Page 82 of Harbinger

Whiteness flared across the Seventh Purgatory.

“AWAKEN!” Cassius bellowed.

* * *

Air lockedin Atropos’s throat.

She was barely aware of Tenebra letting her go, the Black Fate grimacing and moving jerkily backward as if in pain.

The incandescent force that held Atropos in its grip focused into a conflagration that overwhelmed her core. She raised her head and screamed, unable to contain her voice as her very being went supernova.

Tisiphone’s harsh cry sounded dimly above the buzzing in her ears.

The flames blazed brighter and brighter inside Atropos, an inferno that blinded her vision at the same time it filled her to the brim with a strength that rattled her to the very marrow. Tears blossomed in her eyes. She blinked.

The divine energy that was flooding her veins was the purest form of power she had ever tasted.

So, this is what it feels like to be awakened!

Dazzling light radiated from Atropos on a balmy wave as her fully roused soul stabilized. It cleansed the air of corruption and sulfurous fumes.

Tenebra’s hands dropped to her belly. A faint glow was throbbing inside her, the light superseding Elios’s corruption. The glacial mask pasted across her face transformed into a dazed expression while the inky lines pulsing under her flesh started to fade.

“Fight it, Ten!” Atropos told the Black Fate. “Fight Elios’s hold on you!”

Tenebra clenched her teeth and dipped her chin, determination filling her dark eyes.

Alecto and Megaera were similarly frozen where they’d been confronting their sisters. Awareness was returning to their eyes, their newly awakened Goddess powers destroying the vile energy that had long pervaded their bodies.

It’s working.Emotion choked Atropos’s breath.By the Gods, Icarus’s plan is actually working!

“Elios will force your sisters to fight us,” Cassius had told Atropos steadily before they’d left Earth. “We may end up inadvertently hurting them. I think I have an idea how we can avoid that.”

They’d exchanged stunned looks when he’d told them his suggestion.

“Will that work?” Victor had asked in a troubled voice. “You might actually be giving them the advantage if you do that.”

“I agree,” Theo had concurred uneasily. “This might backfire on us.”

“It’s a chance we’re going to have to take,” Cassius had said quietly. “It’s the only way I can think of to end his hold on their minds so that we don’t hurt them. But we have to do it at the right moment.”

Atropos had exchanged a cautious look with the other Goddesses. What Cassius had proposed had never been done before.

She’d finally dipped her chin in agreement. “Alright.”

Elios raged as Cassius moved to block his path alongside Loki, Theo, and Victor.

“Attie!”

Atropos froze at the sweet voices echoing in her ears. Clotho and Lachesis were rising toward her. They bolted into her arms with incoherent cries.

Their achingly familiar scent filled her senses at the same time she tasted the fresh energy throbbing from their roused soul cores. Atropos hugged them fiercely, their tears soaking into her hair just as her own dampened theirs. Remorse twisted her heart all over again.

“I’m sorry I’m so late, sisters,” she whispered wretchedly. “I’m sorry I let him hurt you for so long!”

Clotho swallowed a sob. Lachesis tightened her hold on Atropos.

“Did Icarus really awaken us?” Tenebra mumbled.

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