Chapter 38 #2
Vega let Death creep up her arms, leaving the cavern of her mind and releasing itself into her bloodstream. It pumped through her heart with an out of time beat, catching Vega off guard when it stopped beating altogether.
An explosion of undiluted death ruptured in her chest, resetting her heart and putting what felt like blinders on Vega’s focus.
One goal. She had one goal.
“Then kill me,” Vega challenged, letting her wind reach out like an extension of her hand, snatching one of Marlena’s daggers from her. It snapped back to Vega’s open palm.
She could feel Bridger’s slow inhales, could sense his eyes on her arms littered with what looked like black lightning tattooed on her skin. He took a shaky breath when Vega took a step closer to Marlena.
Her sister didn’t budge as Vega reached out with the tip of the dagger, but the snarl on her lips grew when she trailed the knife featherlightly down Marlena’s face where Vega’s scar was.
She didn’t press hard enough to break skin, only traced the exact lines Marlena had marked across her own eye and upper cheek.
“Want to know a little secret, sister?” Vega palmed the dagger, quickly striking Marlena in the side.
Taking her by surprise, she leaned in to where only Marlena would hear her over the roaring storm Vega kept alive above.
Marlena’s face distorted in pain, but she didn’t scream.
“You can’t kill what’s already dead.” Vega pulled the dagger from Marlena’s side, blood dripping out slowly as the wound already began to heal itself.
It wasn’t the knife wound that made Marlena lose a breath.
Without any more of a warning than her words, Vega dropped a cyclone from the sky.
It tore through the clearing, staying within the marked ground Vega had planned out before she’d realized why. It sucked up the wolves threatening to tear into Leo’s throat, freeing him up for the next beast on his heels.
Khort and Delori flew overhead. Delori’s jaws snapped around Khort’s tail, spraying the field with fresh blood and a chest-rattling bellow of pain.
Green flames erupted from Marlena’s palms. “What did you do?” Vega had expected Marlena to call her a liar, not question the reason behind her admission.
“Go. Get everyone out of here,” Vega told Bridger, never taking her eyes off Marlena.
“I’m not leaving you.” The strike of his sword through another shifter’s chest was the period to his sentence.
“Bridger, I can handle this! I can’t handle losing another person I care about. Get Leo, get your guards, and get back to the caves.” Vega left no room for arguing, shutting their door to get her point across.
Vega snatched her tornado back inside the swirling clouds above to give Bridger a clear shot to Leo and his soldiers.
He hesitated, visibly fighting against what he wanted and what he knew he needed to do.
Vega knew where Bridger needed to be right now.
He seemed to understand she was exactly where she needed to be too.
“Be careful,” he begged before sprinting across the wet battlefield, leaving the Caelum sisters by themselves.
Vega continued their conversation smoothly, never missing a beat between the one happening inside her head with Bridger.
“I made a deal, and all it cost me was your soul and the gods inside you.” Vega wasn’t going to give Marlena any details worth knowing.
What she planned to do with her wasn’t one of the details she planned to keep secret.
Vega wanted Marlena to know exactly what was in store for her.
“I wasn’t going to let the curse take one more fucking thing from me.
No matter the cost.” Lightning struck behind Vega, the electrical buzz fizzling out along the wet grass.
“I wanted what I bartered for the night of my own summoning.” Vega’s smile was saccharine.
“To avenge our people. To kill my sister.”
“You don’t have what it takes.” Marlena laughed.
Vega wiggled her brows and her fingers, reaching out for Marlena’s hand. “Bet on it?”
Marlena put more space between them, focusing on Vega’s dark veins like they would jump out and bite her. “If I cut your hand off, would it regrow?” Flames licked at Marlena’s feet. “If you touch me again, I’ll take them both to see what happens.”
Vega continued to offer Marlena her hand, lightning sizzling from her fingertips. “Take it. Let’s find out.” She couldn’t see Death’s shadow inside her mind anymore. It was no longer lying in wait. It was inside her… and it was hungry.
