Chapter 46

46

The smell of bacon pulled Vega out of a cadaverous slumber. When her eyes peeled open, Khort was in the corner of her room, arranging a fresh bouquet of hydrangeas and pouring water into a glass on her desk.

She cleared her throat, and Khort jumped, knocking over the glass of water. "Shit!" He laughed, grabbing a towel from the tiny bathroom connected to her room.

Vega sat up against her headboard, stretching her sore muscles and limbs. "Morning." She yawned.

Khort smiled, tossing the sodden towel into the bathroom sink. "Welcome back to the land of the living." He sat at the end of her bed, handing her the plate he'd brought into her room. "I didn't mean to wake you. I figured you'd be hungry when you finally woke."

Bridger had been right. Khort was alerted when Vega crossed into Demuto—once his home, now a place he couldn't cross into without the possibility of being trapped forever. He met her at the border of Vates as the sun rose. Somehow, Vega survived a night in Demuto with only one near-death experience. She shuddered at the memory of the bird-beast she' d had to fight off.

"Thanks." Vega smiled and reached for a piece of crunchy bacon, then chomped down with a content hum. "How many days did I sleep this time?" she asked before tearing into a piece of toasted bread.

"Only two." Khort stared at the scar over Vega's eye.

Upon returning to Castra, Vega only had time to shower and look herself over in a mirror before she passed out. The version of herself that stared back at her was one she never wanted to see again… but the scar, the claw marks of her sister, became a reminder of what she'd survived, of who she'd survived.

It split her eyebrow in two, the first mark slicing through her brow and onto her cheek while the other two trailed off the corner of her eye.

Khort's lips were in a tight line. "Will you please let me see if a healer can mend that for you?"

Vega shook her head. "They have bigger things to worry about."

Khort reached across the small room, able to reach the glass of water from the desk without leaving his spot on the edge of the bed.

Her eyes wandered to the flowers Khort brought in with breakfast, and her heart dropped to her stomach. I can't avoid this conversation.

Vega chugged the water in one go and sat the empty glass on the side table. She took a breath and let it out in a sigh. "I think it's time we talk about something."

Khort met her gaze, nodding slowly. "I guess so."

Vega laced her fingers together, rubbing her thumbs together as a way to focus. "Khort, I love you, you know that. You're my best friend, my first friend." She bit her lip, working through the mess in her brain. "Our kiss was—you're a great kisser." She paused, trying to find the right words and not make this about the physical act. "First, I want to thank you for stopping me that night. You're a stand-up guy for not taking advantage of that situation."

His eyebrows drew together. "I would never. "

"I know, I know." Vega reached out across the bed and squeezed the back of his hand resting on her blanket. "I mean, I know it's probably something you've wanted from me most of our lives, and I can only imagine how hard it was on you to experience that from me when I had no idea who you were."

He nodded, glancing at the door. Vega knew he was remembering the last time they entered this room together too.

"I've been through a lot, obviously… We all have." She huffed a small laugh. "But the last thing I need to think about right now is any kind of love life. You understand that, right?"

He turned his head to refocus his attention on her. "Yeah, I do."

"I'm not saying never. You've always been the best choice for me, the smart choice." She gave him a tiny, pursed lip smile. "But I can't make that choice right now. For the first time in my life, in my lives, I'm ready to focus on the one thing that matters. Me. Breaking my curse. Staying here with you, with Arlet, forever."

Khort returned her smile, but his seemed sadder than hers. "Of course."

Vega crawled out from under the covers, avoiding the plate of food on the bed, and sat beside Khort. Her legs dangled where his met the floor. Their thighs touched, and she rested her head on his shoulder. "I don't regret it. I want you to know that. That's not what this is about."

Khort leaned his head over and rested it on hers, then reached out to rub his hand on her exposed thigh—the touch was friendly. "I know, and I understand. I'll wait until you tell me not to."

They sat like that for a while in complete silence until Khort tapped her leg and stood. He grabbed the plate and handed it to her. "I have to meet Arlet for training. Come visit when you're done eating. She's been dying to see you."

I've been dying to see her. Arlet hadn't been here when she'd returned, and Vega hadn't had the energy to stay up to see her. "Okay. "

Vega smiled big, waving Khort out before scarfing the food down and jumping into a warm shower to fully pull her out of her fog.

She rushed through the motions of her shower, keeping her mind on one thing and one thing only: breaking the fucking curse that consumed her.

Vega stood at her armoire, and her eyes landed on a clean training suit. Her fingers skimmed over the new fabric, and she smiled as she pulled it off the rack. It's time to get me back.

Her brain was there, but the body needed some more work. With a full stomach and a heart ready to save herself and the people caught in her sister's storm, Vega dressed and marched her way to the training room with her head held high the entire way.

