Page 83 of Vengeance of the Gods

“I’m back. I’m really back now.” Vega felt the guilt of her statement bubble until she almost choked on it.

I’m not back forever.

Her words pulled Khort’s attention from the people around him. “It’s time this rebellion shows Tolevarre who Marlena’s up against.” A real smile tugged at Vega’s lips this time. “We’re done hiding… We have the commander of Tolevarre.”

29

Bridger woke from a dreamless sleep to Vega’s screams echoing through the door connecting their minds.

He knocked until the screaming stopped.

It took him a while to calm down, to stop pacing the length of his cell.

Bridger Dimico. Pacing…

If anything was going to make him go crazy, it was the pacing.

The same power that kept abilities from working in the Minerva Archives was used to disconnect Bridger from his in the cave’s makeshift cell.

A fucking immortal god, and I still don’t get to use my curse-free powers.

The one thing it hadn’t taken away, though, was the mental connection with Vega. The only person keeping him out was her… and he wouldn’t stop knocking until he heard her say she was okay.

What had her screams been about?

What scared her so badly she’d managed to wake him from his first deep sleep since before she’d returned in her last life?

Bridger could feel she was okay… but that only rested his mind enough to stop his pacing when a new guard came in with a small plate of breakfast.

Eggs scrambled with some kind of root vegetable. It wasn’t much, but it was still better than anything he’d eaten on Earth.

How they’d even found enough eggs to feed people here in the middle of Vates was impressive enough.

Being locked away should trigger some kind of trauma response in Bridger, but it didn’t. The rebels might not trust him, but they would need him eventually. It also helped Vega wasn’t Marlena, no matter how scary whatever she’d turned into was.

Bridger had seen it all, watched it all happen through Vega’s eyes. While she blacked out and slipped into whatever new power she’d taken when coming back through the portal, Bridger quickly learned their uncursed bond gave them all more of a connection than they’d had before.

He’d felt her pleasure, her pull to whatever she took from Marlena… all while learning he could now wield lightning if it came from Vega’s electric current.

Bridger had seen the way her veins pumped black blood from her wrist until it disappeared behind Vega’s shirt.

Something wasn’t right. Something dark waited in the shadows of his mind. Watching. Waiting. Bridger could feel the strain, even when he wasn’t thinking about it—it was constantly nagging at him.

To top it all off, if someone didn’t go talk to Meyer, he’d probably be setting the place on fire at any moment.

There was plenty for Bridger to think about while being imprisoned, but every thought kept leading back to Vega.

As if he’d willed her into existence, footsteps sounded down the tunnel, and Bridger smiled to himself—he’d know the sound of that walk anywhere. “Go get some food while it’s hot.” She dismissed his current guard, and when he scampered off, she turned her attention towards Bridger. “For the love of gods, please stop knocking,” Vega begged.

Sitting against the wall with his legs kicked out in front of him, crossed at the ankles, Bridger let a lazy smile pull at his lips. “Ah, have you finally come to tell me why you woke me up screaming outside the door you won’t open?”

Vega opened the cell door and stepped through, but she hesitated for a second, her brows pulling in long enough for Bridger to know she was about to lie.

“I had a nightmare. I have them sometimes. There’s a lot my brain has to torture me with when I’m not awake to stop it… and now when I’m awake, I have to deal with your insistent knocking.”

Bridger hummed, watching Vega settle on the other side of the small cell. “I’d stop knocking if you’d just let me in.” He shrugged, staying seated on the cave floor.

“But then that means you wouldn’t stop talking, and I don’t want that either.” Vega slid down the wall across from him, laying her head back and closing her eyes. “There’s no privacy with this new connection.” She inhaled, resting her palms up towards the cave’s short ceiling. Her fingers emitted only a little bit of blue light.