Page 100 of Vengeance of the Gods

The idea of anyone accidentally seeing her naked because she couldn’t keep them out had her reaching to Bridger for help.

His chuckle made her shiver. “It’s the same idea as shutting the door connecting us, but it’s from the shield around your mind instead. You get that from me, by the way.” His voice sounded proud, and she could hear the smile on his face.

Vega closed her eyes, standing in the middle of the room—listening, feeling.

“Can you feel the shield’s veil? It’s usually on the outside of your actual power.”

She breathed through her layers, bypassing the hum of her electricity, the thunder of her storms, and skipped over the pit like it didn’t exist… and on the very outside was a thin sheet fluttering against it all. “Got it,” she told Bridger.

“Good.” The word felt like a purr. “Now grab the edges and wrap it around your mind.”

Vega thought of it like making a bed, struggling to find all the corners before it shot back one way and she was left trapped in the middle.

She got frustrated and stomped her foot like a toddler—no, she wasn’t proud of it, but Vega had never liked when she couldn’t immediately perfect something.

“I heard that.” Bridger reminded her she wasn’t actually alone in the small house.

“Fuck off.” Vega snagged the edges again and wrapped them around each other, tying them together like a sack. When she opened her eyes, she felt the veil of privacy.

She was alone.

Not even Death could reach her.

Vega slid down the wall and sat in silence for a while before turning the shower on.

33

The pathway was blocked, and Bridger smiled to himself, knowing Vega was enjoying the peace of having a mind and body to herself for the first time since being back home.

He wished he could enjoy a moment of peace, but he hadn’t been able to rest for a single moment since Vega told him about the deal she’d made.

She wasn’t telling the whole story.

He could tell in the way she avoided his questions, could see the fear in her eyes when she thought about getting everyone to Vincere as quickly as possible. He could feel the panic in her voice as she screamed down their bond when she was supposed to be sleeping.

Vega told him she promised to deliver her sister and the gods to Death for the power to save Tolevarre, and Romulus revealed who’d spoken to Bridger in the portal to Earth.

The people of Tolevarre might not be well versed in the intricacies of death, but Bridger, before he was the commander of their realm, was the son of a commander, and the Dimicos knew more about it than any other bloodline.

Bridger’s life had revolved around death.

Learning about death.

Avoiding death.

Protecting from death.

Causing death.

Falling in love with a girl destined for death.

Bridger knew Death.

He’d prayed to her, begged her to take him on his darkest days when the loneliness got to be too much.

Somehow, over time, Death became synonymous with the god of the underworld and the dead. Before Tolevarre existed, when the gods walked among men, Mors was the personification of death, and she wasn’t considered a goddess—but a servant to the god of the underworld.

The two weren’t one being. It wasn’t Death who made deals. It wasn’t Pluto who controlled deaths.