Chapter 52
He’d woken to the smell of smoke, followed by the loud beep of a fire alarm, but that wasn’t what’d pulled him out of his coma-like sleep.
It was Death’s claws, dragging from the depths of his own mind. Bridger nearly broke his neck tripping out of bed to extinguish the small fire glowing in the corner of the room.
Panting, Bridger stomped the fire out. When it was nothing but smoke, turned around, expecting to see Vega staring at him…
But she wasn’t. Her body convulsed instead.
She was stuck inside herself again, but this time she wasn’t screaming out for help down their bond.
“It’s me. You’re okay.” Bridger slid a shield over his skin, not wanting to get electrocuted again.
“You’re okay,” he repeated as the light clicked on and Vega came to.
She sank into his chest, her body limp as she concentrated on her breathing.
Bridger wrapped her up in his arms, pulling her into his lap seconds before the door shuddered under Khort’s terror.
“What’s happening, Dimico?” he yelled.
Bridger allowed his power to unlock the door, and Khort and Arlet clamored in, freshly woken from sleep.
Arlet stared blankly. Khort looked around the room, noting the still smoking spot in the corner.
“What happened?” he asked.
“Nightmare,” Vega said through chattering teeth.
Calling it a nightmare didn’t feel right. Nightmare wasn’t big enough, scary enough. What Vega was experiencing inside her head with the gods she would deliver to the underworld, was something Bridger knew most couldn’t handle.
Fuck. Fuck! FUCK!
On the inside, Bridger was flipping tables and shredding Vincere to the ground, but on the outside, he barely blinked, keeping Vega against his chest until she signaled to let go.
She clung to him like her life depended on it.
His best friend was dead, and the girl he loved was on her way to losing control—on her way to becoming something none of them would recognize again.
But this time it would be so much fucking worse.
“I-I ne-nee—” Vega stuttered.
“Get out,” he told the others, scooping Vega up as he stood..
“What’s happening to her, Bridger?” Khort reached for Bridger’s shoulder, but he never made contact.
With nothing but the power of his shields, Bridger shoved Khort across the room and pinned him to the wall. “I said get out of my room.” He hurried to the bathroom and reached into the shower to turn the hot water on, but then looked over his shoulder. “Later.”
He slammed the bathroom door in their faces.
Fully clothed, he stepped Vega into the shower.
Somehow, they continued to end up in the shower together… It was mainly used by Bridger as a well-known tactic to calm her down—or bring her back to reality when she needed it.
“Bri-dg-g-er.” She shivered against his chest. “I-I’m f-f-fi-ine.”
“No, you’re freezing.” He held her under the water, desperate to warm her up.
“So h-hot inside.”
The fire.
The fucking fire.
“You used the fire,” he said, his voice sounding like a ghost. The flame that burned in the corner had been blue.
In his waking panic, the color hadn’t registered until now.
Just like the flame in his office had been the day they came to Vincere. He’d thought she used her lightning to spark a flame…
“N-no.” A chill ran through her, racking her body against Bridger’s hold.
“Yes, you did.” He sighed, noticing the pink water around his feet from the blood washing clean of his uniform.
Meyer’s blood.
It took everything inside him to concentrate on what she was saying, his mind drifting to the memory of Meyer’s heart being ripped from his chest.
He couldn’t stop thinking, I won’t let it be her blood next.
“You lit a fire in your sleep.” Bridger finally snapped back into himself.
They were quiet for a while, Vega mulling over the information he’d dropped on her. She finally stopped shivering. “I think you can put me down now.”
He examined her quickly and tipped his arms forward, letting her step out of his hold. She staggered a bit but reached out for Bridger to steady herself.
“I didn’t mean to. I kept pushing them away… I never…” She switched from speaking out loud to finishing the sentence inside. “I never reached for it.” Vega glanced up at him with a fear he’d never seen from her before.
It nearly ripped his heart from his chest.
