Page 72 of Harbinger

I believe! I believe in you, Ivmir! I believe inus!

Power poured from his fingertips and his lungs, his feelings for the demigod he held focusing the divine energy he possessed into a lance-like force that pierced the dead soul core that had been connected to his own. He fed Morgan the chunk of the Golden Apple and pushed it down his throat.

“I refuse to let you die!” Cassius growled. “Do you hear me?!So, live, damn you!”

He bit off another chunk of the Golden Apple and repeated the process, his fingers sinking ever deeper into Morgan’s stomach.

“Icarus,” Atropos said miserably.

“He’s not gone,” Cassius insisted in a hard voice. “I did not give him permission to leave me. So, he isn’t gone.”

Regret. Hope. Fear.

They swamped his mind and his soul. But rising above them all, more powerful than anything he feared would drown him, was the absolute and irrevocable love he felt for Ivmir. It was a bond carved into their very history. One he himself had sealed, the night Ivmir first came to him and claimed his everything.

Memories flooded Cassius’s consciousness as he fed Morgan another piece of the Golden Apple and imbued his cooling soul core with his own life force.

Of Ivmir’s first touch.

His first kiss.

The first time he had merged their bodies together and taught Icarus such devastating physical pleasure he could only weep from it.

And he remembered what he’d done at first light, when he’d awoken in Ivmir’s arms and gazed upon his hauntingly beautiful face in the pale dawn. The spell he’d whispered while Ivmir still slept. An enchantment that would bind their souls forever more. One born of his unique abilities.

One he knew remained alive to this day, deep within the body of the lifeless demigod.

“Awaken, Ivmir,”Cassius whispered tremulously. “Awaken, my beloved.”

Something sparked deep inside him. He felt the corresponding flash within the fresh corpse he held.

Thump.

Cassius froze, uncertain whether he’d imagined the pulse he’d just sensed.

Thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

A sob fell from his lips when the rhythm steadied itself and grew in strength, the divine energy contained within the Golden Apple finally taking effect as he guided it to the revived soul it needed to mend. Heat flared under his fingertips. Morgan’s core started repairing itself under the fruit’s healing power of resurrection.

The demigod swallowed audibly.

Cassius unfroze, sank his teeth into what remained of the apple, and eagerly pushed another chunk past his lover’s lips. Morgan slowly chewed and gulped.

“He—he lives!” Daphne gasped. “By the Gods, Ivmir lives!”

Atropos fell to her knees beside Cassius, silver tears coursing freely down her cheeks. Hesperia and Arethusa sobbed behind her. Ladon sniveled and wailed.

Color returned to Morgan’s face. His chest shuddered into life, his ribcage rising and falling powerfully as he inhaled and exhaled. His hair darkened. His wrinkles vanished. His body swelled, his muscles and bones regaining their original mass and strength.

An incoherent sound left Cassius when Morgan’s eyelids fluttered open. His irises shifted from the milky color that had rendered him blind to the deep cobalt of his demigod form before changing to the achingly bewitching turquoise he knew and loved.

“I…carus,” Morgan mumbled.

He flashed Cassius a dazzling smile, grasped his face, and sealed their lips together, his touch so hot it seared Cassius’s skin.

Cassius kissed him back just as ardently, his heart thundering painfully against his ribs. The wild beat was echoed by the strong one he felt against his chest when Morgan sat up and took him in his arms. He gasped, the world blurring around him.

Morgan had flipped him onto his back.

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