Page 181 of Vengeance of the Gods

From the end of the long tunnel, Vega came into view, sweat making her face glisten. She eyed the shadows around her feet, a tendril of lightning flickering to life in her hand.

Bridger could have sworn he heard the shadows sigh as they mixed with the lightning trickling from her fingertips.

Death vibrated with happiness inside his mind, sending a message to Vega.

“No,” she whispered. The look in her eyes almost made Bridger pause—but it was too late to turn back.

Arlet and Khort came barreling after Vega. She’d beaten them by almost half a minute, running with everything she had, pushing to whatever limit she could get to in her mind.

To stop him.

Vega took her first step towards him, and with a power he’d never known, Bridger brought a dome of shadows up from the ground, snatching them from Vega’s lightning to seal himself and Halo inside a shield of darkness.

The shadows fell, letting what little light they had in, but the shield held strong.

Vega stood outside, her open palms resting against the new forcefield. “Bridger,” she choked, tears streaming down her cheeks one after the other after the other. “What have you done?”

“I’m finding a way to save you.” Bridger took a step forward, the shadow-made shield separating their hands from touching when he rested his on the other side. “You belong to no one, Vega Caelum.”

“I know what you want if you win, but what do I get if you lose?” Pluto rumbled back. “I’ve already promised your soul remains safe, but if it’s you who barters… Who am I to decline?”

Every power inside Bridger intensified. “An eternity of service from the strongest warrior our kind has ever seen. Stronger than Mars ever was. Imagine the realms we could conquer.”

“No, no. Don’t,” Vega pleaded. Arlet put her hand on Vega’s shoulder, offering her comfort. Vega shoved Arlet off, causing her to bump into Khort.

Bridger eyed Arlet and Khort. “Focus on the war. Don’t let her come after me.”

Summer rose from the ground, spots from her knees in the dirt staining her cloak. She made an attempt to approach Vega, to explain.

Vega didn’t let her get close. Her lightning pushed everyone away like an electric bubble, closing her into a shield of her own.

Pluto finally responded. “I need a soul. As payment for crossing into the underworld.”

“Look at me, Bridger. Look at me,” Vega sobbed.

If he did, he knew what he’d see. Vega’s heartbreak.

It took everything inside him to drag his gaze down to hers. Vega’s eyes were bluer than he’d ever seen them, glowing like her lightning against the shadows interlocking with the electric shield.

“You can’t leave me. You can’t. You said no more goodbyes.” Her sobs hurt him, physically twisting his heart into a knot.

“I have to, baby,” he whispered, feeling her heart shatter along with his words. His hand fell from the shield.

“Why hide in the underworld when I have an offering who’d let us go anywhere?” Bridger asked down the newest bond crowding his head.

Death reached for Halo, sliding around Bridger’s thigh, and pouring off his boot. Its shiver of approval electrified Bridger’s senses like a zap from Vega’s own touch.

“It is done,” Summer murmured, drawing Vega’s attention for only a second. “He accepts.”

“You,” a voice growled before coming into full view. Marlena, with fresh blood stains dripping from her ears, stepped out of a cloud of smoke.

She charged Vega, no, charged him.

Marlena never made it, getting wrapped up in a vision of Arlet’s making—no, no, it wasn’t Arlet’s power. It was the shadows.

Everything blended together. The murkiness in his head clouded all the details.

“You don’t know what you’re doing, Bridger! You’ll damn us all!” Marlena screamed, getting turned around inside the maze of shadows keeping her from getting to anyone.