The furie glanced over her shoulder, panic shining in her tropical blue eyes.
Keras shifted course, banking right and heading for her, determined to stop her from reaching the portal and escaping. She had been in contact with his brothers, would have the power to open the gate for weeks. She would have enough time to muster her forces again, or make another attempt to get her hands on Marinda or Cassandra.
If she managed to capture Cassandra, she might be able to raise her fallen comrades, using necromancy to restore them.
Keras wasn’t about to let that happen.
He was going to capture her.
Not only because he didn’t want her escaping, but because he wanted to hand her over to his father. Hades could make an example of her.
Keras focused to step and grab her.
Cal launched another attack and his brother’s blue eyes widened as instead of scattering the bodies and clearing his path, the blade of air sliced right through them.
And right through Meadow as she leaped for the portal.
Cal skidded to a halt and Keras stumbled to a stop, both of them staring at Meadow as she fell into the portal.
In two pieces.
The swirling violet-black cloud shrank as Keras stared at it, shock running through him.
Marinda hurried to Calistos, said something Keras didn’t hear as he continued to stare at where the portal had been.
Marek helped Caterina, his arm around her waist to support her as she hobbled towards Keras. Blood tracked down Marek’s thigh from a dent in his armour, but his brother was more concerned about her injuries than his own, his earthy eyes fixed on her hip.
Cass rushed to her and colourful light shone from her palm as she ghosted it over Caterina’s wound.
“Thanks,” Caterina wheezed and gave Marek a look, one that clearly told him to stop fussing.
She had no hope of that happening.
Daimon received the same look from Cass as he caught up with her, as he touched a cut on her cheek and his pale blue eyes warmed with worry.
Valen and Esher made their way towards him too, both of them covered in black blood. Valen lowered his head, his violet hair falling forwards to obscure his face as he fingered a hole in his armour above his left hip.
“Shit was a close call. Bastard went right for my heart,” he grumbled and looked at Oizys as she strolled beside him with her brother, Moros. “Cheers, Little Miss Dreary. You’re a damned good shot with that thing.”
He jerked his chin towards the bow she gripped.
She shrugged and smiled.
Enyo joined Keras and looked him over, concern shining in her jade eyes.
“I’m fine.” He gave her a slow once over. “You?”
She nodded and looked at the dead that surrounded them. “It is over?”
He surveyed the battlefield, his gaze lingering on Thanatos as the towering god stooped and picked up Nemesis’s body and Nyx led Eris and Apate in rounding up the survivors. A gift for his father, but not the one he had really wanted to give him. Nemesis’s body and the thirty or so Hellspawn who had survived would have to do.
He was sure his father was going to enjoy holding them in Tartarus for the rest of their lives.
Thanatos brought Nemesis to him and he took her from the god of death.
Looked down at her ashen, blood-splattered face.
He had been fighting this war for two hundred years.
“It’s over.” He didn’t hear the congratulations that passed between Nyx and her children and his brothers.
He continued to stare at Nemesis, the weight that had been on his shoulders slowly lifting as he kept telling himself it was finally over.
His duty was done.
And rather than stepping into the abyss as he had been contemplating, he had a future to look forward to with the only woman he had ever loved.
Enyo took hold of him and teleported, and when they touched down, he stood before the great black temple of the palace.
His father stood at the edge of the raised base near the steps, flanked by the huge onyx columns that supported the triangular roof. His mother stood beside him, the soft waves of her scarlet hair a contrast to his father’s armour as she looped her arm around his and leaned towards him, and her green eyes shining with warmth as she looked at Keras.
Keras sensed everyone appearing behind him.
Looked deep into his father’s blue eyes and strode forwards, leaving them behind and approaching him alone.
Persephone released Hades and he slowly descended the black steps, his heavy crimson cloak flowing over them behind him as the pointed tips of the obsidian boots of his armour scraped against the marble. She followed him down, flowers blooming around her bare feet as they touched the earth.
Keras laid Nemesis down on the ground before his father and stood.
Waited.
His father’s blue eyes warmed, filled with something that warmed Keras too, sank deep into his bones and eased all the tension from him as it flooded his heart with light.
With pride.
Two words he had been waiting to hear for two centuries fell from his father’s lips as he placed a hand on Keras’s shoulder.
Words that stirred a wealth of emotions in him that brought him close to tears.
“Welcome home.”
Chapter 28
Enyo idly studied the gilt-framed panels that filled the gaps between the gold-streaked obsidian columns set into the walls of the grand banquet hall in Hades’s palace, enjoying the gentle murmur of the conversation that flowed around her.
Whenever Keras spoke, her attention locked on him, and she couldn’t stop herself from glancing at him to check on him.
When they had been dressing for the celebration, he had told her several times that he was fine, but she refused to believe him.
Because she could feel how much Hades welcoming him back to the Underworld, to his home, meant to him and how it was all too much for him.
Her god was strong, but that strength was fragile where his emotions were concerned. They had gotten the better of him again, and she knew that he hated it because it made him feel weak. He wanted to hide from her the fact that he was still struggling to control his feelings, to stop them from overwhelming him, some foolish part of him clearly believing it would somehow mar her opinion of him.
Nothing could change how much she loved him.
He didn’t have to be strong around her all the time. He could rely on her, as he had back in Tokyo. She would be his strength when his faltered, would forever be there to guide him through and lift him up again.
Her gaze strayed to him, the heat that had been slowly filling her picking up pace along with her heart as she drank her fill of him.
He looked handsome in his mortal clothing, the pressed black slacks and crisp tailored dress shirt showing off his figure, but it was the light in his green eyes that entranced her as he rubbed the back of his black hair and smiled awkwardly at something someone had said to him.
Most likely Thanatos.
The winged god of death had taken to teasing Keras the moment they had entered the banquet hall.
Enyo surmised that Thanatos had hit the ambrosia while everyone had been preparing themselves for the feast. Unlike his mother, Nyx, who had changed into a beautiful deep blue robe with flecks of silver stitched into the fine material and a matching silver sash that circled her waist, Thanatos had remained in his armour.
If she could call it armour.
The enormous male wore black armour only on his lower half and his forearms, which would hardly protect him from a blade.