The two were locked in a heated sparring match when Vega pushed through the doors… and from the looks of it, Arlet might be coming out on top.

No longer was she the scared girl she'd been at the start of this. Arlet could win this brewing war with nothing but her wits, but it definitely helped that she was a complete badass now.

Staying in the shadows, Vega watched as her friends fought like they were choreographing a dance—so in sync with one another. She'd only felt that way with one other person in all of her lives. Arlet whirled an axe, her skin glistening with sweat. Khort blocked her with a shield made of impenetrable steel. Vega watched his muscles constrict as he blocked Arlet blow for blow.

Arlet pinned Khort, his back whacking against the mat with a whoosh of the breath from his lungs. Vega clapped, and they both snapped their attention to her.

"Vega." Arlet let out a breath, dropping her weapon onto the mat. She slipped through the ring's edge and dove into Vega for a big squeeze.

She inhaled the sweet scent of honey in Arlet's hair. "Gods, I've missed you." Vega didn't let her go. The pair stood in an embrace until Arlet pulled away to look at Vega head-on.

"It's you. It's really you. You're in there?" Arlet asked with a single tear rolling down her cheek.

Vega wiped it away with her thumb, smiling. "It's me. I'm back."

Arlet choked on a sob and pulled her into another hug. "I thought we'd lost you again."

"I did, too, but Marlena has made a few mistakes." Vega bit her lip, pulling away from Arlet to meet Khort's gaze as he sauntered across the room to join the girls.

"What do you mean?" Arlet asked.

"There's something I need to tell you two." Vega flexed her hand, her nerves rising inside with the beat of her heart. She nodded towards a table in the corner. "Do you have a minute to spare?"

"We have all the time in the world for you," Khort answered.

Vega sat, Arlet and Khort taking the chairs across from her. It was time to tell them what she'd been hiding from them—they might have time now, but the minutes were ticking by. Vega inhaled sharply before either of them could speak and spilled the secret that had been eating away at her for fifty-five years. "When we summoned Remus, we all knew something happened to us—that we were changed. Have either of you ever found out what it was?"

Khort shook his head. Arlet leaned forward in her chair and spoke. "We've always wondered, but we're the first of our people to make it out alive after summoning a dead god. There's no text, no rumors, nothing to give us the answers we wanted. We gave up eventually. Our priority has always been getting you back."

A piece of Vega's heart broke at her confession. "Marlena knew. She always knew what would happen if someone lived after successfully summoning a god. It's why she summoned them all. It was worth the risk to her, but she didn't expect Remus to answer us once she'd taken all the others." Vega wondered where Romulus was or if his brother's curse had sent him straight to the underworld. "And my curse, it's not going to run out. The only thing at the end of its rope is Marlena's patience because she can't break the curse she put on me. Our summoning messed up her perfectly planned ploy."

Khort rolled his eyes. "We can't trust Marlena. We know that."

And you can't trust me, Vega thought before metaphorically pulling her knife out and jabbing both of her best friends in the back. "She told me in my first life," she murmured, forcing her eyes up from the spot she'd been boring a hole through with her stare. "When she leaned in before killing me."

Vega knew she didn't have to ask if they remembered that detail—she knew they did. "She told me what we are, what happened to us, and I kept it from everyone because I didn't know how to test if what she'd told me was true." She wasn't ready to strike the final blow, but it had to be done—she'd put it off for too long. "It's true. I tested it with Bridger to get away, to stun him. When we survived the summoning and Remus bonded us, he strengthened us with whatever power he had left. He was a demi, and we were demis."

"What's true?" Arlet mused.

"Were?" Khort asked, and Vega watched as the wheels began to turn, the answer clicking in both of their heads before she said it.

"We're gods now. We have been all this time."

Arlet didn't move, looking at Vega like she had three heads. Khort began to laugh, light at first and then hard, like what Vega said was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. He slapped his knee and pushed himself away from the table.

"Oh gods, that's a good one." Khort straightened himself, his laugh tapering off.

Arlet's head swiveled between the two of them. She let out a forced laugh, but Vega didn't join in, and the laugh immediately caught in her throat. "You're not kidding."

As Vega shook her head, Khort went pale as a winter's night in Amora. "No, I'm not."

Khort grabbed the side of the desk to keep himself upright. "Wh-why didn't you tell us? "

"I didn't know if it was true or not. If she was trying to get in my head," Vega admitted.

"But now you say you know it's true because you tested it on Bridger?" Arlet was spearheading the questions while Khort broke out in a nervous sweat.

"I stabbed him in the heart."

Khort caught himself before his knees hit the ground. "You killed him?"

Vega shook her head. "He can't die. He's a god. He's alive. I can feel him. Can't you?"

