His head lifted.
Rather than softness and acceptance, his eyes held pure darkness.
He lunged at her on a snarl, his hand closing around her throat, squeezing hard. “I will not give them up.”
“And I will not stand by and watch you destroy yourself!” She seized his wrist and twisted hard, yanking his hand away from her throat.
She shoved it away from her, knocking him on his backside.
It struck her that he didn’t need her to be soft with him. He needed her to be hard on him, he needed her to goad him and bait him, to make him lash out.
Make him feel something.
Even if it was rage.
His blood was of Hades. Rage would be the conduit, the path to freeing his other emotions, the catalyst that she needed to employ to save him. It was dangerous, and made her feel cruel, but it was necessary. He had coaxed the witch into hurting him, evidently sought pain despite his insistence that he used the pills to take it away. He wanted to feel. He just didn’t want to feel softer things. He wanted to feel pain. Rage. He wanted violence.
So she would push him until he surrendered to his rage.
And then she would find a way to force other emotions from him—all the ones he really wanted to kill with his pills.
She rose to her feet and stared down at him. “You do not need them.”
His face softened again, and he murmured, “I do.”
Looked close to pleading.
She had no pills to give him, so why was he asking for them?
She realised he knew she would go after his other pills. He had to have more of them in his home, in places around the world, hidden places he probably used to conceal a stash in case he needed it.
In case something like this happened.
But if that was the case, why wasn’t he going after them? Why was he still here with her?
Did he truly need her that badly?
More than he needed his pills?
It touched her, but worsened the guilt that weighed her down, had her cursing herself all over again for being weak all those centuries ago, letting her brother dictate her life and ruining what she’d had with Keras.
Ruining him.
Something else dawned on her too.
Keras had been here for two hundred years. He couldn’t have come here with enough pills to last that long.
Which meant he had a dealer.
“Who gave them to you?” She looked at where she had crushed the pills, recalled how they had appeared and how they had felt to her, smelled to her.
They weren’t human drugs, she knew that much.
They had been made by the gods.
Made for him.
Her stomach sank as she realised the answer to her question, just before Keras spoke.
“Father.”
She shook her head, not wanting to believe Hades would do such a thing. “Does he know his son is no better than a gutter-dwelling addict?”
“I am not a junkie,” Keras snarled, his eyes brightening again as shadows whipped around him. They snapped at her on their way past, forcing her to back off to avoid being struck by them. The fire that had lit his eyes rapidly died and he sagged. “I need them.”
Enyo glared down at him. “No. You don’t. You are stronger than this, Keras. You can control your power if you try.”
“I can’t!” He shot to his feet and the sense of power he emitted rose sharply.
It swamped her but she refused to run, wouldn’t even back off a step to spare herself the pressing weight of it that stole her breath. She had to face him, had to bear his fury over what she had done, because it was her fault. She was the reason he was in this state, addicted to these pills. She would do whatever it took to free him of them and set him on the path to recovery.
Because he wouldn’t do it himself.
She could see that now.
He was happy pretending he couldn’t control his power by himself, using it as an excuse to take the pills, giving himself a reason so he didn’t feel terrible about what he was doing to himself.
Justifying it all.
Enyo smiled slowly.
“Want to fight, big boy?” she murmured sweetly, words she had used on him more than once in their years together, ones that had never failed to provoke a response from him. “Bring it on. I can contain your power. Whatever you throw at me won’t touch a living soul. Come on. Give me your best shot. It will be like old times. Who knows, maybe you will even win this time.”
The black clouds gathered overhead spread lower, stretched further across the city to eclipse the horizon. Red sparks chased over them, crackling and making the hairs on her arms stand on end.
She was pushing her luck.
She wasn’t one hundred percent certain she could contain Keras’s power. He was stronger than she remembered.
Far stronger.
And he still had his limiters in place, the twin black bands intact around his wrists.
And the lingering effect of the pill he had taken.
Just how strong was he now?
When he had left the Underworld, he had been weaker than her, and while she had known he would gain strength with age, she hadn’t expected it to happen in such a short span of time. They had only been apart two centuries. The growth of his powers in that time should have been far less than it clearly was, and the age difference between them should have kept her as the stronger of the two of them.
But she feared she wasn’t.
He was more than fifteen hundred years her junior at close to a thousand, but his power had already surpassed hers.
Could she contain it?
Or was her rash decision about to destroy this world?
The shadowy black cloud spiralled down towards him, as if drawn to him, and wind whipped through his onyx hair.
It made strands of her own raven hair dance around her face as she made a decision.
It was too late now to turn back.
She would contain his power somehow. She would bring Keras back to her.
Enyo pulled down a breath and mustered her strength, summoned a power she regularly used on the battlefield. She swept her arms out at her sides and when they formed a line across her shoulders, the power shot from her palms.
