Page 58 of Harbinger

Palpable misery filled the room, making the air heavy.

Loki slumped on the couch and hugged his knees even more tightly to his chest. Orena dropped her head forlornly on Kes’s shoulder where they sat beside him. Tisiphone frowned heavily in the opposite chair.

It was mid-morning. Strickland and Morgan’s team had visited a short while ago, along with Reuben and Jasper. They’d left with somber expressions and the promise that someone would call them if Morgan’s condition worsened. Bailey and Julia had practically had to drag Adrianne out of the apartment. It wasn’t until Orena had gently told the sorceress that Morgan and Cassius needed the peace and quiet that she'd finally relented.

Atropos took a seat beside Tisiphone. Though she was a Goddess, she felt drained and battered, her very soul bruised by everything that had happened in the last two days. It wasn’t just the rollercoaster of emotions she’d lived through or the qualms that still haunted her.

The burden she’d carried on her shoulders had lightened when she’d met up with her brothers and the two Guardians of the Nether. With Morgan now out of action and Cassius incapacitated by grief, that load felt ten times heavier than before.

“Did you find anything in the Astrea Sea?” she asked Tisiphone tiredly, not expecting much of an answer.

“We found plenty,” Tisiphone replied in clipped tones.

Atropos’s breath caught.

Tisiphone grimaced when she registered her faintly accusing expression. “I’m sorry. I thought this was more important.”

She glanced at the bedroom door.

Atropos sighed and sat back. She rubbed her temple. “You’re right. It is.”

“What did you learn?” Kes said, trying hard to mask the eagerness in her voice.

“The Nereid who spotted Ladon was none other than Menippe.”

Atropos’s belly clenched. Kes and Orena traded an incredulous stare.

“Menippe?” Theo asked with a puzzled frown.

He’d gone over to Victor and wrapped an arm around his waist. Victor relaxed a little and kissed his lover’s head.

He studied Tisiphone shrewdly. “If I’m not mistaken, that’s one of the sea Goddesses who hails from that realm.”

“You’re correct,”the Fury muttered. “Youguys are not gonna believe this. Ladon is on Earth.”

Kes flinched.

“What?!” Orena gasped, pale-faced.

A dizzy feeling swept over Atropos. Her powers of foresight flared.

Fate really does move in ways even us Goddesses meant to control her cannot foresee.

Victor’s surprise turned to doubt. “I think we’d know if an eighty-ton dragon was roaming this planet.”

Tisiphone heaved a heavy sigh, like she still couldn’t believe what she was about to tell them. “That’s the thing. He’s not in his dragon form. Menippe said she saw him shapeshift when he fell through the crack in the Astrea Sea to Earth. Apparently, it’s one of his defense mechanisms when he crosses realms. He adopts a form better suited to the local environment.”

“What form did he take?” Kes asked, horrified.

Tisiphone made a face. “Some kind of reptile.”

Atropos gazed blindly at the floor, her heart racing.He’s been here all along?! But—we should have sensed his divine core the second we entered this realm!

Suspicion bloomed. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and brought Ladon to mind. Heat flooded her veins as she focused her powers of divinity and her second sight on the current fortune of the three-headed beast.

Frustration churned her stomach after a moment.

Damnation! Clotho and Lachesis still blind my abilities.Otherwise, I’d surely be able to pick up a trail of Ladon’s destiny. Even an echo of his divine soul where it resides in this realm would do.

---