Again.
She nodded, but her hand still shook, and fear lit her eyes as she glanced at the warriors closing in on them.
“We can do this. Together.” He cupped her cheek with his free hand and turned her face towards him, waited for her to look into his eyes again before he finished what he had wanted to say. “I need you to fight, Calindria. I need you to live. I do not want to be in this world without you.”
Tears lined her lashes and the fear that had shone in her eyes disappeared, replaced with resolve as she stopped shaking.
She nodded. “Don’t you dare die on me either. Gods only know how much I need you, Thanatos. I might have to go to that veil place just to bring you back.”
Hell, this female knew exactly how to strip him of his armour, knew the path to his heart without fail. He tugged her to him and pressed a brief, hard kiss to her lips. He wasn’t going anywhere and neither was she. They were going to get through this. Together.
He released her and turned, assessed the warriors closing in on them and their options. It was easily one hundred against just two, but they could do this. With his skill as a warrior and her ability to kill anyone she touched, these brutes didn’t stand a chance against them.
“Ready?” He turned and the world seemed to slow as she looked at him.
As something hit her left shoulder and knocked her backwards.
He lunged for her, felt as if he was moving through molasses as he reached for her, as she twisted and fell, and blood burst from her shoulder. She hit the ground, her head cracking off the hard surface, and he slammed into it beside her on his knees, his breathing rough in his ears as he pulled her over onto her back and sought the wound. His heart clenched, fear at the helm as he stared at the long gash in her tunic.
Thanatos leaned over and tugged the two sides of the material aside, revealing the top of her shoulder. A groove cut over the muscle there, but the wound wasn’t deep. The spear had only grazed her.
“Calindria?” He patted her cheek and she frowned and groaned, her face screwing up. “You really need to wake up now.”
Her eyes fluttered open and she winced, clutched her shoulder and dug her fingers into the black material of her tunic. “What happened?”
“You were hit. It is only a graze.” He swallowed his racing heart and kept telling himself that, trying to convince himself that she wasn’t about to die on him even when it felt as if she was. He was overreacting, but he couldn’t help it. The sight of her going down had shaken him to his soul. “Come.”
He took her hand and pulled her to her feet, ducked as another spear flew over his head. She winced and stooped, picked up her dagger and frowned as she stood again. When she pressed a hand to her forehead, worry arrowed through him.
“What is wrong?” He pulled her towards him when another spear came at her, shielding her with his wings, gritting his teeth as the blade of it sliced through his feathers, shortening a few of them. He couldn’t afford to take another hit like that. If they clipped any more of his feathers, he wouldn’t be able to fly.
“I feel.” She squeezed her eyes shut and grimaced. “I think the blade… toxin.”
His gut clenched and heart seized. “Toxin?”
She shook her head and blinked rapidly, as if trying to keep herself awake. “Like the water.”
The water.
His eyes widened as he realised what she was trying to say. Her captors had given her water laced with a drug, one that had suppressed her powers. Now, they were lacing their blades with it, which meant he couldn’t afford to take a direct hit from their weapons. He couldn’t be sure whether all the warriors’ weapons had been poisoned, or whether only those who were throwing their spears had coated them in toxin. He couldn’t risk it either.
His plan had been to fend off the warriors, taking whatever damage was necessary to protect Calindria, but if he did that now, there was a chance he would be poisoned as Calindria had been. He wasn’t sure what effect this drug would have on him and he didn’t intend to find out.
Thanatos swept her up into his arms and spread his aching wings, beat them hard and kicked off, launching into the air.
He flew left, trying to skirt around the enemy, and growled as he spotted more of them in that direction.
“I can still fight,” Calindria muttered and pushed at his shoulder with the knuckles of the hand that gripped her dagger.
“Not going to happen, little goddess. I am getting you out of here.” He flapped his wings and banked right, had to veer more sharply than he had intended as one of the warriors launched a spear at him.
It sailed past him and he growled down at the male, a fierce need to land and kill him blasting through him. He gritted his teeth and resisted it, focused on getting Calindria to safety. Every muscle in his wings trembled as he beat them harder, trying to gain elevation as he approached the mountains.
Pain blazed through his right wing and he bellowed as he tilted in that direction, as fire swept through him and he furiously fought to keep airborne.
“Thanatos.” Calindria’s fear shot through him too as he looked at his wing, at the black spear jutting out of it, smeared with his blood.
“I can make it.” He steeled himself against the fiery burn that swept through his bones with each beat of his wing, focused on the mountains and reaching the peak. If he could just reach it, he could glide down the other side.
His vision tunnelled and he growled, clenched his jaw and wanted to roar out his rage and his fear as he realised that he wouldn’t make it. At this rate, he would blackout and crash into the side of the mountain. He swooped lower in a circle, desperately trying to control his descent as his right wing gave up.
“Brace yourself against me.” He tucked Calindria to his chest, holding her head to his shoulder as the ground came at them fast.
Too fast.
She curled into him just as they hit it, desperately clutched at his shoulders as he clung to her, trying to keep hold of her. He rolled with her, tumbling across the hard ground, and grunted as he struck a boulder and lost his grip on her. She shrieked as she was launched from his arms and he lost sight of her as he continued to roll, kicking up black dust into a cloud that blinded him.
The moment he stopped rolling, he tried to push himself up, bellowed as his right wing blazed with an inferno that stole his breath and had him dangerously close to blacking out. It wasn’t his only injury. His right tibia ached too, was probably fractured.
And he had lost his sword somewhere.
He fumbled and drew his remaining dagger, shook his head and blinked hard, trying to clear his hazy vision. He had to find Calindria.
He needed to know she was unharmed.
Safe.
When his vision cleared, coming into focus, at least twenty pairs of booted feet filled it. He growled and launched at the warriors, barrelling into one to take him down and slashing his blade across the throat of another. His head turned again and he fought the warmth rolling through him, heat that was sickeningly familiar.
Drugged again.
He gritted his teeth and fought the toxin, lashed out at another warrior and caught him across his bare chest, leaving a deep groove in his muscles that spilled crimson. The warrior staggered backwards into another, taking him down too. Thanatos whirled as he sensed someone behind him, threw a hard right hook and slammed it into the male’s face, shattering his nose. He followed it with a swift strike of his dagger to the male’s throat, plunging the blade deep before tugging it out again. Blood burst like a geyser from the wound and the warrior fumbled with his throat, panic lighting his rugged features as he tried to stem the bleeding.