Page 42 of Revenge of the Forgotten

“What do you mean, she got away?” Meyer was on full alert, spinning in circles and ready to attack.

Bridger wiped his bloody hands on the front of his suit. “She knocked you out, stabbed me, and then she got away.”

Meyer eyeballed him. “What did you do?”

Bridger stood tall, having a few inches on his general’s height. “What did I do?” Bridger scowled. “What are you insinuating?”

Meyer rubbed at his temples. “Tell me you didn’t let her go.”

“I didn’t let her go.” The lie rolled off his tongue.

Meyer walked the perimeter of the grounds, searching for any trace of the girls. “Gods, Marlena is going to skin us alive.”

Bridger pretended to search too, knowing that Arlet was well beyond the portal by now.

“I hope she makes it quick for your sake.” Meyer sent Bridger a death glare, his eyes landing on Bridger’s wound that continued to drip blood and hadn’t slowed at all. “You’re going to die before she even finds out if we don’t get you back home to heal.”

Bridger looked down at his leg again, feeling a little lightheaded as the blood continued to pump out of his main artery. “Now we can say we’ve both been stabbed by the same woman.” Bridger’s lips quirked up in a smile despite his current condition, making a joke to pull Meyer’s attention away from the lie he had to spin.

Meyer didn’t laugh, only sighed. “Let’s get you back before you bleed out in another world,” he grumbled.

Bridger would take his new secret to the grave, allowing no one but Arlet to know that he’d let her go—that somehow that stupid ring worked against him. She’d gotten inside his head, twisted his emotions, and caused him to have a moment of weakness that would haunt him just like his dreams. Bridger’s palms started to sweat, his heart racing in an unstable rhythm.

On the outside he kept his face set like stone, not allowing a break in his well-placed mask. But inside, a furnace of dismay lit, threatening to burn him alive. You’re gonna regret this, Dimico.

16

Halo was nowhere to be found when Bridger and Meyer came back through the portal to Tolevarre.

Meyer stomped, cursing the young kid loudly in the abandoned Vates forest.

“Relax. He couldn’t let Arlet know that he was working with us. He probably took them back to wherever it is they’re hiding.” Bridger leaned against a tree, a small wince of discomfort drawn on his face at the burn in his leg while his muscles began to repair themselves from the stab wound.

Meyer continued to grumble, complaining that they would now have to find a way back to Aeris.

“Would you have rather traveled with Halo again?” Bridger asked.

Meyer leveled his gaze at Bridger. “No, but that doesn’t mean I want to walk hundreds of miles back to the capital either.” The grump really couldn’t find a silver lining in anything.

“We just need to get to Pax. We can find transport there.” Even while he healed, Bridger pushed them forward, giving his brain a task to avoid the looming reminder of what he’d done, of what he’d sacrificed by letting Vega and Arlet go.

It took hours to get to the border of Pax, a land known for its healers. Their gardens could be smelled from miles away, wafting the scent of fresh lilies and local blooms through the breeze as they approached a small village on the very northern border.

The smell of hydrangeas hit Bridger like a pack of wolves, ripping into him without warning. The scent wasn’t what churned his stomach… They were Vega’s favorite.

Meyer was ahead of him, keeping an eye out while Bridger fell a few paces behind. He blamed his speed on the slow healing of his leg when Meyer asked if he was okay, unwilling to bring up the smell of the flowers raging war inside his head.

Heads turned as they wandered the cobblestone streets, slick from a late afternoon rain shower. The homes in this border village were all different colors, their mismatched baskets with flowers on the windowsills standing out against the facades of their homes.

Bridger was still covered in blood and Meyer caked in mud. They were a sight to behold, strolling through the tidy streets of Pax.

Residents bowed their heads in respect as the commander and his general stalked through the streets, coming upon a barn stocked with horses and one gracious stable hand who was too afraid to say anything when asked to tack two horses up.

The vehicles used by the military and the families of power weren’t available for those living in the outlying lands surrounding the bigger cities. Most of the advanced technology in this region was saved for Tolevarre’s main hospital.

Each territory had its own healers, locals of Pax placed throughout the realm to assist in whatever the leaders might need, but Pax itself was riddled with the big and the small—healers who could fix a downed tree with just a touch or those who could stitch a wound with nothing but the flutter of their fingers over the skin.

Those with powers that didn’t assist in bodily healing were pushed to the side and seen as unimportant, but without them, the rest of the realm wouldn’t be what it was.

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