CHAPTER 24
Esher led Aiko from his room, keeping hold of her hand. He wasn’t going to release it until the meeting was done, and they were alone again, and even then he was only going to let it go so he could wrap his arms around her.
She walked with her chin tipped up, her eyes bright and a confidence in her step that conveyed the courage she had found, one she had probably been gradually building up all day to get it to the point where she felt ready to speak about what had happened to her.
Gods, he was unravelling, falling apart, as she grew stronger, each day tearing at him as it restored her.
His own courage faltered as he neared the main room of the house and heard his brothers talking. When he walked in, they would all stop and stare, would bring up what he had done, might even lash out at him, or berate in him Keras’s case, and he steeled himself, preparing for it.
He entered ahead of Aiko, ready to weather everything his brothers threw at him.
Valen laughed over something Cal had said, both of them lounging on the couch beside each other, no longer looking like each other as they used to.
When the fuck had Valen dyed his hair violet?
Megan giggled, her chocolate eyes bright with her amusement. “And then I told him he’d lost the bet and he had to pay up. He wasn’t happy.”
Ares, sitting on the armchair beneath her and playing cushion, a wall of black beneath her blue jeans and crimson t-shirt, jabbed his fingers into her ribs, eliciting a squeak from her as she wriggled. “I’ll win next time.”
Gods, it all felt so normal.
It hit Esher hard, shaking him, knocking him back on his heels as he absorbed the sight of his brothers gathered around the TV, joking and laughing with each other. Valen slung his arm around Eva, their choice of black combat clothing making them blend into each other, and pulled her to him.
She smiled at him, her short black hair swaying to flash the electric blue stripes in it as she leaned towards his brother, landing a hand on his chest. Her cerulean eyes were bright, her light voice laced with her thick Italian accent as she said, “Maybe we should paint your nails next.”
Valen made a face.
Daimon laughed. “I think pink is his colour really.”
That had Valen turning his scowl on Daimon.
Keras looked over the back of the couch at Esher and rose onto his feet. “Join us.”
He eyed his brother and cautiously led Aiko around the couch. She settled on it beside Marek, and Esher went with her, placing himself between her and his brother, keeping an eye on Keras, still wary of his older brother, even as he moved away, long black-clad legs carrying him to the other side of Ares, near the TV.
Marek leaned forwards and looked across at Aiko. “You look well. How are you feeling?”
She lit up the room with another smile, but Esher could feel her strain, the darkness beginning to press back down on her as she did her best to deny it. “Better. Esher has been taking care of me.”
“I’ll bet,” Valen sniggered, and Esher glared at him.
“Ignore the idiot,” Ares put in and wrapped his arms around Megan’s stomach. “We’re all glad you’re alright.”
“Thank you.” She brought her bare feet up onto the couch and clutched Esher’s hand. “I know you took care of me.”
Ares’s rugged face and earthy eyes gained an uncomfortable edge as he shrugged. “Megan did most of the work.”
Megan flinched and elbowed Ares in the ribs. He grunted and glared at the back of her head.
Aiko didn’t seem too bothered by Ares’s careless words, ones that might have reminded her of the mess she had been in, so Esher let his brother live another day.
“Marek, you called this meeting.” Keras paced a few strides towards the other couch and then stopped himself, and Esher frowned as he caught the way his green eyes darkened, black swirling around their edges before he got the better of himself.
Marek had done something to anger Keras. What?
Esher looked at his other brothers, but no one seemed to know what had put a bee in Keras’s bonnet.
And then Marek huffed, raked fingers through his short wavy brown hair, and spoke.
“I received a message from Olympus.”
And Keras’s mood made sense.
Enyo had visited Marek.
Keras paced again, his strides clipped, his eyes dark as he twisted the silver band on his right thumb around it with his fingers.
“Her brother can feel something coming. Something big. I asked for more information.” When Marek said that, Keras’s gaze whipped to him, and for a moment, Esher thought he would speak.
He went back to pacing, his emotions disappearing one by one, until his handsome face was a blank mask. “It’s hardly information. We all know whatever is coming is building to a crescendo. It doesn’t take an informant from Olympus to tell us that. We can see it in the otherworld.”
Esher couldn’t blame his brother for being angry with Enyo, or Marek. It was low of her to speak with Marek and not Keras. Heartless. She must have known Keras would be aware that she had visited Marek the moment he came into contact with his brother again.
