Chapter 32

32

"Are you awake?" Vega's voice traveled through the room, filling Bridger's ears. His smile was weak, but the sound of her voice—the fact she was still alive—sent a wave of happiness through him.

His eyes fluttered open. "Barely." After seventeen days with little to no food and just enough water to keep them alive, Bridger, Khort, and Vega could barely find it in themselves to move from their sleeping spots.

The crumbling stone under their bodies was all they had in their cells. No beds, no bathrooms—they were caged like abused animals. Khort had stopped talking ten hours ago and only grunted to let them know he was alive.

"I want to touch you."

Bridger could tell Vega was crying, her voice shuddering. He could picture the way her lip quivered.

He pushed himself off the floor, his body feeling heavier than ever. "Come to the corner of your cell." Bridger reached his hand out, waiting for hers to slip into his. The two did this every night, willing the other to last one more night—just one more night, and he'd figure out a way to get them out of here—to stay strong, to think of the future they would have together when they made it out of this alive. "I love you," Bridger whispered, wrapping his hand around what little bit of hers he could.

"I love you too." Her response was soft. "I don't know how much longer of this I can take."

Bridger shut his eyes tightly. "Hold on just a little longer. I'll get us out of here, I swear." Who was he if he couldn't keep Vega safe?

They'd been fighting every single day for the last year and a half. Arlet and Khort had found a way to get Vega's memories back to her. They came in pieces, but they were back. Marlena killed the Fraus-born who'd helped them and then used the information she'd beaten out of her to track them down. Vega only had three days of mental freedom before being thrown into the dungeon of her childhood home.

The two fell asleep hand in hand, but their slumber didn't last long.

"How cute."

A heeled boot tapped against their connected hands, jarring them both awake. Startled, Bridger jumped back, stumbling under his weak body. Marlena stood in front of them through their closed cells.

The cell across from him was empty—the one Khort had been in. "Where's Khort? What did you do to him?" Bridger raced to the edge of his cage and gripped the bars.

Marlena stared him down, her eyes glimmering like ice. "If you two weren't so busy cuddling, you'd know what was going on." The sneer on her lips was always there when she looked at them, but it slowly faded when the familiar scream echoed down the stairs.

"What are you doing to him?" Vega's voice cracked, her outcry rattling off the walls and down the hollow halls. "Marlena! Marlena, look at me! What are you doing to Khort?"

Marlena's eyes never left Bridger as her sinister smile formed. "I won't do anything if your boyfriend here does what he's asked to do." There was always a trade-off with Marlena—except she could never be trusted to follow through on her end. The locks on their cells clicked open with the flick of Marlena's wrist, and at the same time, Bridger and Vega bolted out of them—free for the first time in seventeen days. Bridger hurled himself at Marlena, while Vega dashed down the hall after Khort.

Neither one made it to their destination. Marlena used her power to trap them in place, slamming a shield over and around them. Vega screamed in frustration.

"Vega! Bridger!" Khort's voice echoed down the stairway from above. His voice strained as the sounds of a fight followed. "They found Arlet! They have Arlet!" Khort roared in pain, and then the echoes of his voice died.

Marlena let her power drop, taking one large step back from Bridger. "Both of you are too weak to fight me, let alone win. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. You choose." Marlena's arms crossed over her chest, head cocked to the side.

Vega crashed into Bridger's side. "Don't fight. Hear her out. She has Arlet. We give her what she wants to ensure she's safe… that Khort's safe." Her voice was panicked, pleading. Vega was still trying to hang on to the hope that Marlena would snap out of it and be the girl she grew up with—Vega couldn't see that the sister she'd known was gone and she was never coming back.

Marlena looked bored when Bridger forced his eyes away from Vega, who was so beaten and broken that she hardly looked like herself anymore. "Whatever she has to say isn't going to be what we want, Vega. Marlena will never let us have what we want."

