Chapter 14 #2
“I am your god.” Marlena exhaled, the hairs on her arms sticking up from the distress rippling through the people like the aftershock of her admission. “The only living goddess our people will ever know.”
Without having to move a muscle, a few people fell to their knees. Out of fear or devout loyalty, Marlena wasn’t sure. She didn’t care how they did it.
It was time Tolevarre recognized her as what she was.
Not just Marlena the ruler… No.
Marlena, the one true goddess.
The others were bonded by a murky demigod, and their lives were linked, souls intertwined. Vega and her friends were still half-breeds at best, and Marlena would prove she was the superior of the new gods. She didn’t have a plan yet, but that had never stopped her before.
Across the sky, green lightning scattered through the low hanging clouds. The last bit of purple left in the darkening night sky was the backdrop to her emerald light show. “It’s time Tolevarre stops worshipping the old gods.”
Thunder rumbled like Marlena’s personal choir. She couldn’t control the weather like her sister. That power was all Vega’s. But the lightning came from Jupiter, the original bloodline the sisters shared through their father.
Marlena had already mastered air-wielding when she summoned the gods—she didn’t need Jupiter’s wind, so he gave her something else instead.
She didn’t use the lightning enough. It felt good, skittering across her skin like static. It was a colder heat, nothing like the inferno of her fire.
“It’s time you worship me instead.”
More people dropped to their knees. Unintelligible prayers from muttered lips became the soundtrack to the chorus of voices finally escaping through the iron bars of her mind.
“You wouldn't be here if it weren’t for us.”
“Not a lick of credit.”
Marlena twitched, fighting the urge to rip her own skin off. The gods’ voices and insults grated against her mind like nails on a chalkboard.
Sometimes they treated her like she was less than… like she hadn’t been strong enough to withstand summoning all twelve and their powers at the same time.
Marlena reminded the gods of her strength with a zap of Vulcan’s flames through her mind.
He was always the loudest, his powers the first to rise when it was time to fight.
While all of the gods were with Marlena, some were quieter than others, never saying much. It usually took her by surprise if a few of them spoke at all.
Or if they gave her a peek inside the power they somehow wouldn’t let her have full control over… Apollo was the worst.
Marlena had never tasted what the Videri line was known for—she’d never experienced anything remotely close to that of a seer.
The future was unknown—more so now than it’d ever been.
She fucking hated it.
People continued to kneel until there was no one left standing but a woman dressed in an emerald robe.
Marlena’s jaw ticked. “Is the robe for show?” The religious members of Oro spent a lot of time in Stella—they’d always claimed it was as close as they could get to the gods.
She couldn’t be any closer to the gods right now if she tried…
The pretty young girl couldn’t be more than twenty. She had an entire life ahead of her. Her deep-blue doe eyes were seconds from spilling tears. “I cannot bow when I’ve yet to devote my life to one god.”
An older woman kneeling next to the girl made a smart move. She stood and grabbed the acolyte by the arm. “Bow,” she whispered, thinking Marlena couldn’t hear. “Before she kills you.”
“I told you,” Marlena droned as the girl started to fight the older woman’s hand, “the old gods are gone. I am your—”
“I cannot bow to her! She isn’t the only new god! She’s not the only choice I have.” The words were out before Marlena could react. “Her sister and the bon—”
It only took one step for her to jump from where she’d been to where she was—behind the acolyte, hands on either side of her head.
The crack of her neck sent everyone into pandemonium, scrambling to get as far away as they could.
Marlena had traveled without thinking. The only thing on her mind was shutting her up before she finished her sentence.
Calmly, Marlena turned to face the camera, noticing the small red light blinking a live signal.
One easy gust of wind sent the device crashing against the stone wall behind her. Its pieces became ricochet shrapnel with Marlena’s control, whizzing through the air with a hiss before lodging into a body.
Screams echoed through the dark sky. No one could exit the square.
They were all sealed by a shield. The one Marlena controlled because of Mars, Bridger’s bloodline.
Marlena pulled a sword from the invisible sheath between her shoulders. The metal shimmered under the bright moon, appearing from thin air.
Another ability she’d had before the gods… one she’d nearly perfected before age ten.
Her eyes met the terrified gaze of a screaming woman limping on what looked to be a broken ankle.
Marlena killed her first.
Then she cleared the rest of the square.
“Marlena.”
A familiar voice dragged Marlena back to the surface.
She blinked, her vision getting less blurry as life returned around her.
Arlet stood inside her cell, peering through the bars with soft hazel eyes. “Mar.” Her nickname was a whisper on her lips.
She didn’t have a heart to hurt, but a piece of the girl she’d once been still resided somewhere deep, deep, down, and that nickname on Arlet’s lips reminded Marlena she was there.
“What happened?” Arlet took a step forward, her dirty fingers wrapping around the bars.
She didn’t remember coming to the prison under Atrox. The last thing she had any memory of was the Stella square, blood and bodies piled on top of each other.
