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Thirty-four

Ares had seen Thanatos in rages, had cleaned up after them and sat with him afterward. But he’d never seen… this.

Reaver had flashed in—dropped off by Harvester—just before Thanatos went off like a nuclear bomb. The power of the blast knocked Ares and Cara off their feet, and both Reaver and Limos, who couldn’t get Arik out of there fast enough, leaped on him, shielding him with their bodies.

The shockwave rolled across the land, picking up snow and forming a solid wall of white as it shot in every direction from the epicenter. It would kill every living being in Greenland.

Ares leaped to his feet and tackled his brother. He and Than went down in a heap and crack of armor on ice. Rolling, they fought, but thanks to Cara’s presence, Ares was at a serious disadvantage, his weakened armor doing little to protect him from Than’s blows.

Frantically, he fumbled for the pouch at his hip and found what he was looking for. Without hesitation, he jammed the small bone barb into Than’s neck. Instantly, Than froze up.

The barb, which Cara had convinced him to carry, was coated in hellhound saliva and was just enough to incapacitate for a few minutes. She’d come up with the idea as a weapon against Pestilence… or against any of his siblings, should one of their Seals break. He made a mental note to kiss his wife senseless later.

Unfortunately, time was short.

“Get Hal,” Ares said to Cara.

She could call out to the hound with her mind, and the fucking mutt had better hurry. While he waited, he touched the scar on Than’s throat, forcing his armor to retreat, and now he was lying naked on the ice.

Hal appeared out of thin air, tongue lolling, slobber flinging everywhere. Cara spoke to him, and he padded over and took a big bite out of Than’s arm. The glimmer in his black eyes said he’d enjoyed it, but Ares winced. He knew firsthand that while under the influence of hellhound poison, you felt everything.

“Sorry, bro,” Ares murmured. “But this is for your own good.”

“Ares.” Cara’s voice was dripping with alarm, and he leaped to his feet, reaching for his sword.

But it wasn’t his sword he needed. His heart nearly stopped when he saw what Cara was looking at.

Arik was writhing on the ground, clutching his head, a silent scream lodged in his throat. Next to him, Reaver and Limos lay motionless.

“What the hell?”

When Reaver had appeared, dressed in a long black robe and looking like he’d lost a fight with a chainsaw, Ares had hoped for help with Thanatos. But this definitely wasn’t help, and it wasn’t good. Ares kneeled next to Limos and the angel, feeling for a pulse, for breath, for anything.

There was nothing. They were both as cold as the ice around them.

Cara sank down next to him. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.”

Fear was a punch to his heart, and for a moment, he thought it might have stopped beating. A tingle made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, and he spun around, both relieved and worried when Gethel materialized next to Than. As usual, she wore a Greek-style tunic, soft leather boots, and a scabbard at her hip.

She eased to her knees next to Arik. “What happened?”

“Thanatos. He was angry.” He didn’t need to say more. Gethel had watched over them for hundreds of years. She knew the deal. “How did you know something was wrong?”

“The sudden deaths of thousands of people on this island was a powerful ripple. We were able to stop Thanatos’s death wave, but too late. So many people gone.” Her voice was leaden with anguish. “More than that, I could hear Reaver’s and Limos’s souls screaming.”

Ares’s blood went as cold as the land around them. “What do you mean?”

Gethel stroked Arik’s hair, and he calmed, but only a little. He still lay there gasping, like a fing, likish dying on the bank of a river. “Did Reaver and Limos protect Arik from Thanatos’s rage?”

“They wrapped themselves around him,” Cara said.

Bowing her head, Gethel closed her eyes. “Yes, that makes sense.”

“What?” Ares moved forward, not understanding any of this. “What makes sense?”

“The shockwave… it knocked