She stroked his dirty black hair, gazing down at him as she murmured softly to him. “Rest now. I have you. I will watch over you. No one will take you from me.”
It seemed to calm him.
His eyes slipped shut and his breathing levelled out almost instantly, his weight comforting against her as he trusted her and fell asleep.
Enyo kept stroking his hair. She would keep her vow. She would watch over him while he was vulnerable, sleeping to heal his extensive injuries. It would cause her own injuries to heal slower, but she didn’t care. Giving Keras back his strength was more important. He needed it in order to fight his darker side and claw his way back to her.
When she was sure he wouldn’t wake, she leaned to her right and reached into the waist of her skirt. She pulled the two broken limiters from a small pocket on the inside of the thick band and frowned at them. It was going to be some time before Keras learned to cope with his power without help, and she was deeply aware how much he needed the help of his limiters.
And how much the one she had woven for him meant to him.
So rather than waiting for new ones to be given to him when he returned home, she worked to weave the bracelet she had made for him with the one from his parents, forming them into a new limiter. When it was done, she lifted it to her lips and kissed it, and then slipped it onto his right wrist.
She stroked her finger over it and then the ring on his thumb, and then skimmed the backs of her fingers across his cheek as she ignored the fatigue that washed through her, made her head and her eyelids feel heavy. She wasn’t sure how much time passed as she sat there with him, lost track of it as she gazed down at him, on high alert despite her own need to sleep.
A pebble rolled across the ground, tumbling towards her from the far end of the cave.
She tensed, her gaze snapping up, adrenaline flooding her aching body as her gaze scoured the darkness there.
It rushed out of her together with her strength as she locked gazes with the intruder.
Soft, tender green eyes fell to the god Enyo protected.
Persephone stepped out of the gloom, drifting towards her, flowers blooming in the wake of her bare feet. When she reached Enyo, she gathered the layers of her black dress and lifted them, sank to her knees beside Keras and stroked his hair.
“He always used to come here whenever he was angry about something,” Persephone murmured, her voice a warm caress that eased Enyo, had her lowering her guard and finally relaxing. Nothing would happen to Keras now. Persephone would see to that. She would protect him with Enyo. The queen of the Underworld tilted her head and studied her son’s face, her fall of scarlet hair swaying from her slight shoulders as she leaned towards him. “He thinks no one knows about this place.”
Persephone lifted her emerald eyes to lock with Enyo’s.
“A mother knows everything.”
It struck Enyo that his mother had always known about this side of his nature too, this darkness that could so easily control him and take him away from everyone he loved.
The goddess shifted into a more comfortable position, tucking her legs beside her hip, and her gaze roamed back to Keras. “I shall let you into a secret. The rumours of Hades are true. There is another side to my husband… A side I once had to tame.”
“Tame?” Enyo frowned.
Persephone glanced up at her. “I am the leash on Hades’s darker side, the sole thing that can keep it in check and stop him from losing control. That is the real reason why I am always with him… why I rarely leave his side. Without me near him, the darkness so easily overwhelms him.”
“The tale about the seasons being the reason you remain with Hades is a lie?” Enyo found that difficult to believe.
She had witnessed how the goddess could cause the seasons in the mortal world to spin out of control. She frowned again. Although that only happened when it was autumn or winter, the months in which nature grew dormant.
The tale said Persephone could leave her husband during spring and summer.
Yet she rarely did.
Enyo had always thought it was because she had a family with him, loved him and her children and preferred to remain with them. She had never imagined that it was because her being apart from Hades caused the god-king to grow dark.
Persephone’s eyes grew serious as she stared at Enyo.
“You are the leash on Keras’s darker nature.” The goddess’s tone matched her expression, and it was strange to hear her voice holding such a stern edge when normally it was light and breezy, filled with warmth and tenderness. It softened again almost instantly, dropping to a whisper as she lowered her gaze to Keras. “I would understand if—”
Enyo shook her head and cut her off. “I love Keras, with all my heart, and I always have. I am not going anywhere. We have spent too many days apart in our lives. I never want to leave his side again.”
Relief washed across Persephone’s delicate features, lifting the sombreness from her eyes.
She stroked her son’s brow. “Rest now. Heal well. I will tell your father you are safe. I will tell your brothers you will come back to us. They all worry so much about you.”
Persephone glanced at her one last time, her green gaze holding hope and affection, and then she was gone.
A strange feeling stirred inside Enyo, warmth that bloomed in her heart and that she found difficult to define.
Love?
She felt loved, but not in the way she did whenever Keras looked at her. This was different. Because the look Persephone had given her was one of motherly love—the love of a parent?
She had never known her mother, couldn’t recall her, and had been raised by her brother. She had never known a mother’s love, but now she felt as if she did, and it was a wonderful, warm feeling that buoyed her and gave her strength.
Enyo lowered her hand, skimming it down Keras’s arm, over the cool plates of his armour. She stopped when she reached his hand.
Stroked her fingers over the ring he wore on his thumb again.
“I love you, Keras,” she whispered as she gazed at it, building courage that took effort even though he was asleep and wouldn’t hear her. “I meant to give you this as a token of that love… I wish I had been brave enough. I am sorry I wasn’t.”
She would make up for that.
She would be brave now, facing the darkness in him as Persephone must have with Hades all those centuries ago. She would help him tame it, doing all in her power to give him control over it.
Because he was hers now, and she meant to keep him.
Forever.
Chapter 35
Keras had a dry mouth and one hell of a headache. He groaned and shifted to get more comfortable on his bed.
A bed that moved and squeaked, the feminine sound drawing a frown from him.
“Enyo?” he croaked, sure she hadn’t been the one to make such a sound, but he could smell her now his senses were coming back online.
He cracked his gritty eyes open, squinted as they watered and blinked, trying to clear his vision.
A lot of golden, smooth skin greeted him.
He swallowed hard.
Shot into an upright position and regretted it when his head turned. He planted a hand against his forehead and grimaced.
“You shouldn’t move so quickly. You are still healing.” Enyo’s hand fluttered over his chest.