Marek sat forwards. “I told her to get more information. She said she would do her best. I told her to speak with you—”
Keras turned on him with a snarl, flashing fangs, a shadow flitting across his face that had all the females in the room gasping, and then he disappeared.
“Fucking idiot,” Valen muttered, fielded the glare Marek shot him and shot one right back. “Don’t ever fucking tell him you tried to force her to speak with him. What kind of dumb shit move is that?”
Marek looked at his other brothers when everyone nodded in agreement.
“It’s a bit of a dick move,” Daimon said, rolling his shoulders when Marek frowned at him. “How would you feel if I told you I just tried to force someone to speak with you, someone you cared about? That she had to be forced to speak with you, and even then she didn’t want to do it.”
Ares shook his head. “He’s going to be pissed for a while.”
Cal flashed two thumbs up. “Great job. Now I get to deal with him. You guys really need to think about the consequences before you open your mouths. You don’t have to live with him.”
“Think we should continue without him?” Esher wasn’t sure, because Keras had never flipped like that and left a meeting before.
Something was up with his brother, something more than just Enyo’s visit to Marek upsetting him.
“Is this because I went home?” He looked at each of his brother’s in turn, relieved when everyone shook their head.
“Nah.” Ares pulled Megan closer to him. “He’s been off for a few days and now I know why. He can sense her when she’s in this world, you know?”
Marek’s earthy eyes widened. “I didn’t. Damn her. I told her to go away. I don’t know why she always has to bother me.”
Esher felt for him. He had done nothing to deserve Keras’s wrath, but he was going to be feeling it for a while.
“Anything turn up in the research about the valkyrie?” Ares rubbed his palms over Megan’s thighs and she clucked her tongue at him and slapped them to stop him from teasing her.
“Valkyrie?” Esher looked to him.
“I got hit by one in New York. Wraith showed up and said she was meant to be somewhere else. I figured he meant Tokyo, that she was the one after you, and then we figured out Aiko was being targeted that night at the club, not us, and I came here with Megan to protect her.” Ares’s brown eyes flickered with gold and red flakes as his mood darkened. “I’m sorry I wasn’t quick enough.”
He shook his head in time with Aiko.
“The one who took me… looked like Esher. Smelled like Esher. Felt like you.” She looked at him, nerves in her eyes, coloured with regret. “I should have known, but I was worried you had come to see me and I went with you… with the daemon… so I could convince you to go home.”
He smoothed his palm across her cheek and shook his head again, holding her gaze. “It wasn’t your fault. I shouldn’t have sent you home. I should have realised they would go after you and asked you to go with Daimon.”
But the thought of her being around another of his brothers, alone with them, had tormented him so much he had refused to go through with it.
“When I realised it wasn’t you, I tried reading them. They tried to make me contact you, and I refused when they told me they wanted… they wanted to use me as a collar to control you.” She squeezed his hand so tight it actually hurt and tears lined her black lashes.
It would work too. He would do anything for her. Anything. All someone had to do was get their hands on her, and he would do whatever they wanted. But they didn’t have her. He did, and he would protect her.
“They tried to make me and the phone repelled them.” Her voice hitched. “And then it all happened so fast.”
He pressed his palm to her face, drew her to him and rubbed her cheek with his, his heart aching as her pain went through him. “That’s enough. You don’t have to say anymore.”
She nodded, and then shook her head, sniffed back her tears and drew back from him.
“The daemon, I read her thoughts.” Her eyes searched his, and he stared into them, reeling from what she had said. “They were hazy… but she was afraid. She feared someone. Another woman. She believed the woman would kill her if she failed, because you were vital. A key.”
To the gates? He exchanged a look with his brothers. As far as they knew, the daemons still believed the amulets he and his brothers wore when opening the gates were the keys to them, and what they needed to get their hands on.
But what if they knew the keys were in fact he and his brothers?
If his enemy caught Aiko, he would open the gate for them, and so much more. He would destroy the gatekeeper guarding the other side of it so they could enter the Underworld.
One look at Ares and Valen, and he knew his brothers felt the same—they would do whatever it took to protect their females.
So why were they targeting him in particular?
It had to be more than his ability to open the gate.
He looked at Aiko, and the reason hit him.
They knew all about him, enough for the shapeshifter to mimic him, which meant they knew his history, and how deeply he hated Hades for forcing him to live in this world filled with the humans he despised so much.