Bridger leaned down to kiss her temple as she slid back into his arms. “It’s okay. You’re gonna be okay.” He was going to make sure of it. He’d already left his mark on her in this world.
He grabbed her hand with the ring and kissed each finger, lingering over the sparkling jewel a moment longer than the others.
They stripped off their clothes and showered. Bridger stayed quiet, listening to Vega talk about what she’d seen this time.
“He was there this time.” The words struck him through the chest, making the water feel like icicles as it peppered his skin. “He told me to say his name… to remember who’d saved me. Who owns me…”
Bridger felt like he was floating. “Don’t.” He paused, making sure Vega understood how serious he was. “Not yet.” Bridger couldn’t fucking lose Vega. He wouldn’t let anyone take her from him again.
No matter who or what they were.
After a quick wash of his body and hair, Bridger gave Vega a soft kiss, caressing her cheek before leaning in for one more. “Finish up. I have a few things I need to get done today.”
“Bridger, are you—”
He cut her off, knowing what she was about to ask. “No, baby. No. I’m not, but I will be.” He rubbed his thumb over her cheek once more and retreated. “We will be.”
He hoped she would go back to sleep or at least try to relax, but Bridger knew her better than that.
She’d avoid sleep for as long as she could.
In a fresh uniform, Bridger ripped the commander’s cape off and threw it in the waste bin by his desk. He hadn’t wanted to wear the stupid thing in the first place—but he had for the sake of looking the part.
Bridger was so fucking sick of pretending.
The door to Khort and Arlet’s room opened before Bridger had the chance to knock. “My office. Now.”
“Bridger, what you’re saying is insane.” Arlet shook her head.
His office had the same power as the control room, cutting off abilities that weren’t his. Meaning Vega couldn’t spy.
Khort hadn’t said anything, only looked through the information Bridger pulled up from the digital archives, swiping the screen of his desk to move to the next piece of information Meyer left for him.
Bridger hadn’t expected the detailed documents when he looked into Meyer’s files. There was so much he’d gathered in only a few days' time.
“Yes, it is… but I don’t think it’s impossible.” Bridger crossed his arms, leaning back in his office chair.
Bridger told them everything. About the gods inside Vega and about what they were saying.
About Death coming to wake him… twice. He’d made a promise not to lie to Vega anymore, they all had, but if the lie somehow saved her soul, Bridger would gladly take her wrath and whatever consequence came with it.
“I…” Arlet let her words fall. “Vega wouldn’t like this.”
“You know what I don’t like? Vega convincing herself to believe any of us would want to live in a world where she doesn’t exist.” Bridger fiddled with the pen in his hand, spinning it between his fingers like he would a dagger. “I’ve lived in a world without her. I’m not keen on returning to one.”
“Why are you telling us?” Khort asked, pushing himself off the desk.
“I know you’ll take care of Vega if I don’t make it.” To the point. It was the only way Bridger could be about this. “And because someone has to lead the army while I’m gone…” It should have been Meyer.
A knock on the door had them staring at one another in silence until the door opened and Halo slipped in. “Commander, you have visitors. They said Meyer sent for them.”
Had it already been four days? Bridger had almost forgotten.
Halo stepped to the side, and an acolyte dressed in an emerald-green robe followed him in. Her inky-black hair and obsidian eyes found Bridger’s.
Her smile was soft as she pulled the hood from her head, bowing as a way of respect… and not because Bridger was the commander. “Bridger Dimico. I wondered when you were going to come asking about this.”
Summer Laudo. Of course Meyer had reached out to the girl who’d devoted herself to the gods instead of a man—instead of him.
The would-have-been heir to Oro’s Curia seat if it weren’t for Marlena—the strongest light-wielder left and the only person Bridger would ever consider trusting with something of this magnitude.
Meyer, you fucking genius.
“I’m sorry to hear about Meyer’s death. He made it, in case you were wondering.”