Page 7 of Vengeance of the Gods

She’d never gone on a cross-country road trip with a best friend and sang The Fray like it was any other car ride.

Vega felt a loneliness she’d never experienced before. At least in the other lives, she couldn’t remember having loved ones. In this one, she ached for a hug from her best friend, for the zap of her electricity.

She missed home.

Vega winced at the shooting pain between her eyes.

None of that was real.

This was real. Rome, the job Chase had taken here in Italy, the affair starting only weeks after moving. The car hitting Vega because she’d been too distraught to look both ways before crossing the street after finding him between the legs of another woman. This was Vega’s life.

Not Bridger.

Not Arlet.

Not Khort.

Not a realm with a sister who wanted her dead.

This life with Chase and the person she’d become if she let herself forget—this was real.

I don’t want to forget yet.

Vega wanted to hold on to her delusion for just a little longer.

4

A black puff of smoke followed Marlena as she stepped through the in-between and landed on the other side of Tolevarre.

She’d left Aeris only seconds ago and walked through to Nix, Amora’s main city—it was hardly large enough to call a city but too small to call a town—the one she’d briefly called home years ago, where Bridger and his army were, tightening up restrictions on a town who’d decided to riot early this morning.

Amora had never been a problem, not in all the years Marlena ruled, but since Ivelle’s death, they’d become rowdier than she could allow them to be.

Marlena didn’t have friends, but Ivelle had once been the only person who stood by her side when the rest of the world turned their backs.

Finding out about Amora’s riot only minutes ago, long after it’d been handled by Bridger, made the gods inside her rise with anger.

“Why would he act without you?”

“Who does he think he is?”

She shoved them down, locking the tingle of their powerful rage at bay for now.

The city’s viewing center had been set up as the army’s headquarters. A soldier with a level ten patch, noting her as the highest rank a member of Bridger’s army could reach, stood guard at the door.

Marlena could feel the pull of her Fraus-born traveling power. The voice of Mercury, the god of Fraus’s people, was almost too hard to ignore when he felt someone with an outstanding ability.

It’s why he went wild around Halo…

A battle-trained traveler could be the deadliest in almost any fight if taught properly.

“Marlena.” The woman bowed her head. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”

Formal, respectful, but not scared. It wasn’t often Marlena didn’t cause people to shy out of her way.

“Where’s the commander?” she asked, crossing her arms and looking bored when the girl moved to open the door for her.

“Last room on the right.” She stepped to the side, but Marlena didn’t need her to. She cut the walk in half, stepping through Tolevarre’s edges and landing in front of the door.