Keras: Guardians of Hades Series Book 7

by Heaton, Felicity

  She glanced at his wrist.

  At the pale band of skin where his limiter had been before he had broken it.

  Aware that if she didn’t do something, his returning power might affect this world. He wouldn’t mean to harm this realm, wouldn’t be aware of the damage he was doing as he slept, fighting the effects of coming off his pills and regaining his strength, but he would feel guilty about it when he finally awoke.

  She reluctantly released his hand and lifted both of hers to her hair. She carefully untied her hair, letting it fall around her shoulders, and sought the braids that hung down one side of her head. There were three of them. She caressed each, seeking the one she needed. When she found it, she carefully undid it, removing the silver wire from it. It was warm beneath her fingers, made of the same metal as Keras’s ring, but unlike that ring, this thread was blessed.

  Enyo undid another braid, choosing the one she had threaded gold through and opening the small gold bands she had clamped around it in places. The gold was cool to the touch, but vibrated with power, not gold of this world but gold from the deepest heart of Mount Olympus. Whatever blessing she bestowed upon it would be increased in strength by its natural power.

  She picked at her skirt, unravelling the thick black threads that bound the ornate silver plates to each leather slat.

  When she had assembled all she needed, she set to work, focusing on it as the hours trickled past, weaving an intricate knotted band of the black thread, silver and gold metals, working a blessing into it that came from her heart.

  The cool air of the day grew chilly.

  She glanced up from her work, eyes widening as she saw it was dark again outside.

  Her gaze caught on something as it moved.

  Esher.

  He paused at the end of the wing of the house opposite her, on the walkway that jutted out over the pond, and tipped his head back, basking in the moonlight. It brightened his grey shirt, cast highlights in his onyx hair and turned his skin milky.

  His blue eyes remained fixed on the moon, even as the young Japanese woman came to him, slipped her hand into his and held it.

  Was the moon affecting him?

  His power over water came with a price in this world. He was easily swayed by the moon, felt the pull of it as keenly as the oceans did. Her fingers paused at their work as she watched him, wary of him, aware that it had only been weeks since he had gone on a rampage in the Underworld, had killed anyone who had strayed too close to him and appeared as if they might interrupt his hunt.

  Esher had a dark side as black as Keras’s.

  But there wasn’t a sign of it as he turned towards the woman and gazed down at her, as he stroked her cheek and spoke with her, a warm and tender look on his face.

  Neither of them seemed aware of her, and she felt as if she was prying, yet she couldn’t bring herself to look away.

  Esher placed his arm around the woman’s shoulders and held her to him, pressed a kiss to her brow that was sweet and gentle, nothing like the vicious killer he had been not long ago.

  He seemed so different now.

  So many of the brothers did.

  Valen’s sharp tongue remained, but he had lost some of his bite, was civil more often than not. Daimon appeared less solemn and distant than before. Ares had found a balance between his duty and living his life in the way he wanted, with the woman he loved. Calistos had even calmed down, seemed steadier now and far less reckless.

  Of course, Marek had remained the same.

  But then she hadn’t seen him hunting vampires to extinction in Spain recently.

  Maybe he had changed for the better too.

  Golden light chased along the walkway beyond the white wood-framed panels, growing brighter as soft steps sounded.

  Enyo looked up as the sorceress appeared in view, holding a lantern that cast warm light over her figure-hugging long black dress and her dark hair. A ginger and white cat wound around her feet, even pushed through the fine material of her dress to emerge from between her legs, his rumbling purr filling the silence.

  A small guardian deity.

  Cassandra had a powerful familiar.

  The witch walked into the room, somehow not tripping on the cat as he kept walking in front of her, darting to brush her leg whenever she took a step.

  When Cassandra eased to kneel beside Keras, setting the lamp down beside his head, the cat rubbed across her backside and rounded her, hissed at Keras and distanced himself.

  Heading for Enyo.

  She stilled as the deity crawled onto her lap and nestled there, purring loudly as he looked up at her and blinked.

  “Milos, you are such a lothario,” Cass muttered and shook her head.

  The cat kept purring.

  Enyo wasn’t sure what to do.

  When she could practically feel the weight of his expectation, she gingerly petted him. He shuffled onto his back, exposing his soft belly.

  Cassandra huffed and muttered something in Russian, clearly not happy about her cat’s antics.

  She checked Keras over. “He seems better.”

  “His power is returning.” Enyo fidgeted with the bracelet she had almost finished. “I will help him with it.”

  Cass nodded and stood. “If you need anything, just call. I’ll leave the light. The garden gets dark without it and you might want to get some air out there at some point.”

  She moved to the threshold of the room and lingered. Waiting for Milos to follow? The cat left Enyo’s lap and sauntered over to the witch, but Cass still remained. She glanced over her shoulder at Enyo, her pale blue eyes warm.

  “The others are worried. Won’t you come and eat something? Aiko is cooking.”

  Enyo shook her head. “They do not want me there.”

  Cass frowned at her. “You’re wrong about that. The brothers… They were angry but they understand why you did what you did. All of them would have done the same for the one they love.”

