Page 28 of Harbinger
Theo had reappeared out of a portal behind her and stabbed the Spear of Light through her back and into the corrupt seed next to her heart.
Elation filled Cassius.We did it!
Tenebra blinked at him. Gold slowly filled her pupils as her awareness returned.
The pain that squeezed Cassius’s belly with his next breath made his soul core throb with bloodcurdling violence and drew an abject cry from his throat. It took him but a heartbeat to grasp that it was not his own suffering he was experiencing.
It was that of his demigod soulmate. Ice filled his veins, the terror that seized him in its cold clutches so overwhelming he feared he would lose his mind.
Ivmir!
Morgan’s voice sounded faintly inside his skull.Icarus?!
Cassius blinked through the silver tears obscuring his vision, unsure if he’d imagined his lover’s distant shout.
Theo let go of Tenebra and bolted toward him, face pale with dread. “Cassius!”
“No!” Cassius swallowed convulsively and shook his head despite the horror leeching the heat from his body. “You must—you must destroy the core Elios put inside her first!”
Theo faltered, his wings fluttering agitatedly as he rocked to a halt.
Elios’s vile power flooded the atmosphere.
Resolved tightened Theo’s eyes. He turned and arrowed toward Tenebra. “Suspend!”
A vicious bellow left the Black Fate, the time spell breaking as quickly as it formed. She yanked the Spear of Light from her body and cast it into the ocean.
Cassius’s mouth went dry as the God of Darkness’s corruption healed the crack in the inky seed within her body. The gold faded from Tenebra’s pupils, Elios’s unholy energy subjugating her all over again.
There was movement below them. Eden rose from the sea inside a crimson sphere, Loki at her side and the devilwood staff vibrating angrily in her grip. She’d caught the Spear of Light before it could sink into the ocean.
Theo snatched his weapon out of mid-air when she lobbed it at him. He joined her and Loki as they charged Tenebra. They smashed into the Black Fate with enough force to churn the ocean and disperse the clouds in the sky. Bloodcursed magic and divine light erupted around them as they combined their powers to subdue the Goddess and attempt to destroy the dark core inside her.
For a moment, Cassius thought they might win.
The plague engulfed Theo, the mist a living weapon that bound his wings and the Spear of Light. He cursed. Eden choked and Loki snarled as Tenebra evaded their attacks and grasped their throats, her claws slicing thick lines into their flesh.
Sweat beaded Cassius’s forehead. He headed jerkily toward them, his movements rendered awkward by the vicious agony still gripping his body.
Theo gagged as the plague infiltrated his mouth and nose.
Eden’s face started turning purple. Loki’s eyes bulged and rolled back in his head. The Black Fate smiled coldly and squeezed the mage and the imp’s windpipes even more.
Panic turned Cassius numb.No!
The scream of denial bubbling up his throat finally ripped from his lips.
“STOP IT!”
The air split open next to the Black Fate. Cassius’s pulse stuttered.
Two dark-winged Goddesses in golden armor bolted out of a portal and crashed into Tenebra, their eyes bright with seraphic power and their bodies swarming with shadows. The Black Fate cursed as she lost her hold on her would-be victims.
“Stand down, sister!” one of the Goddesses yelled.
She cursed and parried the talons curving toward her face with her own claws.
The second Goddess charged the Black Fate with a battle cry that made the air vibrate. “Come to your senses, Tenebra!”
