Page 56 of Vengeance of the Gods

By some stroke of luck, they were passing a sign that read Rest Area, and Vega pulled them into a discreet corner of a large parking lot.

Bridger didn’t let the car come to a complete stop before he stumbled out into the crisp air. The snow had stopped for now, but there was a fresh dusting coating the grass crunching under his boots.

The cold air filled his lungs but hadn’t begun to help calm his racing thoughts.

“Bridger.” Vega’s voice came from close behind him, startling him to spin around on the ready. She scanned him from the ground up as the internal warfare of Marlena’s torture overthrew his senses. “What did you dream of?” She asked the question gently, her tone bordering on nervous.

“I can’t…”

Vega’s softness turned to something Bridger couldn’t place right away, her body tensing. “Of course not. You expect me to open up about the fucked-up shit I’ve been through, but I don’t get the same in return.”

The car stayed running behind them, the lights reflecting off the snow-covered trees in the distance.

Bridger’s fists clenched at his side. “It’s not the same.”

Vega’s jaw dropped, and the look on her face was one Bridger had seen hundreds of times before—the one she got before a fight broke out and she was about to explode. If they were back in Tolevarre, sparks of her lightning would light up her fingertips.

“Oh, really?” Her head cocked to the side.

“Yes, really,” Bridger deadpanned, focusing on doing whatever he could to keep his mind from returning to the memory he’d been forced to relive.

“I’m trying to see how it’s fair that I’m expected to spill the darkest parts of myself on command when it’s what you need, but you, the one who betrayed me, gets to clam up whenever he wants? No.” Vega shook her head. “No. That’s not how this is going to go.”

His emotions took a one-eighty, melting from the fear of being trapped alone again inside a memory he could no longer escape, to white-hot anger. “When are you going to stop fucking reminding me of my wrongdoings, Vega?” He stalked towards her, but she didn’t back down—not this version of her.

It lit something in the pit of his stomach. Rage, he told himself as it warmed the rest of his body.

But it wasn’t that at all. It was need.

The ache to touch Vega was stronger than ever, his control slipping faster than he could rope it back in.

“Because I know what I’ve done wrong. I know the choices I’ve made. When I close my fucking eyes, they’re there to haunt me. The good, the bad, and the ugly. So excuse me for not wanting to relive them more than I already have to.” He looked down, towering over her with only inches of space between their bodies.

Scoffing, Vega craned her neck, a sneer pulling her upper lip. “Welcome to the last fifty-five years of my life. If I don’t get to cherry-pick my memories, then neither do you.” She laughed, and it wasn’t the melody he’d heard earlier.

He couldn’t think straight, couldn’t find his way out of the sea of anger begging him to succumb to its fury.

He wasn’t but seconds from snapping.

“If you won’t tell me about your dreams, then tell me how you got Marlena to agree to making a new portal. What’s in it for her, Bridger? I know my sister well enough. She didn’t allow you to come here without something in return.”

His promise to Marlena rang in his mind, echoing beside the threats of his latest dream. Bridger closed his eyes, trying to shut everything out without the power of his shields. “Stop,” he pleaded, fighting to hold onto his last sliver of control.

“What did you tell her you’d do to me?” Vega continued to push.

“Vega, please.” He muttered, resorting to begging. Bridger’s forearms quivered from the tightly balled fists he had yet to loosen, his muscles straining.

“We’re allies, Bridger. Allies. That’s what you want right? You want to work together, to come back to where you were meant to be?” Well, this is how we do it. You learn to tell me the things I need to fucking hear. The things I need to trust you!”

Bridger’s eyes snapped open, and the anger he felt at himself, at Marlena, at Vega, all of it, exploded.

Stalking forward, Bridger locked his focus on Vega like prey, and she must have recognised the look, because for every step Bridger took forward, she took one backwards. “You want to know what’s going on in my fucked-up head? Huh? You want to know why I don’t want to tell you what I’m seeing? The promises I’ve made?”

A breath of air escaped Vega’s lips when her back collided with the car.

Bridger boxed her between his outstretched arms and instantly recognized the heavy lidded look she wore.

It was worse than the fear he’d finally expected to show.