Page 87 of Vengeance of the Gods

Hearing Vega say those words weaved a patch into the ripped fabric of Bridger’s soul.

Silence stretched between the cell, no one saying anything until Bridger spoke again. “I took in who I could, saved those who would have had nowhere else to go. I changed the way the army works. I didn’t choose Marlena. I chose my realm. I chose Tolevarre.” A weight lifted from his shoulders. “I’ve made mistakes, been far more ruthless than I should have been, but without me? I promise things would have been a lot worse.” He didn’t know if they’d believe him, but he’d finally spoken his truth.

“So, where’s your army now?” Khort asked with a smug smirk.

A rumble echoed through the cave, shrieks of terror following.

What timing!

“Gonna go out on a limb here, but I bet that’s them.”

30

Khort was out of the cell in seconds, signaling an end to the conversation. Arlet was out next, disappearing before their eyes. Where is her dragon?

Vega jumped from her seated position, an unfamiliar swell of power bubbling in the chasm of her mind.

“Let me talk to him,” Bridger pleaded.

Turned out, Vega didn’t need to go to Meyer.

Meyer came to them… and it had barely been two days since Vega and Bridger had returned.

She shook her head slowly, mulling it over. “Bridger…”

“Come on. You know he’ll turn this whole cave into a brick fucking oven.” Bridger urged her to make the decision quicker. “I’m the only one who’s going to be able to send him away without anyone dying, and you know it.”

The rebellion was close to crumbling in on itself. Without a safe place to regroup or a solid plan in motion, they were nothing more than an already failed attempt.

“We can’t afford any more deaths,” Vega warned, pointing at him directly and glaring down the line of her finger.

“Trust me.” Bridger’s voice slid into her mind, breaking a piece of the ice that had formed there. “You have to at least try.”

Vega knew he was right. This would be the ultimate test.

What would Bridger do when faced by his best friend and the army he’d built from the shambles his father had left it in?

“I will make your life fucking miserable if you cross me, Dimico.”

Vega didn’t wait for Bridger but knew he would be close behind. She could feel his full power snapping back into place when he exited the dead-end cell.

As she ascended the cave, Vega paid no attention to the moon towering over the mountains in the distance, or how the reflection of light casting off it illuminated the trees and made them look as if they were covered in snow.

She didn’t see Khort and Leo standing side by side with their weapons drawn, or feel the wind pick up from the power of a rebel soldier’s wind.

All Vega could focus on was Meyer and the over thirty soldiers with the highest level ten rank one could get in Tolevarre’s army lining their suits.

Fuck.

“Where’s he at, Sparks?” Meyer yelled as Vega came to a stop next to Khort and Arlet.

“Hi, Meyer,” Vega cooed, connecting with her powers. The sizzle of her lightning jumped behind her skin, waiting to be released, and the air turned prickly, a storm readying in the distance.

Somewhere deep inside the darkness of Vega’s mind, the newest piece of her fully awakened. Its claws scraped against the stone walls of the pit.

A roar rattled overhead, distracting Vega from the fear of what she might become if she used that power when she wasn’t supposed to.

Arlet’s big brown dragon snapped close to Bridger’s soldiers before landing on top of the cave’s mouth. Her head raked back and forth slowly, wagging like she was taking in the face of every single enemy she could make a snack out of.