The crimson sparks bounced off the invisible barrier she had cast, one that encompassed the entire roof of the building and part of the floors below her, forming a bubble.
“I can take it.” She lowered her hands and readied herself, unsure whether she was talking to him or herself as she gathered her strength and pushed herself to do this, because Keras needed to let loose.
He needed to feel something.
“Whatever you need to do to find control, do it. I will take it all… and if you become too dangerous, I will take you down.”
Ice shot down her spine, fear sweeping through her when he casually reached his right hand across to his left wrist and snapped the black band.
His power slammed into her, still held back by his remaining limiter, but phenomenally strong. She struggled to remain on her feet as she braced against it, as she was pushed backwards, towards the edge of the roof.
Gods, he was far stronger than she remembered.
She feared she had made a terrible mistake, prayed to every god available that she survived this.
That this world survived him.
Keras smiled, a slow one that curled his lips, filled with darkness and confidence.
His eyes met hers.
Vivid red and full of fire and death.
His cold, hollow voice rang in her ears.
A death knell.
“That is never going to happen.”
He launched at her.
Chapter 8
Enyo grunted as Keras collided with her, scrambled to grab hold of him as he snarled in her face, baring fangs that snapped dangerously close. She managed to get her hands against his chest and shoved, ripping him away from her and sending him flying across the rooftop.
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He twisted and flipped, landed in a crouch as he skidded backwards, his right hand skimming the ground between his legs, keeping him upright.
His crimson eyes narrowed on her and she was swift to dodge, to hurl herself to her left and into a roll that had the shadows he had launched at her from the black cloud slashing the air where she had been rather than her.
His deep growl cut through the tense silence as she popped onto her feet and ran at him.
She should have thought this through. Should have at least given herself the option of a weapon. She didn’t want to kill him, didn’t really want to hurt him. She only wanted to draw out his aggression and somehow manage it, bearing the brunt of his fury so he could find some release.
Could feel again.
Hunger shone in his crimson eyes, spoke to her and drew every instinct she possessed as a warrior to the surface.
She kicked off when she reached him, catching him by surprise apparently. Her knee slammed into his face and knocked him backwards, the scent of his blood filling the air as he hit the ground on his back, a grunt leaving his lips.
Enyo twisted and brought her knee down, aimed for his chest.
He rolled away and launched into a pirouette that had him twisting in the air and landing on his feet.
Keras always had been fast.
He hit her like a gorgon, barrelling into her side and running with her. She cried out when she slammed into something solid, hit it so hard the metal crumpled around her. Pain exploded along her left side, heat licking her in several spots as the scent of her own blood joined his in the air.
Keras snapped his left hand around her throat and she screamed as he yanked her towards him. Metal sliced deeper into her skin. Wet heat rolled down her side.
His scarlet eyes fell to her arm and narrowed as he hesitated.
Because she was hurt?
She glanced down at her arm, watched the blood sliding down it from the lacerations on her biceps and forearm.
A mistake.
Keras pivoted and hurled her across the roof, sending her flying. He was on her before she landed, caught her by her breastplate and pulled her towards him as his fist flew at her face. She took the blow.
Landed one of her own while he was distracted.
He grunted as her fist slammed into his stomach, his breath leaving him in a rush as she lifted him into the air with it. His grip on her slipped and she growled as she launched her other fist at him, struck him hard in his cheek and sent him down.
He hit the rooftop so hard that it caved beneath him, forming a shallow indent.
He was on his feet a moment later, and on her.
She grappled with him as he tried to seize hold of her, as he eyed the edge of the roof. He wanted to throw her off it. It wouldn’t work. Her barrier was impenetrable. She would hit it and slide down to the floor below them.
Shadows snaked around her legs, hauled her upside down and into the air.
She stared at Keras, her head hurting as blood rushed to it. His gaze tracked down the length of her legs, heating by degrees as it reached her thighs. The slats of her skirt had fallen down to her stomach. It wasn’t the first time her undergarments had been exposed during battle, but it was the first time she had felt vulnerable because of it.
Deeply aware of a man’s eyes on her.
When the heat in his eyes gave way to hunger for violence rather than pleasure, Enyo gritted her teeth and pulled herself up. She clawed at the shadows that encased her legs. They writhed and snapped at her, but she could grab them, managed to get one off her.
The world whirled past her as she flew through the air.
Thrown by Keras’s shadows.
She hit the barrier.
Grunted as air exploded from her lungs.
As she slid down the curve of it to come to rest against the wall of the skyscraper.
She lay there for a moment, catching her breath, staring up the height of the building.
Keras appeared at the edge of the rooftop above her, his face a black mask as he glared down at her, evidently disappointed that he hadn’t been able to launch her through the barrier as he had expected.
On a vicious snarl, he dropped off the edge.
Enyo teleported before he could land on her, reappearing on the rooftop.
