Marek: Guardians of Hades Series Book 4

by Heaton, Felicity

  “Megan, Ares, I will need your help. If what Daimon has said is true, Esher’s other side is in control. We need to make sure he cannot teleport when he comes around.” Keras’s green eyes flooded with concern.

  The entire room fell silent and the tension in the air rose to an unbearable degree.

  Caterina looked at Esher. Were they going to carve a ward on him like the one Eli had placed on her?

  Ares’s voice was gruff as he said, “He won’t be happy if he comes around in the cage.”

  A cage? They meant to place their own brother in a cell? Like the one they had placed her in? She looked at everyone, taking in their grim faces, and it struck her that this cell they spoke of was far worse than the one she had been held in.

  Marek sighed. “I agree with Keras. I don’t want to do this to him either, but Esher was close to losing control. He turned against me… almost killed me with his powers.”

  That had everyone staring at Marek, and Caterina squirmed as more than one of them levelled a black look on her.

  “I’m sorry,” Marek continued. “We lost Lisabeta and Eli escaped, but we can still get information from our prisoner.”

  She squirmed even harder as those words left his lips. Their prisoner. Her.

  A pretty petite woman with black pigtails fussed over Esher, worry written in every line of her face. Caterina looked away, unable to bear seeing the love she held for Esher, not when her own heart was breaking.

  Her eyes fell on Guillem where Valen was hauling his dead-weight into his arms as if he weighed nothing.

  The heart that was already aching in her chest burned deeper, the pain spreading through her as she gazed at her brother, despair mounting inside her. She hadn’t meant to hurt him, had only ever wanted to help him. She loved him with all of her heart, even though he had broken it. She wasn’t sure anything could ever stop her from loving him. He had betrayed her, had hurt her, but still she couldn’t quell the love she had for him.

  He was her brother.

  She closed her eyes again.

  He had been her brother.

  Now he despised her, was an agent of evil, a member of Eli’s forces. If she had been more supportive of him, if she had listened to him rather than trying to impose what she wanted on him, would he have still been her brother?

  Would he still love her?

  Marek’s fingers flexed against her arm, drawing her back to him.

  She opened her eyes and looked at them were they pressed into her dirty skin, her heart sinking lower as dread mingled with despair inside her.

  “Are you going to take me to the castle too?” she whispered, unable to get her voice above a murmur.

  Marek’s gaze landed on her. “Do you want to go with your brother?”

  She shook her head. She didn’t want to go back to that cell, and she didn’t want to be near Guillem, not right now. It hurt too much. She needed time to come to terms with everything and then maybe she would be strong enough to face her brother. Although, she wasn’t sure that time was something she had.

  “Why do you want to go to the castle then?” His fingers flexed against her arm, almost a caress.

  She wanted to cry and rip her arm from his grip, but wanted to lean into him at the same time, stealing every moment of contact between them.

  “Because I’m your prisoner too.” She lifted her gaze enough to land on the deep lacerations that cut across his broad chest as he turned towards her, but wasn’t brave enough to risk going any higher.

  When Esher had attacked him, she had been terrified, had thought she was going to lose him.

  She had lost him. She knew that deep in her heart and it was the reason she couldn’t bring her eyes up to meet his.

  She was bone-deep afraid of what she would see in them.

  She wanted to see warmth in them again. Love.

  But all she would see was hate.

  “No.”

  That word held force, enough that his brother with the blond ponytail stopped talking to Daimon and looked across at them.

  She squirmed under his scrutiny, aware of what she was, how wretched she had to be in their eyes.

  She wanted to believe that Marek’s answer had meant she wasn’t their prisoner, but she was tired and refused to let herself read into things, finding meanings in his words that weren’t true just because she didn’t want to part from him.

  “Will you take me home then?” She inched her gaze higher, to his collarbones.

  He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing, luring her eyes higher still.

  “No.” He paused and his deep voice held a regretful edge to it when he said, “I can’t do that.”

  Cold slid down her spine.

  Her mind went blank.

  And then a single question spun in it.

  “Are you going to kill me?” she blurted and her eyes leaped to his.

  She had been ready to accept death just hours ago, but now she was afraid of it. She wanted to live even when she knew it would be a struggle to go on alone in this world.

  Marek’s right eyebrow hiked up.

  “You have some weird and wild ideas.” His eyebrows dipped low, narrowing his rich-brown eyes. “I’m not going to kill you. I’m taking you with me.”

  “Where?”

  If he wasn’t taking her to the castle, and he wasn’t taking her home, where did he intend to go with her?

  His answer hit her hard, had that dread pooling deeper inside her until she felt as if she might drown in it.

  “The Underworld.”

  Her eyes widened and she backed off a step, but he tightened his grip, stopping her from escaping.

  “So your father can kill me?” She searched his eyes, hers leaping between them as her heart raced. She tried to call on her power to see emotions, but it refused to come, leaving her in the dark and increasing the panic that swept through her on tingling waves.

  “Good gods, no,” he barked and scowled, his earthy eyes revealing how deeply she was offending him, and annoying him apparently.

