Page 70 of Revenge of the Forgotten

Lucius stepped forward, and with the help of his father, Bridger was contained, going nowhere. His mother had picked him up, reminding him not to embarrass their family, but his father had always thought he was a disgrace—long before Vega. It didn’t matter he was the strongest warrior their world had ever seen. Bridger wasn’t his father, and that fact drove Lucius mad. Lucius’s brutality wasn’t a trait Bridger ever wanted to bear. He didn’t want to lose the humanity inside him to impress a man who mistreated everyone just because he could.

Bridger was good. He was fair. He wanted to change the way the army operated one day. Bridger dreamed of the day his father stepped down and he got to make a difference… but that day would never come. Instead, he’d die because he wasn’t the son his father wanted him to be.

Lucius threw him to the hard floor. “If you’re going to act like one of them, you can die like one of them.” He slammed a boot to the side of Bridger’s head. The water splashed in his face, the salt burning his eyes and turning them bloodshot. Even through the physical pain he felt, he still tried to fight himself free.

“I’ll do anything, Marlena. Please, let her go.” Bridger’s words were garbled, the water beginning to pool over half of his face.

Marlena whispered, speaking to no one but herself. “It’s too late.” Marlena raised her other hand, emerald electricity crackling in her open palm. Another new power. This was no longer the Marlena who could hide herself with invisibility and create a dangerous gust of wind. Lightning crackled from somewhere inside her, and she turned her head to admire it before she looked back to her sister. “You think you’re the only one who can summon dead gods, sister?”

Vega’s eyes were red, vessels bursting and staining her irises with blood. Marlena eased up, and Vega choked out, inhaling with a wheeze. The look of shock that should be on her face was stolen by the need to breathe.

Marlena laughed, taking in the rest of the room’s reaction. She was enjoying this, the power, the upper hand. She had summoned a god too.

“How?” Vega squawked, her vocal cords sustaining damage from the hold Marlena had on her. Marlena didn’t let her go. She yanked her by the neck, bringing them back face to face.

“Where do you think you got the idea from? It wasn’t yours. I’ve been planting the idea of summoning a god for help in your brain for months. It was so easy.” Marlena’s voice heightened, mimicking a conversation they must have had privately. “Could you imagine if we summoned one to fix the problems inside the Curia? We could change the world.” Her laugh was uneven, her voice returning to its normal tone. “We could have. Together. But you made your choice, and I can’t do anything to save you now. I won’t. How hopeful you were. You’ve always been so easily manipulated, so easy to crush… and yet you got the better powers. It should have been me.” Marlena let go of Vega’s throat but switched her hold to the newly branded wrist the four of them shared.

Marlena was so strong. Too strong.

The water continued to rush in. Bridger fought his way upright enough not to drown. His father let him, but only because he was as bewitched by Marlena as the rest of the room was.

“I bet my twelve murdered gods are a lot angrier than your one vengeful demi,” Marlena divulged, finally revealing her secret. “You may have been stronger, Vega, but I’ve always been smarter.” Ardor’s building shuddered. The water suddenly stopped rushing in, falling to a stillness around their feet.

Arlet made it to Khort, holding on to her friend in what was bound to be their last moments. Bridger looked over to them from his spot on the floor. Arlet and Khort nodded at him, tears streaming down Arlet’s round cheeks.

Marlena had summoned the twelve original gods, their powers now all hers.

And they didn’t stand a chance.

“What are you?” Vega asked, not moving.

Marlena leaned forward, sharing a secret with her sister the rest of them couldn’t hear. Vega’s eyes went wide, jaw nearly unhinging from how quickly it fell open.

Marlena drew a blade from a holster. Khort lunged forward. “No!”

Arlet went with him, standing zero chance against whatever power consumed Marlena. Her attention was all on Vega. She didn’t have to look at the two bodies coming towards her to stop them.

Water splashed up around Arlet, cocooning her inside an impenetrable force field. The saltwater slid down her throat, drowning her where she stood.

A gust of wind picked up, suspending Khort in midair. He couldn’t move, eyes opened wide as he was forced to watch while his best friend was drowning—while the girl he’d been in love with since childhood was held at knifepoint by her sister.

Bridger’s ears rang. He heard no sound, only knew he was screaming and trying to yank free from his parents’ hold to get to Vega.

Bridger fought.

Until the end.

Marlena sneered, “Je te verrai.” I’ll be seeing you. And then she plunged her knife into Vega’s chest, piercing her through the heart.

Vega didn’t have time to scream before the blade sank into her and the life drained from her eyes.

“Vega! No! Vega!” Bridger didn’t know if it was him saying that, didn’t know if it was Khort or Arlet. His heart broke, shattered, tears spilling over as he fought with all his might. His elbow slammed into his father’s nose, breaking it with a crunch—blood pooled out, and he let go of Bridger long enough for him to overpower the guards with polished punches and warrior-like grace.

The pain in his side didn’t matter. His uneven breathing didn’t matter—nothing mattered anymore.

Marlena let Vega’s body crash to the floor and released whatever power she had on Khort and Arlet. Khort fell twenty feet to the floor, and yet somehow, he still managed to get to Vega’s lifeless body. Khort shuddered with wails of physical and emotional pain.

Arlet couldn’t move, coughing up all of the Caldor Ocean from her lungs.

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