Chapter 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.
A few of the soldiers looked like they might flee, but just before they darted, Vega felt Bridger walk up beside her.
I’ll never be able to ignore him in a room ever again. When she glanced over at him, his hands were in his pockets—the epitome of casual.
“Will you help defend my soldiers like you do the rebels when Marlena turns on them too?” Bridger caught Vega by surprise, stealing her breath with a single question. He stared ahead, his attention directed at Meyer, who hid his surprise well.
“Is there a difference between them if they’re both willing to fight against tyranny in hopes for a better world?” she asked softly.
The faintest of smiles pulled at the edges of Bridger’s lips. “Hey, buddy. I was wondering when you’d show up.” Bridger crossed his arms over his chest. “Almost three days, though? I could’ve been rebel food by now.”
Khort glared daggers at Bridger, ready to attack if he made one wrong move.
Meyer’s eyes bounced between Bridger, Vega, and then finally took in Khort’s posture. “What’s going on here?” he asked, pausing on Vega for a second longer—he could sense the oncoming news.
“I’m choosing,” Bridger answered.
Vega froze, everyone’s eyes landing on her and Bridger.
Meyer’s chest fell with the release of a breath. “Her?” He nodded at Vega.
Bridger shook his head. “I’m choosing what’s right for this realm. Vega’s just an added bonus I’m soul bonded to.” He sent Khort into a silent frenzy when he winked her way.
“Stop it,” Vega scolded.
“But it’s so fun.” His reply was followed with the deep rumble of his internal laugh.
“Traitor,” a guard behind Meyer hissed.
Bridger raised a dark brow. “Am I?” He took a step forward, and the man jumped back, bumping into the woman behind him. “What did you vow upon entry into my army?”
The one who’d called him a traitor didn’t answer, but another down the line did. “To protect the people of Tolevarre.”
Bridger turned, motioning to the people standing outside the cave, ready to take on thirty-two—Vega finished counting—of Tolevarre’s greatest warriors. “Are these not the people of Tolevarre?”
“She’s the enemy.” A young man pointed at Vega.
Vega followed his finger straight to her chest, and then looked back up, jabbing a thumb at herself. “Me?”
“Now look who’s being snarky,” Bridger cooed.
“Her?” Arlet asked, also pointing at Vega… but she laughed, hunching over. “Her? The girl who’s been cursed and tortured for fifty-five years? She’s the enemy?”
“Do you see how stupid that sounds when it’s said out loud?” Bridger asked.
He might have saved people, changed how his soldiers were treated, but that didn’t mean Bridger was soft. He hadn’t earned his terrifying reputation by being gentle or kind.
That part of him had always been saved for Vega. The rest of the world knew Commander Dimico. Vega had once known Bridger. No last name, no title. My Bridger.
So much had changed.
“I think we all know why most of you joined… because you’d have a better chance of surviving if you got out of Marlena’s warpath.
” Bridger locked eyes with Meyer. “You were afraid that by doing the right thing, you were sentencing yourself to death.” He raised a brow again.
“But does that mean you’re willing to kill more innocent people?
Children? For her? The same person who’d let you die without a second thought. ”
“You’ve worked for her for years. What changed?” another soldier asked.
“I played by Marlena’s rules, sure, but I never worked for her.
I’ve worked for Tolevarre, leading an army that needed to be dismantled and rebuilt.
” Chatter amongst his people mixed together, their words hard to tell apart as the buzz rose.
“You aren’t in Marlena’s army. You’re in mine.
When an order is made, does it come from Marlena or me?
” He didn’t wait for the answer everyone knew.
“Marlena doesn’t command my forces. I do.
Which means I can choose where they’re needed, when they’re needed—however I see fit. ”
Vega took a step out of line, aligning herself with Bridger.
“Is Marlena who you want to go down defending?” She let her lightning crawl down her legs, spreading out against the grass.
Meyer took a step back, the soldiers following his move.
“Because I never said I wasn’t the enemy.
If you believe in the world my sister rules over, the one where innocent lives have been ripped apart…
probably some of yours, your parents, siblings, friends?
” She directed her question to the eyes staring her down.
“Then you are my enemy, you do deserve to die, and I’ll gladly kill you to save them.
” She nodded behind her to the tired rebels who’d been fighting for their lives far longer than they should have.
At the mention of killing, the darkness inside her shook itself off and eased to the top of its hole, curling around the edge in wait. It got braver as the days strung together.
“Down, Kitten,” Bridger purred, taking a step into Vega’s scattered lightning. It shot up his leg, split at his sides, and met again as it traveled across his right collarbone and down his arm until it extended into an electric sword.
Everyone was boggled, Vega’s own lips parting in surprise even though this was the second time she’d seen it. “How?” she asked, reaching for the weapon.
“Your power calls to me.” Bridger let her take it, the weight of the electric sword heavy in her grip until it fizzled out and became one with the power inside her again.
“If Marlena's world is a world you want to continue to live in, a world you believe is worth fighting for… then fight for her. My army is no longer a safe place for you.”
Meyer eyed Bridger. “You’re making us choose too?”
Vega couldn’t read his expression. Meyer’s features were schooled behind a mask that had certainly been taught by the best friend standing before him.
“I’m giving you a choice to make the right decision.
It’s not too late, Meyer.” Bridger reached out and clasped a hand over his shoulder.
“I know you. I know you don’t believe the people of Tolevarre are less than because of the power they possess.
I know the kind of leader you are.” He let his hand fall from Meyer’s shoulder, and Bridger stepped back.
“We don’t have to make the same decisions our parents made. ”
“I fight for you,” the woman behind Meyer said, taking a step forward. “Marlena took everything from me. I won’t stand by and watch her do the same to others.” She unsheathed her weapons and tossed them forward, willingly surrendering them.
A few others joined her, parroting some kind of similar story.
“For Tolevarre.”
“For Oliver.”
“For Klara.”
People named off the loved ones they’d lost to a ruler only looking out for herself.
Weapons clattered to the ground one by one.
Vega couldn’t believe what was happening—what Bridger had just done. She stood shocked, and the darkness in her mind slid back inside the pit, knowing death would come…
Just not today.