Page 160 of Vengeance of the Gods

“Let her.”

“I always wanted the sister.”

Jealousy shook the home underneath Marlena’s feet. The gods scattered, leaving her alone in her head. Never alone. Marlena hadn’t had a mind to herself in fifty-five years… “I’m here to make a deal with you.”

“Whatever it is, we decline.” Bridger spoke from behind Vega.

Marlena’s attention flipped to him, his dark stare locked on her. Losing Bridger had been a blow Marlena hadn’t seen coming—but she should have—until it was too late.

She’d been played… and Marlena would make him pay for it.

“You haven’t even listened to what it is I want.” Marlena objected, placing her hand on the shield Bridger hadn’t let falter. Mars thundered inside her, his power calling to the piece of Marlena who controlled him.

Meyer couldn’t stop staring at his mother.

“I don’t give a fuck what you want,” Bridger growled, masked anger simmering behind his eyes.

Marlena sighed, circling them as her fingers grazed the outside of the shield. “Bridger… we were so good together. What happened?” Marlena feigned the emotion she knew others would feel if they’d been abandoned, her face falling in mock sadness. “You say you don’t want what it is I have to offer you, but you should know me better than that by now.” She stopped circling after inspecting the shield all the way around, finding no holes to slip through—she hadn’t expected to find any, but she’d checked anyway, using it as a way to taunt them. “If I don’t get what I want, I’ll just take it instead. I’m giving you the chance to walk out of this with no lives lost on your end this one time.”

A muscle ticked in Vega’s cheek. Hook set.

“Haven’t enough people died because of your little rebellion, Vega? How many more will you sentence to death because you don’t know when to quit?” Marlena asked.

“You’re not getting them back,” Vega stated, staring at Marlena with their matching eyes. “They’re mine… and they seem super content to stay.”

Green lightning buzzed in Marlena’s hands, readying like her fire used to. “Are you willing to take whatever consequence I deem appropriate because you won’t give back what doesn’t belong to you?”

Vega fell back beside Bridger. “I don’t answer to you, Marlena.” She gushed with a laugh. “We don’t answer to you.”

They really were a beautiful couple—they always had been, but their union was the start of Marlena’s demise, a reminder of the person she’d once been and the one she’d never gotten to be.

“It was worth a shot.” Marlena shrugged, gracefully walking towards Zetta’s motionless body.

“No,” she heard Meyer say with a sharp breath. “No. Stop her. Vega, stop her.”

Meyer Ignis, the boy who followed all his life because he’d never had the fucking guts to make a single decision on his own. The boy whose parents loved him more than anything but chose power over the safety of their child.

Meyer Ignis, the man whose life hung over a sword… saved by the only friend he’d ever had.

Bridger had traded Vega’s life and love for his only friend once. Would he do it again?

“Last chance, Vega. Give me my fire back, and you can have Ardor and all the useless fucking vermin in it.” She looked over her shoulder at her sister, who had her eyes on Bridger.

He shook his head side to side, just once.

“Father! Do something! Save her!” Meyer threw himself against the shield, banging against it like an animal locked in a glass cage.

Miklov didn’t move, and it wasn’t because Marlena trapped him. He didn’t move because he was a coward—he always had been.

A tear slid down his cheek, eyes meeting his son’s with a ghost-like expression. “I can’t,” he whispered.

“Bridger, let me out! Let me out!” Meyer begged.

Marlena lifted Zetta without touching her, thrusting her into the air. With the soar of her natural power, Marlena closed her eyes and took a slow, steady inhale, focusing on the rapid breaths of the people in the room.

Vega’s control of the wind had never allowed Marlena to slip inside her lungs. Wind-wielders knew when someone was manipulating the air around them.

Miklov’s breaths came out quick, panting, scared.