Chapter 4
A black puff of smoke followed Marlena as she stepped through the in-between and landed on the other side of Tolevarre.
She’d left Aeris only seconds ago and walked through to Nix, Amora’s main city—it was hardly large enough to call a city but too small to call a town—the one she’d briefly called home years ago, where Bridger and his army were, tightening up restrictions on a town who’d decided to riot early this morning.
Amora had never been a problem, not in all the years Marlena ruled, but since Ivelle’s death, they’d become rowdier than she could allow them to be.
Marlena didn’t have friends, but Ivelle had once been the only person who stood by her side when the rest of the world turned their backs.
Finding out about Amora’s riot only minutes ago, long after it’d been handled by Bridger, made the gods inside her rise with anger.
“Why would he act without you?”
“Who does he think he is?”
She shoved them down, locking the tingle of their powerful rage at bay for now.
The city’s viewing center had been set up as the army’s headquarters. A soldier with a level ten patch, noting her as the highest rank a member of Bridger’s army could reach, stood guard at the door.
Marlena could feel the pull of her Fraus-born traveling power. The voice of Mercury, the god of Fraus’s people, was almost too hard to ignore when he felt someone with an outstanding ability.
It’s why he went wild around Halo…
A battle-trained traveler could be the deadliest in almost any fight if taught properly.
“Marlena.” The woman bowed her head. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”
Formal, respectful, but not scared. It wasn’t often Marlena didn’t cause people to shy out of her way.
“Where’s the commander?” she asked, crossing her arms and looking bored when the girl moved to open the door for her.
“Last room on the right.” She stepped to the side, but Marlena didn’t need her to. She cut the walk in half, stepping through Tolevarre’s edges and landing in front of the door.
She didn’t wait for it to open, allowing her control of the wind to announce her arrival.
Bridger sat at a makeshift desk in the center of the room, his attention on a monitor on the back wall playing footage of what must be last night’s attack.
The shadow of a dragon darkened the snow-covered ground as it flew through the light of the moon.
“Fera’s to blame for this?” she asked, standing in the center of the room with her hands clasped calmly in front.
It wasn’t Bridger who answered her. “By the time my team and I arrived, he’d already had most of Nix evacuated,” Meyer explained.
“How many casualties?” Marlena asked, her attention glued to Bridger, who hadn’t taken his eyes off the looped video.
Bridger spoke but didn’t look her way. “Fifteen across.”
It wasn’t a massacre.
“I don’t think Khort’s motivation in coming was to fight. He showed up after the riots started to get people out,” Meyer added. “All my reports over the last few weeks since Vega’s most recent death say he’s showing up only to save the people looking to flee.”
Marlena’s jaw tensed the longer Meyer was in the room. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be, General?”
Bridger’s head snapped in Marlena’s direction.
“My army. My general. You do not command either while I’m alive.
” He rose from his chair, and the look on his stone-carved face said he meant business.
His sharp jawline was taut and finally visible again after the weeks he went without shaving following Vega’s second escape.
His hair was freshly washed and pushed back in his normal, polished style.
A few unruly pieces always fell out of place around his brow.
Marlena couldn’t help but notice he wasn’t wearing his commander’s uniform. “Well, hello, Commander,” Marlena purred. “It’s nice to see you again.”
Their relationship had become strained, more so than it had been at the beginning of Bridger’s reign as commander. Marlena wasn’t stupid. If she didn’t want to run him off, she had to watch her every move.
“What do you want, Marlena?” Bridger asked, leaning against the side of the desk. He crossed his arms over his chest, and Marlena knew she’d see corded veins against his forearms had they been visible through his long sleeves.
Marlena smirked, striding across the small space to stand in front of him. “You could say hello back, you know?” She wore a long sapphire satin gown with a slit up her right leg. It hugged her curves in all the right places, accentuating Marlena’s best features.
Bridger’s tight chest rose and fell with a breath. “Hello, Marlena. How’s your day going? Busy?” he asked, motioning to the disaster of a desk behind him. “How was your breakfast? Did you sleep well?”
Marlena interrupted his sarcastic ramblings. “Why wasn’t I aware of the riot or of Khort until just now?”
A beep on Bridger’s comm-device had him reaching for it on the desk.
