She swung again and he ducked, kicked off and barrelled into her stomach. She grunted as he slammed into her and lifted her feet off the ground, and hissed as he threw her onto her back on the ground and leaped on top of her. She slashed at him with her talons and he was quick to teleport, narrowly avoiding being cut by her.
Above him, three Keres cried out.
Unhappy that he hadn’t been injured?
He looked back at the valkyrie as she twisted away from him.
Grinned.
A small black stone had been sewn into the back of her short golden skirt.
Keras lunged for it and managed to hook his fingers into the waistband of her skirt. He hauled her backwards as she hissed and snarled at him, and ripped the stone away from her armour as soon as he had an opening.
He crushed it in his fist.
His shadows tore from the black ground and burrowed into her flesh.
She screamed as she went down.
A scream that was echoed above him.
Keras leaped away from her and didn’t pause to watch as the Ker descended on the valkyrie. The death spirits weren’t picky apparently. They didn’t care whether an injured warrior belonged to his side or their one. They just wanted to feed.
He fought to reach Enyo, blocking and slashing with his sword, cutting a path through the Hellspawn who got in his way.
A fist slammed into his chest, knocking him backwards the moment he was close to her.
A sword followed it.
Keras ducked as pain spread across his ribcage like fire and he fought to breathe.
Moros advanced on him, not giving him a chance to recover. Shadows raced from behind Keras, rising in sharp spikes towards the god of doom.
The male grinned as he cut at them with his sword.
A blade that sliced straight through them.
Keras gritted his teeth and cursed. He unleashed more shadows as he swept his own sword down by his side and launched at Moros.
The black-to-scarlet-haired male still only wore minimal armour—a slatted skirt, boots and vambraces, and a single onyx leather strap across his chest that held a pauldron on his left shoulder.
It allowed the god to move faster, but at the same time, it left him vulnerable.
If Keras could get close enough to him and keep him distracted with sword attacks, he might be able to use his shadows to take the male down.
He flicked a glance at Enyo to check on her. She had lost her helmet, but she had managed to dispatch the valkyrie she had been fighting. She turned away from the fallen female and began moving back towards Keras, her silver sword a swift blur as she dealt with any Hellspawn foolish enough to get in her way.
Three valkyries landed between her and Keras. One of them targeted her.
Two came up behind Moros.
Keras bared emerging fangs at them as he readied himself, flexing his fingers around his blade.
Darkness surged through him and he shot towards the trio, shadows racing on his heels to pass him as he clashed with Moros. The ferocity of their swords meeting sent painful vibrations up his arm, numbing his hand for a moment. Moros clenched his teeth and shoved forwards, leaping backwards at the same time. The male barely set his foot down before he was coming at Keras again, his sword slicing through the air.
Keras blocked it and growled as one of the valkyries tried to get around behind him. His shadows snapped at her, driving her back again. She eyed them warily.
Her comrade didn’t.
The second valkyrie beat her wings and shot towards him, and he twisted away from Moros and raised his hand, commanding his shadows to form a wall between him and the valkyrie. She shrieked as she hit it, but it didn’t stop her. She blasted through the shadows and hit him hard, knocking him sideways and off-balance.
Enyo appeared behind her and grabbed her wing and yanked, flipping the female around and hurling her into the air.
Moros lunged for her.
Enyo pivoted and leaned backwards, narrowly avoiding the tip of his blade as it cut through the air at chest height. She brought her leg up, striking the male’s hand with her foot, and he grunted as he barely kept hold of his sword.
He snagged her ankle with his free hand and swung her up into the air.
Keras snarled and stepped, grabbed her and teleported again, pulling her to safety.
Or not.
Moros came with them, landing hard in a clearing closer to the palace.
Enyo rolled onto her feet and brought her sword up, slashing at the god, and Keras launched his shadows at the male as he got his bearings again.
He grunted as someone struck him from behind, knocking him forwards, and growled as pain swept through his left side just above his hip. He glared down at the golden talons that pierced him, grabbed the valkyrie’s hand and tore it away from him, pivoting at the same time. He lunged forwards and cracked his forehead against hers, ripping a grunt from her.
Above him, a Ker shrieked.
Keras raked talons across the valkyrie’s chest, slicing through the strap of her small dark gold bikini-style top and drawing blood.
He shoved her away from him and sprang backwards, his heart hammering as wind beat against him and blood splattered the shoulders of his black armour.
His feint worked.
Rather than attacking him, the Ker targeted the valkyrie.
He spun away from them as they grappled, bringing his sword up as he called on his shadows, blocking the blow Moros had aimed at Enyo. She dropped to her knees and lashed out with her own blade, managed to cut just above Moros’s knee before the male could dodge her.
Around him the battle raged, the cries of the Keres growing constant as the scent of blood grew thicker in the air.
Keras couldn’t see victory.
Not yet.
Even with some of his father’s legion and Nyx’s army battling on their side, they were only a match for the enemy. Victory wasn’t guaranteed. He had to do something to turn the tide in their favour. Taking down Moros would be a start.
Enyo rolled and came up on her feet, forcing Moros to turn with her.
