Chapter 2
One Month Later
The evergreens rustled with the sound of wind breezing through, the lowest hanging limbs of two trees crossing together to form an arch.
In between the trunks and the crossed branches, the snow from last night’s storm reflected off the portal, tiny beams of light casting the space around Bridger with sparkles.
It was beautiful in the same way a destructive fire was beautiful. Dangerous and lethal. Life-changing. And in a moment, it could take everything someone loved.
The crack down the middle made Bridger shudder.
What happens if it splits in two and Vega is lost forever? What does that mean for the rest of us?
The crack appeared after Vega’s body vanished from his arms. One second, he’d been holding the strongest version of Vega he’d ever known, and the next she was gone—in the blink of an eye.
“Commander.” Halo’s voice yanked Bridger from his daydream.
He turned to face the traveler, his eyebrow raised as if to ask, What?
Halo rubbed his hands together nervously. “I think we should get back.” His eyes scanned the clearing. “Rebels are everywhere.”
Bridger knew where the rebels were. He knew they would be looking to take whoever they could prisoner. He was aware he would be the prize of a lifetime if they got their hands on him.
If.
“Halo, please.” Bridger held up his hand to dismiss him. “We will go when I’m ready.” He turned back around to face the portal.
He reached down the bond, searching for the other end where Vega should be. Bridger felt nothing. Not a whisper or a breath of a response, only the tingle of the brand on his wrist and the reminder he knew where she was.
This was the first time she’d killed herself. Bridger hadn’t missed the electric buzz of her body when he held her until she disappeared. If he concentrated hard enough, he could still feel his fingers tingling.
Bridger lost himself staring at the portal, slipping behind a shield to protect himself and Halo from any surprise attacks while he was distracted with everything he knew.
Arlet hadn’t talked much since being taken captive, but the little she had was enough for Bridger to get some useful information.
Vega found something about her curse which pointed her back to Earth, returning her to the world that’d already stolen fifty-five years from her.
Since Vega couldn’t find anyone to assist in testing her theory, she decided to take it into her own hands—pretending to kill herself to reset to a new life and search for the root of her curse, the one responsible for over twenty different deaths and for stripping her of her memories and powers.
Why she couldn’t have tried walking through the portal as a starter is beyond me…
Halo’s boots crunched on dry leaves, his nerves causing him to fidget.
Bridger groaned, spinning to face Halo. “We need to work on your anxiety. It’s going to get you killed.” He rested his hand gently on Halo’s bony shoulder, squeezing lightly. “Have you been training at all?”
“We’re really doing this right now?” Halo grumbled.
Halo had a lot of growing to do, mentally and physically, but Bridger wasn’t ready to give up on him. He saw something inside the young boy—not just the power he possessed.
“Take me to her,” Bridger said.
Halo didn’t have to ask who he was talking about—it was the same person every time.
Bridger was growing accustomed to the jarring sensation of traveling, the sinking and crushing feeling of moving through space and time under someone else’s control.
His feet met the stone floor of the Atrox prison. The cries of the tormented echoed through the halls, centering Bridger back to the real world. Halo deposited him and left, his black smoke floating to the low ceilings.
Standing outside her cell, Bridger tapped the hilt of his dagger against the iron bars with a reverberating ring. “Are you ready to tell me how I get to Vega?”
Arlet stared directly into his eyes from her seated position in the corner. Every bit of exposed skin covering her body was littered with bruises of varying degrees. “No.”
Bridger sighed, gripping the bars with his dagger still in his hand. “You’re wasting time, stealing from all of us.”
“I’d rather us all die than give you another chance to hurt Vega,” she spat, snarling at him like a rabid animal.
Bridger couldn’t help the eye roll. “You’re being very dramatic.
” His hand hovered over the cell door’s lock.
It clicked open, a tingle of power rushing up his arm from the prison’s recognition.
He stepped inside and closed himself in with her.
“I know you didn’t spend the last fifty-five years chasing Vega down to give up on her so easily. ”
Arlet’s snarl grew larger. “You don’t know me, Dimico, and you certainly don’t know Vega either. She’s there because she wants to be this time. She’s not coming back until she breaks her curse.”
It was the same answer every. Single. Time. Bridger was getting close to breaking down, to resorting to torture, but that wouldn’t help. He needed to build Arlet’s trust, to make her see the man he’d once been.
The man I am. He wasn’t as good at convincing himself than he was others.
Bridger ran a hand through his hair, puffing a calming breath through his lips.
“And what if she didn’t get it right? What if she has no memories?
Who’s going to go get her if you’re locked up?
I know where she is. I saw it. All I need is for you to tell me how I get to her when the portal is on the other side of the fucking world. ”
Arlet’s sneer started to fall as she shrugged her shoulders. “You don’t. You let her die, just like you always have.”
His frustration got to him, the walls of the cell trembling from the surge in his mood. “Arlet, please. Please. I’m begging you. Tell me what I need to do to get her back here.”
Arlet meandered her gaze from Bridger’s head to his toes. “You don’t look like you’re begging. I’ve seen you beg for Vega’s life before, and this isn’t it.”
Through gritted teeth, Bridger stepped closer.
Arlet had to crane her neck to look at him.
“I will not get on my knees for you, Arlet Videri.” He reached out and twirled a matted curl between his fingers before she swatted him away.
“You might have accepted your fate, but I haven’t.
I will not let her be the death of me… and neither should you. ”
Marlena had already taken enough.
Bridger stood tall, rolled his shoulders back, and was ready to take his leave when Arlet surprised him with a question. “Do you think it worked? That Vega is still the person she was when she left?”
He didn’t know how to answer that question, so he turned it around. “Do you?”
“I think Vega is going to fry everyone in her path to get the vengeance she craves, and if she doesn’t remember it now, she will eventually.”
Bridger closed the cell, the lock sliding into place. “And you’re going to take that from her, from the people you want to save. All because you want to keep her safe. The exact reason Vega went behind your back in the first place.”
Arlet chuffed a humorless laugh. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“When are you going to see she doesn’t want to be protected?” Bridger cocked his head. “She’s sick of people making decisions for her.”
Her life had been planned out since the day she was born. Marry Khort, have dragon babies, and follow along like the perfect pawn.
He didn’t need to know this version of Vega to know how sick she was of the people in her life dictating her every move.
Silence followed his question. Arlet wasn’t going to budge.
Bridger took a breath and forced his shoulders to stay squared even though he felt them wanting to sag in defeat.
He would come back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day. Bridger would come every single day for the rest of time if it meant there was a chance Arlet cracked.
He turned to leave the prison, and finally, finally, Arlet gave in. “Don’t you think it’s time Marlena helped clean up the mess she’s made?”
Bridger stopped walking, peering over his shoulder at Arlet, who continued to talk.
“If the curse she created is what made the portal, what’s stopping her from making another?”