Marlena glanced down at herself, her visible skin splattered with blood. Her dress was soaked through. Not a single thread of fabric had been spared.
“Tolevarre knows I’m a god.” Her voice sounded so far away and had a softness she hadn’t heard in a very long time. “They know Vega is a god. If they’re smart enough, they’ll know you, Bridger, and Khort are too.”
Her head felt fuzzy, trapped in the in-between. She couldn’t shake it.
“How?” Arlet asked with a breath.
“I broadcasted it, and then I killed them. They killed them.”
Marlena floated to the bars, coming face to face with Arlet. She looked so much like the girl she used to love.
Marlena felt herself lift her hand, gently bringing her fingertips to Arlet’s cheek. Blood smudged her soft skin as her fingers brushed down to her chin.
Arlet’s eyelashes fluttered, and then her eyes closed. “They?”
This was a dream…
When Marlena realized it, she chuckled out loud. Gods, it almost felt so real.
Arlet feels so real.
“The gods. We couldn’t let the people who witnessed the acolyte’s confession live.” She wrapped her hand around the same cell bar Arlet did. Their hands were less than an inch from touching.
Arlet’s eyebrows drew together when she opened her eyes. “But you broadcasted it.”
“I’ll fix it, pet. Don’t worry.” Her head swam, the dream threatening to fizzle out.
Not yet.
The use of her old nickname made a muscle in Arlet’s jaw twitch.
Marlena’s smile grew a few inches. It felt lazy on her lips.
“I see you in there sometimes. In passing moments.” Arlet’s words drew Marlena’s gaze from their almost-touching hands. Her eyes weren’t easy to read with the tired circles under them.
This might be a dream, but dream-Arlet was identical to the real one.
Bruises lined her body, littering her pretty skin with signs of the torture she’d endured over the last five weeks.
None of them had come from Marlena directly. She’d only been the one to give the orders to try and get her to talk.
About Vega.
About the rebellion.
About everything.
About anything.
Arlet never said anything. She didn’t even scream.
Arlet.
The only person who’d ever been able to break her heart.
Her hand dropped from her face. “No, you don’t, because none of this is real,” Marlena muttered, unwrapping her hand from the bar. “It’s all a dream.”
Before it could fall, Arlet pinned it in place with her own. “This is real. We were real.”
Heat burned through to Marlena’s bloodstream, and once again, she stepped through the in-between and crossed through the cell door.
Arlet retreated, taking careful steps while Marlena prowled forward. When her back hit the stone wall, there was nowhere else for her to run.
Marlena cornered her, a new fuzzy feeling overwhelming her senses. She had to blink away the black specks ready to spread across her vision. “Do you ever wonder what might have been if you would have stayed with me? What we could have become?”
She let her brain run rampant, let the dream conjure up whatever it was Marlena had been wanting to feel all these years.
She leaned into the young woman she’d once been—and she let her run wild.
If she had a heart, it might have fluttered in her chest.
Arlet’s gaze didn’t waver. Vega was strong, but Arlet… Arlet was something else.
For the first time since she’d been thrown down here, Arlet smiled.
Slow at first, and then her lips snapped into a grin unsuited for her pretty face.
It was too dark—too far from the soft girl she’d once known.
“Yes.” She leaned forward, surprising Marlena.
Arlet’s breath tickled her neck, sending goosebumps down her arms. “I think about all the things that made you tick. The way you used to kiss me when you knew no one else was around.”
Arlet’s fingers grazed over Marlena’s, and a tingle she shouldn’t have felt while dreaming made her blood run cold.
“The way you use to come when I—”
This isn’t a dream.
Marlena’s hand heated with anger seconds before her lit palm connected to Arlet’s cheek. Her hand stung not from her fire but from the force of the slap.
Arlet’s head snapped to the side, colliding with the stone wall.
Her hand shot up to cup the fresh bubbling burn on her cheek.
She chuckled through the pain. “It was much easier to trick you than I thought it would be. You’re slipping, Mar.
” Arlet didn’t say her old nickname like she had minutes ago—sweet, taking Marlena back to a moment in time she tried so hard to forget.
This time it was a sneer and Arlet definitely wasn’t the girl Marlena had once loved.
“When Vega breaks her curse and brings Bridger back to slaughter, you’re not going to stand a chance. ”
Marlena grabbed her by the throat, shutting her up.
“You think you’ve got it all figured out, don’t you?
” Marlena scowled, squeezing harder. “Let me let you in on a little secret, pet,” she spat, loosening her hold enough to allow Arlet a single breath.
“Bridger isn’t on Earth playing fetch. He’s there to make sure Vega doesn’t break her curse, to get inside her head.
What could I learn if Bridger was allowed inside her mind? ” she whispered.
Marlena dropped Arlet to the floor with a thud.
“Bridger’s there making her believe he can be loved again, that he’s changed.” Marlena was on the other side of the cell door from Arlet in the blink of an eye. “There’s nothing left of the Bridger she once loved, and with enough time, I bet I can do the same to you.”