They wanted to play on that hatred, to bring it to the fore to unleash his other side, one they could control with promises of retribution, a side of himself that wanted to watch this world burn and rule the hellish remains of it.
Their plans had hit a bump when he had met Aiko.
Now, rather than using his other side to control him, they were going to try to use her.
With his power over one of the two dominant elements in the world, and his loathing of this realm, and anger towards his father, he was the perfect candidate for joining their ranks. He could let them in the gate, could destroy the damned thing with little more than a thought, and then this world with his next one.
He felt Aiko’s steady gaze on him, her thumb stroking the length of his, and focused on her, using her presence beside him, that love he could feel in her, and her worry, to calm him.
He wouldn’t be used as a pawn against his brothers in this war.
He wouldn’t destroy his home.
He would destroy his enemy.
He would hunt down the one who had tried to take Aiko from him, the one who had hurt her, and he would butcher them.
Aiko lifted her hand and rested it against his cheek, drew his head around to face hers, and her eyes met his.
He fell into their dark chocolate depths, felt calm sweep over him again when he saw in them how much she needed him, how badly shaken she still was by everything that happened. It was a struggle, but he managed to tamp down the urge to hunt, to paint his face in the blood of the bitch who had killed her.
When he was level again, the hunger to hunt back to a faint gnawing in his heart, he nodded.
She turned back to the others. “The woman didn’t want to kill me. She tried to stop me from falling.”
That did nothing to improve his mood.
“She did though.” His words were little more than a dark snarl. “Even if she didn’t want to do it, it happened.”
And gods, if she had remained in the grip of that daemon, she would have had a worse existence, would have suffered more. He knew that. He had lived it before. He had watched someone he cared about tortured and maimed, and eventually killed by wretches in some sick desire to torment him and make him suffer.
He didn’t want to think about what the daemon would have done to Aiko if she hadn’t fallen and changed their plans. He hated thinking about her dying, saw it too many times each day, knew it would haunt him for decades to come, but she was back now, and stronger because of it.
Safer because of it.
Her death tormented them both, but gods, maybe it was better than the pain she would have gone through if she had lived, pain that would have been both physical and emotional, a torture designed to keep him on a firm leash, desperate to do whatever they wanted in order to save her.
“We’ll get her,” Ares said, his voice as dark as Esher’s had been, a promise in his fiery eyes as he looked at Esher. “She will pay. We’ll make sure of that. Her, the wraith, and that fucking valkyrie.”
Esher had forgotten about the valkyrie.
Dealing with the shapeshifter would prove tricky enough. Adding a valkyrie into the mix would make the coming fight dangerous for everyone involved. They were powerful, protected by charms stronger than the ones he and his brothers could make.
“But we just have to rip those cuffs of her and you can take her down, right?” Megan twisted at the waist to see Ares.
“Vambraces,” he corrected, and nodded, and relief speared Esher’s soul as he realised they already knew what to target on the valkyrie in order to weaken her.
“What about the other woman?” Eva said, and Ares shifted his gaze to her. She glanced at Esher, and then Marek. “Benares… the wraith said to him that he never understood why she favoured him so much.”
“It might be the Valkyrie he was talking about,” Marek offered.
Ares shook his head. “She didn’t strike me as the boss. The wraith treated her in a way that made it clear he was senior to her, pulled her kicking and screaming through that portal of his.”
“And we’re thinking he’s junior to the female he mentioned?” Cal leaned forwards to rest his elbows on his black-combats-clad knees. “So there’s another female?”
Esher nodded at the same time as Ares, and felt just as happy about that judging by his brother’s grim expression.
“One who wants to get her hands on the Underworld.” Valen frowned at his knees, and then lifted troubled blue eyes to land on Ares. “When Benares died, he said she had promised they would rule this world… him and his sister, Jin. Not the Underworld. This one. Benares hadn’t been interested in the gates either. He had wanted dominion over the mortal world.”
“I doubt a valkyrie would want to rule the Underworld, and the wraith would be more interested in feeding on souls in this one,” Ares growled, his face darkening. “Which I’m guessing means they’ve all been promised something if this succeeds and this female, the one they keep mentioning, gets what she wants—her hands on our home.”
Everyone fell silent, the air thick with tension that pressed down on Esher as he mulled over everything and kept drawing the same conclusion.