Marlena pulled a dagger out with fast fingers and lunged.
Their parents had taught them the basics of hand-to-hand combat growing up. Their school in Aeris had battle skills, but no one took it seriously unless they hoped to join the military one day.
Vega dodged Marlena’s attempt to connect with her side and continued to circle her. “I guess the handshake before a match is out.”
It wasn’t until Bridger came along that Marlena decided to push Vega and the others to spend a little extra time honing the skill.
If only Vega knew then what she knew now.
Regardless of the motive, without the encouragement from Marlena, she never would have become the threat she was today.
Vega knew a good warrior was more than just physical strength. They had to be able to keep their wits about them the entire fight. From beginning to the very end.
For now, Vega forgot everything else—giving herself one target, one goal: get a hand on Marlena. Feed Death.
A happy chuff of approval echoed inside Vega’s mind.
She tore the world away and stepped onto the mat with her sister. Marlena knew Vega’s weaknesses, but so did Vega. She knew the second she let someone get into her head, it was over.
So she wouldn’t let that happen.
Disconnect. Get lost in the moment. Leave it all on the mat. Have fun.
She took all the advice Bridger had ever given her and mixed it with the version of herself she’d become—the last version she’d ever be.
Vega dodged another blow, jumping back to avoid Marlena’s blade. Marlena disappeared, but Vega could still sense when she got close.
Death trembled with longing whenever Marlena was near.
Lightning cracked across the sky, and all Vega had to do was blink to pull the energy to her. A piece of lightning fell from the clouds, absorbing into her body like a sponge. By the time she’d opened her eyes, Vega had already wielded the current at Marlena.
The bolt slammed into the center of her chest, her body twitching from the high voltage. She shimmered with a sheer blue electric current, until it slowly started to shift to green. Marlena’s eyes rolled back from inside her head and landed on Vega.
What. The. Fuck.
Death pulsed through her veins again, its claws grabbing at Vega’s lightning to yank it back inside like it was protecting her from Marlena’s mimic.
Marlena recovered quickly, bouncing green lightning from palm to palm. “You know, I don’t play with this enough. I really should, shouldn’t I? Since you’ve gotten so good with it.”
The terrain under their boots had become saturated and slick with mud. “Aw, did you just compliment me?” she mocked. “I’d say I’d teach you all about it, but I think I want to be the only lightning-wielder again.”
Before Marlena had time to react, Vega pulled her bonded dagger from the waistband of her pants, the material clinging to her wet body, and flung it directly at Marlena’s heart.
It stuck.
And for the briefest of moments, Vega hoped maybe, just maybe, this would be the end. That somehow it could be that easy.
It was foolish to believe, but Vega hadn’t expected it to have zero effect on Marlena. They couldn’t die, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t feel. Getting stabbed through the heart should still cause pain!
I would know.
A figure Vega knew well slinked out of the brush behind Marlena, camouflaging herself completely with the backdrop of the open field.
Vega knew Arlet’s tricks, knew where to look to catch a flicker of her power fading at the edges. Arlet’s ability must have fixed its weaknesses without the curse to keep it contained, because there were no flaws.
Arlet was truly invisible.
Vega blinked, and the field she’d been standing in had changed.
They were no longer surrounded by late winter blooms and the colors of rising dawn.
Vega and Marlena were the only two in the middle of a rotten field, everything the color of tar and soot.
Appearing beside Vega were two identical copies of herself.
When she twisted to look at them, they turned too, like she was looking into a mirror.
Vega lifted her hand, and her twins followed.
Fucking creepy.
Anyone who had ever claimed Arlet wasn’t frightening should consider themselves lucky to have not fallen victim to the visions she could make you believe were real. Arlet hid herself from view, tucking inside whatever crevice of her mind she could.
When the three Vegas turned to face Marlena, the real Vega snickered, and the sound echoed from their mouths too. “Let’s play a game?” she said, lips pulling into a slow smile. “You find the real Vega, and I’ll let you keep your lightning,” Vega cooed. “For now.”