CHAPTER 21
Her scream was the first thing that hit him on landing on the rooftop, tearing his world asunder.
Esher launched forwards, shoving the female daemon aside and sending her flying as he hit the edge of the roof. His heart plummeted in time with Aiko.
“No!” He vaulted over the edge and stepped, reappeared in the air but not close enough.
He teleported again, desperate to reach her before she hit the pavement, and reappeared closer to her this time.
Her brown eyes held his, tears flowing from them as she sailed through the air, the wind whipping her hair upwards as her arms flailed towards him. Love shone in her eyes, love and fear that ripped at him, screamed at him to save her, to take that fear away for her.
He stepped again, wild as he roared and his fangs emerged, darkness swirling around him. He blasted out of it below her this time, the pavement coming at him fast, and twisted in the air.
Reached for her.
His boots hit the pavement, legs buckled as fire burned up his bones, his right tibia fracturing from the impact. He crumpled and growled as he reached for Aiko.
He caught her arm and kicked upwards, countering her movement to slow her descent and calling another teleport at the same time.
Shadows flickered over him but her weight pulled him out of the teleport as she slammed into him, her legs against his chest.
He hit the pavement, and she struck it a split-second later with such force that her mouth snapped open as her head flew upwards and blood burst from it. His lungs burned, the impact sending the air rushing from them, sending a wave of pain rolling through him that had him numb, but he sucked down a breath and roared.
“No.” He gritted his teeth and shook his head as he struggled to sit up, forced himself to move and pulled her into his arms. Her blood instantly covered his hands, making it hard to keep hold of her. It drenched her pale blouse. He gently shook her. “Open your eyes, Aiko. Look at me. Please look at me.”
When people crowded him, he snarled at them and flashed his fangs. Screams rose as shadows flickered around him, racing outwards across the wet pavement to snap at the humans, driving them away.
He rocked with Aiko, his eyes glued to her face, tears burning in them as he leaned over her and smoothed his right palm across her ashen cheek.
“Open your eyes, Aiko,” he whispered. “Please?”
Rain hammered down, washing the blood from her skin, making it swirl across the pavement beneath her.
He tried to listen, finding it hard to hear over the thundering rush of his blood and that of the rain. His relief as he heard her heart beating was short lived, lasted only as long as it took him to realise it was slowing.
She was dying.
“No, no… no… you can’t leave me.” He brushed trembling fingers across her cheek and along the street, water exploded from the drain covers, gushing like geysers, sending a river swirling around her and him. “Look at me, Aiko.”
Her eyelids fluttered.
His heart missed a beat.
He cupped her cheek. “Look at me.”
Her eyelids lifted, revealing the dull brown of her irises and red where the white should have been in her beautiful eyes.
He wanted to scream at that, wanted to throw his head back and roar again, but he forced himself to hold it together, even as a need to tear down this world rose inside him.
It was cruel.
Vicious.
It had given him something beautiful, and now it was going to steal it away.
He couldn’t bear it.
“I’ll get you to Megan,” he whispered, voice hoarse and tight. “Megan can fix this.”
But he couldn’t bring himself to move. Fear froze him in place, the thought of hurting her by moving her, of killing her by trying to teleport her to Megan in the mansion locking his muscles up tight and chilling the blood in his veins. He stared down at her, fighting to convince himself to move, to do something, because she was going to die if he didn’t. Despair joined the fear as instinct whispered she was going to die anyway.
He couldn’t save her.
The rain fell harder, pounding the pavement around him, and a torrent swept past him as he held her, gazed down at her and told himself to move, because if there was only the tiniest chance he could save her, it would be worth it.
But, gods, he couldn’t bring himself to hurt her by moving her.
She tried to lift her hand, but it fell weakly into her lap as she coughed, and blood streamed from her lips. He gripped her hand and lifted it for her, pressed it to his cheek as tears streamed down it, an unstoppable flow that dripped onto her face, cutting through the fresh blood.
