Page 38 of Crimson Skies

Cassius held her tightly before letting go. “Thank you for coming.”

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else.” She took their hands, her eyes glittering. “This time, I shall stay with both of you, until the very end.”

Theo swallowed and squeezed her fingers.

Kalliste’s expression hardened a little as she observed Morgan and Victor. “Ivmir, Coraos. I hope you’re taking good care of my siblings.”

Megaera smirked. “Oh, they’re taking care of—”

Tenebra stepped on the Fury’s foot.

A roar tore the air, making everyone jump.

“MENIPPE!”

Thetis was striding toward the rise with a murderous expression, a resigned Dione trotting in her wake.

“Oops,” Menippe mumbled.

Movement in the masses below them caught Cassius’s eye as the Nereid queen laid into her clearly unrepentant younger sister while Dione greeted the mayor and the other Goddesses. Ortega, Yuan, and Wallace were making their way through the troops packing the park. The mages’ cautious gazes swept the assembled armies as they joined them on the hill.

“Looks like we missed a lot,” Yuan said.

“We wouldn’t have if you’d let me drive,” Ortega scoffed.

“Oh yeah?” Yuan lowered his brows. “What’s wrong with my driving?”

Ortega sneered. “My eighty-year-old grandmother would have gotten us here faster.”

“Who are they?” the mayor asked Strickland leadenly as Yuan and Ortega started to bicker.

Strickland had the look of a man in desperate need of a drink.

Wallace pushed his hat back and looked up at Ladon and Asteria. “They’re big.” He perked up when he caught sight of the new Goddesses. He took off his Fedora and bowed charmingly. “Ladies, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“Who is this man?” Daphne murmured to Orena.

“He’s one of the human mages who will fight alongside us.”

Megaera eyed Wallace with mild interest.

Something flitted against Cassius’s soul core then. His chest tightened in alarm. Atropos straightened, her face taut. Theo’s eyes flared.

The others startled as the three of them shifted into their battle forms.

The rest of the Goddesses quickly followed suit along with Morgan, Victor, Julia, and Zach. Mage magic throbbed around Ortega, Yuan, and Wallace as they unleashed their staffs. Strickland raised a defensive barrier around Wilcox.

“What’s wrong?” the director asked guardedly, his gaze scouring the park.

“A doorway is about to open,” Theo said grimly. “One not within my control.”

“Is it Elios?” Tenebra asked in a hard voice.

Shadows throbbed around her wings and the ground quaked beneath her feet, her wrath bolstered by the power she’d gained from her awakening.

“I don’t know.” The demigod was frowning at a clump of bushes next to the lake where the Nymphs had assembled. “You should tell them to move, Kalliste.”

“Galatea!” Kalliste barked. “Get our troops away from there!”