Chapter 30 #2
Bridger turned to face Khort, nodding to the rebel soldiers who answered to him guarding the mouth of the cave. “They will not harm my soldiers who go peacefully. Understood?”
Khort lowered his chin in a single nod, making eye contact with Leo over Bridger’s shoulder. He and a few other rebels gathered up the weapons.
“We are their guests. No fighting, or I’ll kill you myself,” Bridger warned.
Meyer reached behind him and unsheathed a sword Vega knew wasn’t his, followed by a dagger Vega would know anywhere.
Bridger’s bonded weapons.
He held them out for Bridger to take. Vega felt the hum of power radiating through the palm of Bridger’s hands as he took both from Meyer.
“This is where you’re meant to be.” Meyer’s tone was soft. “I only hope you’re ready for what comes next.”
Meyer wasn’t choosing Bridger… even after Bridger had chosen to save him over Vega. The hurt in Vega’s chest was multiplied by the momentary pain Bridger found himself letting slip down their bond.
Bridger backed away from his best friend, passing his weapons to Vega. “Vincere won’t be safe for anyone who stays behind once you’re gone. Not until I get there. Tell them to leave.”
Meyer nodded, but didn’t say another word.
When he was gone, retreating back into the tree lines, Bridger turned to Vega. “More will come. I suggest we”—he motioned to the bonded—“talk about our living arrangements. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one with a viable option here.”
Vega raised a brow, watching as Leo escorted Bridger’s soldiers into the cave. “Your underground bunker?”
“Underground training facility,” he corrected. “It fits thousands and is impenetrable from the outside. It’d be a safe place to house the rebellion.”
“And how do you expect we take it?” Khort asked.
Bridger chuckled, his amusement real. “It was built for me, by me. I don’t have to take what’s already mine.” He didn’t have to act confident. He was confident. He always had been, and it was palpable standing this close to him.
“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.
“It just means we’re… allies.”
“Allies,” Bridger agreed, his lips pulling further up, up, up.
“And that you now work for Khort.”
“That will never fucking happen.” Bridger nudged himself off the wall with his shoulder, keeping his arms folded over his chest.
Thank the gods. Why is leaning so hot? She couldn’t stop picturing him without a shirt on, which would eventually become a problem.
Vega snickered. “Just making sure you were paying attention.” She stepped forward and held out her hand for him to shake.
Bridger glanced down, his eyes shooting back up to meet hers. He uncrossed his arms, and the second his hand gripped Vega’s, he tugged her into his chest and snaked his arms around her back, one tangling in the hair at the base of her neck.
Vega didn’t even have time to think about it before she leaned in and kissed him, leading them to what they both wanted.
Need. She was powered by the feeling of his touch, sending her into a frenzy the seconds his hands were on her.
“If allies is what you want to call it, then yes, I’m your ally.
” Bridger’s words wrapped around her mind, making her feel safer than she’d ever felt.
The warmth of his tongue against hers, him tugging her head back to kiss down her jawline, and the rumble of his sultry tone against the inside of her brain combined, sending Vega into another dimension.
She gasped for air, not finding enough to calm the roaring heat of her body.
Bridger pressed his lips delicately against the pulse at Vega’s neck, slowing her breathing and the world around her. “I’m going to be the best damn ally you’ve ever had, baby.”
His touch was gone, and Vega’s body chilled a thousand degrees. When her eyes fluttered open, Bridger was shutting himself inside the cell. It took her a minute to come down from the clouds.
“What are you doing?” she asked, stepping forward to grab at the closed door.
“Letting you decide when it’s time to trust me.
” Bridger sauntered back to the corner with his cot and plopped down, crossing his calves over each other.
“I do have a king-sized bed in Vincere, though. Reliable equipment, the ability to spy with all the newest tech. You know Marlena won’t wait to overreact when she finds out we’re not back together, but that I’m definitely your favorite ally.
” Bridger faked a yawn. “And I could really go for a hot shower.”