Chapter 49
“Sit.”
Marlena snapped her fingers and pointed to the chairs beside her.
“Let them have Ardor, Marlena. We don’t have the people to put up a fight for it right now.”
Marlena stared at Zetta, her fingernails digging into the wooden arm of the chair she’d dragged into the center of the room—the same room she’d killed Vega in for the very first time.
What a full circle moment.
Miklov, Zetta’s husband and a very strong fire-wielder, sat to her left, and an empty chair where Zetta should be sitting was to her right.
“I don’t give a shit about Ardor. Vega stole something from me, and I want it back. Now sit before I break your legs and make you.” Marlena had been reeling since Vega took her fire, but she had to stay calm—had to keep her head on straight.
Have to keep my people in line.
The gods had been unhappy with her after losing Diana, but when Vega snatched Vulcan from them, they’d become nearly unbearable.
“Get him back.”
“You’re making us look bad.”
“We chose you.”
Zetta slowly sank to her chair, unable to relax.
Ardor had been sucked dry by its own people, taking more than they should have when Marlena’s rule began. There was nothing left here for Marlena to fight over. If the rebels wanted the tattered fucking mess, fine. She’d let them have it… but Vega couldn’t have her fire.
If she wanted to give the people of Tolevarre a safe place to live before Marlena found a way to crush them all out of existence, then Vega would give her what she wanted.
Consequences. They were one of Marlena’s very favorite things to deal in.
The door swung open on a gust of wind that wasn’t Marlena’s, and in strolled her dear baby sister with Bridger and Meyer in tow. “You’re so predictable,” Vega snapped.
“Meyer,” Zetta gasped. She stood, moving across the room to her son. She slammed into the shield Marlena knew was there, encompassing the three of them inside Bridger’s protective circle.
Too bad she wasn’t allowed to cross into the shield…
Marlena sighed, pulling at her wind like a rope. It wrapped itself around Zetta’s ankles and slammed her face-first onto the hard floor. The sound of her nose breaking and teeth shattering filled the space, followed by Meyer lunging to help.
Bridger didn’t let the shield go, trapping him from getting to his mother.
“I told her to sit.” Marlena pulled back on the tendrils of her wind and dragged an unconscious Zetta across the floor, blood smearing her path. “Didn’t I, Miklov?” she asked, raising a brow.
He nodded, a bead of sweat forming across his brow.
“Speak,” she commanded, treating the people who’d once been her allies as dogs.
Her allies had only been a stepping stone. Once she met the gods, she no longer needed anyone else.
“Yes, you told her to sit.” Miklov swallowed, throat bobbing.
“What else did I say to her?” she asked, leaning towards him in the chair, twirling a piece of her bright blonde hair playfully.
Miklov’s nails dug into the wooden armrests. “That you’d break her legs if she didn’t.” His dark skin blanched, eyes fixed straight ahead at the wall on the other end of the room.
Marlena smiled at him before standing. “So, I guess I was nicer than I could have been, than I should have been.” She walked to the edge of the shield and looked Vega right in the eyes. “That’s good news for you. It means I’m in a good mood, and I’m feeling generous.”
Vega took a step towards her, putting them inches apart, the shield the only thing keeping Marlena from ripping Vega’s heart out.
Too bad Marlena was way up here, and Vega way down there—her sister had to tilt her head to look up to her.
“It’s over, Marlena. Ardor is ours. We’re freeing the people in the mines as we speak. Leave before anyone has to die.”
Marlena chuckled. “Did you think that’d work? Really, honestly. Did you?” She asked. “I don’t care who dies. I don’t care what you’ve become. You will never be able to intimidate me.”
The way Vega’s lips curled into a slow smile sent the gods inside Marlena spiraling. “Liar.”
“Get away from her.”
“She will take us.”
“Let her.”
“I always wanted the sister.”
Jealousy shook the home underneath Marlena’s feet. The gods scattered, leaving her alone in her head. Never alone. Marlena hadn’t had a mind to herself in fifty-five years… “I’m here to make a deal with you.”
“Whatever it is, we decline.” Bridger spoke from behind Vega.
