Page 86 of Vengeance of the Gods

There was nowhere else for him to go.

Arlet sighed. “It’s time you tell us your side of the story, Bridger.”

His eyes bounced between Arlet and Khort, lingering on Vega the longest. She shrugged her shoulders and didn’t say a word.

“You think my story is going to change the way they feel?” Bridger asked with a sneer.

“It’s a start,” Vega quipped.

“There’s a lot I’m not ready to talk about,” Bridger admitted. “And it’s not because I’m hiding anything. I’m still not prepared to face every demon I locked away, and this whole feelings thing is kind of new to me again.”

For almost forty years, Bridger had blocked out anything that could hurt him, spending nearly half a century feeling nothing but what the fearless leader of Tolevarre’s army should feel.

Anger. Determination.

“Then tell us what you’re willing to share.” Arlet’s voice was soft, but when Bridger looked up, her eyes were clouded with exactly what he’d expected. Apprehension.

Bridger had a sneaking suspicion it wasn’t Arlet or Khort who’d pushed this matter.

He huffed. He didn’t have a choice—it was time to open up.

Lost inside his roaring thoughts, Bridger didn’t miss the caress of Vega’s presence inside. When his eyes focused on her, she was already looking at him, her icy eyes drawing him in.

If Vega could talk about the shitty things that happened to her, Bridger could give them the peace of mind they were looking for.

“We’ve all fallen victim to Marlena’s torture. I don’t need to explain what she’s able to do to someone when she has full control.” Everyone nodded in unison, so Bridger continued. “When I escaped after two years, I was already a different person. I had to become someone inside that cell to keep myself from going crazy.”

Bridger stared at the worn soles of Vega’s boots, giving himself something to focus on while he spoke. “I spent 802 days locked away, and only three people talked to me. Marlena, when she was reminding me I had the power to save the people I loved, or when she felt it was necessary to tell me who Vega had come back as—how weak she was becoming. My mother, who never missed an opportunity to tell me what a failure I’d become, and a young level one warrior, freshly enlisted, who I manipulated and then had to kill to escape.” Bridger couldn’t look up—didn’t want to see anyone’s reactions as he continued.

“Marlena never laid a hand on me the entire time I was her prisoner. She didn’t have to. She knew I could endure physical pain. I’d been raised by a man who beat me any chance he got, usually for nothing more than a reminder he could. But that didn’t mean the others didn’t. Guards, other leaders. My own mother.” Bridger felt the breath Arlet inhaled. “Whoever felt they had a bone to pick with me.” He’d been stripped of his powers the entire time, never able to fight back against the strength of those with three meals a day and unblocked abilities. “When they were done they’d all send in a healer, readying me for the next person who showed up.”

Vega knew of his father’s abuse, but he’d never gone into detail. Bridger had always had secrets—had been raised to keep them close to his chest. “Marlena knew what it would take to break me. She’d already taken the only person I’d ever loved… The last thing I wanted was for Vega to lose the people who loved her too.”

Bridger ground his teeth together, pushing against the need to clam up.

“Keep going.” Vega’s words fluttered through his mind.

Having her there, in whatever capacity she was willing to give him, gave Bridger the nerve he needed to continue. “Maybe Marlena already knew the four of us couldn’t die, but I didn’t, and she told me she would let you both live if I joined her.” A laugh actually slipped through his lips, but it didn’t have any humor behind it. “Vega hadn’t been the person we’d loved in a long time, and I was the one who found it hardest to deal with, but no one was in my shoes. No one was losing the only person who’d ever made them feel whole.” His eyes rose to Vega. “I lost her over and over and over… I don’t have to tell either of you what that felt like.”

Khort rolled his eyes and started to talk, but surprisingly, Arlet cut him short. “Let him finish.” She nodded Bridger on.

“So while you lost Vega too, what you didn’t have, don’t have, is the responsibility of a Dimico-born warrior. At birth, by blood, I was chosen for a specific duty.” When the next commander was born, their power was already engraved in them—they didn’t have to wait to come into their ability like everyone else. “I had a realm ready to tear itself apart, and no one to lead it. Do you know why the original bloodline didn’t allow the commander to also be the Curia seat holder?”

None of them answered, but Bridger knew they knew.

“Because the commander’s life isn’t linked to one territory. It’s connected to them all. A commander’s obligation is to his realm, not his birthplace.” Bridger’s own lineage had been the ones to forget—to get greedy and want more for only themselves.

Bridger had never supported his parents’ views or beliefs, but up until Vega, he’d never had the courage to act against them.

“I took an oath to our realm, was born to protect it… and Marlena was letting people die, killing them. Not just us or the people we cared about. She was letting the people who had nothing else, no one else, die. We promised to protect them. We told Remus we would.” Bridger had so many conflicting feelings about Remus after everything Romulus had revealed. He hadn’t even begun unpacking what he’d heard and witnessed. “I had to make a decision for them, not me. I thought I’d lost Vega for good, and I didn’t have anything else to live for at that moment in my life.” Bridger felt like he was being filleted open and examined for broken pieces.

Khort and Arlet’s posture softened, but Bridger wasn’t focused on them. He’d always said he didn’t care about the others, and while that wasn’t entirely true, he’d thought of Vega before everyone else.

She’d been the first and last person he’d thought of when he’d made his final decision.

“I eventually had to ask myself what Vega would have done in my situation.” In the early days after his betrayal, Bridger liked to believe there was a version of Vega out there somewhere who was proud of the man he’d had to become.

Understanding wrapped around their bond. “I would have saved as many people as I could.”