Giving Keras his back.
He grinned as he kicked off, gripping the hilt of his blade with both hands, his gaze locked on the male’s exposed back.
Grunted as his right shoulder jerked backwards and fire blazed in it. He stumbled, missing a step as he glanced at his shoulder.
At the arrow sticking out of it.
He blinked.
Cursed.
Oizys.
He gripped the silver shaft of the arrow and yanked it from his flesh, grunting again as the fire spread outwards, had his right arm shaking as pain rolled down it. His gaze darted over the battlefield. His heart thundered. Where was she?
He couldn’t see her anywhere.
Off to his left, Valen bit out a ripe curse and went down.
Keras stepped to him and growled as he found his brother clutching an arrow lodged in his left thigh.
He crouched beside him and checked his brother over. It wasn’t the only injury he had sustained. Someone had managed to cleave a great gash in the right side of his armour too, and he was missing his left vambrace and gauntlet.
“I’m fine,” Valen muttered.
Keras yanked the arrow from his thigh, ripping a bellow from him.
When Valen’s breaths levelled out, he grumbled, “Okay, I’m not fine.”
His brother clutched his thigh, but with his armour on, it was hard for him to stop the bleeding.
“You need to get patched up.” Keras frowned at him when he shook his head. “Valen. Do as I order.”
Around them, lightning blazed from the sky, striking several Keres before it slammed into the ground forces, hitting two valkyries who had been advancing on them.
“I can still fight.” Valen ripped the leg of his armour away and grimaced as he inspected the wound. “Where’s Ares when you need him?”
“Here.” Ares’s bass voice rolled over them
and he stepped around Valen, his expression grim as he looked him over. “You need to go home.”
“Fuck you.” Valen saluted him with his middle finger. “Just cauterise this shit and fuck off.”
Ares dropped to his knees beside Valen and pressed two fingers to the wound on his thigh.
Valen screamed as flames formed around the tips of Ares’s fingers and Keras took hold of him, supporting his back as he struggled against Ares’s hold. When Ares released him, Valen sagged in Keras’s arms, breathing hard.
“Eva digs scars,” Valen murmured, sounding not quite with the world.
“Eva would prefer you back alive,” Keras countered and eased Valen up so he was sitting again.
He realised that Ares wasn’t the only one who had fallen back when Valen had gone down. Esher, Marek and Caterina fought around them, keeping the enemy away from Valen.
“Not going home,” Valen grumbled. “You need me here.”
As if to illustrate his point, a bolt of lightning shot from the sky and struck a valkyrie who had been coming up behind Esher, sending her flying away from him.
“Fine. But you stay with Ares.” Keras stood and offered his hand to Valen.
Valen gripped it and pulled himself onto his feet.
Ares reaffixed his armour for him and then straightened, looking Keras in the eye. “You need fixing too?”
Keras shook his head. “It barely pierced my armour. We need to find where Oizys is though.”
“Somewhere high up most likely,” Marek said.
Glowing blue hexagons rippled across the air behind him and a silver arrow bounced off them.
Caterina swore in Catalan.
Another arrow shot towards Marek and Keras hit it with his shadows, deflecting it.
His gaze darted to where it had come from. The roof of the palace. Before he could step there and deal with her, Oizys disappeared.
“Track her down,” Keras growled.
“On it.” Esher teleported.
Keras stepped again, returning to Enyo.
Moros was gone.
“What happened?” He blocked the sword a Hellspawn swung at her and the male went down screaming as his shadows tore into him.
Enyo swiped the back of her hand across her brow, clearing not only sweat away. Blood trickled from the wound above her eye, dripping onto her cheek.
“He retreated. I think they are using the palace as a stronghold.” Enyo wiped the blood from her cheek.
“Oizys was there. Maybe they teamed up.” Keras lashed out at a Hellspawn with his sword, catching the male across his chest as he fumbled his block.
Blood spurted from the wound and the male turned fearful eyes skyward.
Enyo grabbed Keras and they kept moving, working in harmony to cut a path towards the palace.
A bright burst of rainbow light snagged his attention and he glanced off to his right as he reached the perimeter wall of the palace.
A gate.
The violet disc birthed another colourful ring of glyphs as he looked at it.
A few metres away, Cal and Marinda battled two valkyries. Cal hit them with a blast of wind that tangled their wings and threw them high into the air, and Marinda was waiting for them when they crashed to the ground, leaped on them and clawed at them, hissing and flashing fangs, her violet eyes shining brightly with battle hunger.
As vicious as any Ker.
It was still strange seeing the sweet and gentle Mari transform into a bloodthirsty furie.
Marinda sprang from the valkyries, neither of which got up. She and his brother must have discovered their charms, the item that protected them. Marinda made a fast beeline for Meadow as the blonde female held her hands out before her, her focus entirely on the gate as another ring formed, hovering a few feet above the black ground.
Marinda slammed into her back on a vicious hiss, knocking her through the forming gate, disturbing the rings.
Meadow grunted and Mari gasped as she grappled with her, her violet eyes widening as she jolted.
A grin tugged at her lips.