Keras appeared behind her, hooked his arm around her throat and grabbed hold of it. Her hands flew to his arm as he hauled her backwards, as his forearm pressed against her throat and she fought for air. He tightened his grip on her and she slapped at his arm, clawed it and struggled, panic flooding her when she tried to teleport and found she couldn’t.
He was holding her in place.
She kicked out, wildly thrashing in his arms as he slowly tightened his grip, as he choked her.
She suddenly stilled.
What was she doing?
Enyo blanked her mind and exhaled, pushed out the panic so she could focus.
She could get out of this. She was a goddess of war. Strong. Powerful. Skilled.
She slammed her elbow into his ribs. Once. Twice. A third time. He grunted and his hold loosened, just enough that she could get her hand between his arm and her throat. She shoved forwards with all her strength and spun out of his grip as soon as she was able, coming to face him.
Enyo twisted and dipped her upper body, smashed her foot into his face and sent him slamming into the ground. She dropped on top of him and pummelled his face, snapping his head left and right. His eyes changed a little more with each strike, with every hard blow she dealt him, and the sorceress’s words came back to haunt her.
Keras had goaded Cassandra into hitting him.
Because he wanted the pain.
He took pleasure from it.
She went still, staring down at him, feeling for the first time the true depth of the change that had overcome him. He felt nothing, yet he craved pain. She tried to see the man she had once known in him, sought a glimmer of that male in his eyes because she needed to know he could come back from this.
She needed to know that somehow, in some way, she could right this wrong.
She clung to the belief that he was in there somewhere, hidden, caged by his addiction.
His lips stretched into a cold smile that chilled her blood.
His hand shot up and closed around her throat, and he rolled with her, pinning her beneath him, his legs straddling her hips. He bore down on her, sneering in her face, his claws pressing deep into her neck. Pain spread outwards from their points, not warm, but cold.
Unnaturally cold.
Her head fogged. Vision blurred.
Panic rose to the fore again, gripping her more fiercely this time as she realised what was happening.
His shadows.
He was using them against her, forcing them inside her.
She smashed her fist into his face, knocking him enough that his claws pulled free of her flesh. She used his momentary loss of balance against him, shoved him in his shoulder and teleported.
Enyo landed hard across the roof from him, struggling for air, desperately grasping at her throat as she felt the shadows spreading through her.
Keras slowly rose onto his feet.
Darkness flowed from him, creeping outwards to fill the inside of the dome, and he lifted his hands before him, his palms up and fingers tensed like talons. He stopped when they were level with his stomach.
Shadows swept around her, swirling across the dome, and she looked left and then right, watching as they closed in on her, rushing to figure out what he was up to so she could brace against his attack, maybe even circumvent it.
Her gaze collided with his and she froze.
Rumours on Olympus had always painted Hades as having two sides to his personality—the one most people saw who ruled with an iron fist and expected all to obey him, was quick to put people in their place.
And a darker side that was more twisted, almost demonic in form, with sharp claws and vicious fangs, and black eyes that blazed
scarlet in his pupils.
Eyes like the ones looking at her.
Staring so deep into hers that she was sure he could see all of her, knew her thoughts and her fears, her deepest secrets.
Black claws grew from his fingers.
Huge fangs filled his mouth as he snarled at her.
The slightly pointed tips of his ears grew sharper.
She tensed as shadows whipped around her, turning everything black.
Braced herself.
A scream lodged in her throat as Keras was suddenly before her, lashing out at her with his claws. She stumbled backwards, heart thundering as he melted into the shadows again.
Blood rushing as those shadows snapped at her, jabbed her in her legs and her back, pushed her around as she turned left and then right, cursing them. They were dampening her senses. She couldn’t feel Keras but she knew he had to be close, inside the barrier.
Her gaze shot upwards as the roof beneath her shook, as a hollow ringing sound filled her ears. Crimson lightning arced along the dome, just visible through the shadows as they writhed, growing thinner and then thicker again.
The lightning struck again, an ominous crack following it.
Her eyes widened as a fault line chased across the barrier, shining white-blue.
A low chuckle curled around her.
She couldn’t let Keras escape. Not when he was like this.
She spun in a circle, peering into the shadows, desperately seeking a sign of movement. Nothing. The shadows constantly swirled, thinning in places, growing denser in others, but she couldn’t see Keras anywhere.
But she could feel him everywhere.
It was as if he was the shadows.
He loomed out of the darkness and she was swift to duck, evading his first blow and attempting to catch him with one of her own. He easily dodged it and came at her, struck her with an uppercut followed by a left hook that hit her so hard she saw stars. She blinked to clear her head and parried, tried to match him and keep up as he fought her, but he was faster, his blows harder. He landed more than she could block, driving her backwards. Pain rolled through every inch of her, gathered in her head to slow her further, blurring her thoughts together and dulling her vision.
Keras: Guardians of Hades Series Book 7 Page 9