The moment Esher nodded, Ares and Keras disappeared. Valen followed them.
Marek took hold of her arm as she finished zipping up her calf-height leather boots and stepped with her, darkness embracing them for a heartbeat before it parted to reveal a shady corner of Central Park.
The humans jogging along the pathway that cut through the enormous park in the heart of New York gave her and the gods at her back strange looks as they stepped out of the trees.
She scowled at them all.
She hadn’t been up to any funny business in the bushes with four men if that was what they were thinking.
A few of the female joggers slowed, and one almost tripped over her feet as Keras stepped into the fading light, lifting a hand above his green eyes to shield them as he assessed the position of the sun.
Ares shook his head.
Valen sighed. “I can practically see their panties melting away as they run past him.”
Cass looked at Keras. He was beautiful, but only on the surface. Beneath that perfect exterior beat a black, dead heart that was twisted with a need for pain.
He would probably destroy any woman he came in contact with, sucking the light right out of them.
“The light is fading fast. We have perhaps an hour at most before the daemons can walk in it.” Keras turned his back on the women, apparently not noticing, or uncaring of, the way they gawped at him.
She supposed he had probably had females fawning over him his entire life, first in the Underworld and now in the mortal one.
“We could wait until it gets dark,” Valen put in as he raked his fingers through the longer lengths of his violet hair, pushing it back from his face. “The enemy is bound to want to hit the gate and bring Daimon with them.”
He drew a few glances from the women too, ones that rapidly turned to fear as they noticed the scar tissue that ran from the left side of his jaw down his neck. He glared at them, golden eyes dangerously bright.
“Might I remind you that enemy can also draw the power to do just that from his blood?” Cass snapped, fear getting the better of her again.
“She’s right.” Ares folded his arms, his biceps flexing beneath his tight black T-shirt as fire blazed in his dark eyes. “We’re not waiting, leaving Daimon at their mercy.”
“If the enemy even has him. Might be a wild goose chase.” Valen hiked his shoulders, lifting the hem of his own black T-shirt to flash a toned strip of stomach.
Cass shut them out as they argued about what to do, pressed the fingers of her right hand to her chest and focused as she breathed. Each slow inhale and steady exhale cleared her mind, allowing her magic to come to the fore. It ran in her blood, a comforting presence, power at her fingertips.
The power to save the man she loved.
She focused on that, on him, letting the magic rise inside her and latch onto that desire. It grew stronger, a heady sensation that had her swaying as it began to twine down her legs, twisting around them beneath her skin.
The moment it connected with the grass beneath her boots, she tensed.
Pain bloomed in her heart and she gasped.
“Something is wrong.” She flicked her eyes open and looked at Ares, Keras and then Marek and Valen, that bad feeling growing inside her as her magic began to seep outwards, fingers of it stretching in all directions. “I can feel it. I need to find Daimon now.”
Keras nodded. “It’s best we don’t wait for the enemy to approach the gate. If we can get our hands on Daimon, we might be able to avoid the gate coming under fire.”
He looked at her.
“Can you sense him?”
She blinked and nodded. “I think so. I’ll try a spell.”
Cass pieced together the incantation, knitting several different locator spells together in an attempt to make the strongest one she could manage. All the while, the connection between her and nature grew, and the fear she felt grew stronger with it. She could sense the four gods around her so clearly, and sense that Daimon was in deep trouble. She wasn’t sure how. She had never experienced anything like this.
Was it because they were born of Persephone’s blood and therefore linked to nature? Their powers were all elemental after all. It had to be the reason she could sense a disturbance where Daimon was concerned, felt as if something was terribly wrong. The whole balance of nature felt off in this area and somehow she knew it was because something had happened to him.
“You think the enemy is going to try to use Daimon’s blood to open the gate?” Valen muttered.
“Most likely,” Keras answered.
“What happens if they want his blood for more than just opening the gate? What if they intend to use him as a sacrifice?” Marek’s voice speared her mind, fracturing her focus and scattering the pieces of the spell.
Her gaze snapped to Keras.
His green eyes slid to her and then back to his brothers. “That would be bad. If they kill him, I doubt we would be able to seal the gate. There is a chance it would remain open… and the two worlds—”
“This isn’t helping,” Cass barked and glared at them all. “Just shut up and let me work.”
Her hands trembled and she shook them, trying to stop them. They continued to quiver as nerves rose inside her, fear at the helm, shaking her to her soul. Daimon had to be all right. He just had to be.
She couldn’t lose him.
She closed her eyes and built the incantation again, forming the tracking spell as silence fell around her and she banished her fears once more. Fear would only slow her down and Daimon needed her.
As
