Page 58 of Crimson Skies

Although the battle with Elios would have Earth as its principal stage, there was no knowing the repercussions it would have on all the realms.

Divine power washed over Cassius from behind. He whirled around. Atropos’s outfit had shifted into her golden armor. The laurel crown atop her head extended into a winged helmet that framed her face. Her expression sent a chill down his spine.

It was one he’d never seen her wear before.

“It’s not just them,” the Moira said in a voice he didn’t recognize.

The boom that accompanied her departure made Cassius gasp and shoved everyone back a few feet. Atropos’s sisters followed her, crowns and clothes transforming into battle suits.

The scent of summer bloomed around Theo. His eyes changed to the dazzling sage green and sapphire blue that denoted the presence of the two powerful souls that lived inside him.

“We have to stop her, brother,” Rohengar said calmly. He unleashed the Spear of Light. “Atropos is not in her right mind.”

Cassius nodded numbly, his pulse racing.

Hecate’s eyes rounded. “Ro—Rohengar?!”

The Gods of the Underworld and the Goddesses who had yet to see the recently revived South Star stared at Theo in wonder.

Tears glittered on Thetis’s lashes. “It really is him.”

White wings sprouted from Cassius’s back as he took on his Awakener form. He cast a grim look at Morgan and Victor. “Stay here. If things look like they’re gonna go south, take the army and leave.”

“But—” Morgan protested.

Heaven’s Light brightened the air as the demigod Cassius once was rose to the surface of his consciousness. “Do as I say, Ivmir. You too, Coraos. That’s an order from the Awakener.”

“Icarus,” Loki whined.

Cassius’s expression softened. “We’ll be okay.”

The imp’s miserable face shrank rapidly as he and Theo ascended into the sky.

Dread gnawed at Cassius’s insides despite the reassurance he’d given Morgan and the others. He could feel what Atropos and her sisters had detected. The glow in the sky wasn’t coming from Nildar and Archon, or even the Nether.

An army was approaching. One whose power rattled his bones the closer it grew.

The sky opened before they reached the Goddesses. Incandescent brightness washed across San Francisco on a wave of divine energy that made the land tremble and the sea shiver.

Cassius and Theo rocked to a halt between the Furies and the Black Fates some ten thousand feet above the city.

“Do not fear,” Tenebra said in a steely voice, her gaze on the dazzling brilliance illuminating the atmosphere. “We are not here to fight them. We only mean to watch over Atropos.”

Cassius’s stomach dropped when the light began to fade.

Nildar and Archon were descending upon the Earth ahead of a battalion of armored beings who emitted a radiance that could not be muted.

He knew instinctively who they were.Heaven’s Guards!

Another group emerged behind the divine regiment. Cassius’s pulse stuttered.

It was Pan and Demetrius. Accompanying them were beings he’d never thought he would lay eyes upon again.

Theo’s eyes widened. “Are they—?!”

“Yes.”Cassius’s heart raced as he gazed upon the hundred or so horned imps with rich, dark fur, arrowhead-tipped tails, and glittering crimson eyes floating behind the Wild God and the demigod of Spring. “They are Gargantua!”

Pan and Demetrius joined them while Nildar and Archon conferred with the celestial troops they’d brought to Earth. The imps looked curiously at the realm they found themselves in as they trailed in the Wild God’s wake.