“You alright, baby?” Daimon came up behind Cass and then rounded her, looked her over with concern in his pale eyes as his white eyebrows furrowed.
She nodded. Her face fell. “I tried my hardest.”
“I know.” He stroked her arm. “Cal is just frustrated. He knows you did your best.”
“I need her back too.” Cass issued everyone a black look, one Enyo supposed was meant to make them all look away, because she didn’t want to look weak in front of them.
None of them did.
She glared at everyone but stepped up to Daimon anyway, let him wrap his arms around her and hold her as she rested her head on his shoulder, her long fall of black hair and her black corset and leathers making her blend with him as she angled her head away from him.
Daimon caressed the line of her spine, tiny frost flowers blooming on his black leather gloves as he held her and glared at Cal as he came into view, pacing towards the other end of the room.
“Are you all right?” Enyo whispered, and Keras looked over his shoulder at her and nodded.
He moved back to stand beside her and reached for her hand.
The double doors beyond Calistos burst open.
Hades strode in, his crimson cloak swirling around his ankles as the pointed tips of his metal boots scraped the wooden floor.
His blue eyes sought Keras.
“The gate has moved.” Hades made a beeline for his eldest son, and everyone parted to allow him through. His gaze scanned the map and he leaned to his right and planted the sharp tip of one of his onyx talons into a realm far from the palace. “I have lured the gatekeeper away and have summoned Thanatos, Nyx and their allies.”
Hades wasn’t messing around.
Ares looked from the map to Keras. “You got this?”
Keras nodded. “Remain here with Megan, Aiko and Eva.”
“Now hold on a minute.” Eva’s jaw-length black hair swayed outwards as she quickly spun to face Keras, a dark look entering her sapphire eyes. She palmed the gun she had been checking, looking for all the world as if she was considering using it on Keras. “I’m going too.”
Her gaze shifted to Valen.
Seeking backup.
His expression softened as he stepped towards her, as he lifted his hand and went to touch her face.
She backed off a step, hitting him with a scowl. “You dare.”
“Baby—” he started.
“Don’t you baby me!” She moved back another step and his face crumpled, a war taking place in his golden eyes as he stared at her.
He was right to force her to remain behind with Ares and the others. Eva was strong, for a human, and skilled, but this was a fight for immortals. Eva would be a liability out on the battlefield, a distraction for everyone on their side. Everyone would want to protect her for Valen, and that could prove disastrous.
“Stronzo,” Eva muttered, some of the fight leaving her as she continued to stare at him.
He smiled slightly. “You know me—always a dickhead. Don’t make me lock you in a room or some shit. Please?”
Her slight shoulders sagged.
He would do it. Enyo could see that.
Valen ran a hand over his violet hair and then held it out to her. “I just need to know you’re safe. You can hate me all you want. I probably deserve it. Hell, I’d rather you hate me for a year than see you out there in the thick of things for even a second. I want you by my side, you know that, but I need to know you’re safe and you won’t be safe out there.”
Her black eyebrows furrowed, hurt glittering in her blue eyes.
She was silent for a long time, and then finally murmured, “Promise me you’ll be careful.”
“I swear it. You know me—always careful.” Valen smiled tightly.
Ares chuckled, the warm sound out of place in the moment. “She knows you and that’s why she’s asking you to be careful, idiot.”
Valen huffed and glared at him.
“I’ll keep an eye on him,” Marek offered.
“We’ll keep an eye on him.” Caterina looped her arm around Marek’s.
He nodded and petted her hand, briefly looked as if he wanted to order her to remain at Keras’s house too. The look the hybrid female issued him said it wasn’t going to happen.
“Someone has to protect Megan with Milos.” Cassandra’s pale blue eyes shone with fire, flakes of it dancing amidst the icy colour of her irises, and the sense of power she emitted rose sharply as she stared at the point Hades’s talons had marked on the map.
A low grunting growl came from the direction of the fireplace.
Everyone looked there.
Milos cracked an eye open and looked at Cass, shuffled until his back was to her and used his large tawny feathered wings to hide everyone’s view of his face. His tail twitched, the furry tip thudding against the floor.
The guardian deity wasn’t happy about being left behind.
Cass went to him, eased into a crouch and tried to pet him, but he lifted his huge head and bared his yellowing fangs at her, making the sorceress look like an old-fashioned lion tamer as she held her hand out in front of her.
“We talked about this,” she murmured, staring into his golden eyes. “I know you’ll come if I need you, but I want you to stay here and protect Aiko and Megan and the others. You don’t want your girlfriends getting into trouble, do you?”
Ares muttered something about being adequate protection for the women.
Milos looked past his flattened wings to the females Cass had mentioned, a calculating edge to his eyes. He pushed onto his feet, a great hulking beast that made Cass look tiny, and strode towards Aiko.
He shifted as he walked to her, his wings shrinking into his back and white fur spotting him in places as he transformed back into a small domestic cat. When his transformation was complete, he leaped at Aiko. She caught him and hugged him close as he purred, stroked his head and smiled up at Esher as he gazed down at her, looking somewhere between lovesick and sick with worry.
“Be careful,” she whispered and angled her head up, closed her eyes as he dropped a kiss on her lips, earning a growl and a hiss from Milos.
Apparently, the guardian deity was very serious about protecting his girlfriends.
He went as far as swiping with claws out at Esher when he pulled back.
“Little prick,” Esher muttered with a glare at the cat. “Don’t think I didn’t notice the presents you’ve been leaving all over the zen garden.”
Esher sobered and looked at Keras.
“The zen garden?” A hopeful edge laced that question.
“It was mostly intact when we left.” Keras rounded the table and gripped Esher’s shoulder. “Any damage that has happened to the mansion can be reversed. Cass has already confirmed that.”
Hades’s blue eyes landed on Esher. “If you win this war, then you will not need to return to the mortal realm. Whether the mansion is repairable matters not in that case.”
The look Esher gave their father said it all.
He wasn’t planning on staying in the Underworld.
A few of the brothers exchanged glances, looks that revealed they were considering the same thing.
Enyo could understand Valen wishing to continue living in the mortal world, since Eva was human and was very determined to carry on with her work as an assassin. She could understand Calistos’s decision to return there too, since Marinda had spoken several times about completing her education to honour her father, something that had only improved Enyo’s good opinion of the furie.