Page 90 of Vengeance of the Gods

“Not everyone is going to follow you,” Khort pointed out.

“That much is obvious… but I know the army I’ve created. Most of them will. It just might take some time for them to let themselves be more afraid of dying for Marlena than by Marlena.”

Like a chameleon, he morphed into whatever he needed to be in the moment, hiding what he didn’t want others to see. It didn’t matter how hard he tried to hide the sadness weighing him down, Vega could feel it.

I can feel everything he feels…

His best friend, despite his willingness to assist Vega in breaking her curse if it meant freeing Bridger from his dreams, would never follow Bridger to this side of the war.

“You’ll make sure my people have the right accommodations. They aren’t your prisoners. I’ll continue to be for as long as you need, but they won’t be,” Bridger told Vega, not bothering to address the others. “They follow my orders. Death of any rebel at their hands before this alliance is on me. Not them.”

Vega nodded, unsure what else she could say.

“Thank you,” he said to only her before turning and strolling back into the dark cave.

Thank you? Vega’s lips parted as she watched him disappear. Arlet’s dragon took off into the night sky, soaring in the direction of Meyer and the group returning with him.

Watching.

“We gotta have a conversation about this dragon thing. I have so many questions,” Vega said in a monotone drawl, still staring where Bridger had disappeared long after he was gone. “But I have…” Her eyes wandered to Arlet and Khort, who were staring at her. “I have to.” She had to follow Bridger.

She didn’t wait for her friends to respond.

“Wait!” Vega called down the pathway, running to catch up to him.

As she approached, Bridger’s shoulders sagged. It was so minuscule no one would notice the change… but Vega did. “You did it.” She was still processing what those words meant.

“I did it,” Bridger said on a breath, turning to let her see his face.

“I’m sorry,” Vega said, unable to stop the words from tumbling out.

His eyebrows creased. “For?”

“For not fighting for you. For not seeing you. For not being there when you needed someone. For letting you walk away so easily. For giving up on you.” Vega had a long list of things she felt she could apologize for. She wasn’t the only victim of Marlena’s abuse.

Bridger leaned against the iron cell’s doorframe. “I’m the one who gave up on you.”

She shook her head, taking another step towards him. Vega kept her distance, staying outside Bridger’s reach. “I told you to keep our people safe. That was my exact request the first time she made you kill me.” Under the rubble of what had once been her childhood home. “And then I begged you to save me instead of Meyer… because I was afraid of what my life would look like without you in it.”

“Every time you left, I lost a little piece of myself, and I kept wondering what good I would be to our realm if I lost myself in losing you…” The hurt creasing his brow made Vega hold her breath. “But I did lose myself. I lost myself for a long time, blocking out anything that felt too real. Anything that reminded me of you. I had to erase you to become the commander of Tolevarre. The irony behind needing you now to become the god I’m meant to be isn’t lost on me. There is no me without you. Not the real me, anyway.” His dark eyes drank her in. “I’m sorry it took me forty years to figure that out. I’ll wait another forty for you to forgive me if I have to.”

Her heart screamed for her to move, but her feet stayed cemented in place. “Better late than never.”

“I’m not the same boy I was.” He said it as a warning.

“We’ll never be the people we were back then.” Vega retorted. “I don’t want you to be. I want you to be the commander. The god.”

Bridger stared at her like he could see through to the darkness making Vega’s soul its home. “No secrets.”

She swallowed so hard her throat bobbed, but she nodded, agreeing to it with her first lie of their fresh start. “No secrets.”

They didn’t need to know… not yet. Not until Vega knew how this new power saved them.

Neither moved, rooted in place by their own stubbornness.

Needing to distract herself from the sparks of desire heating her core, Vega said the first thing that popped in her head. “This doesn’t mean we’re back together.”

Bridger’s laugh was the one she remembered hearing. The one she fell in love with. “No, of course not.” His lips pulled into his famous crooked grin, and Vega couldn’t stop staring.