Blood beaded along the ragged gash.
Time seemed to slow as he stared at it, an uneasy feeling swift to grow in his gut as he watched it trickle down her forehead, although he wasn’t sure why.
It hit him when distant shrieks sounded.
A chill swept over him.
“Keres!” He pulled Calindria into a run as he felt them entering the sphere of his senses, his heart pounding hard as he thought about them getting their hands on her.
“Keres?” she breathed and he could feel her confusion.
The female death spirits his mother had birthed were vicious and easily roused into a feeding frenzy when they smelled blood, had been used by Eris in the battle that had taken place between her side and Hades’s sons. There, they had preyed upon anyone who had bled, had descended on screaming howls to rip at them and feast.
He doubted these Keres were here of their own accord. Someone had brought them here, was using them to track him and Calindria, and he had the terrible feeling he knew who it was. The demigoddess. She had to be working for the enemy, part of the remaining forces that Hades had been trying to learn about from Eris. His sister had only revealed that others would rise up to take her place, had refused to say any more than that.
Maybe if he could get his hands on the demigoddess, he could take her to Tartarus and force her to tell them everything. It might go some way towards convincing Hades not to remove his head once he discovered what Thanatos had done with his daughter.
Another shriek sounded, far too close for comfort.
Calindria stumbled.
Of course, he still needed to get her back to her family in one piece to start with.
Thanatos swept her up into his arms and broke out from the cover of the trees, beat his wings and kicked off, launching into the air but remaining close to the black ground. He scoured the route ahead of them, seeking an opening in the next mountain range.
He growled and swept right when a Ker descended upon him, diving from the sky on a keening cry. The wretched female almost hit the ground, beat her bloody wings and stared across at him as she kept pace with him, looking like a grim spectre with her white skin that stretched taut over distorted muscles and too-angular bones. Her glowing all-white-blue eyes narrowed on him and she bared sharp teeth that dripped with saliva.
“Gods,” Calindria muttered and moved in his arms, clinging to his neck as she twisted towards the Ker.
The death spirit spotted the cut on her forehead and her eyes went blood-red as she shrieked and lunged for Calindria, raking sharp talons through the air in her direction.
A series of vines exploded from the black earth and the Ker cried out as one impaled her. Thanatos left her behind, beat his wings harder as he grew aware of the sheer number of them that were closing in on him and Calindria.
The air trembled around him, the currents shifting as Calindria pulled herself up to peer over his wings. He didn’t need to look to know what she was doing. She was using her powers, trying to impale more of the death spirits and stop them. He sensed their numbers dwindling, but there were still too many, and they were closing in fast.
He struggled to fly faster, pushed himself to the limit and dragged Calindria down beneath his shoulder, tucking her to his chest as a Ker dive-bombed him. He grunted as the female collided with him, veered left as his wing dipped, his body twisting from the blow, and flapped his wings harder, righting himself and leaving the Ker behind.
“There’s too many of them.” Calindria moved in his arms again.
“Keep still,” he barked. Manoeuvring to avoid the Keres was difficult enough without her throwing him off-balance or filling him with a fear of accidentally losing his grip on her.
“No.” She wriggled harder, shifting in his arms, and he growled and glanced at her to see what she was doing.
She pushed at his black vambrace, grinned as the dagger concealed there slid upwards, allowing her to grab the small grip of it and pull it free. Another Ker dive-bombed him, dropping from the air above him on a vicious shriek, and Calindria swiped at the female with the blade.
Cold liquid trickled onto his neck.
The Ker shrieked.
Calindria looked disgusted as more cries sounded, as the one she had injured wailed and he sensed the whole group falling behind. “They eat their own.”
That didn’t surprise him. Keres didn’t care where the blood they needed to survive came from. They only cared about feeding, were driven by a relentless hunger, never satisfied by the blood they consumed. He was going to have words with his mother about that when he returned. Nyx could have at least given them a point where their hunger would be sated rather than giving them an endless thirst. He doubted it would have affected their effectiveness on the battlefield.
Calindria swiped at another Ker that launched herself at his back, missing her this time. He gritted his teeth and grunted as the death spirit raked cold talons down his spine. Heat bloomed in their wake. The Keres shrieked in what sounded far too much like joy.
Thanatos flew harder, but it became difficult as several of the death spirits descended on him at once. Calindria tried to fight them off as he banked left and then right, adjusted his speed and did everything he could to shake them as they clawed at him, hungry for his blood now. When one of the Keres caught Calindria with her claws, cutting her hand, he tucked her back against his chest and kept her there, refusing to let her place herself in danger again.
“I can handle it.” He wasn’t sure that he could, but he would rather he was hurt than she was.
He grimaced as a Ker ripped at his left wing, hit her with it and banked right, away from her, his gaze scanning ahead of them. His eyes locked onto something.
“There is an opening. Two… maybe three hundred feet away. I need you ready to seal it as soon as we are through.” He didn’t glance at Calindria, just kept his eyes on the opening that was starting to look far smaller than he had first thought. It was going to be a tight fit.
“I will be ready.” Her words were muffled by his chest, but he was damned if he was going to loosen his grip on her.
He cried out as a Ker landed on his back, pressing her feet into his lower spine, and sank her talons into his right shoulder. She hissed and clawed at him, held on tight even when he rolled and tried to shake her. He bellowed again when the female lunged and bit into his left wing, tearing through the muscle, weakening it.
Ahead of him, the tunnel loomed closer.
He swept lower to the ground, rolled over and beat his wings as he descended further. The Ker hissed and grappled with his shoulder as he dragged her along the ground, her bloody wings battering his as she pressed against him and tried to force him upwards.
His eyes widened as another Ker dropped towards him, her glowing white-blue eyes fixed on Calindria, talons stretched towards her.
On a vicious roar, he clutched Calindria to his chest and forced the Ker on his back into the dirt, clung hard to his precious cargo as he crash-landed on top of the death spirit and tumbled. A cry burst from his lips as his wings bent at painful angles, one of the bones in his left one breaking, and curled into a protective ball around Calindria as she screamed. They bounced and rolled across the black earth together for what felt like an endless amount of time as he feared Calindria would be hurt. The moment he stopped, he lumbered onto his feet with Calindria still tucked close to him and ran, using his one good wing to propel him forwards, increasing his speed.