Valen cast a worried look at Marek and Ares. “He’s gonna be all right… yeah?”
Ares didn’t look sure, but he nodded anyway.
Esher charged into the room, knocking Ares and Marek aside, Aiko hanging off his left arm. The petite female gave up trying to hold him back as Daimon stepped into his path, quickly obscuring his view of Keras.
“Good to see you up and about,” Daimon said, keeping his voice calm and letting none of his fear show in it.
Esher glanced at him and then turned his glare back on the wraith. “What happened to him?”
That growled question had everyone looking at the cage.
At the daemon who sat in the middle of it, hugging his knees and rocking, babbling incoherent things to himself.
Gods, he wasn’t sure what he would do if Keras had suffered the same fate.
“His mind fractured.”
The tension suddenly washed from the air as Keras’s deep voice rolled over it.
Daimon stepped back and twisted to face his brother.
Keras curled over, dug his fingers into his black hair, and clutched the sides of his head as he slowly breathed.
“And you?” Ares snapped. “You break your own fucking mind too?”
Keras lifted bleak green eyes to Ares, but didn’t say a word.
Which wasn’t reassuring.
Ares took a hard step towards Keras, heat shimmering over his body as fire raged in his eyes. “I fucking told you not to do it.”
Keras dropped his gaze back to the floor and closed his eyes, his voice thick with fatigue as he said, “We were getting nowhere.”
Daimon glanced at Esher, checking on him as his brother began to breathe harder and faster. “Esher?”
Esher’s dark blue eyes snapped to him and he blinked, his breaths coming more slowly again. “I want answers. I wanted…”
Daimon knew what his brother had wanted. He had wanted to be the one to break the wraith. He had needed to be the one to get them answers.
But Keras had beaten him to it and he wasn’t happy about it.
Daimon looked at the daemon. Although he wasn’t sure what answers Keras had managed to get from him.
One thing he did know—they wouldn’t be getting any more.
Eli was a mess, babbling strange things as he rocked, his violet gaze unfocused.
Esher went to take a step forwards, darkness emerging in his eyes, and Daimon stood his ground. When Esher dragged his gaze away from the daemon and narrowed it on him, Daimon lifted his right hand and hovered it over his bare shoulder, offering comfort in the only way he could and hoping it would be enough to calm his brother.
Crimson ringed his brother’s sapphire irises as he snarled, “I wanted answers. I was patient, Daimon… Patient. I wanted answers. I brought him here… I—”
Daimon inched closer to Esher. “You did good. You did what was right.”
He didn’t glance at Keras, but Keras’s gaze landed on him, and Daimon knew his oldest brother had read between the lines and knew Daimon thought he had done wrong. Hell, it was obvious everyone thought he had been out of his mind to attempt to read the daemon’s memories. There wasn’t a single person in the room who thought Keras had been right to do it.
Esher breathed harder, his chest straining with each one as he stared straight through Daimon, as if he could see the daemon on the other side of him.
“Esher,” he whispered. “We can still get answers.”
He wasn’t sure how though. Eli certainly wasn’t going to be giving them any information. Esher hadn’t needed this. Daimon could only imagine how difficult it had been for him to convince himself to capture the daemon rather than kill him, to bring him back here for them to question rather than torturing him for answers in the Underworld.
Now, that battle had been for nothing, and Esher was dangerously close to slipping back into the darkness of his other side.
The crimson invading his brother’s eyes began to spread and Daimon motioned to Aiko. She hurried forwards and took hold of Esher’s arm, slipped her hand into his right one and smiled when Esher looked down at her. His brother blinked as she stroked his arm and blue began to win against the scarlet in his irises.
“Maybe we should get some air?” Aiko breathed, her voice steady and no trace of nerves in her eyes even when Daimon knew she had to be afraid of losing Esher to his other side again.
Esher’s brow furrowed, his gaze darting between her and the cage, and he made a pained sound, as if having to choose between obeying Aiko and pleasing her, and unleashing his rage on the daemon was killing him.
“Get some air,” Daimon whispered. “I can come with you if you want.”
Esher swallowed. Hesitated. Nodded.
“Did you get anything out of him?” Marek eased into the room, allowing Megan to reach Ares and blocking Esher’s path.
Megan hesitated as she reached for Ares’s hand.
His older brother noticed her at last and paced away from Keras, heading out into the night. Megan trailed after him. She would get his brother’s mood back under control, but Daimon wasn’t sure it would stop Ares from tearing Keras a new one.
“Calindria,” Keras whispered just as Daimon had been about to escort Esher out for some air too. Everyone fell silent, an air of expectation settling over the room. Keras buried his face in his hands and his back shuddered as he inhaled. “I saw her. All grown up. Locked in a cage… Somewhere in the Underworld. A hellish domain.”
“She’s grown up?” Cal sank to his knees in front of Keras. “How is that possible? A soul doesn’t grow up… does it?”
Cal looked at Marek.
Marek shrugged. “It shouldn’t, but we don’t know the particulars of what the wraith and the necromancer did to her soul.”
“She can feel everything,” Keras murmured and everyone looked at him. Cold slithered down Daimon’s spine as Keras continued, “She can feel it as if she’s flesh and blood. I saw it.”
“That can’t be right.” Cal’s voice hitched, breaking as he threw a panicked
