“Mari,” she whispered, hoping the gods wouldn’t hear her. “I think Cal is going to be sleeping for a while.”
“How do you know that?” Keras’s deep voice was calm, emotionless.
Dangerous.
When the firstborn of Hades sounded like this, he was a step away from unleashing hell upon someone.
In this case, her.
She looked at him, refusing to let him see that what she really wanted to do was mutter her strongest barrier spell and distance herself from him.
Because he wasn’t going to like what she had to say and, like his father, he had a tendency to shoot the messenger.
“I used a spell on Valen to probe a little into his physical condition.” She braced herself for his reaction.
But it was Daimon who was suddenly beside her, his voice a black snarl as he advanced on her.
“You did what?”
She stood her ground, stoked her courage and squared up to him. “You said I could heal him. I just wanted to see what damage I was dealing with so I could find the appropriate spells.”
She didn’t take her eyes away from his icy blue ones. They were rapidly brightening, turning white ringed with navy, sparks of silver lighting them as the anger she could sense in him mounted.
“Did you hurt him with that little probing spell of yours? Because I didn’t give you permission to do that,” Daimon snapped, and Cass wanted to bark right back at him, but she kept her temper in check.
Because she had been wrong about these brothers, had judged them without knowing them, but if she had been quick to do such a thing, it had only been because she felt protective of Marinda.
Now that she had seen Cal with Marinda, she could see that Eric had been right to trust the god and that Cal clearly loved her, and she knew it must have been a comfort to Eric in his last moment. He had seen a vision of the future, and in it he had seen his daughter would find someone who loved her as deeply as he had loved her mother.
All the brothers were like Eric in that way.
When they loved, they loved. No half measures. It was a forever kind of love. Whether it was for their family or for a woman.
Gods, she was being sentimental.
Love was just love.
There was nothing magical about it.
It wasn’t necessary.
She stared into Daimon’s icy eyes, feeling nothing. Not fear. Not love. Not hate. He was just a distraction. A pleasant diversion.
One who looked ready to throttle her.
She risked a glance at Keras and Ares and found them looking the same way.
“Listen,” she bit out, before they could turn on her or Daimon could get ideas about attempting to drown her in the pond again. “Valen is in a deep sleep. One might call it a coma. He sealed a gate. Did you honestly think there wouldn’t be consequences from tampering with something bound to you all in blood? Created from your blood?”
Ares scrubbed a hand down his face, his deep brown eyes filled with fatigue and worry. Keras actually looked concerned for once as his green gaze dropped to Cal where he was tucked under the covers on the floor.
“Check him,” Keras said. “See if they both feel the same way to you.”
She kneeled beside Cal, took hold of his wrist and closed her eyes as she summoned the spell again, pushing past her own fatigue to make it as strong as the one she had used on Valen.
Her strength drained from her as she funnelled it into him and waited.
He was hurting, so she gave his healing a little push as she had with Valen.
And then she felt it.
That same feeling Valen had given her.
“He’s asleep,” she murmured, holding the connection between them open. “A coma-level sleep. He’s still functioning normally, but I can feel this isn’t a normal sleep.”
“When will he wake up?” Mari’s voice trembled and Cass broke her hold on Cal and looked up at her.
For once, she didn’t hide her feelings, let Mari see them all. She knew what Mari was really asking but was too afraid to voice.
Would he wake up?
She pushed onto her feet and gathered Mari into her arms, holding her close. “I’m not sure. It might be a few days, sweetie, it might be a few weeks.”
She refused to say it might be never.
She couldn’t do that to Mari.
“At worst, he might not wake until the seals are removed from the gate,” she said.
“I don’t like the sound of that.” The sense of dark power Keras constantly emanated grew in strength and Cass had a hard time withstanding it in her weakened state.
She leaned on Mari, hoping her ward wouldn’t notice it or if she did, wouldn’t mention that she was weak from using her magic on gods. She didn’t want these gods to know that she had her limits.
“I don’t like it either,” Daimon muttered.
“We can’t afford to leave the gates open, but we can’t weaken our side by having two more of our team out of action.” Ares folded his arms across his broad chest, causing the tattered remains of his black T-shirt to stretch over his muscles.
Mari whispered, “Cal closed the gate. How can anyone else open it?”
Cass smoothed her hand over Mari’s fair hair, hoping it would comfort her.
“We could probably use their blood,” Daimon offered from behind her. “It might be enough to allow another of us to undo the wards.”
“We should wait.” Keras levelled a dark look at Daimon. “Don’t give me that look. I am only talking about waiting a few days to see if their condition changes. Valen and Cal will need to recover from the blood loss of sealing the Seville gate anyway. A few days, and then we shall decide what to do.”
Cass hoped for all their sakes that Cal and Valen awoke.
The air in the room remained dark, oppressive as the three brothers stood in silence.
They were already missing
