Keras nodded. “I will take Enyo and locate her immediately.”
“I’m coming with you,” Esher growled and gave Keras a look that warned him not to attempt to dissuade him.
Valen pressed a quick kiss to his female’s cheek. “I’m coming too. More the merrier, right?”
The four of them were quick to depart, and while it was a relief that she had fewer people to face now, she worried about them all. Mnemosyne was a powerful goddess, could easily trick their minds and escape.
Her father turned back to Thanatos. “We will question this female you captured and Eris too. They will talk.”
Thanatos nodded.
Panic lanced her once more, the thought that he was going to leave her alone again making her take a step towards him as her brow furrowed and the need to reach out and grab his arm blasted through her.
He glanced at her, a strange look in his eyes.
A cold, emotionless look.
The walls were back up, towering around his heart, caging his feelings, and she wasn’t sure why.
What was wrong with him? Where was the male who had looked at her as if she was his entire world? The male who had held her whenever she had needed his strength, had moved mountains to protect her and keep her safe? She didn’t recognise this male before her.
She tried to school her features as hurt flashed through her, as a single thought tormented her. She was back with her family now. His mission was done, and so was whatever they had shared.
When she couldn’t hide her hurt, she looked away from him, not wanting him to see how deeply he had wounded her. Her eyes fell on her mother.
Persephone’s fine scarlet eyebrows pinched and then she looked from her to Thanatos, and she had never seen her mother look so dark. She looked ready to harm Thanatos.
“My love?” Hades said and tracked the path of her gaze, frowned at Thanatos too as a corona of scarlet emerged around his pupils.
When he looked at Calindria, that crimson devoured all the blue.
He turned on Thanatos with a vicious growl. “Why is my daughter upset when she was not before you arrived? Why does my wife look as if she wants to gut you where you stand?”
Calindria reacted on instinct, unable to hold herself back as her father looked as if he was considering doing worse than gutting her god of death.
She placed herself between them, bared fangs at her father and snarled as darkness surged through her, roared at her to protect Thanatos. He might not have feelings for her anymore, but she had feelings for him, and she was damned if she would let her family harm him.
Hades stared at her.
He wasn’t the only one.
She glanced at everyone as she realised what she had done, caught the shock on all their faces, even her mother’s. The only ones who didn’t look surprised were Daimon and Calistos, and their females.
“What is the meaning of this, Calindria?” her father boomed.
She had the feeling she had only made things worse when he glared at Thanatos.
“Explain yourself!”
Those two words held enough force to have her clamming up, just as she had when she had been younger and had done something wrong and had been brought to her father to face his wrath.
“Thanatos is my boyfriend,” she blurted.
Went rigid when she looked at her father and discovered he hadn’t been talking to her. He had been talking to Thanatos.
“He’s your what now?” Ares growled and the pretty brunette tightened her grip on his arm and held him back.
“Oh, this is going to be good.” The black-haired female Valen had left behind grinned. “Valen is going to be pissed he missed this. I wish I had some popcorn.”
Hades bared fangs at Thanatos.
Calindria backed towards him, the tension inside her growing with every step. She wasn’t strong enough to defeat her father if he dared to attack Thanatos, but she would fight him. She wouldn’t be able to stop herself. She wanted to look back at Thanatos and gauge his reaction, needed to see in his eyes that what they had shared wasn’t over, but she didn’t dare take her eyes off her father.
Strong hands came down to rest on her shoulders and she stiffened and then instantly relaxed, warmth rolling through her to ease her fears and chase the cold away as Thanatos took hold of her. Her eyes slipped shut as he stepped up behind her, closing the gap between them, and she sank backwards against his bare chest.
Relief was sweet and swift to bloom as he wrapped his arms around her, crossing them over her front, and held her.
Her father still looked as if he wanted to kill Thanatos.
Her mother, however.
The darkness lifted from her face as she slowly smiled, as a spark of warmth and something that looked like happiness lit her green eyes. She looked at Hades, that softness lingering, warming further as she gazed at her husband.
“Your mission is done, Thanatos. It is time you returned home,” Hades growled.
Calindria lifted her hands and gripped Thanatos’s arms, anchoring him in place when she feared he would release her and do as her father had ordered. His reason for being cold and distant was staring her in the face as Hades looked at her, as he glared at her hands where they gripped Thanatos. He had feared angering her father, and while she could understand that, she was damned if she was going to let her father get his way. She realised it wasn’t only fear of her father that had made Thanatos distant from her. The tight way he held her, the rush of his heartbeat in her ears and the relief she could feel growing inside him said he had feared she wouldn’t want to be with him now she was with her family again.
Foolish male.
Beautiful male.
Her father could be furious with them all he wanted.
Nothing would stop her from loving Thanatos.
From being with Thanatos.
“If he goes, I am going too.” She steeled herself as she put that out there, built a wall around her heart and stoked her resolve, aware that she had a fight on her hands.
A battle she would win.
“You are home now.” Her father turned a hard look on her. “You will remain here.”
She tensed at that, frowned at him when hurt arrowed through her, piercing her heart. She looked at the palace to her left.
“From one cage to another,” she growled and glared right back at her father, not caring when his look softened, when regret crossed his sculpted features. “This is not my home. It has not been for a long time… and I will not be placed in another cage, forced to remain here against my will. I am grown now, and you cannot—”
She cut herself off when her throat tightened, when hurt gave way to fear and she wasn’t strong enough to shake it. Memories roared up on her to tear her strength down, a thousand replays of her time in the cages, of her life behind bars. Not a life. An existence. That was what her father was offering her and gods, it hurt.
“Calindria,” Thanatos murmured softly and held her a little closer. “No one will put you back in a cage. I swear it.”
Her mother scowled at her father. He glanced at her, blue eyes imploring her, but her mother didn’t back down. She turned her cheek to him and tilted her chin up as she folded her arms across her chest. Hades looked as if she had just plunged a dagger into his chest, and gave Calindria that same wounded look.
She remembered something else about the terrifying god-king of the Underworld.
She always had been able to wrap him around her little finger.