Page 13 of Crimson Skies

Morgan grimaced and straightened. “They’re a pain in my butt is what they are.”

He reluctantly let Cassius go. Cassius missed his heat instantly.

“You were right,” Tenebra told Atropos. She observed the Columbian mage who’d landed on the terrace and was staring at them warily from a distance. “This man is powerful. Not as powerful as Eden, but still, his strength nearly matches that of Galliad Fenhorn.”

Atropos headed over to Ortega. “Thank you for coming to San Francisco.”

The mage blinked at her, his ears reddening at her soft smile. He bowed stiffly. “Greetings, Goddess.” His tone grew belligerent. “Though it’s not like I had a choice in the matter.” He straightened and indicated Morgan accusingly with his staff. “That asshole threatened to make my life a living hell if I didn’t comply with your request!”

Everyone looked at the demigod.

“What?” Morgan shrugged. “It got him here, didn’t it?”

Cassius punched him lightly in the arm. “You’re incorrigible.”

Victor sighed. “You need to learn some tact.”

Phebei woke up. Her face brightened when she saw them.

She looked around, sucked in air when she spotted Morgan, and pointed a finger excitedly at the demigod. “Bish!”

Her gleeful proclamation was met with a frozen silence.

“Did she just say—?” Lilaia started suspiciously.

“You misheard,” Orena stated serenely.

“I’m pretty sure she—” Victor said dully.

“You definitely misheard,” Orena stressed.

Resonance throbbed inside Cassius’s core, startling him. The power that had just pulsed through his soul from across thousands of miles of land and sea was as familiar as his own. His gaze swung east.

“Theo.”

Morgan stiffened at his low mumble.

Victor’s phone buzzed with an incoming message. He frowned and slipped the cell out of his pocket.

Atropos’s eyes flared with divine power. “It’s starting.”

Orena and Tisiphone traded a hard look. Lilaia hugged Phebei closer.

Ortega’s anxious gaze danced across their guarded expressions. “What’s starting?”

“The overture of war,” Tenebra replied somberly.

The mage paled.

Victor’s scowl when he finished reading the message he’d just received confirmed what Cassius was feeling through his bond with his brother and fellow Guardian of the Nether.

“They’re in London,” the demigod said grimly.

7

Theo enteredthe office at the top of the Cabalista headquarters and rocked to a stop. He narrowed his eyes at Jasper Cobb.

“How about you take your feet off Victor’s desk?” he told the demon coldly.