Their eyes glowed crimson.
“I have this,” Cassandra announced, voice dripping confidence that Keras seriously doubted until she smirked and tipped her head up and continued. “I have faced this kind before. I saved Calistos and Marinda from ones like them in London. They are no match for me.”
She shifted her arms to her sides, closed her eyes and mouthed words as Daimon built another wall of ice, this time between him, Esher and Cassandra, and the three demonic males.
Violet light spiralled down her arms to her palms and she grimaced as she hurled it at the daemons.
The males didn’t even attempt to evade the spell.
The reason became apparent when it struck them.
Glyphs shimmered over their bodies, etched into their skin.
Someone had made the furie some powerful bodyguards.
“Oh sh—” Cass ducked and Daimon grabbed her, stepping with her as a double-bladed axe cut through the air where she had been.
The demonic brute grunted and swung again, aiming at Esher instead. Esher stood his ground, lifting his hand and curling his fingers into a fist. Keras waited for the daemon to go down as Esher used his power over water to stop the male’s heart.
Only he didn’t.
Esher’s black eyebrows rose, a look of disbelief crossing his face in the split-second before he teleported too.
Daimon reappeared with Cassandra beside Keras.
“This is bad,” Daimon muttered.
Keras was inclined to agree.
Enyo stepped forwards. “They are just three little daemons. I can handle them.”
Keras was not inclined to agree with that. He grabbed her arm as she lifted her sword and readied herself, his heart lurching painfully at the thought of her attempting to battle these daemons alone.
“We do this together.” He held her gaze as she glanced over her shoulder at him, kept their eyes locked until he was sure that she was listening to him and wasn’t going to attempt to battle the daemons alone.
Together they were strong enough to handle these males.
At least, he hoped they were.
He shifted his gaze to them and studied them. Wards protected not only their skin but their entire bodies. The enemy didn’t have that kind of power at their disposal, and he had never heard of using wards on someone like this before.
He frowned as it hit him.
Because they weren’t wards.
They were a spell.
Magic.
Keras looked at Cass as Esher appeared beside her and he and Daimon leaped into action, tackling the wave of weaker daemons that surged towards them.
“We need to reach the furie.” Keras glanced at the blonde where she was still working to open the gate, a wall of daemons between them. The gate was slow to respond to her, which gave him hope. Whoever’s blood she had in her possession, the power in it had faded enough that the furie would have to exert all of her will to convince the gate to open. He focused on it again, undoing her hard work, and she loosed a frustrated scream. His gaze darted to Cass. “But something tells me that’s going to be harder than it sounds. This is witchcraft, isn’t it?”
Cass nodded, drew down a breath and closed her eyes as she held her right hand out. A twisting orb of violet and green light blasted from her palm, shooting over the heads of the daemons, heading straight for the furie.
Who didn’t even bother to move.
The spell collided with a barrier close to fifteen feet from her and a wave of blue light rippled outwards.
“Someone knows my tricks.” Cass scowled at the barrier as the light chasing over the dome slowly faded but made it far enough to reveal the size of it. “It seems they have found themselves a witch.”
“Does she need to be nearby to keep this barrier up?” Keras had learned that Cassandra had to be close to any barrier she cast in order to keep shoring it up, but he wasn’t sure whether that was because all barriers required that sort of care or because of the type of spell Cass used required it.
Cass nodded, her blue eyes scouring the darkness. “She’s here somewhere.”
“Find her.” Keras fixed his sights on the furie as the central disc of the gate finally finished forming and flashed brightly. “And if you could break that barrier somehow, it would be greatly appreciated.”
“Doing both might be a bit much, even for me.” She flicked him a look. “In this case, violence solves everything. Hit that barrier with all you have and it will crack.”
Something Keras didn’t want to risk.
Hitting the barrier with all he had meant going all out and he wasn’t strong enough to handle that right now.
Enyo cut down a daemon who strayed too close to him. “I could hit it with all I have.”
She could, but Enyo’s power was brute strength. She would have to be close to the barrier in order to strike it.
Keras didn’t want her among the daemons. She might have been born a goddess of war, might be skilled and competent, capable of taking care of herself, but that didn’t mean he had to like the thought of her fighting.
“I’ll go with you,” he said.
She nodded, and then smiled, the shadows that had been crossing her delicate features lifting like a cloud had parted to allow sunlight to shine through. “It will be like old times.”
He couldn’t hold back his own smile as he realised why she looked so happy all of a sudden. “It will.”
It had been too long since they had fought at each other’s side.
He launched into the fray with her, using his shadows to trap and devour any daemon who got too close to her, and finishing off ones she had cut down with her sword as she carved a graceful path through the throng.
One of the demonic brutes turned his sights on her, crimson eyes flashing fire as he shoved the smaller daemons aside. The male picked up pace and Keras moved to intercept, calling on his shadows at the same time. He grinned as the black tendrils shot towards the male, and growled as the glyphs inscribed on his body shone and repelled his shadows.
Not good.
Enyo twisted and slashed, and unleashed a frustrated growl of her own when her blade bounced off his skin. It didn’t even leave a mark. She ducked and rolled as the male swung a huge sword at her, narrowly avoiding it. It sliced through several unfortunate daemons, decapitating one and injuring the others.
Keras grabbed them with his shadows as Enyo sprang to her feet and hurled the wretches at the male as he made a lunge for her. The daemon grunted as his comrades hit him, knocking him back a step and blocking his path to Enyo.
Keras stepped and placed himself between her and the male as she battled another group of weaker daemons. The demonic male grunted, bared fangs and spread his wings. Keras braced himself as wind battered him, mustering his shadows, waiting for the male to strike.
Purple-white lightning shot down from the cloudless sky and Keras’s eyes widened as it struck the male.
Keras twisted and hurled himself at Enyo, grabbed her and stepped just as a bolt ricocheted off the male’s skin and shot towards her.
He landed with her in a clearing, breathing hard as he struggled to calm the darker side of his blood as it snarled for revenge, to seek out and punish the one who had come close to harming her.
Valen.
“Ah, fuck,” his brother grumbled in the distance. “That’s not fair.”
Keras’s heart thundered, the darkness rising even as he tried to push it back down.