He bit out a ripe curse, aiming this one at Keras.
His oldest brother should have let him seal the New York gate when he had offered to do it.
Now the enemy planned to use his blood to open it and when it was fully formed and linked this world to the Underworld, they would lock it open with the wards they knew. It could take hours, days to discover which wards they had used through a process of elimination so he could close it again. In that time, the Underworld and this realm would begin to merge. If he couldn’t get it closed again, the merging of the worlds could damage the gate to the point where it would remain open no matter what he and his brothers tried to do, and the two worlds would slowly collide, causing catastrophic damage to both sides of the gate.
Forming a new realm.
The mission he had been sent here to fulfil would end in failure.
His home and his family would be destroyed. The enemy wouldn’t settle for degrading his father by taking his throne from him. They would kill him and his mother. His brothers would most likely be hunted and slaughtered too.
And all their women.
And Cass.
He wouldn’t let that happen.
He narrowed his eyes on the two furies, a battle sparking to life inside him as he thought about what he needed to do.
He couldn’t let them get their hands on his blood.
Ice numbed his fingers as he considered what he was on the verge of doing.
It would hurt his family, hitting his parents and Esher the hardest, might even be too much for his brother in his current condition.
And Cass would be furious with him.
But he couldn’t let them get their hands on her, and he couldn’t let the gate fall. Hurting everyone he loved was better than sentencing them to death.
He pulled down a slow breath, fighting to steady his nerves, to muster the courage he needed—courage that kept slipping through his fingers.
Daimon tilted his chin up.
He had to do it.
He would do it.
He stared into Meadow’s eyes.
Let every drop of the hatred he felt towards her and his enemy shine in his eyes, every drop of the rage he felt because they had forced his hand, but hid all the guilt and the pain, the remorse that threatened to devour him and shatter his strength.
He was doing this.
He was going to die here.
Daimon focused on his hands, on his power, but rather than attacking, he turned it inward. His blood was quick to slow in his veins, the cold he always felt growing more intense as his head grew foggy, thoughts blurring together as tiredness rolled through his already weakened body.
Panic sparked, throwing his mind and his heart into turmoil, and he clenched his hands into tight fists as he fought it, kept pushing onwards as his instincts roared at him to stop.
That he would die if he kept going.
That survival instinct battered him, had his ice waning even as he tried to keep it building inside him, spreading through him.
He gritted his teeth and pushed through it, desperately shutting out the voice that screamed in his mind. His feet numbed as ice formed over them, slowly spreading up his calves.
Darkness encroached at the corners of his mind and he gasped for air as the cold invaded his lungs, and his heart slowed.
He was drowning.
Drowning in his own ice.
Momentary blackness washed over him and he tipped forwards, jerked backwards when it released him and shook his head.
“Stop him,” Meadow barked as she lunged for him, her violet eyes wild.
He couldn’t let them do that.
Ice formed jagged spikes around him, shooting up to the ceiling. The two furies battered it, fracturing and even breaking holes in it in places, but his power was running at full tilt now, was swift to repair any area that took damage. The walls surrounding him slowly turned pale blue as they thickened, inching towards him. They touched his knees first, met with the ice that had formed over them already.
He struggled to breathe, what little air he could get into his burning lungs fogging in front of his face as he expelled it. His teeth clattered, loud in his prison as ice rolled up his stomach and arms, reached his shoulders.
Sapping the last of the heat from his body as it closed over his chest.
His thoughts slowed, his vision dimming.
Ice formed on his cheeks in the path of his tears as he thought of Cass.
He wished he had taken a moment to speak with her before he had gone to Nemesis.
Wished he had told her that he loved her.
Had seen her face one last time.
Said goodbye to her.
Sorrow washed through him as he realised he would never see his beautiful koldun’ya again, the last thing he felt as the ice enclosed him.
He had finally found someone he truly loved.
And this time, he was the one leaving her.
Chapter 33
Cass stroked Mister Milos, petting the white and ginger cat as she held him in her arms. He purred, the rumbling sound a comfort to her frayed nerves. She tried to focus on him to shut out that unsettling sensation burning inside her heart, but it lingered, tormenting her.
Daimon had been gone too long.
She kept running her right hand over Milos’s fur as her bare feet carried her through the Tokyo mansion, towards the voices she could hear in the main living area of the house.
Mari looked over the back of the cream couch, twisting away from Calistos to smile at Cass as she entered the room at the TV area end of it.
“Have you seen Daimon?” Cass paused at the back of the couch.
Calistos set the console controller down on his lap, looked at her
