Page 71 of Harbinger

“A-ha!”

Ladon pushed his heads deeper inside the foliage. He straightened a moment later.

“Thank the Gods,” Atropos whispered.

Cassius shuddered. Grasped gently in the jaws of the dragon’s middle head was a glowing object.

Ladon lowered his neck and carefully dropped it in Cassius’s hands. “It is the last fruit of the Sacred Tree. Use it well, Awakener.”

Blood pounded heavily in Cassius’s veins as he beheld the dazzling apple. It was lighter than he’d thought it would be.

“Well done, child.” Hesperia patted the dragon’s flank proudly. “You were always the best at harvesting them.”

Ladon made a pleased sound and puffed out some smoke.

“Go!” Atropos told Cassius urgently. “We shall be right behind you.”

Cassius nodded jerkily. He rose above the Sacred Tree and darted toward the dome’s exit. He was outside the garden in a couple of heartbeats.

It took but a moment to reach the poplar tree.

But it was a moment too late.

The Naiads’ abject cries reached him on the balmy wind blowing off Argent Lake just as the thin cord connecting his and Morgan’s cores snapped.

No!

The denial ripped through his mind as the tree came into view.

Cassius’s gaze skimmed the woeful Goddess and her distressed escort before settling fearfully on the figure swaddled in the blankets between them. He landed awkwardly under the tree, his eyes locked on the demigod who was everything to him.

Morgan lay deathly still in the moonlight streaming through the bare branches, his features devoid of the pain that had scored lines into his face in the past two days.

“I am sorry, Icarus.” Daphne’s eyes gleamed wetly. “He took his last breath but an instant ago.”

Cassius fell numbly to his knees. The apple dropped from his limp hand. It thudded onto the ground with a thump that seemed to mock him.

“You can’t do this to me.” He grasped Morgan’s shoulders. Terror had him digging his fingers painfully into his dead lover’s flesh. “Do you hear?YOU CANNOT LEAVE ME, IVMIR!”

His scream made the island tremble and tore the clouds asunder. Heaven’s Light engulfed Argent Lake as his powers burst forth from his core.

“Icarus!” Daphne shouted, alarmed.

“It’s okay, Daphne,” Atropos called out, her voice quaking with grief.

Cassius was barely aware of the Moira’s presence as she and the Hesperides alighted next to him. The hot tears that fell from his eyes soaked into Morgan’s cooling skin as they splashed upon his slack face. Rage flooded his heart. Elios’s scornful expression rose before his mind’s eye.

“Awakener,” Atropos warned when she sensed his bubbling wrath.

It took all of Cassius’s willpower to dampen the incandescent force threatening to explode from his body. He took an unsteady breath, swallowed his anger, and stared blindly at the dazzling night sky above for a timeless moment before looking wretchedly upon Morgan’s pallid features.

What would he do?

The answer came to him with a suddenness that made him curse himself.

“He wouldn’t give up!” Cassius mumbled angrily.

He grasped the Golden Apple, tore away a chunk of it with his teeth, and lifted Morgan into his arms. The sweet juices of the fruit of resurrection filled his mouth as he placed his lips over his lover’s. Cassius pressed his hand upon Morgan’s belly.

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