Chapter 55
“Do you trust me?” Bridger asked, repeating the words he’d spoken to Vega after coming through the portal for the last time.
Halo, with his pale-green eyes and ice-blond hair, was the second person he’d asked in less than a month.
There was only a second of hesitation. “With my life.”
Bridger swallowed hard, pushing what was left of the nerves as Summer set up the black candles around him. “When I tell you to jump, you jump, okay?”
The night they’d gotten back to Vincere, Bridger hadn’t been looking over current documents.
He’d been reading through a few books he'd tucked away for a rainy day. Books about the gods, books about how the gods bound their lives to others in an act of love…
Summer might have a plan, but so did Bridger.
He expected Halo to ask him why. But he didn’t. He simply nodded, keeping his eyes locked on Bridger’s. “Okay.”
Nodding towards the small circle, Bridger invited Halo in.
I will not die. Bridger would not damn the others for his decision.
He’d let the god of the underworld take him on one condition. He’d damn himself for all eternity on one condition.
Vega lives.
The heat of the mines had sweat rolling down everyone’s brows and cheeks. This was as close as they could get to hell itself. Plenty of lives had been lost here, making it a graveyard in its own right.
Death surrounded them.
Bridger could feel it slithering through the cracks of his closed door.
Summer had brought a young acolyte to assist her, and she approached Bridger, careful not to cross the circle containing him and Halo. She extended her arm to the edge, holding a worn-out booklet. “Some prayers in case you need them.”
Bridger looked down at the page she had open.
Summer lit the candles with a fierce light from inside herself, illuminating the shadows around them every few seconds until the only light they had was from their flickering flames and the dull sconces aligning the walls.
The shadows seemed to melt back into their places, making themselves at home where they belonged.
“Are you ready?” Summer asked, stepping in front of him outside the circle. She glanced at Bridger and then to Halo, her eyes asking what she didn’t need to say out loud.
“We don’t have a portal, but we have the next best thing to bridge the gap between our world and his.” Bridger spoke loud enough for Halo to hear, giving him the opportunity to change his mind about trusting him.
He said nothing, peeking over Bridger’s shoulder at the booklet in the girl’s hands.
Everyone in Halo’s life had failed him. His parents. His peers. The people who were supposed to look out for him had never given a shit.
Fraus-born, but his heart was pure. He wanted to belong somewhere.
Bridger wouldn’t fail him. He would give him a place to belong. “Do you know Latin?” he asked, glancing back at Halo, who looked up from the book.
“Not a lick,” Halo responded with his goofy smile.
Bridger declined to take the old prayers from the acolyte. “I won’t be needing it then.”
The young girl butted in. “I really do suggest—”
“I’m a Dimico, the original bloodline of Mars. I’ve known the death prayers since before I could wield a sword.” He felt a shiver of something slide down his spine, a purr of a shadow caressing his mind.
It was murky, but the feeling was unmistakable.
“You’re ready.” This time, it wasn’t a question.
Summer took a step back and turned to the acolyte with the doe eyes.
“It’s time for you to take shelter. No matter what you may hear, you stay away until I come for you.
” Summer knew the nature of the god they were about to call on—she might be the only one to ever exist in this realm who did.
“Remember, the shadows are not your friends. Find light.”
The girl scampered away, finding a well-lit area to hide. Once out of sight and they could no longer hear her footsteps, Summer inhaled a breath and sank to her knees. She feathered her hand on the hot earth, digging her nails into the dirt.
A shadow slithered from the newly made mark in the ground. It chased the light on her fingertips, slithering through her fingers until her whole palm was a mix of glimmer and shadows. It was mesmerizing to witness.
Bridger followed the line of shadows shooting from beside Summer, encircling around him and Halo. They settled against the ground, locking into place when they connected with the candles and light Summer used to set the wick ablaze.
The familiar shadow in his mind recognized the ones slithering around his feet like serpents.
Eyes closed, hands digging into the ground again, Summer’s face fell forward, her umbra-like hair blanketing around her as a shield when she began to speak in what might have been the most fluent Latin Bridger had ever heard.
“Divine Pluto, King of The Underworld, God of the Dead, I call to you, I do you reverence. I ask that you might answer Bridger, a new god of Tolevarre, our god of wrath’s call.
May you know the sincerity of my request from the soul I have given to you, my soul you own.
