Page 179 of Vengeance of the Gods

“Go to him. Stop him!”

Marlena couldn’t tell the voices apart.

55

“Do you trust me?” Bridger asked, repeating the words he’d spoken to Vega after coming through the portal for the last time.

Halo, with his pale-green eyes and ice-blond hair, was the second person he’d asked in less than a month.

There was only a second of hesitation. “With my life.”

Bridger swallowed hard, pushing what was left of the nerves as Summer set up the black candles around him. “When I tell you to jump, you jump, okay?”

The night they’d gotten back to Vincere, Bridger hadn’t been looking over current documents.

He’d been reading through a few books he'd tucked away for a rainy day. Books about the gods, books about how the gods bound their lives to others in an act of love…

Summer might have a plan, but so did Bridger.

He expected Halo to ask him why. But he didn’t. He simply nodded, keeping his eyes locked on Bridger’s. “Okay.”

Nodding towards the small circle, Bridger invited Halo in.

I will not die. Bridger would not damn the others for his decision.

He’d let the god of the underworld take him on one condition. He’d damn himself for all eternity on one condition.

Vega lives.

The heat of the mines had sweat rolling down everyone’s brows and cheeks. This was as close as they could get to hell itself. Plenty of lives had been lost here, making it a graveyard in its own right.

Death surrounded them.

Bridger could feel it slithering through the cracks of his closed door.

Summer had brought a young acolyte to assist her, and she approached Bridger, careful not to cross the circle containing him and Halo. She extended her arm to the edge, holding a worn-out booklet. “Some prayers in case you need them.”

Bridger looked down at the page she had open.

Summer lit the candles with a fierce light from inside herself, illuminating the shadows around them every few seconds until the only light they had was from their flickering flames and the dull sconces aligning the walls.

The shadows seemed to melt back into their places, making themselves at home where they belonged.

“Are you ready?” Summer asked, stepping in front of him outside the circle. She glanced at Bridger and then to Halo, her eyes asking what she didn’t need to say out loud.

“We don’t have a portal, but we have the next best thing to bridge the gap between our world and his.” Bridger spoke loud enough for Halo to hear, giving him the opportunity to change his mind about trusting him.

He said nothing, peeking over Bridger’s shoulder at the booklet in the girl’s hands.

Everyone in Halo’s life had failed him. His parents. His peers. The people who were supposed to look out for him had never given a shit.

Fraus-born, but his heart was pure. He wanted to belong somewhere.

Bridger wouldn’t fail him. He would give him a place to belong. “Do you know Latin?” he asked, glancing back at Halo, who looked up from the book.

“Not a lick,” Halo responded with his goofy smile.

Bridger declined to take the old prayers from the acolyte. “I won’t be needing it then.”