Chapter 42 #2
“I kissed Khort in my last life. The night before you took me from the witch’s cottage in Fraus.” Vega said it so nonchalantly he instantly understood there was nothing to worry about. The heat of anger still sizzled, threatening to spark at any second.
“Lucky him. I hope it was everything he dreamed it would be,” Bridger managed to respond with theatrical enthusiasm.
“And then I tried to fuck him.”
Well, that did it.
The wrath inside Bridger’s body turned to molten lava and melted his rationale.
Vega cocked her head, watching Bridger like a hawk ready for its next meal. “It was before I’d gotten my memories back, but I still wanted it, wanted him.”
Khort had been the better choice for Vega, and everyone knew it—except Bridger. There had never been a second where he considered leaving because he felt like he was the wrong choice for the only girl he’d ever loved.
His motives behind leaving had never had anything to do with Khort fucking Fera.
Bridger was the bad boy. The commander’s son who had been known to fly through the ladies lined up at his door.
Everyone assumed whoever he’d end up with wouldn’t be for love, but for power.
It was what his parents had intended the night they’d introduced their son to the Caelum sisters.
Except he’d fallen for the wrong sister. Immediately.
Khort was the kind, strong, chivalrous shifter who could promise Vega a life of fun party planning and cute kids with a house in the woods.
“And I still chose you. Despite what everyone expected of me.” Fuck, had he said those things down the bond?
The anger clouding his judgement could be blamed for that.
Vega stepped forward, and Bridger didn’t dare move. “I wanted him because he looked at me like I was the center of the entire universe, like I could fix everything that was broken. Like maybe I wasn’t broken…”
Bridger was afraid his teeth would break with how hard he clenched his jaw.
“But do you know what he sees when he looks at me?” Vega asked, slipping her hand into his. She pulled his wrist with the scar up to her eye level, inspecting the brand they all wore.
Bridger didn’t have the answer to her question, and even if he did, Vega wasn’t looking for one—not one from him.
“He sees the girl he used to know. The kids we were before this started. He sees a version of me I can never be again.” Vega dropped her hands to wrap around his forearm, a single finger grazing over the raised line of their bond.
“You stopped seeing that version of me the second I died. You treated me like the person I was becoming, not the person I’d been.
How could anyone blame you for not loving the person I turned into when I wasn’t who I’d been when you fell in love with me?
” Her sad smile made Bridger want to barf. “I don’t blame you.”
Bridger’s fury started to dissipate, but it was replaced by something else. A hum traveling up his arm from Vega’s touch.
“You saw my weaknesses, the cracks in my soul.” Their eyes met, and Bridger reached out with the hand he kept suspended for her to inspect and cupped her cheek.
Vega wrapped her hand around his branded wrist. “You showed me that sometimes loving someone isn’t enough to save them.
Your love couldn’t have saved me from this.
I was the only one who could save me from this.
” Vega stretched up on her tippy toes, placing a soft kiss on Bridger’s lips.
“Khort would have pretended to love any version of me because it was what he was told he wanted.” Another light kiss on his lips.
“You knew what was most important to me even when I couldn’t.
It’s never been my life I wanted to protect.
It was theirs. The people of Tolevarre. The people we care about.
They deserve a happy ending even if I can’t get one. ”
Bridger was ready to argue when he felt a rush of pain slam against the bond. His gasp turned into a hiss of air as his eyes fell to Vega’s hand wrapped around his wrist.
The brand was black, inked the same color as Vega’s veins.
Bridger snatched his hand back, the color disappearing as soon as her touch was gone. “What the fuck was that?” She’d distracted him long enough to slip between his shields unnoticed. “Did you just…?” His question trailed off because he already knew the answer.
“I’m sorry. I just wanted to see if I could feel it.” Vega didn’t look remorseful. “I can. I can also feel how strong you are when you’re angry.”
Irritation flooded Bridger’s senses, but he knew it would be misplaced if he took it out on Vega. She was doing what any of them would do if they were in her position.
What other choice had she been given? Her soul was already his—all she’d done was get what she wanted out of it.
He slowly slid a shield around his bond, letting Vega feel the grating door close. “I didn’t get you back to lose you.” Bridger closed the distance between them, his index finger pressing underneath Vega’s chin, forcing her gaze up to his. “Don’t you ever fucking do that again.”
Vega nodded.
“Say it.” Bridger gripped her chin delicately, holding her face in place.
