Page 18 of Harbinger

Shit! I didn’t even see her move!

Air locked in his lungs when he collided violently with one of the oak pillars that lined the concourse. His skull thumped the trunk hard. Black spots swarmed his vision.

The Goddess charged, as swift as wind, her scourge whistling in her grip.

Both she and Morgan froze as wood creaked and foliage slithered ominously above them. The oak tree he’d crashed into folded its flower and fruit-laden boughs protectively around him.

The Goddess cursed as Morgan disappeared inside a living cage of greenery, her momentum floundering. He blinked, equally startled.

Warmth was filling his veins.Wait! Is this—?!

Magic from the tree was suffusing him. It was Atlanteia’s strength and it was pouring out of Ivory Peaks into his soul core.

Morgan swallowed convulsively, recognizing the life force the Dryads and all living things in the realm were lending him so he could fight this unholy battle. Resolve filled his heart. His wound and bruises started to heal.

Shock curdled his blood.

Not only had his enemy broken through his armor as if it were made of eggshells, the injuries she had inflicted had not repaired themselves as they should have, given his demigod status.

How—how is that possible?!

The Goddess’s enraged scream filled the hall and scattered his alarmed thoughts. Morgan’s breath caught when he spotted her through a gap between the branches shielding him.

Her scourge was on the ground.

The other trees in the throne room had bowed to twine their branches around her limbs and wings, holding her prisoner in mid-air.

That was when Morgan remembered the myth of the place he found himself in. Legend had it that the palace had sprouted from the body of the consort of Queen Atlanteia. It seemed the fallen deity was not pleased with the unwelcome visitor in his realm.

Glass exploded to his left.

Victor smashed through a giant window and landed hard on the floor some fifty feet away. He rolled to one knee and raised his blade in time to block the enraged, dark-winged Goddess trying to claw out his eyes.

She too wore a tattered, golden dress and wielded a brass-studded scourge.

Morgan’s belly twisted on a fresh wave of dread when he saw Victor’s wounds. Deep slashes scored the dark demigod’s Stark Steel armor. Blood was trickling from the wounds and a deep gash in his temple.

He wasn’t faring any better against their enemy.

Crimson filled Victor’s pupils. The black flames around him roared, thickening and swarming the Goddess.

For a second, Morgan thought he would win.

Corruption blasted across the throne room. It dispersed the demigod’s fire and shoved him back several feet. The Goddess who’d attacked him emerged from the fading inferno.

Her eyes had shifted to obsidian from edge to edge. Inky lines snaked under her skin, the thin threads pulsing with the sinister power that had repelled Victor’s attack.

A dark premonition turned Morgan’s blood to ice.Wait! Is that—?!

The Goddess bared her teeth and charged Victor.

He braced and swung his sword. She ducked beneath the blade, her figure blurring. Fresh lacerations appeared in Victor’s armor, metal giving way as if it were gossamer. Blood bloomed along the wounds. The demigod clenched his teeth, steadied his stance, and barely managed to parry her next attack.

A mocking smile stretched the Goddess’s mouth as she danced out of the way of his counter swing, shadows roiling on her feathers.

“You’re too slow, brother!” she teased, her gleeful voice full of malice.

“Watch out!” Morgan yelled.

---