother down, unwilling to go along with that decision just because his brother had lost his temper again.

  “She may be able to get us information about Calindria.” Keras’s features hardened, his eyes glittering like green diamonds as he narrowed them on Marek. “The wraith is the one handling her. She can get close to him.”

  Marek burned with a need to know what had happened to their sister’s soul too, but at the risk of losing Caterina? He wasn’t sure he could do it. There had to be another way.


  He clenched his fists and cursed himself for thinking that. Keras was right, and Caterina was their best option. She could get close to the daemon. She could bring them information, and then once they had a solid lead, they could finally break everything to Calistos.

  He hated keeping their youngest brother in the dark about everything, but he knew deep in his heart that it was necessary until they knew exactly what had happened to her soul and how they could find it again. If they told him now, it would only make things harder on him. He had succumbed to his affliction after he had been to the twin gate.

  How badly would he react if he discovered they knew what had happened to Calindria?

  “Don’t go along with it.” Valen stepped into the room, dragging Marek’s focus to him as light flickered from his direction. Tiny sparks of lightning chased around his fingers as he glared at Keras. “It’s a death sentence and you know it. Look at what happened to Eva when she went double agent for us.”

  Marek’s stomach turned.

  Eva had almost been killed.

  He looked between Keras and Valen, a war erupting inside him as he thought about asking Caterina to infiltrate the enemy. Benares and Jin, the incubus and succubus siblings, had been dangerous enough, but the wraith was even more dangerous, and far more intelligent. He had proven that.

  “They will know Caterina helped me escape.” And that was the main reason he couldn’t go through with it. “Someone would have seen her.”

  “You said yourself that the illusionist saw you had been trying to break the ward and that she had brought Caterina to you more than once. It is possible she will believe you broke the ward and took Caterina hostage when she tried to come to you.” Keras sounded less than sure about that.

  Which was not a comfort.

  “I can go back. Alone. I teleported out of that house, I can get back in.” Marek glanced down at Caterina where she lay on the cot, out cold. “I can draw him out or something.”

  Or something was far from a solid plan.

  It wasn’t like him to want to rush in like this, but the alternative was Keras getting his way and sending Caterina in. He couldn’t let that happen, so he would come up with a plan on the fly for once. No careful preparation. No pulling up of blueprints and scouting the location, studying every aspect of it.