Marlena’s attention flipped to him, his dark stare locked on her. Losing Bridger had been a blow Marlena hadn’t seen coming—but she should have—until it was too late.
She’d been played… and Marlena would make him pay for it.
“You haven’t even listened to what it is I want.” Marlena objected, placing her hand on the shield Bridger hadn’t let falter. Mars thundered inside her, his power calling to the piece of Marlena who controlled him.
Meyer couldn’t stop staring at his mother.
“I don’t give a fuck what you want,” Bridger growled, masked anger simmering behind his eyes.
Marlena sighed, circling them as her fingers grazed the outside of the shield.
“Bridger… we were so good together. What happened?” Marlena feigned the emotion she knew others would feel if they’d been abandoned, her face falling in mock sadness.
“You say you don’t want what it is I have to offer you, but you should know me better than that by now.
” She stopped circling after inspecting the shield all the way around, finding no holes to slip through—she hadn’t expected to find any, but she’d checked anyway, using it as a way to taunt them.
“If I don’t get what I want, I’ll just take it instead.
I’m giving you the chance to walk out of this with no lives lost on your end this one time. ”
A muscle ticked in Vega’s cheek. Hook set.
“Haven’t enough people died because of your little rebellion, Vega? How many more will you sentence to death because you don’t know when to quit?” Marlena asked.
“You’re not getting them back,” Vega stated, staring at Marlena with their matching eyes. “They’re mine… and they seem super content to stay.”
Green lightning buzzed in Marlena’s hands, readying like her fire used to. “Are you willing to take whatever consequence I deem appropriate because you won’t give back what doesn’t belong to you?”
Vega fell back beside Bridger. “I don’t answer to you, Marlena.” She gushed with a laugh. “We don’t answer to you.”
They really were a beautiful couple—they always had been, but their union was the start of Marlena’s demise, a reminder of the person she’d once been and the one she’d never gotten to be.
“It was worth a shot.” Marlena shrugged, gracefully walking towards Zetta’s motionless body.
“No,” she heard Meyer say with a sharp breath. “No. Stop her. Vega, stop her.”
Meyer Ignis, the boy who followed all his life because he’d never had the fucking guts to make a single decision on his own. The boy whose parents loved him more than anything but chose power over the safety of their child.
Meyer Ignis, the man whose life hung over a sword… saved by the only friend he’d ever had.
Bridger had traded Vega’s life and love for his only friend once. Would he do it again?
“Last chance, Vega. Give me my fire back, and you can have Ardor and all the useless fucking vermin in it.” She looked over her shoulder at her sister, who had her eyes on Bridger.
He shook his head side to side, just once.
“Father! Do something! Save her!” Meyer threw himself against the shield, banging against it like an animal locked in a glass cage.
Miklov didn’t move, and it wasn’t because Marlena trapped him. He didn’t move because he was a coward—he always had been.
A tear slid down his cheek, eyes meeting his son’s with a ghost-like expression. “I can’t,” he whispered.
“Bridger, let me out! Let me out!” Meyer begged.
Marlena lifted Zetta without touching her, thrusting her into the air. With the soar of her natural power, Marlena closed her eyes and took a slow, steady inhale, focusing on the rapid breaths of the people in the room.
Vega’s control of the wind had never allowed Marlena to slip inside her lungs. Wind-wielders knew when someone was manipulating the air around them.
Miklov’s breaths came out quick, panting, scared.
Zetta’s inhales sounded wet and shallow.
Bridger’s were as steady as ever, calm.
Meyer’s breathing was heavy and panicked as he continued to pound on the shield Bridger never let falter.
Marlena couldn’t physically slip behind his shield, but she could control the air inside it.
Meyer’s screaming stopped and was quickly replaced with the sound of labored breathing, the struggle to pull air into lungs desperately needing it. Soon it would turn to choking on nothing…
Marlena opened her eyes, keeping Zetta’s limp body extended above her head as a dagger zipped out of the holster on her leg, hidden by the gorgeous chiffon splitting up the opposite side of her body, and dug into Miklov’s throat with enough force to draw blood.