Marlena smiled at his words. "Ever the smart warrior."

She took a step forward, and Bridger noticed that she had no weapons on her. Marlena didn't see them as a threat…

Vega clung to Bridger, half using him for support.

"What more could you possibly want from us?" Bridger rasped.

Amusement rippled through Marlena's cackle. "Everything. This isn't even close to over. We're just getting started. I am going to break you both down until you have nothing left in you, until you're too tired to keep fighting, until Vega is nothing more than a shadow of the person you knew. A memory."

Bridger spoke before Vega could find the words. "You'll never get away with this."

"I already have. Who's going to stop me? The people of Tolevarre that matter are on my side, leaving you with no one. Other than maybe the people Vega tried so dearly to protect, with their sad little abilities. Where are they now, huh?" Marlena made a point to look around the room. "I see no one on your side. Not a mouse, not a deer, not a sparrow."

Vega's face fell, sorrow filling her soft features. "What did you do to them?"

Bridger didn't know what was going on, his eyes darting between the two sisters. Their mirrored eyes had vastly different emotions pooling in them. One sad, the other filled with pleasure.

"They're dead. Just like everyone else who conspires with you will be. Just like you're about to be for the second time in your sad, pathetic existence." Marlena said the last words with such excitement.

"No," Bridger growled, standing in front of Vega. "You won't lay another finger on her."

Marlena's smile stayed lethal. "You're right. I won't."

The world seemed to stand still, her words and their meaning sinking in.

A dagger appeared out of thin air, and Marlena tossed it at Bridger. It clattered against the cold and cobbled floor until it landed at his bare feet. "But you will."

"No," Bridger said again. The dagger on the floor was his. He could feel the draw to it, a thread pulling at the inner connection with his bonded blade.

"Yes," Marlena replied, staring at the couple. "And since I know you're going to give me a hard time…" She turned her attention to the stairs, and on cue, the sound of a body tumbling down them pulled their attention away from each other. "If you don't, she dies too."

Olenor Fera… Khort's mother.

The woman groaned as she came to a stop at the bottom of the staircase. Her body convulsed with a wet cough, blood splattering out of her mouth.

"How can you do this to the people who love us?" Vega asked, the tears still pouring out. She didn't dare move from Bridger's grasp.

Marlena cackled. "Those people never loved me. They loved the idea of the power they could have if I continued to be their lapdog for the rest of my life."

Bridger reached for the dagger, the pull between him and the bonded blade the only thing he could feel of his powers.

"Kill her, Bridger," Marlena hissed when the blade settled in his grip.

"No!" he bellowed. Slower than normal but still with smooth warrior grace, the blade flew across the room—straight at Marlena's head. It was aimed perfectly at where the center of her head should have been, but it wasn't.

Marlena was on the other side of the room, her hand gripping Olenor by the throat, dangling in mid-air. Her sandy blonde hair was matted with blood, and her eyes were slits from how badly she'd been beaten. Every part of her body with exposed flesh was littered with a rainbow of bruises.

"The clock is ticking, Dimico." She squeezed Olenor's throat harder, the woman coherent enough to claw at Marlena's hand.

"Bridger," Vega cried, forcing his eyes away from Marlena and Olenor. "You have to."

"Are you insane? No!" Bridger jerked away from Vega like she had two heads.

"We cannot let Khort lose his mother. Khort can't lose his family too… not because of me. Please, Bridger." Vega looked at Marlena, who watched the scene impatiently.

"Think faster." She dropped Olenor, her head hitting the ground with a pop—her body was too mangled to catch herself.

"I don't care about Khort! I care about you. I'm not killing you!" Bile sloshed a blistering trail up his throat.

Vega retrieved the dagger from the floor and hobbled back to Bridger.

He couldn't do this—he couldn't lose Vega again. There had to be a way out of this.

Bridger's throat tightened when she pressed his dagger to his chest, the hilt flush against his skin.

