Eden almost dropped her staff.
“Who’s Mortis?” Tisiphone asked blankly.
“The Khimer he loves,” Victor muttered.
Kes stared. “Temir is all grown up.”
The portal finally stabilized. They tensed as they gazed into the Seventh Purgatory.
Atropos lowered her brows. “Here they come.”
Cassius narrowed his eyes. “Stick to the plan.”
Atropos dipped her chin curtly. Power detonated around her in a haze of gold as she dove for the army rising toward them.
34
Morgan finally calledupon the divine energy that lived inside his core. It emerged from the heart of him, bright and strong and full of the achingly familiar scent of the Dryad forests that were his true home. Heat filled his veins and warmed his flesh. His crown of oak and black wind materialized on his head. His wings and Stark Steel armor darkened.
A black tempest infused with dazzling, emerald magic detonated around him.
Morgan startled. The incandescent power thrumming from his body was making his very bones tremble.
I feel…stronger.He blinked, his pulse racing wildly.Is it because I consumed a Golden Apple?!
War cries below drew his gaze before he could make sense of why the godly force inside him seemed different. Atropos and Kes had engaged Tenebra while Tisiphone and Orena clashed with Alecto and Megaera. To his surprise, he found he could keep up with their lightning-fast moves.
He gazed beyond them to the hellish landscape of the Seventh Purgatory and an immense basin cleaved by lava-spouting canyons, where two figures were chained to rock platforms.
Elios floated beside the captive Goddesses.
Morgan scowled. He reached for the humming string that tied his soul to the weapon he was born to wield.
“To me!” he roared.
The Sword of Wind exploded into life in his right hand, the weapon singing in delight as it bound itself to his arm with dark currents and green creepers.
The God of Darkness’s shriek of rage echoed in the distance.
Morgan smiled savagely.That pissed him off.
He snapped his wings open and dropped through the sulfur-tainted air, fury focusing his vision. Black blood sprayed his face as he slashed effortlessly through the war demons who crossed his path.
Fiery cinders filled the air, Cassius decimating the horde heading for them from the right. He released a burst of Heaven’s Light that blinded another troop of fiends approaching from the opposite direction and the Nephilim rising from below.
Loki drove the Eternity Key into the skull of the first Nephil, his pupils pulsing crimson with power in his Gargantua form.
“Suspend!” Theo barked.
He decapitated the Nephil he had frozen with his time spell with the Spear of Light while the Reaper God sliced through the rest of the giants with the Ring of Death. Bloodcursed magic and dark flames swarmed the sky as Eden and Victor took rear guard.
“Go!” Cassius yelled at Morgan and the Reaper God. “We’ll protect you!”
Morgan nodded grimly.
He and the Reaper God dove through burning ash and yellow clouds, the wind whistling shrilly around them making the black currents and shadows that wreathed their bodies shiver wildly. Cassius and the others surrounded them in a defensive circle that kept the war demons and Nephilim at bay.
A flash of movement captured Morgan’s gaze as they neared the crater. Alecto had broken free of Tisiphone’s hold and was shooting across the sky to intercept them.