Page 109 of Revenge of the Forgotten

We have to move faster.

Answering his thoughts, Vega pulled wind from in front of them and shot it back, giving them another fifty yards between Meyer’s fury.

Vega couldn’t keep up much longer—she was gassed from the expelling of her fresh abilities, and her body wasn’t conditioned to fight for her life.

“Bridger.” Her voice cracked, and he knew she couldn’t go any further.

He reached for her hand and skidded to a stop. The fire began to catch up again. Fuck, Meyer, fuck, fuck, fuck. Vega pulled her hand away and crouched to the ground, steadying the sway of her body.

“Stay with me, Vega. Stay with me.” Bridger ran a hand through his saturated hair, unsure of where they could go—of how he could give Vega a chance.

“The cliff,” she croaked.

The cliff! Of course! Bridger could reach out and kiss her dirty, blood-smeared face. The cliff overlooking Lake Vehemens, the only lake big enough to hold some of the nastiest and most ruthless aquatic shifters known to Tolevarre.

It was their only choice.

The flames nipped behind them, growing closer by the second. “Get up,” Bridger ordered.

Vega’s face was pale, her skin glowing with a dew of sweat. “I can?—”

He cut her off. “Yes, you can. Get. Up.” Bridger hadn’t done this for nothing. “Vega, get the fuck up!”

She struggled to her feet, and this time, Bridger didn’t help her. He knew her—inside and out, in this life and in every other. Vega needed to do things for herself. She didn’t need nor want people to always do things for her.

Vega was strong, even when broken, and she proved that by digging deep and shoving herself off the forest floor again with a fortifying scream to keep moving forward.

Flames charred the tree behind them, blazing the side of Bridger’s arm when the wind picked up from another gust. He yelped in pain, pulling his arm to his chest. The suits helped to an extent, but Meyer’s fire roasted with furor. Bridger’s skin bubbled with third-degree burns.

She’s going to live. She’s going to make it. That was the echo in Bridger’s mind, repeating over and over until the trees opened into a small clearing.

Vega stood on the edge of the cliff, peering into the lake. She turned from pale white to a shade of green, like she might hurl. “The water’s too rough.”

Bridger joined her on the edge. The water splashed against the cliff like an angry god, ready to seek its revenge. He shot a look behind him. The fire wasn’t stopping at the tree line like it should.

Meyer was coming, pushing the fire forward so he could travel through unscathed. He’d recently told Bridger he deserved to make his own decision—to choose his own path.

Bridger’s path had always been clear, and Vega Caelum got hung up in the wreckage. His love for her had burned like a thousand suns—suns that were smothered by years of carnage. Slowly, they were igniting again, roaring to life with a vengeance.

But Bridger had made a choice—Meyer was wrong about him not getting the choice. He’d chosen to follow the path of darkness to keep the people he loved safe.

And somewhere, over the course of his lifetime, he’d lost sight of that—harming someone deserving of more than he’d ever be able to give her.

“We have to find another way around,” she said, turning her back to the cliff.

Meyer’s flames parted down the middle like a sea of madness. Bridger only had seconds to decide.

There was no other way.

Bridger whispered his apology and shoved Vega off the cliff.

He watched Vega fall, fall, fall. Her frail body hit the roaring waters, and Bridger knew she had less than a minute.

A minute before she was gone again, before the brand around his wrist throbbed with the loss of a bond so strong it took a little piece of him with it every time. The shields could protect him from the memories but not their fated connection.

Meyer strode through the fire, worry lining his brows. “Gods be damned, I thought you were dead.” He reached for Bridger, but he stepped back, his heel dangling off the edge. “Where is she?” Meyer looked around, stepping forward to gaze over the cliff.

“She jumped.”

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