He couldn’t change the past.
But he could still have the future he craved with every drop of his blood.
He would fight his demons for that.
And he would win the only thing he had ever wanted.
Her heart.
Chapter 19
Enyo watched Keras as he sat beside Marek at the low dining table, his eyes on the screen of the laptop Marek had open in front of him. Worry arrowed through her and not for the first time since Esher had closed the gate in Hong Kong. It had hit her from time to time over the last few days, most often when she was watching Keras like this and he was unaware of her.
Didn’t try to hide his own worry and fatigue from her.
Not that he could really hide it from her.
Enyo could feel it in him.
He wouldn’t listen to her when she tried to make him take a break though, brushed her off and carried on working, poring over all the information he and his brothers had gathered over the years, trying to figure out the enemy’s next move.
Keras was sure the enemy would want to rescue the witch.
Enyo wasn’t so sure. It had looked to her as if the furie had been intent on abandoning the female.
The enemy’s next move wasn’t the only thing weighing heavily on Keras though. Esher still hadn’t woken, showed no signs of regaining consciousness. Cassandra had used spells on him every day, checking his condition. The only good news was that it wasn’t getting worse.
It wasn’t getting better either.
“I could take another look in her mind,” Keras said, words that had Enyo moving because she was damned if that was going to happen.
“You hit a wall last time.” Her voice seemed loud in the long room of the mansion, a house that had been too quiet since they had brought Esher back from Hong Kong.
The air in the mansion was sombre, had sucked the light right out of everyone. Even Calistos was quiet, all of his jokes and wisecracks nowhere to be found now that they all badly needed someone to brighten the mood.
“I can break through it.” Keras looked at her, his green eyes as serious as she had ever seen them.
She shook her head, because that wasn’t the only feeling that shone in them. There was despair too, and a lot of fatigue. Too much fatigue. The episodes he suffered were growing further apart, but they were still a daily occurrence, and more than once she’d had to convince him that he didn’t need his pills, and had weathered his anger as the darker side of him had surged to the fore. Those episodes were taking their toll on him as well as Esher’s condition.
Pushing himself now was a sure way of triggering another episode.
“If you probe her mind right now, who knows what will happen. I heard about the incident with the wraith.” As those words left her lips, his green eyes narrowed and he looked at each of his brothers in turn.
All of them diligently avoided meeting his gaze.
No one wanted to be the one to confess they had told on him.
She was glad his brother Ares had told her about it, even when it tormented her. The thought that Keras had been so reckless as to push himself to the limit, had probably come perilously close to breaking his own mind when he had attempted to force the wraith’s one open to him, had sickness pooling inside her.
Made her want to lay down the law with him to keep him safe.
“You need to gather your strength again.” She wasn’t going to put her foot down too hard, just enough that he would take the time he needed to grow stronger before he made another attempt.
Because the last one had left him drained for over a day, the sense of power he constantly emitted as weak as it had been when he had lost consciousness after their rooftop fight.
“Let Cassandra continue working on her for now, until you have regained your strength.” She stood over him, silently pleading him to listen to her.
For a moment, he looked as if he would argue, but then he loosed a long sigh.
“Very well.” He pushed the pieces of paper stacked in front of him on the low wooden table aside and leaned back.
He stretched his arms above his head and stifled a yawn.
Marek closed the laptop and pushed onto his feet, rolled his hips and grimaced. “I would kill for a proper dining table and chairs, something a little more western.”
Some of the brothers murmured in agreement.
None of them looked ready to go out and change the furniture though.
She knew why.
This place was Esher’s sanctuary and he had it exactly the way he liked it. Which meant if the brothers changed something without his consent, he would be furious when he woke. None of his brothers wanted to push him, and altering the furniture while he was asleep would be a sure way of tipping him right over the edge again.
That sombre air fell again, bringing everyone down with it.
Enyo fidgeted with the belt of her skirt, trying to keep her own dark thoughts at bay, ones that had begun to plague her over the last day or two. She kept finding herself standing in one spot, seeking the connection between her and Olympus, waiting for her brother to summon her.
She glanced at Keras.
He was the reason her brother hadn’t yanked her back to Olympus by force, even though she knew he would be displeased with this turn of events—with her. He hadn’t been happy when Ares and Megan had come to bring her back here, and she could think of only one reason why he hadn’t barged into her life and dragged her home.
Hades.
She had the feeling that the god-king of the Underworld had made it clear to her brother that she was fighting on the side of his sons now, all so she could remain with Keras and help him.
Enyo rubbed her hands over the front of her stomach, over the hard black leather that covered her breastplate. It was almost strange to be wearing her armour again, but Cassandra and Marinda had insisted she hand over the clothes the sorceress had lent her so they could wash them. Cass had offered another garment for her to wear, but when she had announced it would be one of her rather sexy long black dresses, Enyo had refused.
The thought of wearing such a dress left her feeling oddly vulnerable and exposed.
Nervous.
She kept thinking about what Keras would make of her if she wore such a dress, how he would react to the sight of her in something so sexy and feminine. Part of her wanted to know, the rest of her was too afraid to find out.
She had contemplated returning to Olympus for some clothing of her own, but she feared that if she went back to the house, that her brother would never let her leave again.
And she needed to be here, with Keras.
He stood and came to her, the worry that had been in his eyes turning to warmth as he looked down into her eyes. When he looked at her like that, she felt as if she was the most important person in the world—the only person in his world.
She felt beautiful.
Wanted.
“Walk with me.” He held his arm out to her and she slipped hers around it, savoured the feel of him and his warm masculine scent as he shifted closer to her and led her out into the garden.
Night was falling again.
“You seem troubled,” she murmured.
He tilted his head back and sighed at the darkening sky. “A little.”
He had been on edge since Calistos had returned from a meeting in the Underworld, one that had confirmed the information she had brought to Keras.
Nemesis had been recruiting allies.