Page 72 of God Touched

It wasn't the reason at all, but he didn't owe Hafgan an explanation. He stepped into the ring of stones.

"We don't have to be enemies, Arawan. Just give me Morrigan, and don't interfere with the humans. We will leave Annwn be. Things can go back to the way they have always been," Hafgan tried to negotiate with him. Like it would work. Imogen was still living, and the human world was hers.

"Morrigan is as good as dead." Arawan raised his sword. "And soon, you will join her."

Hafgan's face flushed. "She isnotdead. I would feel it. My goddess will rise and live again."

"Not fucking likely after the stabbing my sister gave her," Imogen snorted.

Hafgan bellowed a war cry and charged her. Arawan moved, stepping between them, and stopped Hafgan's ax with his sword. Hafgan snarled out an ancient curse as Arawan knocked him back.

Hafgan's face twisted into a mask of fury. "I hope she fucks harder than Brangwen did."

Arawan pushed all thoughts of Imogen and her safety out of his mind and attacked with everything he had.

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Imogen stumbled back from the ring of stones as Arawan and Hafgan began to duel. She had never seen anything like it. They moved so fast that her human eyes could barely follow them. Silver and gold ichor splashed on the ground around them as every blow connected.

Imogen thought of herself as a brave person, but watching two gods tear each other apart inspired a kind of awe and terror that was indescribable.

She was trembling. The hand she had clutching the hilt of Bron's long dagger was slick with sweat. She tried to steady her breaths to stop herself from hyperventilating. It was worse than watching wolves fight, or horde creatures, or anything in her realm of understanding.

One of Arawan's hounds came to lean into her, a comforting gesture that made her hand drop to its soft white fur.

"It's okay, boy, it's okay," she told it, her voice shaky.

The gods kept the fight within the stone circle like there was a rule she didn't know preventing them from stepping out of it. They clashed and clashed again, their speed and ferocity not slowing. She didn't know how long it had been going for. Time itself seemed to be holding its breath.

Bile crept up Imogen's throat as she realized where all of the scars on Arawan's body had come from. She had wondered what could scar a god like that; now she knew. Arawan's black armor was smeared with ichor, Hafgan finding the gaps in it to wear him down.

Imogen's blood went cold as Hafgan's ax slammed into the back of Arawan's knee, and he stumbled, rolling to the ground. Hafgan kicked his sword away and pulled Arawan's head back by his hair.

"Tell me where Morrigan is, or I will slaughter you in front of the girl," Hafgan shouted in his face.

"F-Fuck you. You kill me, and all of Annwn vanishes and Morrigan with it," Arawan replied.

"You can live without all kinds of things—your eyes, your hands, your cock," Hafgan taunted. "How about I start cutting and see how quickly you change your mind."

He lowered the tip of his ax down to Arawan's eye, and Imogen roared. She threw her ax with all of her strength, and it buried itself into Hafgan's back with a meaty thud.

The god shouted in fury, dropping Arawan in surprise and anger. His arms flailed behind him to try and reach the ax, but Imogen was already closing in on him. She threw Bayn's runic knives at the struggling god, burying them into his thighs and arms.

"You fucking cunt! I am going to cut you to pieces and fuck your corpse," Hafgan shouted. He tried to pull one of the daggers free and was too busy focusing on Imogen to see that Arawan had picked up his sword.

"Come and get me, you fire crotch piece of shit!" Imogen taunted him. Hafgan stumbled towards her and suddenly fell to the ground, both of his legs cut out from under him.

"You fucking dumb bastard. How many times must we do this? Cut me to ribbons, and I will always regenerate," Hafgan snarled, crawling across the churned-up grass towards Imogen. "No man or god can kill me!"

Imogen pulled the black dagger from its sheath. "Then it's a good thing I'm neither."

Imogen kicked his reaching arm out of the way, moving around him and slamming her knees into his shoulders to pin him down. She grabbed him by his hair and hacked Hafgan's screaming head from his body.

Power exploded out of the god, and Imogen was hurled backward. Her body crashed into one of the standing stones, her skull cracking hard against it. Pain reverberated through her body, and she hit the dirt.

"Imogen!" Arawan was screaming, but everything sounded like it was underwater again. It felt worse than the concussion on the beach all those weeks ago.

Arawan's pale face hovered above her, and he gathered her in his arms. "Just breathe, love. Oh fuck, Imogen."

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