  Enyo fell silent.

  Was everyone aware of how she felt about Keras?

  She glanced at him.

  Was he aware?

  “I am fine here.” She stroked his arm. “I do not want him to wake alone. I need to watch over him.”

  All excuses.

  “Everyone is safe here.” Cass turned to face her. “Nothing could get through that barrier without someone feeling it.”

  “Food is ready,” Caterina’s soft voice curled into the room a moment before she stepped into view near Cassandra. Her Spanish accent lent a warm edge to her voice as she peered in at Enyo. “Are you coming?”

  Enyo shook her head.

  The hybrid mortal-daemon female didn’t press the matter, just offered a smile that said she understood.

  She had grown to like Caterina over the few months she had been with Marek, felt as if she might have found a friend in her, a confidant who could listen to her troubles. There had been several times when she had visited Marek only to find he wasn’t there and had fallen into easy conversation with Caterina, exchanging stories of the brothers, agreeing on countless points about them.

  Like how difficult they could be.

  “I’ll set some aside in case you change your mind.” Caterina looped her arm around Cassandra’s and lured her away.

  Blissful silence fell again.

  Enyo went back to her work, focusing on it so the blessing would be strong.

  She kept her gaze locked on Keras, trying to shut out the voices coming from the main room of the house as everyone sat down for the meal.

  Quiet gradually fell as the night wore on and the couples retired to their rooms.

  The sun was just beginning to rise on a misty morning when her head grew heavy, her eyes slipping shut more than once as she worked to finish the bracelet for Keras.

  “You should get some rest.” Esher’s deep voice rolled over her, jerking her awake.

  She sat bolt upright, muscles clamping hard down on her bones as her spine stiffened.

&nb
sp; Esher strode into the room with purpose and she drew a secret breath, readying herself in case things went the way her instincts were expecting.

  He surprised her by storming straight past her, sliding a panel on the wall opposite the door open and revealing a cupboard. He pulled some bedding out of it and laid it out beside Keras.

  Enyo couldn’t hold back the question lodged on the tip of her tongue for any longer. “You are not angry with me?”

  Esher looked up from smoothing the blanket, his eyes dark even with the lantern casting light over his face. “I am, but what’s done is done. We just have to do whatever we can to fix it now.”

  “I am sorry,” she said, not hiding how deeply she felt that way or how deeply she felt about what she was about to say. “I could not let it continue. He was killing himself.”

  Esher sighed. “Save your apologies for Keras when he wakes. He’ll be in a bad way… You need to be prepared for that.”

  Enyo nodded as he stood.

  It was a warning to her and she knew he was right. Keras was going to be angry with her when he came around. He was going to do and say things that could really hurt her if she wasn’t prepared. She thought about how terrible she had been to him when she had been weening herself off ambrosia, and then thought about how long he had been in this world, all the things he had been through because he had been forced to come here.

  Because of his father.

  The fury she had been holding back for the last two days rose back to the fore, stronger this time, filling her with an undeniable need to confront Hades.

  To make him pay for what he had done to his beautiful son.

  She placed the finished bracelet on Keras’s wrist, felt the leak in power she could sense from him begin to fade.

  She leaned over him and pressed her lips to his.

  Whispered against them.

  “Goodbye.”

  Felt sure she would never see him again.

  Hades would kill her.

  But someone had to make him pay.

  Chapter 11

  Enyo stepped from the gate that connected Olympus to the Underworld, leaving behind the bright blue sky and sun-bathed streets of the white city and entering the grim monotone world where black lands met a dull orange sky.

  She teleported, landing mid-stride before the sprawling complex of onyx temples that formed the main place of worship at the palace of Hades.

  Enyo stormed towards the two armoured guards who stood sentinel at the gate in the wall, not slowing even as they turned dark gazes on her. She swept past them, head held high, steps sure. Her hand came to rest on the hilt of the sword hanging from her left hip. A warning that any action on their part would be the last thing they did in this world.

  She released the breath she had been holding as neither male attempted to stop her. Her gaze lifted as she entered the grounds of the palace, rising up the height of the fluted black columns of the temple looming before her to the triangular pediment they supported.

  Two smaller temples flanked it, set back from it on either side, the enclosed hallway that joined them making them appear to be one enormous temple.

  Black mountains rose beyond the palace, fractures in their faces that glowed gold, casting that shade of light across the sky and the smoky clouds that billowed there.

  Around her, the black ground gave way to green, to a field of flowers and hedges that were a stark but beautiful contrast against the grim, imposing temples. Blooms of every colour imaginable swayed in the breeze, their soft fragrance filling the thick air.

  Enyo strode forwards with purpose, her hand lingering on the hilt of her sword as her nerves began to rise, attempting to get the better of her. She stoked her anger, using it as a shield against her fear as she ascended the steps and passed the two rows of columns that supported the roof of the main temple, heading for the open towering doors. The gold detailing on the figures that covered the black wood shone in the light of the braziers set around the rectangular room.

