She pushed away from that image, sure it was an illusion. This realm was filled with lies. She glanced at Thanatos. He was probably an illusion too, constructed by this realm to torment her now she had escaped, designed to weaken her and slow her enough that the guards could catch up with her and recapture her.
“Leave, Thanatos, god of death. I do not require your help.” She rose onto her feet and strode past him, ignoring the way he glared at her, his face blacker than the darkness that lived within her.
“No.” He reached for her as she passed him, attempted to seize her arm but she was quick to dodge his hand, placing herself beyond his grasp. “My mission is to save you and I will not fail my god-king.”
His god-king.
Hades.
Something clicked into place in her memories, made her feel certain of something from her past.
Hades was her father.
The very male the guards had spoken of in fear and this male served.
Which meant Thanatos was a liar.
She looked over her shoulder at him, sneered as she found him watching her, a false look of concern on his handsome face. “You mean to deceive me. I want nothing to do with you.”
His face blackened with each word she hurled at him, darkening by degrees as his eyes gained an ethereal blue shimmer. She was angering him, but rather than making her want to shrink away from him, the darker he grew, the more she felt the need to stand up to him.
Her breaths came faster as her heart pumped harder, courage rising inside her as she moved to face him, as she stared up into his eyes and set her jaw. Her blood burned, on fire with a need that grew stronger with every frantic beat of her heart.
A need to fight this god of death.
She reined it in, the softer part of her reasoning that this male had done nothing wrong. If he spoke the truth, he had been dispatched to help her, and therefore didn’t mean her any harm. If she lashed out at him and used her newfound powers on him, then she would be hurting an innocent.
So rather than fighting him, she backed away from him, heading for the tunnel she had spotted, one that would be too small for his big frame.
“Calindria.” His deep voice held a note of warning. “Do not run.”
“You do not need to chase me.” She knew from the look in his eyes that he did, that he had spoken the truth earlier and refused to fail in his mission.
She steeled herself. She had a mission of her own, one that did involve her family, but one she had committed to fulfilling in a specific order.
Revenge against her brother’s murderers first.
And her family second.
“I have things to do,” she whispered, her mind filling with pleasing images thanks to the darkness. It flashed them before her, a thousand ways she would kill the nameless, faceless, male who had killed her brother. “I will not let you stop me.”
“What things?” He levelled another black look at her, one she was beginning to think was a standard look for him.
There were fine lines between his eyebrows, ones that confirmed he frowned too much.
And the lack of laughter lines around his mouth said he smiled too little.
“A mission.” She put it into words she was sure he would understand.
“What sort of mission?” He canted his head.
She didn’t hesitate. “A mission of revenge.”
The hard planes of his face softened again, the blue fire in his irises fading as he gazed at her in a way that told her that he did understand.
That he was very familiar with the lure of vengeance.
But those same eyes told her that he valued his mission over hers.
And so, she ran again.
Because the alternative was letting him take her to her family, and to do that he would want to fly her out of this cavern. She couldn’t let him touch her. She flinched as another horrific replay of what had happened to the redheaded guard flashed across her eyes. She couldn’t trust Thanatos, she couldn’t trust anyone, but that didn’t mean she wanted to hurt him.
He made it hard to keep hold of the desire not to harm him when he landed in front of her again, his enormous black wings remaining spread this time to block her path. They spanned the route to the tunnel she had wanted to take, stretching from one wall of the cavern to the other.
Her eyes darted over him, seeking a way past him, and she wanted to growl when she found there was no getting around him, not without touching him. Her gaze strayed to his wings, to the beautiful raven feathers. If she touched them, would they crumble and turn to ashes? She shook at the thought of it, unwilling to risk it in order to get past him.
That shaking worsened as he advanced on her.
She backed off, each careful step measured, keeping the distance between them steady.
“Let me fly you out of here.” He held his hand out to her.
She shook her head. “No. You cannot touch me.”
She wrapped her arms around herself, one hand clutching the waterskin to her breasts while the other gripped her bare waist. The darkness that had been emerging in his eyes fell away as they dropped to her body, as he saw the way she was holding herself, and his expression softened in a way that she hated because it made her feel weak.
He thought she feared him touching her because she had been abused.
She didn’t correct him when he backed off, when he lowered his wings and furled them against his bare back, and dipped his head.
“Very well, I will not touch you.” He twisted at the waist to look at the narrow tunnel and then around the cavern, his gaze seeking something. “But let me escort you away from this place.”
She weighed up the pros and cons of accepting his presence.
If he was lying, he could be leading her to another cage, as males had before him. If he wasn’t lying, and was here to help her, and guards came after her, then he could prove invaluable in a fight. Pleasing her father seemed important to him. Important enough that he would do whatever it took to protect her?
She eyed the sword sheathed at his hip and then him. He was a warrior. The god of death. The thought of killing turned her stomach, but he had been born for it.
She drew down a breath and sighed it out, resolve flowing through her as she met his gaze.
“You may escort me.” She pivoted on her heel, seeking a tunnel that would be big enough to accommodate him as she made a few changes to her plan.
Find the one who had killed her brother.
Have Thanatos kill him.
And then convince the god of death to turn against his king.
Chapter 4
Thanatos wasn’t sure he was making progress with Calindria. He had tried to walk beside her in the tunnel and she had turned on him, had forced him to walk behind her instead.
Thirty feet behind her.
She turned skittish and jumpy whenever he moved any closer to her than that, cast fearful looks at him that wrenched at his insides, stirring the guilt he couldn’t shake. According to what her brothers had learned, she had been captured and killed by a necromancer.
That foul breed had come from his loins, although he’d had no choice in the matter. A demigoddess had defeated him in battle many centuries ago and had held him captive. She had attempted to seduce him many times over the course of his captivity, had resorted to drugging him when he had resisted her, and in the end, it had worked. She had stolen his seed and used it to form a new breed within her wretched womb.