Daimon broke the silence. “If we’re going to be out of action for weeks, weakened by draining our blood to close the gates, then we’re going to be vulnerable to the enemy. Maybe this is all part of their plan.”
She pulled back from Mari and looked at him, catching the concern in his ice-blue eyes as he ran a hand over the spikes of his dirty white hair. Concern that echoed inside her too.
“What if they’re forcing us to close the gates, so we’re concentrating the power of them into only a few, making them harder to manage? They could be setting us up for a fall.” Daimon exchanged a look with his brothers, one that chilled her blood.
What he was saying made a dreadful sort of sense.
They had planned to close four gates as quickly as possible, but with this new turn of events, that would be too risky.
As it was, there were still five gates in need of protection and only four brothers to do it. If the enemy attacked now, her side would be at a disadvantage.
“We’ll have to be on our guard.” Keras lifted his green gaze from Cal and settled it on her. “Can we count on you?”
Daimon’s gaze drilled into the side of her face and she suppressed the urge to point out they could have counted on her tonight, when they had gone to London and Seville. Rather than throwing it in their faces again, she nodded.
Looked at Keras and Ares.
And then right into Daimon’s eyes.
“Whatever you need from me, you’ve got it.”
Chapter 3
Daimon trod the well-worn path that trailed through the garden in the gap between the north wing of the mansion and the white wall that enclosed it, enjoying the cool shade and the peace.
And maybe the escape from the gloomy air inside the house.
It had been three days since Cal and Valen had sealed two of the gates, and in that time, Daimon and his remaining brothers had been fighting daemons away from the gates each night. The Erinyes had targeted two or three gates a night, starting the opening process using the power they had stolen from Marinda, and then disappearing just as he and his brothers reached the gate, leaving them with hordes of daemons to deal with as they closed the gate again. Everyone was tired and beaten down, and he wasn’t talking about just his brothers.
Caterina, Eva and Cass had been on the frontline with them, battling the daemons, working as a team to help him and his brothers in the absence of Cal, Valen and Esher.
Daimon had the feeling that the enemy was trying to weaken them. Or maybe they were testing the limits of their powers.
His side was testing the limits of the Erinyes’ powers in return.
Keras had asked Marinda to avoid touching Cal so they could see whether her power over the gate would weaken, and could discover how long a furie could hold on to a power they had siphoned from another.
Whenever Daimon went to check on Cal, he could see how difficult this was for Marinda. Cal was still sleeping, and it was clear she wanted to hold him, to touch him and offer comfort, and she couldn’t.
He could understand how that felt.
He couldn’t touch his brothers to give them that either. His touch would only cause them more pain.
Daimon neared the front garden, tipped his head back and stared at the endless blue sky.
Gods, he was tired.
Bone-deep tired.
Whenever he tried to sleep, he saw visions of Esher in the Underworld, terrible things that plagued him when he woke, stayed with him through the night as he carried out his duties until dawn came and sleep beckoned again.
He had woken two hours ago in a cold sweat and had been walking the garden ever since, seeking some respite, trying to purge what he had seen in his nightmares. Desperate to sleep and get some rest this time.
As he rounded the corner and the path opened up again, shaded by a beautiful old maple tree on his left and bushes on his right, his gaze landed on the two motorbikes Cal had brought with him from his home in London after Keras had declared it a loss and ordered him to move into the mansion in Tokyo.
The lime-green and black one was sleek and sharp, built for speed, just like his little brother. The gold and black one beside it looked closer to a normal road bike.
Esher was going to flip his shit when he came home and found them parked on the gravel of the front garden.
He shook his head, could easily picture it playing out, and how Cal would attempt to defuse the situation and probably only make things worse. Daimon would be the one to talk Esher down, and in the end, his brother would reluctantly agree to the bikes staying, but would want them moved to a place where they wouldn’t ruin the aesthetic of the garden he loved so much.
Daimon paused on a steppingstone, his eyes drifting over the front of the mansion, tracing the line of the roof where it swept over the porch and the contrast of the slate-grey tiles against the blue sky.
The single-storey house was enormous, but it felt too small with Cass in it. He couldn’t seem to escape her. The only time he was safe from the sorceress was when he was with Aiko, trying to keep her spirits, and his, up. Cass didn’t seem to know how to respond to Aiko, usually made herself scarce when it all became too much for the young Japanese woman and she broke down.
If it weren’t for the fact Daimon had seen how much Cass cared about Marinda, he would have thought Cass was the one with a cold heart.
But it was him.
He knew that.
He had closed it off long ago, had hardened himself and pushed away everyone except his