  She didn’t need to be able to see his emotional aura to see that.

  It wasn’t her fault. She didn’t know what was happening or what to think, and he wasn’t exactly being clear with her. They had carted her brother away. She was a daemon. It wasn’t unreasonable that she expected the same treatment, but Marek looked as if she was being just that.

  His handsome features softened as he gentled his grip. “I’m taking you there so Mother can check you over. I want to know if you really are a daemon now.”

  That wasn’t really a comfort.

  What happened when Persephone announced she was a daemon and it was irreversible?

  Were they going to have this conversation again with far different answers?

  Marek shifted his gaze to the blond with the ponytail. “Cal. I know what your favour mark does.”

  Shock danced in Cal’s blue eyes.

  “It’s no secret.” Marek led her over to his brother. “I need a portal to the Underworld for two.”

  “It’s not easy, you know.” Cal frowned at him. “A portal for just you isn’t a problem, but a portal for you and her… that’s pushing it. I’m not sure I have enough strength to cast that.”

  The world suddenly went black.

  And then her feet hit onyx dirt.

  Marek stared straight ahead, surprise lighting his eyes. Evidently, this wasn’t how Cal’s portal worked.

  Which meant they had been summoned again.

  And that had more ice inching down her spine.

  That dark malevolent power she had felt during their last visit to the Underworld washed over her, fiercer this time. It pressed down on her, had her legs weakening beneath her as she tried to fight it and remain standing. Marek palmed her arm, his grip on her tightening again as he pulled her closer to him. He wrapped his arm around her, supporting her, a flicker of what might have been concern in his eyes as she struggled against the oppressive weight of that power.

&
nbsp; Hades.

  She didn’t need to look to know he was standing on the steps of the enormous black Grecian temple. She could feel him there, could sense him as a dark presence, one that had her wanting to run in the other direction, as far from him as her wobbly legs would carry her.

  Warmth spread upwards from her feet, chasing away the cold that washed through her.

  She felt Persephone’s presence before the goddess came into view, circling her, her long black robes brushing the ground, parting to reveal her bare feet. Wherever she stepped, green stems curled from the ground and budded, bloomed into colourful flowers, a carpet of them that separated her from the bleak earth as she came to a halt in front of Caterina.

  Between her and Hades.

  Persephone’s soft green eyes held hers, and Caterina felt as if the goddess was reaching into her. Her blood writhed in response, nausea rolling through her as Persephone slowly approached her and lifted her hand.

  She meant to touch her.

  Caterina recoiled on instinct, but Marek was there, a solid wall at her back.

  His hands came down on her shoulders, holding her in place as the goddess closed the distance between them down to only inches.

  Caterina flinched away when Persephone’s hand neared her.

  And melted against Marek’s chest when her palm landed on Caterina’s forehead.

  Warmth spread outwards from her touch, the weird heavy feeling that had been a constant presence on her brow since Eli had carved the symbol on it lifting.

  “A nasty mark.” Persephone stroked fingers across Caterina’s brow, and Caterina’s head grew hazy, strangely light. “Is that better?”

  She nodded in a daze.

  “Why is she here again?” Hades’s voice boomed from the temple, shattering the calming warmth.

  Marek’s grip on her tightened and he drew her closer to his chest. Afraid his father would do as she had expected and kill her? She shoved that feeling out of her head and her heart, refusing to believe it.

  “I think—”

  Hades cut her off. “It dares speak in my presence?”

  Persephone sighed, and even that was gentle and soft, but somehow managed to relay her irritation.

  “Caterina is not an it, my love.” Persephone’s emerald eyes remained fixed on Caterina’s.

  She lowered her hand to Caterina’s cheek and then her chest, settling it over her heart. Her eyes brightened and the flowers that bloomed around her withered.

  Caterina’s hope died with them.

  “I know what you’re going to say.” She shook her head, not wanting to hear it. “It’s fine. Really.”

  Marek palmed her shoulders and she tensed, wanted to beg him not to let go of her.

  He released her and cold immediately rolled across her back in a frigid wave as he broke contact with her. She looked down at her feet, at the dead blooms, feeling as if she was withering inside too.

  Could she teleport away from here now that mark was gone?

  She wanted to escape.

  Before Marek broke her heart.

  “Deal with her.” Hades’s black demand had that need to flee rising faster.

  She took a step back.

  Marek seized her arm. “Don’t run.”

  Because it would only make it harder for him to kill her?

  Her eyes leaped up to his and she braced herself, sure she would see that cold look in them again.

  But there was only warmth.

  She didn’t understand.

  “I’m a daemon,” she whispered. “I know it. I can feel it. You can feel it.”

  She needed to hear him admit that he knew what she was, and that whatever foolish thoughts were beginning to creep into her mind and her heart, they were wrong. His family despised daemons.

  It was his duty to kill them.

  And his father had just issued an order.

  He looked her over, his gaze gaining an almost clinical edge to it as he studied every inch of her.

  Shock rippled through her when he lifted his hand and gently stroked her cheek.

  “You don’t feel like a daemon.” He brushed her hair back, clearing it from her face, his gaze sincere.