He spoke, eyes scanning over whatever message he’d received.
“As I said, my army. Not yours. If I feel it’s necessary for you to know, I’ll tell you.
” His eyes shot up from the screen. “Khort had nothing to do with the attack. He was only doing what he does best.” He looked over his shoulder at Meyer.
“Will you handle whatever this is about?” he asked, passing the device over to him, who grumbled about incompetent children while stomping out of the room.
Bridger returned to their conversation the second the door closed. “Swooping in to play hero or whatever it is he does as the ‘rebel army’s leader.’” He used air quotes around the last three words and even added some flare with a quick roll of his eyes.
Marlena’s blood began to boil, her fingertips longing to feel the heat of her fire. “I cannot have riots breaking out in Amora when I have no praefectus to subdue them.” Her voice had an eerie similarity to the beast of the dead god of Demuto, Diana. “This needs to be taken care of. Now.”
“What is it you think I’m doing here?” Bridger asked with a cocked brow. “Vacationing in paradise?” His lips held the hint of a smile at his joke.
Amora was cold and miserable all year long. She could count on two hands how many times she’d seen it get above freezing in the last decade. “Are you handling it, or should I?”
His smile spread, and it reminded her of a boy she once knew. Of the young man who fell in love with her sister… “You know you can trust me to take whatever it is that’s thrown my way.” He pointed at Marlena. “I’m here. Handling it. Making sure the rebels know there’s an army presence.”
“I want curfews for every city above five thousand.” Marlena tightened the already short reins she allowed the people of Tolevarre.
“Done,” Bridger said.
Marlena continued. “And—”
Bridger cut her off. “Ah, wait a second. Why is it you always get whatever you want, but I don’t get what I want? Shouldn’t there be a little balance here now? I think it’s about time we share the power.”
Marlena blinked away the twitch in her left eye from Bridger’s tone. Don’t bite back too hard.
“What do you want?” Her jaw burned from how hard she clenched.
Bridger leaned away from the desk, uncrossed his arms, and stood to his full height. “How did the portal appear when you cursed Vega?”
The gods inside warned to keep her mouth shut, but whatever was left of Marlena’s original voice whispered of all she stood to lose if Bridger disappeared.
Reluctantly, she answered. “It started as a cursed mirror and the blood of two sisters.”
Bridger didn’t hesitate or pause. “You think you could build another one straight to her?”
Marlena opened her mouth, readying to tell him there wasn’t anything she couldn’t do, when a more important question arose. “Why would you be interested in a portal straight to Vega?”
“It took Arlet years to figure out how to navigate Earth comfortably and efficiently. We don’t have years. I think it’s better I get the job done quickly and come back to continue preparing for your war.” Bridger’s words were sharp enough to draw blood.
How Arlet had found Vega all those times before had been a mystery to Marlena until the responsibility fell to Bridger. It came in the shape of a dream in the exact location they would find Vega—nothing else. The rest had been on Arlet to figure out.
She found herself wondering how the earlier versions of Arlet even figured out how to survive in a new world. Mousy Arlet Videri, spending all her time alone in a different world, haunted by the memories she’d never escape like her best friend could.
“Speak,” the loudest of the gods reminded her.
Marlena shrugged like Bridger made a point. “I suppose I could try, but I’m curious.” Marlena took a step closer, watching him for any movement. A flinch, a twitch, anything. Bridger didn’t budge. “Why are you so insistent on finding my sister again? After losing her twice in her last life…”
The sister who’d done nothing while their parents beat her. The sister who’d chosen her friends and boyfriend over her own blood. The sister who’d once been the only person Marlena cared to save, to now become the one Marlena couldn’t wait to end.
Bridger’s eyes darkened, but he still didn’t move.
He was a statue of indifference. “Why did the portal linked to the world Vega’s bound to crack if this life went all the same as the rest?
We all know the curse isn’t going to run out, but it can be broken, and I’d say it’s looking more broken than it ever has… Wouldn’t you?”
One of the voices in the back of Marlena’s mind waved a red flag. Could she trust Bridger anymore? He wasn’t the same person he’d been at the start of this, or the same person he was a year ago, six months ago. But he also wasn’t wrong. The portal had split down the middle, unlike any time before.