Page 140 of Vengeance of the Gods

Fumbling around, Vega felt her surroundings. Inches from her fingertips was a wall that felt like it was made of stacked rocks.

“You can’t escape us,” voice one hissed again.

“We are a part of you now,” the other said slowly, hauntingly.

Vega ignored the panic rising from the pit of her stomach, swallowing as she continued to fight whatever kept her powers at bay. The air around her felt thin and stagnant, and she was unable to get the wind to stir through her fingertips like she should be.

Vega ran her hands across the rock wall, using it to guide her.

“Where do you think you’re going?” The voice sounded like it’d come from behind her this time, but Vega couldn’t tell if it was the first or second voice anymore—not with the sound of her heart pounding in her ears.

She picked up her pace, going around, around, around. Vega skidded to a halt when she realized her feet stayed pointed to the right. “I’m walking in fucking circles,” she said out loud.

She was in a dark, circular… pit.

Death. She couldn’t feel it either. She couldn’t dip into her head and pull the shadow out.

There was no inside here, wherever here was.

It was just Vega.

Alone.

“Never alone. We’re with you.”

Vega panicked, overestimating how much room she had, and slammed into the other side of the wall. The crunch of her nose made Vega yelp in pain. She didn’t need to see to know she was bleeding. Her hands shot up, cupping a palm to catch the pooling blood. The taste of iron filled her mouth as it dripped down her throat and between her lips.

“Oh dear. Let us see what you’ve done to yourself.”

“Use my fire.”

The warmth of the flames she’d used on the battlefield with Marlena heated her palms. Vega’s hand shot down from her face, the blood from her nose dripping down her chin. She balled them up tightly, pushing back against the urge to feel that heat again. “Fuck off!”

Vega slid her hands down her body, searching herself for the daggers strapped to her thigh… but they weren’t there. She patted frantically, as if she could have missed them.

“That’s not very nice, Vega.” The way the voice said her name made another wave of fear slam into her stomach.

“Who are you?” she screamed, her voice echoing above her head. Vega craned her neck back, expecting to see something, anything, but there was nothing but blackness there too.

“You know who we are,” they said at the same time.

“You could know us better if you let us in.”

“Yes, let us in. We can defeat him if we join together. We can save you.”

Vega threw her arms out beside her, one hand scraping up the side of the rock as she tried to determine how large the space was. “Defeat who?” Her hands didn’t touch from side to side without leaning. “Save me from who?”

“The one who bonded you.”

Remus? What does Remus have to do with any of this?

Six feet. The round room wasn’t a foot wider than Vega’s full height. The darkness felt like it was closing in on her.

The voices snickered, and Vega knew they were laughing at the words she hadn’t said out loud. “Remus.”

“Remus never made it here.”

“How?” she screamed, turning in circles like one of them would show their face.