Marlena did this all without lifting a single finger, without calling to any powers that weren’t her own. She had been strong before the gods, able to do more with the powers she was born with than almost all who shared her ability.
This display was a reminder of who Marlena was even if Vega stripped her of every single god.
Vega grabbed Bridger’s arm, and a jolt of pain mangled his features for no longer than a single breath—long enough for him to falter and drop his shield.
Long enough to fall victim to the trap Marlena had set for them.
She laughed, pulling the veil of her invisibility around herself and crossing the room.
“You say I’m predictable, dear sister, but you just made the mistake I knew you’d make if I threatened the loved ones of the people you care about. ”
Meyer’s face turned the color of ash the longer he fought for air.
Vega spun in circles, her eyes following the sound of Marlena’s voice. “Bridger, shield Meyer!”
“That won’t help you when I’m already inside his lungs.” She laughed, moving around the room too quickly to pinpoint her exact location.
Meyer fell to his knees, clawing at his throat while gasping like a fish who’d been thrown to land.
“Fine! Fine! I’ll give it back! You can have your fire back! You can have it, just don’t kill Meyer!” Vega screamed, positioning herself in the middle of the room, hands outstretched on either side. “Here.”
“Yes,” multiple voices hissed in her ears at the same time.
“Go.”
Marlena breathed happily, a sigh of relief washing over her body. She let one slip of air back into Meyer’s lungs—keeping him barely conscious until Vega held up her end of the bargain.
She cleared the room, keeping her invisibility locked in place until she was ready. Her hand hovered over Vega’s. “I’ll kill him if you cross me.”
Vega shivered at the words spoken over her shoulder and nodded.
Bridger’s head snapped back and forth between his best friend and the girl he loved. “Vega,” he whispered. “No.”
“Get him out,” she responded, and before Marlena could move, Vega grabbed her by the arm like she’d sensed her closeness the entire time.
White-hot pain seared through Marlena’s veins, slowly turning to emerald green. For a second, Marlena felt the heat of what she thought was her fire. She could hear the voice of Vulcan like a child’s whisper in the night… but quickly, too quickly, it turned—and now it was too late to pull away.
Marlena screamed, but the sound got lodged in her throat. Frantically, she tried to fight against Vega, losing like she had the other times too.
Zetta crashed to the ground, cracking the tiles she hit. The dagger at Miklov’s throat clattered to the floor, and he went crawling to his wife in the center of the room. Bridger got Meyer up on his feet, dragging him out of the room.
Pain continued to erupt through her. Marlena’s eyes dragged across her body slowly coming back into view.
The first thing she noticed was her black veins, just like Vega’s… only moving in different directions.
Hers traveled inwards, sucking the power out of Marlena. Marlena’s traveled out… leaving her.
No. No. NO!
You fucking IDIOT! Why? Why did you trust her?!
Marlena couldn’t tell the difference between the voices in her head and her own, not when Vega sucked one of Marlena’s original abilities from her like it didn’t even affect her.
Marlena stood frozen, unable to move until Vega stumbled back, fighting to keep standing.
It does affect her.
Their eyes met, both breathing sharp and labored. “I promised to send you to the underworld where you belonged… Who knew I’d be your escort too?” Vega’s body disappeared like Marlena’s once had.
Marlena’s anger caused delirium, her vision turning red, nothing but the sound of her own scream echoing in her mind.
Vega thought she’d won, but she hadn’t… She won’t.
No one took from Marlena fucking Caelum and got away with it.
She took a step through time, folding Tolevarre into a clean, crisp piece of paper, and stepped out on the other side. Right where she wanted to be.
Bridger helped Meyer down the stairs of the home he’d grown up in, the color finally coming back to his face.
She took one last step, crossing the hundreds of feet that had been between them in less than a second.
By the time they noticed Marlena, it was too late.
One moment she was leaning into Bridger’s ear, whispering the words she knew would haunt him forever. “I hope Vega was worth it.” The next, she stood behind Meyer, blood dripping down her arm. His still beating heart clutched in the palm of her hand. “She did this.”