  That same light chased over the two-storey high statue of Hades dressed in full regalia that loomed in the middle of the room, the sharp spikes of his crown and the bident he gripped almost touching the dark wooden beams that supported the roof. Oil lamps and offerings surrounded his feet, together with bowls of petals and things best left unidentified.

  She stared at the statue as she walked towards it, her head tipping back, swearing that Hades’s eyes followed her. When she reached the base, she hurried past it, and out through the doors on the other side, a place few dared to venture.

  Those who visited the temple came here to make offerings to the god-king, seeking his help in some manner. They came to the statue, the closest they could get to the ruler of this bleak realm.

  Any who ventured beyond it without invite were met with swift justice.

  Enyo navigated the smaller building, ignoring the corridors that branched off it, and exited into the courtyard. More flowers bloomed around the open space, bringing life and colour into it.

  She strode across the courtyard, aware of the way the guards watched her from a distance, their curious gazes tracking her. She had been here enough times that they wouldn’t bother her. They probably thought Hades had business with her.

  She certainly had business with him.

  Ahead of her, a more modern building stood, still fronted by columns that supported a pediment like the temples but only in the central third of it. The two thirds on either side of it had been kept flat so it came close to resembling one of the elegant country estates she had seen in England.

  She walked faster, breathing harder as anticipation swept through her, as her heart began to race and her palms dampened.

  A guard at the door of the house opened it for her and she nodded to him as she entered the double-height foyer. She swept across it, heading for another door directly opposite her. She shoved it open and took the steps that led downwards into a tunnel two at a time, anger grating at her, pushing her to move faster.

  The sense of power that constantly hummed in the air grew stronger as she neared the end of the tunnel and she braced herself against it, rallied her courage and stoked her rage, aware she would need it in the fight ahead.

  She broke out into the roofless lower building, a place she had only been a few times in her life, a throne room designed to impress and instil fear into those Hades summoned to this place.

  Beyond the open sides to her left and right, a river flowed around a sweeping bend that cut behind the main wall of the throne room ahead of her. Ten thick black fluted columns set six feet apart supported a lintel decorated with a frieze on either side of her, and atop each one stood a statue that glared down at her, their backdrop the towering cragged faces of the mountains that spewed bright lava and plumes of smoke.

  She kept her gaze fixed ahead of her, on the god-king who sat on an onyx throne constructed of bones, the trench of flames that ran along the bottom of the wall behind him blazing brightly, casting his shadow out long in front of him.

  To her feet.

  His heavy crimson cloak spilled around the sharp points of his boots, like blood against the onyx flagstones and the form-fitting black armour that protected his lean frame, covering him to his neck. His wild black hair blended seamlessly with the curved spikes of his crown that flared from the back of his head, rising from behind his pointed ears.

  She stared at him, at features that reminded her painfully of Keras.

  “To what do I owe the pleasure, Enyo?” His deep voice rolled over her like thunder.

  Shook her to her core.

  She clung to her courage.

  Unleashed her fury.

  “Did you give Keras those pills?” she snapped.

  Hades’s power rose around her, slammed into her as his blue eyes narrowed and blazed scarlet, knocking her back a step as the shadow that extended from his feet writhed.

  It wasn’t wise to anger the god-king of the Underworld.

  But she had come here kn
owing that.

  Prepared for it.

  She tipped her chin up and stared at him. “Answer me.”

  “I answer to no one,” he said, his voice calm.

  Dangerous.

  Hades had given Keras that black gift, the ability to sound at ease and uncaring while making the person he was talking to aware that he was a split-second away from utterly destroying them.

  He lowered his hand to the arm of his throne, his black gauntlet clanking against the bones as he stared her down. Razor-sharp claws curled over and scored the bones, leaving grooves in them that had her swallowing hard as she imagined how easily those same claws could rip her apart.

  Enyo stood her ground.

  Was probably going to regret it, but she didn’t care.

  Hades had to pay for what he had done.

  Even if the only punishment she could inflict on him was the knowledge of how his son was suffering because of his actions.

  “Do you know what those pills have done to him?” she barked and flexed her fingers around the hilt of her sword. “How could you give them to him?”

  Hades’s eyes glowed brighter and she tensed when he pushed onto his feet and she had to tilt her head back to keep her gaze locked with his. He stood at least two inches taller than Keras, closing in on seven-foot, and used every inch of his height to his advantage as he glared down at her.

  Her voice lost some of its strength in the face of him. “You gave him those pills, did you not?”

  “I did.” Those two words fell hard on her, had shock rolling through her and made her realise that part of her had foolishly believed Keras hadn’t been telling her the truth.

  She couldn’t believe that Hades had given his own precious son such a devastating drug.

  “He needed control over his power.” His tone didn’t hold even a hint of regret.

  Enyo loosed a frustrated snarl in his direction. “Control? Your pills dampened his power, but at a price. They suppressed everything. They made him numb and he used that, grew addicted to letting the pills steal everything away from him… turning him into… into… a shell. A hollow… empty… shell. Is that what you wanted?”