Page 66 of Harbinger
Every second gained is vital.Cassius clenched his jaw.Besides, I promised never to leave his side again.
He felt movement inside his armor. Ladon popped his head out the top of his chest piece. The dragon clung grimly to the Stark Steel and squinted in the wind as he sniffed the air.
“We are getting close.”
Cassius narrowed his eyes at the dense bank of fog they were approaching. It had arisen after the Nether had torn and split Argent Lake five hundred years ago. The extensive area it covered was forbidden to the Naiads, as per the decree passed by Daphne shortly after the disaster had struck their kingdom.
Though Atropos and her sisters had searched the banned region extensively during their secret visits to the realm, they had never found any evidence of Hesperia and Arethusa’s presence. Same for Daphne and her soldiers. After the war had ended, the Naiads had tried in vain to locate the Hesperides they owed their lives to.
Daphne stared at Ladon. “I still can’t believe that’s the dragon.”
A soft smile curved Atropos’s mouth as she glanced at Ladon’s lizard form. “He grows on you.”
Guilt stabbed Cassius’s chest as he recalled their hasty departure from Earth an hour ago. Theo and Victor were dismayed he’d insisted they stay back in San Francisco this time around, as was everyone else. Though there had been no sign of Elios, nor the Black Fate and Furies he controlled, Cassius couldn’t take the risk of something happening in his and Atropos’s absence. He’d finally convinced them of this, but hadn’t been able to dispel their harried expressions.
Strickland and Morgan’s team had insisted on being present before they’d set off through Theo’s portal. Adrianne had cried openly while silent tears soaked the others’ cheeks. Though no one had said the words out loud, they’d known this could be their last time seeing Morgan alive.
Cassius clenched his fists as they closed in on the mantle of mist covering the lake. He refused to believe he could not save Morgan.
They entered the fog and were rapidly swallowed by a silence that deafened all sounds and pale billows that obscured their vision. Bluish orbs bloomed above them, Daphne wielding her divine powers to create beacons so they would not lose sight of one another. The lake appeared in faint patches where the cloud cover broke below.
The tomb-like shroud started to thin after they’d travelled some three leagues. Cassius’s breath caught as they shot out of the white mist and entered an open area some two miles wide.
Like the eye of a storm, the air here was clear and the sky above visible.
Dotting the silver waters beneath them were the remains of islands that had been decimated when the realm had ripped open, their residents forever lost to the depths of the lake.
Remorse constricted Cassius’s throat at the sight of them. Though he realized Elios was ultimately at fault for the Nether tearing, it was his Awakener powers that had dealt the deadly blow to every realm connected to it.
“Mother,” Ladon mumbled.
Atropos frowned. A muscle twitched in Daphne’s cheek.
Cassius could tell from the sorrow radiating from the dragon and the Goddesses that this was where Erytheis had lost her life saving Argent Lake.
“Where to, Ladon?” Atropos asked in a hard voice.
“There.” Ladon indicated a dark dot drifting in and out of sight behind a low bank of clouds dead west. “That was where we originally hid the Garden of the West.”
The speck grew into an isle that soared out of the lake to form a plateau ringed by cliffs. It was carved in part by a jagged crevasse that split it all the way down to the dark waters below.
Cassius’s stomach plummeted when they landed near the center of the island.
Bar a dead poplar tree, the landscape was barren, the soil still bearing the dark scars of the heavenly fires that had rained down upon it.
“Are you sure this is the right place?” he asked Ladon.
The dragon hopped out of his armor and landed on the ground with a soft plop. “Yesss!”
He darted ahead, his snout raised as he sought something only he could sense.
Cassius stiffened. His pulse quickened in the next instant. He could feel a faint energy close by. One that smelled strangely familiar. From Atropos’s uncertain expression, she had not detected it.
He turned to Daphne. “Can you and your escort stay here and guard Morgan?”
The Naiad Goddess nodded graciously. “Of course.”
Cassius walked over to where Morgan lay under the poplar. He crouched on one knee and leaned down to kiss his lover’s brow. Agony twisted his insides when his lips touched cold skin.
