Page 75 of Harbinger

“But how do we find the Seventh Purgatory?” Loki’s tail snapped the air with fitful jerks. He addressed Atropos anxiously. “I tried to uncover the path to it with the Eternity Key in your absence, but you were right. Elios is hiding it from my eyes too.”

“Even I cannot open a portal there,” Theo confessed with a troubled frown.

“Thereisa way to trace a path to where Elios is concealing the Seventh Purgatory.” Atropos ran a hand through her hair and sighed. “It won’t be easy but it’s about the only thing I can think of.”

Eden leaned forward. “What is it?”

“We can follow the echo of the Sword of Wind.”

Morgan startled. Cassius’s eyes rounded.

“Remember I told you Morgan could manifest the sword at will?”Atropos explained tensely.“Now that his soul core is revived, he should be able to draw the weapon. He should also be able to sense where it is if it has already materialized elsewhere.”

Theo drew a sharp breath. “He can track down the soul thread that connects him to it!”

Atropos dipped her head. “Exactly.”

Morgan pressed a hand to his belly. He could feel a faint tug whenever he thought of the weapon bonded to him.

He furrowed his brow. “Won’t Elios find out I’m alive and well again if I do that?”

“He might suspect this already,” Atropos confirmed. “His ability to wield the Sword of Wind would have manifested the instant you died. Since Cassius revived you within minutes, Elios would only have been able to use the Sword of Wind for that brief moment in time.But we still have a problem.”

Victor clenched his jaw. “Even if we find the Seventh Purgatory, we might not be able to get inside it.”

“Yes.” Frustration tightened Atropos’s face. “Though Hypnos is no longer around, Elios’s powers have grown so much from absorbing our divine energy over the centuries that he’s made entrance to the Purgatory virtually impossible. And he is bound to have an even bigger army of war demons and Nephilim guarding the Goddesses imprisoned there.”

Someone spoke in the gloomy silence that befell them. “I can probably help with that.”

Eden jumped. Morgan’s pulse skittered. Loki whirled around and almost fell off his stool.

The Reaper God was standing by the terrace doors, his cowl of shadows shivering in an invisible wind.

“When did you get here?!” the imp squeaked.

“Five minutes ago,” the Reaper God replied in a hurt tone.

“You should make some noise next time,Temir,” Tisiphone advised, pale-faced.

Atropos rose from her seat, gold flaring in her pupils. “You think you can get into the Seventh Purgatory, Temir?”

The Reaper God bobbed his head. “I do. ButI shall need her assistance.”

He pointed a finger at Eden.

“M–me?!” Eden croaked, her eyes bulging.

“Your staff and my ring can open a doorway to that realm,” the Reaper God told her solemnly.

Eden’s expression turned glassy. “Oh. That’s…nice. Ha-ha. You hear that, Woody?”

Her pendant vibrated with one hundred percent smugness and zero percent awareness of his mistress’s dread.

“I know you helped us before, Temir, butdon’t Reapers usually take a neutral stand in the wars between Gods?” Kes asked with a worried frown.

Crimson and gold bloomed in the Reaper God’s eyes. The shadows around him expanded, draining the light from the room.

“Let’s just say I have a bone to pick with the God who would harm my mother,”he said icily.“I might as well make something clear now, Goddesses. We Reaperswillfight in the war to come.”

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