“Don’t leave me.” He shook his head, his insides tearing apart, his heart shattering into a thousand pieces. “I’m sorry. I should have come quicker. I should never have left you. Please don’t leave me.”
The corners of her lips wobbled and fresh tears came, hot and fast down his cheeks as he realised she wanted to smile for him.
This world was cruel. Vicious. It would see just how cruel and vicious he could be in return.
The ground shook, the rain coming faster, but it didn’t touch her now. It curved above him, striking the pavement around them instead.
“I love… you,” she murmured, and he leaned towards her so she didn’t strain herself trying to speak with him. He pressed his forehead to hers and pulled her into his arms, clutching her tightly as he shook from the force of the pain building inside him. Pain that needed out. She managed to brush her fingers over his cheek, her touch light, killing him. “I’m not scared for me… I’m scared for you… I don’t… want you… to be… alone… again… never.”
She slumped in his arms.
His lower lip wobbled and his face crumpled, and he held her closer, tighter. “I love you too.”
But she would never know.
She would never know how much he loved her, would always love her, because she was gone.
Stolen from him.
He threw his head back and roared, and every drop of rain exploded, bursting to form a haze that swamped the city before it began falling again, harder than ever, a torrent that turned the streets into raging rivers.
The ground shook beneath him as he stumbled onto his feet, lifting her into his arms, and looked down at her.
Sirens wailed, a tsunami warning.
Not the only one.
By now, they would be ringing along the coast of Japan, and around the world.
Because the only light in this dark world was gone.
He stepped with her, landing in the middle of the main room of the mansion, and stood there staring down at her as the television talked of flash floods across the globe and tidal waves hitting south-east Asia already, wiping out villages in their paths.
Ares and Megan rushed to him.
“Oh, Esher.” Megan choked on a sob as she saw Aiko’s lifeless body in his arms.
But he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
“There’s nothing we can do now.” Ares reached for him.
Esher evaded him and backed off a step, because there was something he could do.
He wanted to destroy this world, wanted to see it all burn, bring it to a painful bloody end, hungered to obey the darker part of himself that said to unleash all of his agony on it, to return it a thousand-fold.
But Aiko wouldn’t want that.
She would want him to go on without her, to protect this world for her.
But he couldn’t do that either.
He couldn’t live without her.
Even if she grew to hate him, he needed her, and that meant she had to live.
“Heal her body.” He gently set Aiko down on the floor and growled when Megan didn’t move. “Fucking heal her.”
“Calm down.” Ares stepped between him and Megan. “She’s gone, Esher.”
No. He wouldn’t accept that. Couldn’t. There was something he could do, and it meant a fight he probably wouldn’t win, but he couldn’t give up without trying.
“Heal her.” He looked to Megan. “Please?”
She clearly had more heart than his brother, because she nodded, even though he could see she didn’t understand what use it would be to heal Aiko’s body now.
He turned to Ares. “Protect her.”
Not Megan. Aiko. He needed his brother to protect Aiko while he was gone.
“What are you going to do?” Ares tossed him a worried look, one that had a hefty dose of wariness in it that said he knew what Esher was going to do but didn’t want to believe it.
Esher pressed a kiss to Aiko’s lips and smoothed her matted hair from her face. “Wait for me… just as you promised.”
“Esher, where are you going?” Ares moved a step towards him, a measured one that warned his brother was trying to close the distance between them in a subtle way.
He knew where Esher was going.
And he wanted to stop him.
Hypocrite. If it was Ares in his shoes, and Megan in Aiko’s place, his brother would be long gone already, risking everything for her.
Just as he was going to risk it for Aiko.
Esher shot to his feet, clenched his fists and regarded his brother with cold eyes, daring him to even think about leaving his place at Aiko’s side while he was gone.
“I’m going home.” He disappeared before Ares could try to stop him, landing in an elegant apartment in London that looked as if a tornado had hit it.
Clothes, magazines and food cartons were strewn everywhere, occupying almost all of the antique furniture in the high-ceilinged pale-grey-walled living room.