“We need to capture the shapeshifter.” Six of the hardest words he had ever had to say.
He didn’t want to capture her. He wanted to kill her, after she had suffered.
It was necessary though, he could see it as he looked at his brothers. The wraith had killed Amaury before Ares and Daimon had been able to convince him to say anything, and Benares had died before he had revealed anything too. If they were going to stand a chance at stopping the calamity from happening, if they were going to have a shot at winning this war, they needed intel on their enemy.
That meant reining in his anger enough that he could capture the shapeshifter.
It was going to be hard.
Even now, he wanted to kill her, wanted to see her blood on his hands and paint it on his face as he went after the wraith and the valkyrie, and whoever was the mastermind behind everything.
“Capturing her alive isn’t going to be a cakewalk.” Valen eyed him. “We don’t know whether her power can affect us like it affected Aiko.”
It was going to be dangerous. He could already feel that, was already uneasy, on the edge. If the shapeshifter knew him the way he thought she did, and he was susceptible to her illusions, she would try to screw with his head.
Her physical appearance wasn’t the only thing under her control.
She could cast illusions to manipulate her surroundings.
He screwed his eyes shut, not wanting to think about the things she might use against him.
He had to do this.
“You won’t be alone,” Daimon said, and Esher opened his eyes and met his ice-blue ones across the room. “I’ll be with you.”
“Me too,” Ares growled.
“Count me in.” Valen grinned.
“No.” Esher shook his head, and they shot him daggers. He refused to back down. He didn’t want them involved, didn’t want them away from their females.
It was bad enough that he was contemplating putting his own little butterfly in the firing line.
They both shouted at him, Valen shooting onto his feet and Ares struggling as Megan kept him pinned, their words blurring in his ears.
“I need you to protect your females.” When he said that, they both fell silent, their struggles ceasing, and grumbled a few choice things beneath their breaths.
Valen sank onto the couch, and Ares glared at Esher, both of them making it clear they were pissed at him for benching them.
“Marek, I need you to speak with—” Esher cut himself off when Keras reappeared, face a mask of calm now, no trace of black in his emerald eyes.
They were cold again, emotionless.
Empty.
“What did I miss?” he said, as if nothing had happened, and beside him, Aiko frowned and leaned forwards.
Trying to read his brother?
He squeezed her hand, telling her silently to leave him be. He appreciated her wanting to help him understand what was playing on his brother’s mind, but Keras might hurt her if he realised she was probing his thoughts, and he didn’t want to fight with his brothers today.
“Keras, I know it takes a lot out of you, but I need your shadows.” Esher ignored the frown his older brother levelled on him. “I need you and Marek to work together.”
Keras looked as if he wanted to glare at Marek, but he nodded, keeping his eyes away from him. Esher was pushing his luck pairing them, but hopefully it would help Keras get over his anger. Besides, Esher was damned if he was going to have Keras lay his hands on Aiko, and not only because his brother seemed too unpredictable right now. Marek was the better choice for teleporting her.
If Keras touched her, Esher would want to go after them and rearrange his face so it was a little less handsome.
“I’m staying here then.” Ares tossed him a look that warned him not to argue. “I’ll protect the gate if I have to, or the other gates. Megan will be safe in the mansion, within the wards, and we might need her to heal us.”
“Me too. We’ll take care of the gates while you deal with this bitch.” Valen wrapped his arm around Eva’s slender shoulders. “Eva can help.”
Cal raised his hand, the tips of his blond ponytail fluttering as he sat forwards, on the edge of the couch, his voice holding a hint of a snarl that spoke of his temper. “What about me?”
He thought everyone had forgotten him, when Esher was counting on him.
“You’re coming with me.” Esher looked from him, to Daimon. “I’ll need all of our powers combined.”
Ares and Valen kicked off again.
“Daimon I get, but Cal?” Valen snapped and Cal grabbed him by his hair, dragged him into a headlock and rubbed it.
“I’m as powerful as the rest of you.” Calistos grinned as he pressed his knuckles harder into Valen’s skull.
“He’s less destructive too, and far less likely to let his power control him.” That earned Esher a glare, but he didn’t take it back or apologise.
Valen and Ares were the two most likely to be seduced by their power and cause damage to the area, and he intended to have this battle in a very public arena.
Valen huffed. “But it’s Cal… he’s the baby.”
