She slammed into the Black Fate and drove her toward the sky, her companion following. Sonic booms punctuated the ozone-heavy atmosphere as the two strangers engaged the Goddess who had attacked San Francisco.
13
Blood pounded dullyin Cassius’s skull. He was struggling to keep track of their movements. He pressed a shaky hand to his belly and swallowed a whimper.
His armor felt hot to the touch, the heat his soul core was emitting strong enough to sear the skin of a normal human.
Ivmir! Mor—Morgan! Please be okay! I beg of you!
Bile flooded the back of his throat at the agony that threatened to rip his body apart with his next breath. He threw his head back and screamed, seraphic light bursting from his eyes in bright beams that pierced the dark clouds gathering above them.
He knew in the very marrow of his being what this pain meant.
His soulmate was dying.
Rage bloomed inside Cassius, superseding his despair and suffering. It blasted out of his subconscious and bubbled through his veins, robbing him of his wits. Of his sanity. His soul core trembled as incandescent fury overwhelmed every cell in his body, the power of the Awakener surging from within him and rattling his bones.
He thought he heard Theo scream his name.
Strong arms closed around him. A familiar scent filled his nostrils.
Theo’s tortured face swam before Cassius’s blurry vision. The young demigod’s pupils brimmed with divine light within his sage green and sapphire irises.
“No, Icarus!” the South Star shouted, his voice underscored by the sweet tone of the one whose soul fragment he carried within him. “You must not lose control, brother!”
The power of Summer drenched Cassius’s entire being as Theo and Rohengar surrounded him with their warmth and their love. It brought with it a semblance of lucidity that pierced the fire inside him and dampened the ungodly force about to tear open the walls between worlds.
Cassius tasted blood on his tongue as he ground his teeth and desperately hung on to the sliver of awareness Theo had granted him. He scored his palms with his nails, attempting to subdue his wrath.
He knew only too well what would happen if he let his powers loose in such an unrestrained manner. The memory of what he had done during the War in the Nether made him shudder all over again.
I cannot! Even if I lose him!Sorrow squeezed his heart so tight he wished it would kill him there and then.I cannot destroy so many—!
“Calm yourself, Awakener.”
Cassius’s stomach flip-flopped.
The smell of camphor was imbuing the air around him.
The tendons in Cassius’s neck twinged as he fought the madness controlling his body and slowly turned his head.
The Reaper God had stepped out of a portal beside him. He was in his human guise, his robe of shadows fluttering around his body and his somber face, his long, dark hair still under the hood. A circle of bones and black flames glowed starkly against the snow-white skin of his left ring finger.
“Your soulmate has yet to cross Death’s door,” the Reaper God told Cassius, his gaze locked on the unholy battle taking place in the sky. “So, breathe, Awakener.”
Cassius did just as he said. He took shaky inhales and exhales, his labored breathing echoing in his ears. The blaze threatening to consume him started to abate.
It felt like a lifetime before he managed to bring his powers back under his control.
“Cassius,” Theo mumbled in a pained voice, still holding on to him.
“I’m—I’m okay.” Cassius sagged and leaned his forehead against Theo’s shoulder, his body weak and his soul core bruised and aching. He closed his eyes and soaked in Theo’s warmth for a moment before raising his head and seeking the flashes of gold and darkness in the sky above them with his gaze. “Who are they?”
“They are Kes and Orena, the second and third Black Fates.” The Reaper God met Cassius and Theo’s shocked stares briefly. “They are Tenebra’s sisters.”
“Are they here to destroy Earth too?!” Loki asked harshly.
He and Eden had joined them.