Page 20 of Harbinger
“Wait!” Morgan shouted. “They’re being manipulated by Elios! I—I think we can still get through to them!”
Victor scowled. “Are you sure about that?!”
Morgan’s stomach plummeted. The miasma bubbling around the two Goddesses had thickened where they’d met in the center of the throne room. Whatever consciousness they’d briefly regained was gone, fury and madness filling their faces once more. He clenched his fists.
Dammit!
The hairs rose on his nape. Victor cursed.
The dark mist was taking the form of an object in Alecto’s hand. One that drenched Morgan in a cold sweat. A vicious smile curved the Goddess’s lips when she noted his expression. Her next words confirmed his suspicions.
“Fear not, little brother. This will not make you his slave. It will eat your core and kill you instead.” She glowered at Morgan. “Be grateful for that small mercy, you ingrate!”
Shadows exploded around the Goddesses. Their figures blurred.
“Morgan!” Victor shouted.
The demigod moved to shield him.
Alecto and Megaera were faster.
Icy fingers closed around Morgan’s throat. Dark streams swarmed him, trapping his body and the Sword of Wind. Alecto and Megaera lifted him off his feet and drove him upward. They plowed through the roof of the throne room as if it were parchment.
Wind whistled in Morgan’s ears as they rose fast above the palace. He glanced over his shoulder. They were taking him toward the mountain that stood guard over the capital.
Morgan’s gaze darted to the Sword of Wind. It could normally negate Elios’s corruption.
Why isn’t it working?!
Alecto sneered, like she knew a truth he had not yet perceived.
A boom shook the air as the Goddesses folded their dark wings and accelerated. The temperature plummeted. Morgan’s breath misted in front of his face, the sheer momentum of their motion bringing tears to his eyes. Horror filled him when he grasped their intent. His core pulsed as he struggled violently against his restraints.
“Please! Wait! You need to fight Elios’s control over you! You don’t know what he’s compelling you to do!”
Megaera brought her face closer.
“What makes you think we want to fight it, brother?!” she hissed.
“Because you’re both still in there!” Morgan choked out. “I glimpsed the real you, only a moment ago!”
Alecto startled for an instant, her grip loosening on his neck and her wings fluttering agitatedly. The black core within her throbbed, suppressing whatever resistance it had just encountered.
“Wrong answer, brother!” she growled.
Victor flashed into view behind the Goddesses, the Dryads racing a short distance beyond him on their eagles.
“Morgan!” the demigod screamed, voice full of dread.
Pain filled Morgan’s world as Alecto and Megaera smashed him into a vertiginous cliff face. The mountain trembled. Ice and snow shuddered high above.
The rumble of an avalanche reached Morgan dimly as the two deities carved a hole in the flank of the elevation with his body, his Stark Steel armor and their rage blasting effortlessly through millennia-old rock. Numbness bloomed on his back. His limbs. His entire body grew cold as the light faded around him. His consciousness flickered.
His soul core throbbed, jolting him awake with a gasp.
Atlanteia’s magic was soaring through his veins. But it wasn’t just the ancient Goddess’s energy that had roused his fading mind.
Ivmir!