  “But I am one.” She fought the need to lean into his soft touch and couldn’t stop her mouth from moving, spilling words that she used as a shield around her heart and an attempt to provoke a reaction. Something that would give her a clear sign of what her future held. “I’m a daemon… in the Underworld… and I think your father just gave you an order.”

  “And I will obey it.” He palmed her cheek, his touch painfully gentle, threatening to draw tears from her.

  “Son.” Persephone’s voice carried around them like a light warming breeze. “Carry out your duty.”

  He nodded.

  Caterina braced herself.

  Squeezed her eyes shut.

  Waited.

  Nothing happened.

  And then Marek tilted her head up and kissed her.

  Hades growled. Persephone made a small gleeful sound.

  “I win.” Amusement and victory laced those two words as they left Persephone’s lips. “First duty always trumps the second. It is your blood in his veins after all.”

  Another, lower and darker growl sounded from the direction of the temple, and then a huff.

  Marek didn’t stop kissing her, and Caterina felt as if she was spinning as she struggled to catch up, her mind swimming with confusion.

  When Marek finally released her lips, but not the rest of her, keeping her pinned against his chest, she opened her eyes and stared at her surroundings.

  They were back where they had been, standing in the middle of the Japanese mansion.

  “What did your mother mean?” She lifted her eyes to meet Marek’s and the warmth in them hit her hard, curled around her and eased some of the fear from her heart. “First duty beats second or something like that. What’s the first duty?”

  “First duty is to our heart. Mother’s rules.” Marek brushed his knuckles across her cheek.

  “What does that mean?” A shiver raced over her arms and she didn’t dare believe it meant what she thought it did.

  “It means that I’m picking you. I’ll always pick you over the duty my father gave to me.”

  He kissed her again and her head spun, thoughts racing as she tried to make that sink in.

  For a moment, she had thought she had lost everything. Discovering that she hadn’t, that she wasn’t going to be alone in this world, and that Marek wasn’t going to turn his back on her, was too much. It overwhelmed her.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, relishing the way he banded one arm around her back, tucked the other beneath her backside and lifted her, so their faces were level.

  So she could kiss him deeper.

  Déu, it felt good to be held by him like this. It felt right.

  She wanted this forever, even when she feared it wasn’t possible, was afraid that one day he would wake up to what she was and he would leave her. His brothers were watching them, and none of them were saying a word now, but what about when she wasn’t here? What if they secretly hated her? Poisoned Marek against her?

  Marek murmured against her lips, “You think too loud. It’s never going to happen.”

  “How do you know that?” She pressed her cheek to his as he peppered her face with kisses.

  As he held her closer still, making her feel as if she wasn’t the only one who wanted to hold on to the other forever.

  He whispered the sweetest words she had ever heard in her ear, ones that stole her heart, and made everything right.

  Perfect.

  “Because I love you.”

  Chapter 36

  Insects buzzed, filling the thick hot air with their song. Birds chirruped as they darted between the olive trees that surrounded Marek’s villa, seeking the shade and relief from the afternoon heat.

  That heat seeped deep into Marek’s bones, caressed his bare chest and lower
legs, soaking into his black shorts, as comforting as the feel of the hand that gently clutched his left one.

  He tucked his right hand behind his head, propping himself up on the wooden recliner so he could see Caterina.

  She lay beside him on her own recliner, tucked in the shade of the ribbed terracotta roof that extended out over the patio, covering the dining area that overlooked the valley.

  Strands of her spun-caramel hair had come loose from the twisted knot at the back of her head, caressed her cheek in ways he wanted to imitate.

  But he didn’t want to disturb her.

  Keras had sent them away from Tokyo with strict orders to rest after they had held a meeting, insisting that he would cover Paris and Seville while Marek recovered. Valen had offered to take care of London and Rome, giving Cal a chance to recoup his strength too. Daimon was covering Tokyo and Hong Kong, although Esher was apparently fine again now, back on his feet and grumpy if the weather everyone had experienced in their cities a few days back was anything to go by.

  The rain had been so heavy, it had almost caused a flood in Marek’s valley, and when Caterina had realised it was caused by Esher, she had begged Marek to speak to him.

  The fact that she feared Esher didn’t sit well with Marek.

  He had gone to see his brother in person, and rather than giving him a verbal beating for scaring her and making her think it was because she was a daemon and he hated her, he had ended up talking Esher down.

  His brother had felt everyone was angry with him for not summoning them to help with their enemy at the main Seville gate.

  They had been at first, but as always, that anger had quickly faded, because as testing as he could be, everyone understood Esher and his reasons for doing the things he did.

  Although, if he so much as looked at Caterina wrong, he was going to get a beating from Marek.

  She was still finding it hard to believe he wanted to be with her, mentioning several times a day that she was a daemon.

  The most recent had been this morning, when she had dropped a mug during another episode, and had cut herself on the pieces. She had seen how dark her blood was now, verging on black, and had lashed out at him when he had tried to help her. He had weathered her blows, letting her get it all out because he knew how hard this was for her.