Page 109 of Vengeance of the Gods

“I’m with you.” He placed a hard emphasis on the “you.”

People burst into action around them, soldiers from both sides running into the caves to grab weapons and reemerging to wait for their orders. Arlet’s dragon landed on top of the cave’s mouth and bellowed, her claws digging into the rock.

It didn’t matter what was happening around them. For a split second, it felt like just the two of them again. Vega dipped her head in a quick nod, finding the fuzzy pathway again. “Go.”

Trust me, he’d begged her when they’d returned home. She had a million reasons not to, but at one time she could have given two million reasons why he was the only person she could trust.

Bridger took a step forward, grabbing Vega’s chin between his thumb and forefinger, cocking her head back to search her face with his dark eyes—for what? Vega wasn’t sure, but he wet his lips, and the most unexpected thing happened next. Her six-foot-five ex-boyfriend turned enemy to ally to… whatever the fuck he was now leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her lips for everyone to see.

Bridger pulled away slowly, treating Vega like a wild animal who might spook. “Be careful. I’ll see you soon.” His fingers fell from her chin, and by the time Vega blinked, Bridger was already halfway to the tree line.

“Stop him!” Khort roared, his voice a mixture of beast and man.

“He needs to get to Vincere!” Lightning erupted from a low-hanging cloud, stopping two rebels from chasing after Bridger. “He has people—we have people there who need protection. It’s not just the rebels anymore.” She couldn’t believe she was about to say this, but… “We have to trust him. He deserves to be trusted.”

“Do you? Trust him?” Arlet asked, glancing at her massive brown dragon tracking Bridger from above.

What a loaded fucking question.

It wasn’t one Vega felt she could answer with a “yes” or “no” response.

She never got the chance to answer anyway.

“I hate to break this up… Seems important, but we really, really need to go. We need to meet my—” Octavia cleared her throat over the start of someone’s name, slipping up.

No one else seemed to notice the mistake. Vega had, and now she was more eager than ever to return to Demuto.

“I was told if something happened early to get to the meeting spot as soon as I could.” Octavia looked at the bow and arrows still slung over Vega’s shoulder. “I have a twenty-year-old sister who’s been sheltered by the elders her entire life. She doesn’t need to see whatever’s about to happen to our mother and friends.”

A sister’s love…

Vega pulled Octavia’s weapon over her head and offered it back. “You lead. We’ll follow.”

35

After Vega’s suggestion to load the few people they were taking up onto the backs of Khort’s and Arlet’s dragons got shot down in a sea of resounding no’s, they tacked up the few horses people from Solum brought when they’d been chased out of their home, and doubled up.

Vega and Arlet cozied up together while Khort flew overhead, keeping watch from the skies.

Vega finally got all her questions answered about Arlet’s dragon, Speravi, known to others as Avi. Her full name was Latin for “I have hoped.” A fitting name Arlet picked when she was nothing more than a mirage.

“I learned about halfway through your last life I could manifest her. At first, Khort and I thought it was just an illusion like everything else. It didn’t take long to realize she was so much more than that.” Their horse slowed to a lazy walk through some thick brush, following close behind Octavia, who refused to ride with anyone for the sake of Tilie.

“She’s had a personality and a voice of her own from the moment she first appeared inside my mind, like I created her separately from myself, but I could still control if she was there or not. It was like projecting her, but her home was nestled inside my power somewhere… but when you broke the curse, that piece of me broke and I’d been in so much pain, all I could think about was dying and taking her life too. So I pushed her out, giving her whatever chance to live she might have without me.” Avi swooped down from the clouds above, flying level with Khort.

“Can you and Khort talk through her?” Vega asked as they ducked under a low hanging branch.

“Only when Khort’s in dragon form. Avi channels his voice to me and then sends my thoughts back. It’s so weird.” Arlet laughed, leaning back in the surprisingly large saddle when they cleared through the thick brush.

“Is it like a doorway? That’s what it feels like with me and Bridger.”

She felt Arlet’s body bob with a shrug against her back. “Ours is more like a long tunnel. I’m on one end, Khort at the other, and Avi relays the messages.” Their different bonds were intricate in ways Vega hated not understanding. “How is that, by the way? Not getting a break from Bridger seems like… a lot.”

Vega focused on that bond, on the connection to Bridger cemented inside her in a way she never thought she’d be comfortable with… and she fucking sighed in contentment at the feel of him on the other end.

Thankfully, their horse followed Octavia’s, giving Vega nothing else to focus on other than her response. “It kinda feels like coming home.” She chuckled at how silly it sounded out loud. “I can’t believe I didn’t realize it sooner. There were a couple times where I remember thinking, ‘Hmm, that’s weird. I didn’t say that out loud,’ And then when I heard him begging me to come back after I’d stopped my heart.”

Arlet chuckled like Vega had told a funny joke. “He definitely wasn’t begging for you to come back. The second your body disappeared he—oh.” It hit Arlet then. “He was begging you to come back inside.”