Chapter 25 #2
Vega grunted at the ache she felt everywhere, getting off her knees with a wobble.
From Chase’s attacks, the sex with Bridger, and whatever was happening with Romulus, Vega was tired.
She was running on some of the worst sleep she’d ever had, and after a month of not exercising like she was used to in Tolevarre, her muscles screamed with fatigue.
But she wouldn’t stop fighting. I can’t.
“Okay, Romulus, it’s just me and you.” She breathed through the patter of her heartbeat, centering herself for the fight.
Vega dug her boots into the ground and rolled her neck.
She had fought for her life hundreds of times, but none mattered like this one.
“You want me to die so badly…” She spun slowly, her eyes raking over the wood line as far as she could see.
“Then come kill me.” She finished her sentence with a growl—a challenge roaring inside.
Leaves crunched from behind, and out of the darkness came the body of Antonio, who’d spent four years beating her, sending her back to Tolevarre as a version of herself no one could recognize. Gods, I hate who I let this curse turn me into.
Antonio looked the most like Bridger. Tall, beautiful, dark olive skin tone, jet-black hair, with a smile everyone fell for. But on the inside, he was rotten. “Miss me, babygirl?” The nickname sent flashes of that life fluttering through her mind.
Vega felt his phantom fist against her cheek, snapping her out of memory’s hold.
Antonio might resemble an off-brand Bridger, but in all the wrong Bridger had done, he’d never let her suffer at his hands. His kills were never meant to be torture—they were meant to put her out of her misery. He deserved a second chance at the life that was stolen from him.
There was a piece inside Bridger worth saving.
Her response wasn’t targeted at Bridger.
It wasn’t even meant for the body of Antonio.
Her words were meant for Romulus. “You really fucked me up. Made me question if any life was worth living. You showed me parts of myself that I’ll keep locked away forever, never allowing them to see the light of day.
You did that to me.” A tear rolled down each cheek.
The motherfucker smiled.
The spilled tears weren’t from a place of sadness. Where they came from was so much worse.
Vega ground her teeth, her left hand squeezing into the portal shard.
“But do you know what else you did to me?” She returned his sinister smile.
“You showed me what it’s like to be angry.
Really fucking angry. You let me see what it felt like to lose myself so fully I never thought I’d find myself again…
but guess what? I did. I did, and that’s pretty fucking unfortunate for you. ”
Swinging the long piece around her wrist in a Bridger-like motion, she sent out a silent prayer that he was all right and took her first step towards Romulus and the body he’d chosen to die in. “I’m ready for vengeance… vengeance for the gods, and most importantly, for me.”
As soon as the words left Vega’s lips, she propelled herself towards him, slashing out with the shard. Romulus dodged it in time, rolling forward in a somersault, and grabbed Vega by the ankle.
Coming down, Vega caught herself with one hand and whipped the portal like a spear with the other. The piece struck its target, pinning one of Romulus’s hands to the earth under his palm.
His scream rattled her eardrums.
The gun did nothing but leave holes in him. The dagger caused nothing more than surface damage. But a piece of the portal? It became death when wielded by the cursed.
The curse was hers, made for her. When it mixed with the piece of itself inside Vega already, it grabbed hold and spun a web of control she could use.
“Only one of us gets to live.” She ripped the spear out, freeing him for only a moment before breaking it in two over her knee.
She pierced them through both hands this time.
Another screech retched from inside him.
Vega once again pulled the pieces out, spearing him through the spine. She felt bones break and his body went limp, but when she flipped him over, his black, soulless eyes weren’t dead. She’d only paralyzed him. “I hope death isn’t kind to you,” she said with a too genuine smile.
Pulling the pieces free, Vega grabbed him by the hair and dragged him towards the portal… and he couldn’t even kick or scream. Little gargles of sound bubbled from his throat.
She fought through the burn in her muscles, ignoring the shockwaves of pain her body attempted to overload her with. Do not break down now.
The echo of Bridger’s words from their first night as bonded souls pushed Vega to use every bit she had left inside herself to prop Romulus against what remained of the portal.
She held on to his shoulders and looked him directly in the eyes.
“You got it all wrong, Romulus. I was never yours, but you’ve always been mine.
A piece of my curse. A piece of my life. And now, a piece of my death.”
Vega pushed Romulus backwards, her nails sinking into his skin as they took the tumble into the portal together.
I’m falling, but I can’t see anything. No matter how many times I blink, everything is clouded with a darkness I’ve never seen.
I will not fucking die.
My fingernails are still dug into what I know is the flesh of Romulus’s skin. I can’t see him, but I can feel him.
I can feel his power.
No, not his power.
The curse.
“Death,” something hisses from within my mind, slipping through a door I didn’t know was there. It slithers up my arm like a snake set to strike, a heat that burns like frostbite following behind in the same path… ready to take whatever is left of me.
I babble, unsure if what I’m saying or hearing is real. “I broke my curse. It’s over.”
A different voice, one I’ve heard before, speaks. “You’ve had enough time. Your destiny awaits.”
A girl destined to die.
Cursed to forget, but destined to die.
Die.
Death.
“Death is my destiny.” The words calm me, the same frosted heat extending to the edges of my mind.
“Death belongs to me,” he purrs like a sated kitten by a warm fire.
The same hiss from before growls inside my head. I feel the urge to defend it. “We belong to no one.”
We?
The presence in my brain vibrates gently in agreement.
“Your soul was mine before you begged for the power to kill her.”
I become more aware the longer I fall through the endless portal, clinging to whatever life I have left. I’m bound to the others… If I die… “Let me save them…”
I won’t let them die because of me. “I can’t let them die because of me,” I sob.
Orange embers spark to life, illuminating the shadows they swirl in. It’s the only thing I’ve seen since the fall began.
The embers fall to ash, and the temperature grows cold. “And if I let you save them, what do I get in return?”
“What do you want?” I hear myself ask.
The voice echoes. “The dead gods inside your sister.”
The gods are inside Marlena… Of course…
The hiss inside my head is louder this time, angrier. If it had teeth, if it existed outside my mind, it would have torn through skin in response.
What will you sacrifice to save the people you love? How far are you willing to go to kill your sister?
I feel myself nod, and the embers come back in time for me to watch the shadows peel Romulus from my grip. His body disappears inside them, and then I realize I’m no longer floating. I’m standing at the bottom of a stone well.
“If you give me the power to save Tolevarre from Marlena and keep the bonded alive, I’ll personally deliver the gods along with my sister’s soul as a bonus.” The embers swirl around me, catching in a torrent of air.
A screech pulsates the vessels in my brain, blurring my vision. The well fades away, and the floor falls out from underneath my feet.
I’m falling again.
“Death suits you.” The voice—his voice—circles my head. “I think I’ll let you have her.”
Venom lights my veins on fire. I scream, or at least I think I do, but I’m cracking into pieces.
There was before the curse.
Then after.
“Do not forget that Death belongs to me, Vega Caelum. You belong to me.”
Now there will be before death, and then what comes after making a deal with its master.
I can’t warn myself of the approaching collision when the floor I was standing on falls out from underneath me. Darkness floods my throat, stealing the breath from my lungs.
Vega lost consciousness the second her body reached the bottom of her freefall.