The ground beneath Keras bucked and shuddered, and Cal and several others who were near the forming gate fell over. Another fierce quake struck Keras and he looked over his shoulder, watched as it rippled outwards like a shockwave.
Marinda.
This power came from her.
By touching Meadow, she must have formed the cycle between them, had absorbed his father’s power from her half-sister.
In several places, great shards of onyx shot from the ground, and a deafening groan sounded as a huge streak of the land fell away. He quickly scanned the faces of everyone caught in the sudden collapse, their harrowing cries filling his ears as his heart raced, fear that one of his brothers would be caught up in the landslide gripping him hard.
He didn’t recognise any of the unfortunate souls who plummeted into the depths.
Enyo grabbed his arm and pointed, and he looked there. Ares and Valen fought together but they were slowly being separated. Far beyond them, ice shards and bursts of colourful light told him where Daimon and Cass were.
The great black spears of earth were joined by smaller spikes off to Keras’s left, where Marek was fighting.
He couldn’t see Esher, but he could feel him, somewhere beyond the wall.
Thanatos and Nyx were there too, battling someone powerful.
He turned to Enyo and frowned when she wasn’t there. He scoured the battle for her and growled when he spotted her a short distance away, fighting a valkyrie and four Hellspawn.
And something struck him.
The enemy were working to split them up, forcing them to fight alone or with one other.
An arrow whizzed past him, swiftly followed by another, and the darkness in his veins snarled for freedom as one hit its target, nailing Ares in the back of his shoulder. Valen noticed and struggled to reach him, but two valkyries attacked him, one of them cutting across his arm as he raised it to summon his lightning.
The second valkyrie suddenly dropped to the ground, and Valen looked over his shoulder. Keras followed the line of his gaze. Esher. He stood on the thick wall of the palace, fending off a Ker as he looked at Valen, blood covering the left side of his face and chest.
A silver blur shot towards him.
Lightning struck it before it could hit him, so bright it dampened Keras’s vision. He looked up to his right, seeking Oizys, deeply aware that he had to stop her.
He spotted a cave high on the side of the mountain that loomed over Nyx’s palace. She had to be hiding there. Before he could step to check it out, Calistos unleashed an agonised bellow that chilled Keras’s blood.
He whipped to face his youngest brother, growled as the Ker he was desperately fighting lashed at him with sharp talons, slicing through his black armour and nicking his throat. Mari hissed and released Meadow, leaped on the female death spirit and ripped at her bloody wings.
Keras rushed to Cal, his heart in his throat, the darkness growing stronger as he shoved his way through the enemy and his allies alike. He drew to a sharp halt as he reached his brother, dropped to his knees and pulled him carefully into his arms.
Cal clutched his throat, blood pumping from between his fingers as he lifted weary blue eyes to meet Keras’s gaze.
Keras grew aware of the fight that raged around them, of his brothers as they desperately fought to turn the tide of the battle in their favour, all of them injured.
The enemy were stronger than he had thought.
They weren’t going to win this unless they went all out.
Including him.
He looked down at Cal, had never felt as responsible for the fate of this realm and his family as he did as that realisation hit him.
A strange stillness fell over him as Marinda took Cal from him, as Cass appeared beside him to tend to his brother, as he stood and looked at the battle, saw Marek take a nasty hit as he tried to protect Caterina from a valkyrie.
He had to do somethin
g.
He would do something.
The night he had fought Enyo in Tokyo came flooding back. He had never felt as powerful as he had in that moment, but he had come dangerously close to losing his mind to the darker side of his blood, had almost been overwhelmed by it. It had been a violent struggle to bring himself back from the brink, and there had been moments when he had feared he wouldn’t be strong enough to do it, that the darkness inside him was too powerful for him to defeat.
Valen went down as he tried to reach Marek, lightning crashing all around where he disappeared from view, and a great fireball blasted through the enemy towards him, Ares sprinting just behind it, desperation written in every tight line of his bloodstained face.
Keras knew what he had to do.
He removed his gauntlets and discarded them, emptiness flowing into him as he tossed them on the ground.
He twisted his fingers around the black band on his wrist and snapped it.
Power flowed into him, a surge that rocked him forwards and had the darkness within him growing agitated, pushing for freedom.
Keras looked to his right, his gaze seeking Enyo—his strength, his heart, his everything.
Sorrow was swift to fill him as he looked at her, as he soaked in the sight of her, regret that had lived inside him for centuries now.
She cut down the valkyrie she had been fighting and wiped her brow. Froze and tensed. Slowly looked across her shoulder in his direction.
Her jade eyes locked with his.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, sure she wouldn’t hear his words, but needing to tell her.
He slipped his fingers beneath the black and silver bracelet she had made for him.
Her eyes widened.
She screamed.
“No!”
Lunged for him, desperately grabbing and shoving at anyone who stood between them.
Keras closed his eyes.
Snapped the limiter.
Welcomed the darkness.
It rushed into him on the crest of the sensation of power that surged through him.
Obliterated his consciousness.
His final thought was his final fear.
Keras: Guardians of Hades Series Book 7 Page 36