"You have to do this. You promised to help me, to fight with me. That means keeping our people safe too, not just me." Vega spoke through her tears.

Hot tears burned his eyes as he brought his dirty hand to his chest and covered hers, feeling the warmth of his blade through their palms. "I can't lose you." The first tear fell. "Not again."

Vega let go of the dagger as her tears continued to fall harder. "It's okay." She reached up to wipe a falling tear from Bridger's filthy cheek, but he looked away. He didn't want her to see him break down.

Bridger could hear his mother's voice in his head. Stand tall. Don't let them see you fall apart.

Vega brushed her fingers against his cheek, the sensation pulling his attention back to her as she pressed a kiss to Bridger's lips. He wanted to melt away, just the two of them, somewhere far off where nothing could get them—where all of this was just a distant nightmare.

The kiss hadn't lasted long enough but long enough for Marlena to notice. "You have thirty seconds, or I'll kill all three of you."

Bridger wanted to watch the life escape Marlena's eyes, but he couldn't—not without his powers. A part of him was beginning to believe that even then he wouldn't be able to take her down.

"One, two, three…" Marlena began to count.

"Fuck!" he screamed, pushing away from Vega. His hands tangled into the hair at the side of his head, the dagger still in his grasp. "Baby, I can't. I can't kill you. I'd rather die with you."

Vega cupped both sides of his jaw, gently forcing him to meet her tear-soaked gaze. "Hey, look at me." She bit down on her bottom lip to stop it from trembling. "It's okay. I won't really feel it. Not for long. I'll just wake up in a different life… and you'll find me again." Was Vega saying this to convince herself or to comfort him? "You will always find me."

"Eighteen, nineteen," Marlena continued.

Vega tugged his hands down. "I love you, Bridger. I have since that first Saturnalia. I trust you. There's no one else I'd rather see before death."

"I love you so much. I'm sorry." He heaved the words out.

Bridger shook his head, tears still streaming down his own face. Vega guided his hand with the dagger to her chest, pressing the point into the skin directly above her heart.

"Twenty-one." Marlena's voice felt so far away.

"I'll see you in the next life."

Those were the last words Vega spoke before Bridger slammed the dagger through her heart. Her blue eyes lit up like ice, jaw dropping as she gasped for air that would never come. Vega's body sagged against Bridger, lifeless. He pulled the dagger out, and Vega's body vanished as the curse whisked her away from their world.

"Thirty."

Bridger could hear the smile on her lips long before he looked up. Marlena wasn't good at keeping promises, so when she drove her hand through Olenor's chest and ripped her heart out, Bridger didn't even flinch.

"I've always wanted a dragon heart to add to my collection." Her hand covered in shifter blood, Marlena turned her focus to Bridger. "All that work for nothing. How long can you handle losing her for? Five years, ten? A lifetime? How long until you realize that I'll never let you be with her, that being with her makes you weak? How long until her friends no longer trust you?" Marlena's eyebrow rose. "How long until you're no longer the person she loves? Because I will torture you slowly, painfully, until the Bridger she knows is gone. Until you're the commander I need."

Bridger blinked, one last tear escaping his eye.

"You're free to go, but remember, as soon as she's back, so is your torture." Marlena's laugh could be heard echoing through the dungeon halls long after she'd vanished.

Deep below the ruined home of the Caelums' estate, no one could hear his screams, but when he finally made it up the stairs, he was met with an unharmed Arlet and Khort.

Bridger looked at his hands—Vega's blood coated them, and his vision went bleary. "I killed Vega. Your mom's dead." His words were quipped in a short staccato.

He couldn't hear Arlet's and Khort's screams as he lost consciousness and collapsed to the ground.

His brand had ached all night, sending waves of pain spidering down his arm. It grew unbearable enough this morning that he finally gave in to the nagging pull tugging him towards the dungeon.