Hear his plea, accept him into your world, let him walk through your gates. ”
A rumble Bridger knew like the thunder of his own anger shook the ground below them.
“He’s here,” Summer gasped, shadows weaving through her now splayed palms.
Bridger’s breath rattled in his chest as he closed his eyes and inhaled. The power pulling at him from the ground, sliding up his legs with little tendrils of shadows, was intoxicating.
Oh gods. The need to make that power his almost made him drop to his knees like Summer.
“Her. Not him.” The voice was feminine and jagged, echoing inside his mind. He knew the voice, even though it had never talked to him before.
He understood. I get on my knees for no one but the goddess of death. Bridger forced his eyes open, letting loose a shaky breath.
Honesty hadn’t gotten Bridger here—lies and deceit had. He’d painted pretty pictures, forcing those around him to believe he only wanted to travel to the underworld. He hadn’t needed the book of death prayers… because Bridger wouldn’t pray for death.
Death was already with him, and he’d bound himself to her, to Vega, to Death, with a ring and a prayer.
To save Vega, Bridger had to do more… He had to become more.
“A challenge for my throne?” A deep voice beat down the door to his mind, leaving it open and accessible to all who could enter.
Gods, how had he not realized who’d spoken to him inside the portal to Earth immediately? It was unmistakable.
With the door removed from its hinges, Vega’s pleas echoed down to him—She knows.
“No!” Bridger bellowed out loud, slamming a shield up, pulling from the power he felt below him.
The shadow in his mind took form, wrapping around his mental shield and closing it tightly. Death kept Vega out.
It protected her.
“She is who you fight for, but she belongs to me.” Pluto’s voice was as smooth as the shadows swarming Bridger.
“She’s belonged to me for a very long time.
” His whisper made Death roar. “And so have the rest of you, Bridger Dimico. Bonded. By the god of the dead. Until she traded her soul for yours. She saved you this time.”
“Where’s Remus?” Bridger growled, reaching for his bonded dagger.
“Dead. Since the day he crossed me. Like you’re about to be, god of wrath.” Shadows shot out of the room, searching for who Bridger already knew was here. “I see Death is there with you already, the little traitor. Watch that one. It bites.”
The blare of Death’s growl felt like his own wrath pouring through his body.
Bridger flung his dagger out of the circle, severing the band of shadows not linked to the ones of Death. “They are not part of this. None of them. I challenge alone.”
From the end of the long tunnel, Vega came into view, sweat making her face glisten. She eyed the shadows around her feet, a tendril of lightning flickering to life in her hand.
Bridger could have sworn he heard the shadows sigh as they mixed with the lightning trickling from her fingertips.
Death vibrated with happiness inside his mind, sending a message to Vega.
“No,” she whispered. The look in her eyes almost made Bridger pause—but it was too late to turn back.
Arlet and Khort came barreling after Vega. She’d beaten them by almost half a minute, running with everything she had, pushing to whatever limit she could get to in her mind.
To stop him.
Vega took her first step towards him, and with a power he’d never known, Bridger brought a dome of shadows up from the ground, snatching them from Vega’s lightning to seal himself and Halo inside a shield of darkness.
The shadows fell, letting what little light they had in, but the shield held strong.
Vega stood outside, her open palms resting against the new forcefield. “Bridger,” she choked, tears streaming down her cheeks one after the other after the other. “What have you done?”
“I’m finding a way to save you.” Bridger took a step forward, the shadow-made shield separating their hands from touching when he rested his on the other side. “You belong to no one, Vega Caelum.”
“I know what you want if you win, but what do I get if you lose?” Pluto rumbled back. “I’ve already promised your soul remains safe, but if it’s you who barters… Who am I to decline?”
Every power inside Bridger intensified. “An eternity of service from the strongest warrior our kind has ever seen. Stronger than Mars ever was. Imagine the realms we could conquer.”
“No, no. Don’t,” Vega pleaded. Arlet put her hand on Vega’s shoulder, offering her comfort. Vega shoved Arlet off, causing her to bump into Khort.
Bridger eyed Arlet and Khort. “Focus on the war. Don’t let her come after me.”
Summer rose from the ground, spots from her knees in the dirt staining her cloak. She made an attempt to approach Vega, to explain.
Vega didn’t let her get close. Her lightning pushed everyone away like an electric bubble, closing her into a shield of her own.