Cal turned away from the sash window to the left of the fireplace, no trace of surprise to see him in his eyes.
“I know what your favour mark can do.” Esher stalked towards him, kicking clothes and books out of the way as he closed the distance between them, pain tearing up his right leg with each step.
Behind Cal, the weather took a turn for the worse, rain falling in a thick sheet that obscured the buildings across the street.
Cal closed his hand over the dark blue script that tracked up the inside of his right forearm. “You know what happens if you go back there.”
He did, and he didn’t care. He was prepared to fight his father on this, would fight the world if it brought Aiko back.
“I don’t have time to deal with the gatekeepers on the other side of the Tokyo gate… she doesn’t have time. I have to reach her now.” Before his father assigned her soul to a realm and she was lost to him forever. “I’m sorry, Cal.”
He stepped, appearing behind his brother, grabbed his arm and tore his fingers from it to reveal the words written in the language of the Underworld.
“Tell me how to make it work,” he snarled.
Cal twisted free of his grip and shoved him in the chest, knocking him back against the window. “I will, but you need to calm the fuck down, because focusing is a fucking big part of it or you’ll end up some place far from where you want to be.”
Esher breathed through the need to grab his brother again, pushing out the fury and locking down the pain so he could focus.
He had one shot at this.
He had to appear in the right place.
Any other place and he would have to fight his way to the fortress. His father would know he was coming, would send legions to deal with him, and he didn’t have the strength to fight them and his father. Teleporting once he was in the Underworld was out of the question too. He was tapped out now, body already on the verge of breaking. He needed what little power he had left to battle his father.
So he needed to appear at the palace if he was going to save Aiko.
Cal held his arm out. “Read the words, and when the portal appears, you need to step through it while thinking about where you want to be. You have to really picture it… really want it.”
He wanted it enough.
Whether or not he could focus through the pain for long enough to appear in the Underworld rather than back at Aiko was another matter. She kept popping into his head, his heart screaming to return to her because he needed her. Cal’s favour mark, a gift from Hermes, could transport him anywhere he wanted to go, wherever his heart desired, whether it was in this world, the Underworld or Olympus.
Esher just had to convince that heart that he wanted to go to the palace.
Not Tokyo.
He read the words, and as thunder peeled overhead and the floor shook, bright blue light burst from the letters on Cal’s forearm and a portal formed beside him, shimmering like water in a multitude of colours.
Esher focused on the ancient fortress, because Aiko was there now, not in Tokyo. Her soul was there, waiting for him to come for her. He built a picture of the imposing black building that resembled a series of enormous Greek temples, each towering structure surrounded by fluted columns that were a single row supporting the roof along the sides, forming a walkway around the building, but were two rows deep at the front to support the weight of the triangular pediment. Columned enclosed corridors connected each temple. Beautiful gardens surrounded it, the colours a dazzling contrast against the dark stone.
He wanted to be there.
He stepped into the portal.
Blue light engulfed him, heat searing him as he was pulled from London, zipped through the air and caught flickers of places around him, and then a lot of black. It smelled of earth. The air grew thicker, and he grunted as his boots hit the ground again, his tibia protesting as his weight pressed down on it.
He lifted his head.
Relief rushed through him, sweeter than anything, as the central temple of the palace rose before him, flanked by two smaller ones that were set back slightly, the enclosed hallway that joined them making them appear to be one enormous temple. Black mountains rose behind it, taller than any on Earth, fractures in their faces glowing gold, illuminating the dull grey sky and the smoky clouds that swirled across it.
“Halt!” A sentry at the gate in the wall, a towering male dressed in black armour, moved towards him.
Esher didn’t have time for this. He threw his hand towards the male and he grunted, gargled as he went down clutching his throat. The other two sentries met the same fate as they rushed from the gatehouse. He didn’t spare them a glance as he limped forwards, his leg aching with each step.