Bridger didn't allow anyone to hear him when he didn't want to be heard, causing his guard to jump in fright when he suddenly appeared next to him.

"Commander." Felix's hand was over his heart. "You scared me half to death."

"Has she eaten?" Bridger asked without thinking .

"No, sir, and she won't drink anything, either."

Bridger exhaled loudly. "Go fetch breakfast. I'll keep watch until then."

Felix protested, "Sir."

"Go." Bridger pointed up the stairs, watching as the soldier turned without another word. He waited until he couldn't hear his footsteps anymore before moving from the doorway. "Not eating or drinking isn't going to make you grow big and strong," he said as he settled in front of Vega's cell door.

Vega didn't respond. Her back rested against the wall, legs kicked out in front, with her head back on the hard stone. She twisted her neck to meet his stare when she heard him approach.

He opened his mouth to speak, but the words were stolen from his lips when he saw the shape Vega was in after a single night in captivity. This was why he'd felt pain last night… His hand gripped the iron door and ripped it off its hinges.

Vega's eye was swollen shut, blood caked on her hands and along her chin. Her suit was ripped from her collarbone to just above her breasts. Bridger squatted down to her level, but her eyes fell to the floor, averting his gaze. He reached for her, but she flinched away from his touch.

"Vega." His voice was a low growl. He moved slower this time, grabbing her by the chin to force her to look at him. Bridger ground his teeth together at the way his skin tingled when he touched her, at the ring on her finger glinting in the low light of the dungeon. "Who did this to you?"

Her blue eyes were cold, and Bridger saw a flash of his dream from last night—Vega's inanimate eyes after he drove the dagger through her heart. His hand fell from her face.

Vega didn't answer.

"Who. Did this. To you." He asked again, and this time his tone left no room for her to ignore him.

"Isn't this what I'm down here for? To be beaten?" she asked.

Bridger's blood boiled. "Not by my men. Tell me who hurt you."

Vega's jaw stayed locked in place, her eyes fixated on Bridger's with scorn. "Aren't you the one who sent the guard down here with water last night? Shouldn't you be able to put two and two together?" she sneered, not a single muscle moving other than her lips. Her eyes stared straight into what was left of his soul, pulling strings he thought he'd cut, burned, and destroyed.

The pound of the guard's boots hitting the stone stairs echoed down the empty halls. Bridger's attention turned from Vega and her eyes full of hatred to Felix carrying a tray of food down the stairs.

"I want to hear you say his name, and if you don't, I'll beat it out of him instead." Bridger stood slowly, nodding to the sound of Felix's footsteps getting closer.

"No," Vega said with a breath, her eyes darting to the hall outside her cell.

"Felix," Bridger called, beckoning the soldier his way.

"Yes, sir?" He shuffled into view, the tray clattering to the ground when his eyes landed on the mangled cell door.

Bridger turned with eerie stillness, his hand reaching behind him to unsheathe his sword. "Can you tell me who laid their hands on Vega last night?"

"I…" he stammered.

"Grimes!" Vega interrupted, worried for his soldier. "His name was Grimes. He beat me until I couldn't breathe—until I thought I was going to die again. Felix is the reason I'm alive. He stopped him and then healed my fatal wounds. You should be thanking him, not threatening his life."

Bridger looked over his shoulder at Vega. "Now, how hard was that?"

"If you hurt him, I swear to every dead god, in this life or my next, I will kill you." Vega stood, rolling her shoulders with a wince. No matter how battered, no matter the memories she didn't have, Vega was still defending others. Why did she care so much about people? After everything she'd been put through, why continue to care?

Bridger's smile slid across his face, slow and sultry, while he put his sword back in its place. He felt relief from Vega's attitude—if she was running her mouth, she wasn't fully defeated yet.

My Vega.

"Lock Vega in a new cell," Bridger commanded, winking at her as he strode out of the cell and up the dungeon stairs. She called him every name in the book as he disappeared from her view.