Arlet froze completely, staring Vega down with eyes as wide as they could go.

"There's no way." Khort shook his head, pacing the room like he did when he needed to think. "Why would you keep this from us? We deserved to know this even if you didn't know if it were true."

Vega crossed her arms and held on to her shoulders, trying to comfort herself through the sadness she felt in her betrayal. "I know. I'm sorry. In some lives, I didn't think about it. Marlena never brought it up again after the first time. I think she was going to try to use it against me to make me look like the bad guy. And ya know, I'm not saying I'm not the bad guy here?—"

"You're not," Arlet interrupted, turning to give Khort a look. "You're not the villain in this story, whether you kept this from us or not." She turned her attention back to Vega. "I'm upset that you didn't tell us sooner, but you've been put through so much, and I can't imagine what it's like inside your head."

Khort crossed his arms, clamming up. He was mad, and Vega didn't blame him. Not everyone was Arlet—forgiveness came easier to her.

"I always thought it was a possibility." Arlet tapped her nails on the table, lost in her head.

"You knew?" Khort choked out.

"No, I just had a feeling that we could be. I mean, come on. We don't get tired anymore, we can fight for hours without burnout, and I have powers that no one has ever heard of. Vega and I can find each other anywhere, we can all feel each other's pull, and you have powers only warriors should have. And let's be real, Vega and Bridger are bonded in ways you and I will never understand." Arlet pointed between herself and Khort.

Vega physically hurt when Arlet spoke about her and Bridger. How could he have left her, knowing they were forever linked in such a unique way? No, you're not going to feel anything for that bastard. A feather fluttered inside her mind, like a tickle of a touch, but Vega forced the feeling away.

Khort's eyes clouded with the glaze he got before he shifted or when his anger rose, but it was gone before Vega could say anything about it.

"You said you stabbed Bridger, which obviously had to come after he let you go." Arlet leaned back in her chair. She needed the facts—it was how she had always been.

Vega nodded, deciding to keep the kiss to herself. If only to keep Khort from shifting into a fire-breathing death machine in a space not meant for his dragon size… and probably because she didn't want to think about how much she'd liked it.

"I thought about what you'd said, about his reaction to seeing me wearing the ring." The one Vega was wearing now—the one she wore the entire time she was locked away under her sister's estate. "How we need Bridger to win in any capacity."

Khort puffed steam. "You can't be serious."

Vega stood, the chair scraping against the floor in a shrill shriek. "Yes, I am serious. We don't win this thing without him, Khort."

"So you're just going to go running back into the arms of the man who has stabbed you in the back, killed you, and brutalized you any chance he's gotten?" Khort clenched his fists, the conversation they'd had this morning apparently going up in smoke like it'd never happened .

Arlet spoke up before Vega could. "Oh my gods! This isn't what this is about."

Vega felt the brush of his lips, the way Bridger's hands gripped her hips and pulled her against his body. "For fuck's sake!" She threw her hands up in the air, her voice rising an octave. "For once, can you push aside the knowledge that I chose him and focus on the facts?"

Arlet cringed at Vega's retort, air escaping her mouth on an exhale.

Khort completely froze, his green eyes turning to slits again. "I'm done worrying about your doltish choice, Vega. I'm now concerned with how it's affecting the people in our world, and how allowing Bridger a free pass because he's a tortured soul, as if your sister hasn't maimed us all, will get more people killed in the process."

"People die in war, and there's no sense in pretending this isn't going to end in a war. The citizens of Tolevarre are going to die. It's inevitable. Imagine what Bridger and the soldiers who would follow him could do for us, for this rebellion," Arlet offered and moved herself in front of Vega, blocking her path to Khort. "This isn't how we settle things, and I'll be damned if we start now."

Vega's jaw clenched. "Your jealousy is getting to you. Think about what I'm saying, Khort. Bridger is one of us. I'm not forgiving him for anything, but Marlena will win if we don't figure this out. Together. All of us."

Khort stormed to the door, looking back for a split second. "Find another way. I refuse to let that back-stabbing, no good son of a bitch back in." He slammed the door so hard the weapons hanging on the wall fell off their hooks.

Vega gawked, running a hand through her hair.

"Give him some time. He'll come around." Arlet rested her hand on Vega's shoulder, giving her that squeeze she loved so much.

"We don't even have a plan. I don't even know how we could do it or if it would work." Vega's eyes were planted on the door Khort had just stormed through, hoping he would return if she stared long enough.

"We can come up with a plan later." Arlet let go of Vega's shoulder. "Did you eat?"

Vega nodded.

"Good. Let's train." Arlet handed Vega a sword. The weight pulled Vega's arms down, the tip hitting the floor. "We have a lot of work to do."