He was Valen’s junior by only eighty years, and just thirty-eight years younger than Daimon, the second youngest. He wasn’t a baby, and Valen knew it, was saying it to ruffle his feathers, and it worked.
“I’m always on the fucking bench. It’s about time I got off.” A flash of regret crossed Calistos’s face, and he opened his mouth to amend what he had said, but it was too late.
Valen grinned. “You a virgin still?”
“Fuck off.” Cal didn’t even move, but Valen went flying across the room, his ankles clipping the low dining table as he shot towards the kitchen.
He hit an invisible wall before he smashed into the kitchen one, striking it with so much force he grunted and his arms and legs flew forwards.
He didn’t drop to the floor.
He struggled in thin air as he recovered, kicking and clawing, trying to punch his way out of Calistos’s hold.
It wasn’t going to happen.
Valen’s eyes brightened and sparks chased between his fingers.
“Don’t even think about it,” Esher snarled and shot to his feet. He turned to Cal. “Put him down, or you’re on the bench too.”
“When did you get so chatty and bossy?” Cal huffed and dropped Valen, who landed on his feet and stormed towards the couch, on the warpath. “Text me the details.”
Calistos disappeared, leaving Valen growling at the spot where he had been.
“Little shit.” Valen stalked around the couch, snatched Eva’s wrist and growled as he pulled her into his arms. “I need angry sex.”
Her eyes darkened at that and she wrapped her arms around him as they disappeared.
Keras pulled a disgusted face and teleported, and Marek followed suit.
“You’ll be okay?” Daimon said and Esher nodded. “Call if you need me.”
He stepped, leaving swirls of black smoke in his wake.
Esher met Ares’s gaze, nodded again to let him know he really was fine, and breathed a sigh of relief as his brother disappeared with Megan and he was finally alone with Aiko.
“Sorry,” he muttered, and wondered if he would ever stop feeling the need to apologise for his brothers.
She smiled softly. “What did Calistos mean?”
He sighed and leaned back into the cream couch as he slipped his arm around her and pulled her against him, savouring the feel of her as she settled her hand on his chest and tucked her knees against his thigh.
“I used to be quiet, distant in a way… before you.” He brushed the backs of his knuckles across her cheek, looked deep into her eyes and marvelled at how he had changed because of her, how she had drawn out the side of himself that had been locked away for longer than he could remember.
A side he had thought he would never see again.
She nestled close to him, her fingers playing across his chest, circling the buttons of his shirt and driving him mad with need. “What do you want me to do?”
He half-smiled at that, should have known she would see through him and would be aware that she had a part in his plan.
“How are you feeling?” he whispered and brushed his lips across her brow, pressed a kiss to it and breathed her in.
He didn’t want to put her in danger again, and she wouldn’t be, he would make sure of that.
“Strong… in body… not as tired as I thought I might be.” She sounded confused by that, and he kept his theory about what his mother had done to her soul to himself, for now.
When she was stronger, when this was over, he would tell her.
“Strong enough to help me?” He angled his head so he could see her face.
She jerked away from him, sitting bolt upright, and nodded. “I want to help.”
It was strange to see that flash of hunger in her eyes. Such gentle eyes. It unsettled him, because he knew the source of it. She wanted revenge. He wanted to refuse her, but he couldn’t, not when that desire stemmed not only from her own suffering, but from a need to protect him. She didn’t want him to suffer, wanted to make sure the daemon couldn’t hurt him, or turn him against his brothers and everyone he loved.
And gods, he loved her for it.
“We’re only going to make it known you’re alive. I’ll walk you home, and Marek and Keras will make sure you’re safe. As soon as the daemon shows, they’ll take you back to the mansion.”
She nodded and her brow wrinkled as her eyes searched his. “Are you going to capture her?”
He could see she didn’t want him to do that, that she was afraid of being in the same building as the daemon, and it made him want to kill the bitch and forget questioning her, but he couldn’t.
They needed information.
But it wasn’t going to be easy.
It was going to be dangerous, and there was a chance he might not be the victor, that she might prove too powerful for him, or might do something to make him snap.
He framed Aiko’s face and stared into her eyes, grounding himself to push away from his fears, clawing back his strength and pulling up his courage, using the sight of her to vanquish all of his doubts, because winning was the only option. Losing didn’t even factor in when winning meant seeing Aiko again.
“I’m going to try.”