Page 22 of Harbinger
“Don’t. It will only hurt you.”
Victor stiffened, head swinging jerkily toward the figure who had appeared beside him. It was the dark-haired Goddess who had come to their rescue. He hadn’t heard her approach.
The Dryads hovered close by, faces full of apprehension as they looked from her to the warring deities below. Sonic explosions marked their passage, their movements so swift the only way Victor could detect their presence was by the thin trails of gold and darkness etched in the air. The Goddess beside Victor ignored the clashing pair, her unblinking eyes locked on something in front of them. He followed her gaze.
Megaera floated silently some hundred feet away, her face twisted with loathing. The Sword of Wind shuddered in her grasp as it tried valiantly to resist the power overwhelming it.
But it wasn’t just hate Victor read in Megaera’s features. Gold sparked faintly in her pupils and her fingers twitched, as if she were fighting whatever was controlling her.
“I’m sorry, Megaera,” the dark-haired Goddess said quietly. “I cannot let you leave with Ivmir’s sword.”
Megaera blinked. Her expression cleared for a moment. “Ti…Tisiphone?!”
The plague engulfing her thickened. She cried out, a sound of pain.
“Megaera!” Tisiphone barked, alarmed.
She darted toward the shadow-wreathed Goddess. Megaera assumed an icy mask of fury once more.
Tisiphone fended off her scourge inches from her face and shot back to a safe distance. “Snap out of it, sister!”
A rift reeking of corruption formed next to Megaera. The Goddess smiled savagely and stepped inside it. Tisiphone bolted toward her once more.
“Tis! No!” the silver-haired Goddess yelled from below.
Tisiphone rocked to a halt, her expression one of pure grief.
Victor’s pulse thrummed with trepidation. The distraction had cost the silver-haired Goddess the battle. Alecto was rising, her cursing attacker on her tail. Divine power drenched the air with a golden haze when she reached the portal where Megaera had vanished with the Sword of Wind, slowing her movement.
The silver-haired Goddess stopped a short distance from the dark doorway, her pupils bright and her body radiating holy energy. Tears brimmed in her eyes and coursed down her cheeks, leaving stark, silver trails in their wake.
“Alecto,”she whispered in a voice full of misery.“My sister. My kin.”
Tisiphone stretched out a hand toward the Goddess being controlled by Elios. “Alecto!It’s me, Tisiphone!” Anger and regret distorted her features. “What has that bastard done to you?!”
Alecto froze, one foot inside the rift. The air shivered around her.
Victor’s scalp prickled.She’s trying to fight it!
The Goddess gritted her teeth and looked over her shoulder. Blood soaked her palms as she scored her flesh with her nails, the grimace on her face laced with awareness.
“Find us, sisters!”Alecto choked out.“Find us before Elios kills Clotho and Lache, and devours Tenebra’s sanity!”
Tisiphone froze, horror rounding her pupils. The silver-haired Goddess made a tortured sound.
Alecto shuddered, her body and mind falling under Elios’s spell once more. She glared at them before vanishing inside the rift. It closed silently after her fading figure.
The Goddesses who had saved Morgan and Ivory Peaks sagged, wings drooping and their strength visibly draining out of them. They exchanged a distraught look.
Hildur appeared beside Victor, fear rendering her ashen. “Morgan!”
“How is he?” Roald mumbled.
Victor looked down at the unconscious demigod in his arms. Morgan’s chest rose and fell shallowly, his skin so pale it looked like his veins had been drained of all blood. Guilt twisted his gut.
I failed to keep my promise.
“Is he—is he dying?!” Cedric asked shrilly.