“I won’t,” she whispered, her eyes telling Bridger all he needed to know.
She would.
Which meant he had to keep shields up. He couldn’t let her slip through again like that. He wouldn’t let her be the one to break their bond. “You’re lying, and I know it.”
Vega sighed, taking a step back. “I know this is going to be hard for everyone… But it’s already done. We can’t change this ending.”
“You gave up fifty-five years of your life to a curse. You’re not giving the rest of it away.” Gods, why did this woman have to be so fucking stubborn?
I take back everything I said about loving her sassy-ass attitude.
“You don’t get to tell me what I can do with my life,” Vega bit back.
“It’s not just your life, Vega! It’s mine too. It’s Khort’s. It’s Arlet’s.” He couldn’t help the natural rise in his voice’s volume.
“Not if I break the bond.” Vega reached out for him, but Bridger pulled back.
He wanted to touch her. Fuck. He wanted to so badly, but he knew he’d let this go for another time if he gave into the craving…
and if they were starting over, it wouldn’t be on shaky feet.
“What if you break the bond and it takes Arlet’s powers?
Her dragon? What if it takes Khort’s enhanced warrior abilities?
” He slipped inside her mind. “What if it takes this?”
“This is going to come to an end eventually…”
Her words felt like a punch to the gut. Bridger inhaled a sharp breath at the same time a knock at the door interrupted their conversation. He closed his eyes, flexing his hands a few times before reopening them.
“Commander?” Halo’s voice was muffled from the other side of the door.
Bridger used the small amount of wind he could control to swing the door open, knowing it was another piece of Vega he’d been given access to after the summoning—because of their bond.
Halo stepped inside and froze when he caught the tension in the room. “Oh, sorry. Should I come back?” He took a couple steps backwards, looking like a child sneaking out after snooping on his parents. “I’ll come back.”
“What do you need, Halo?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder.
“The others are arriving in five minutes.” He stood awkwardly, more than likely waiting for Bridger to shoo him away.
“Thank you. Let them know I'll meet them at the gates.” Bridger turned back to Vega, and he didn’t have to look to know Halo left. The smell of his smoke lingered in the room after he was gone.
“Shower. I’ll get them settled.” Bridger walked past Vega, pushing the door to his small bathroom open.
“I’ll go with you,” Vega said, following him in.
He reached inside and adjusted the temperature of the stand-up shower to exactly what he knew Vega would like—scalding hot with a side of third degree burns. “Vega, please. Will you not fight me on this one thing today?” Bridger turned around to see the softening of her eyes.
Vega sighed, her shoulders sinking with the breath. “Fine.”
Bridger forced a smile. “Thank you.” He caressed the bond with his words and watched the chill travel up Vega’s spine.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay and join me? I bet Halo can handle the tour just fine.” Her fingers traveled to the end of her shirt and pulled the battle torn garment over her head.
Bridger drank in the sight of her while she kicked her boots off and slipped out of her pants. Good gods, this woman could break me right now.
If she told him this had all been a scheme, her big revenge plan to break his heart, Bridger would happily shatter into a million pieces for her.
He stepped forward now that she was in nothing but her underwear, running a hand over the soft skin of her curves and pulling her flush against him while the steam from the shower filled the room and fogged the mirror.
“As amazing as that sounds, I’m not going to earn your friends’ trust again by ignoring them to fuck you senseless in my shower. ”
Bridger moved his hands from her sides to the braids holding the hair out of her face.
He gently worked the ties from the ends, placing them on the counter to his right.
Bridger’s fingers returned to the braids, delicately unbinding Vega’s hair.
“And even though you were finally truthful with me, I’m still not even sure you trust me.
” He rubbed the spots on either side of her scalp where the braids had held tightly, watching Vega’s eyes flutter closed in approval.
He leaned in and placed a sweet kiss on her lips while she wasn’t expecting it.
“Make yourself at home,” he said as her eyes opened.
“I’ll bring Arlet to get you once I’ve given the tour.
I have a room down the hall for you both.
” And Khort too, but he was sick of hearing his name out loud when the feel of Vega’s lips was still on his.
Before Bridger lost his fight to leave, he ran a hand over Vega’s cheek and exited the bathroom, closing her in and fleeing from his own room.
The elevator doors had begun to close when Vega’s words came as a whisper in his mind. “I do trust you…”
DING. The doors closed.
“And you’ve never been the villain in my story.”