Page 125 of Vengeance of the Gods

Power.

“If you put your hands on Vega, she can take more.” The statement inside made Marlena halt, digging her boots into the ground.

Arlet appeared beside Vega, her eyes widening with fear—she looked like the twenty-year-old girl Marlena remembered seeing before she walked out of her parent’s home—the day she had finally had enough of their abuse and fought back.

“Vega.” Arlet’s voice shook like it had then too.

Vega blinked, and the fire was gone. She fixed her gaze on Marlena, and for the first time in all her sister’s lives, Marlena was terrified of who she’d become.

“What are you?” Marlena murmured.

“Death.” Her eyes weren’t solid black anymore, maybe they never had been… but darkness sank down her arms, traveling through her veins until it disappeared at her fingertips.

A shriek had everyone covering their ears as Arlet’s brown dragon dipped to the ground and snagged both Vega and Arlet into her front talons and took off into the sky, disappearing behind the storm clouds slowly dissipating without Vega feeding them.

The field was littered with scorch marks, a mess of trees and limbs from Vega’s tornado, and the dead bodies of shifters.

Delori crashed to the ground, landing on all fours with a roar that shook the trees. The deep red of her scales matched the blood dripping from her teeth. She lowered her head to Marlena, blowing a puff of air through her nose.

Marlena’s hair whipped behind her back. “To Aeris,” she said with a raspy voice, laced with the heaviness of defeat.

Delori’s eyes exposed the hatred the woman inside the beast felt towards Marlena, but her cursed blood wouldn’t allow her to deny the command. She would try to rip Marlena to shreds if her body let her, but Delori and the shifters were at Marlena’s mercy now—hers to control.

She had offered Delori the deal of a lifetime. The curse on Demuto would be lifted and her people freed from its clutches, and all she had to do was fight on Marlena’s side of the war.

Simple.

Except Marlena wouldn’t give Delori, or anyone else for that matter, the chance to betray her again. The youngest Fera never would have remained loyal… Not on her own.

This was Marlena’s insurance, her way of guaranteeing Delori couldn’t break a promise. Blood oaths were only deadly to the ones who broke them. The Fera’s were heroes, always stoic with a need for adoration. Delori would have let herself die if it meant saving the shifters.

A blood curse as simple as the one Marlena had done was only breakable by the creator or the cursed, and something told her Delori had two extremely important reasons she wouldn’t go looking for a way to break it.

Delori’s wings sent a torrent of wind downward. Twigs and dirt flew, pelting Marlena until she stepped through the in-between and within seconds, she stood outside a door she’d almost been denied access to. How different would things be if Lucius had sent Marlena away? Or worse, if he would have told her parents what their eldest daughter, future leader of Amora and Aeris, had proposed…

Marlena didn’t wait to be invited inside like she’d once done, and the guards didn’t try to stop her. In fact, they took one look at Marlena, drenched from head to toe, mud and blood smearing her skin, and they moved at supersonic speed to get out of her way.

Marlena filtered the air through her fingers, sending a burst of wind crashing through the double doors.

The sudden intrusion made Katrin’s eyes almost bulge out of her head. The blunt raven bob she always wore was styled straight and tight to the edge of her jaw, her sharp jawline nearly identical to her son’s. She looked dressed for a funeral—colorless and muted. “Marlena.” She shot up from her chair, gripping the edge of the desk.

Marlena caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror behind Katrin’s desk.

She looked like she had when this all began. When she went from territory to territory, killing anyone who tried to flee or had chosen to take a stance against her. A time when the gods were loud and encouraging, whispering about all the magnificent things she could do.

They were staying quiet, hiding in the corners of Marlena’s mind. Too afraid to come out of the shadows in fear Vega would be waiting when they did.

“Find Meyer. Tell him to assemble the army for full departure.” Marlena braided her wet hair, her fingers working quickly to secure the battleworn strands around her head in a coronet. “It’s time to clear them out of Vates.” She tucked a few loose strands in place.

The war she’d been keeping at bay was here… and it was going to be worse than anything their people had ever seen or studied.

Katrin trembled, stammering through the first few words. “Meyer defected. He’s gone, and so is half the army.”

40

Avi dropped Vega and Arlet gently outside the cave, her landing making the ground palpitate. She skidded to a stop and whipped around, snapping her jaw at Vega.

She definitely felt steam on the last one. Vega jumped back, a crack of lightning striking inches from Arlet’s dragon as a warning.