The high square black doors of the fortress flew open with a flick of his wrist, hitting the walls with a thunderous boom, and he stalked through the cavernous building, heading past the two-storey high statue of his father in full regalia and bident in hand that stood in the centre, surrounded by flickering oil lamps and offerings. He picked up his pace as he rounded the statue, struggling to resist the temptation to run. He could manage it, but the pain would steal more of his strength, and he needed every drop of it if he was going to succeed.
He passed through the door at the other end of the temple, into a smaller building with corridors that branched off it, heading towards the other buildings in the complex, and exited it to cross the courtyard, where flowers bloomed and brought dazzling colour and life to the palace. He headed for the next building, a wide one that had a more modern flair, still fronted by columns, but only the central third of it had a pediment, the two thirds on either side of it kept flat so it almost resembled an old country estate in England.
Esher breathed slowly, gathering his strength as he moved as quickly as he could while also buying his body time to stop shaking. The pain wracking his heart made that difficult, had him trembling and on the verge of screaming whenever he thought about Aiko, saw her body laid out on the tatami mats, drenched in her own blood.
He curled his fingers into fists, his claws biting into his palms as he entered the main building and crossed it, heading straight for the high door opposite him. He shoved it open and took the steps downwards into a tunnel.
He winced with each step that took him down through the rock, his senses on high alert as he scoured the path ahead of him, and behind him. More sentries would come. He didn’t have time. He had to reach the other end.
Had to reach the throne room.
He could feel his father waiting there.
The tunnel seemed endless, longer than he remembered, each step agony as he thought about Aiko, saw himself holding her, heard her last words to him, and the ones he had said to her.
Ones he would say to her again when she was back with him.
He reached the bottom of the tunnel and stepped out into the lower building of the palace that sat on the banks of one of the rivers, the opened sides to his left and right revealing the water where it flowed around a bend and enclosed the temple. Ten thick black fluted columns set two metres apart supported a lintel decorated with a frieze on either side of him, the statues atop each one glaring down at him, their backdrop the swirling sky and the imposing angry mountains that spewed lava. Those marble columns led his eye forwards to the wall at the far end.
Where a tall black throne constructed of bones stood empty, the trench of flames that ran along the bottom of the wall low and barely flickering.
“Father!” Esher threw his head back and bellowed.
Hades stepped out from a column to his right, his hands tucked behind his back beneath the thick crimson cloak that swirled around his ankles. The black armour that hugged his lean six-eight frame clinked as he walked, the pointed toes of his metal boots scraping on the black marble floor with each step.
His father regarded him with cold pale blue eyes and lowered his hands from behind his back, so his clawed gauntlets brushed the plates of armour that extended down in thick pointed tabs from his waist, covering his thighs.
He flexed those claws as he stepped up onto the dais and curled them over the arms of his throne as he sat down and tipped his chin up, causing the spikes of his black crown to blend with his short jet hair and the obsidian bones.
“You are not meant to be here,” Hades drawled in the language of the Underworld, and gods, it hit Esher hard.
This was his father, a male he hadn’t seen in centuries now, since he had banished Esher and his brothers from the Underworld and forced them to protect the gates.
Esher had hated him, had thought he wouldn’t care if he never saw him again, but now he was home.
He was home.
He looked around the temple, and beyond it to the river, and the mountains.
Home.
Away from the mortals, away from the pain, away from the daemons and their vile machinations.
Free of it all.
No, he wasn’t free. He wasn’t free of the pain. He wasn’t home either. His home had been stolen from him.
“I need her back. It wasn’t her time to die.” He stumbled over a few of the words, unused to speaking his native language. “Give her back to me.”
Red ringed the edges of his father’s irises.
Anger flared hot inside Esher, rage condensing in his blood as that look ignited it.
Because he knew what his father was going to say.
But it didn’t prepare him for the agony, the sheer fury that blasted through him when his father calmly sat on his throne, not a trace of emotion in his cold eyes as he opened his mouth and spoke a single word.
“No.”