Page 35 of Revenge of the Forgotten

Bridger’s sword was pitch black, the dark metal sparkling like the night sky. It had been through everything with him, and not even a tiny chip near the hilt could get him to part with it. It was one of the two bonded items his power gave him at a young age, and while he could rebuild the sword and rematch the bond, there was an attachment to the chipped blade he’d yet to let go of.

“Alright, Halo. You ready?” Bridger asked the boy.

He was so young—too young to be siding with a woman who would suck him dry. Bridger wished he could warn him, but it was already too late. Marlena’s corruption didn’t take long to settle in—he knew that firsthand.

Halo’s smile was sharp, aging him a few years. “I think the real question is, are you?” He reached forward too quickly for Bridger or Meyer to jump back. His hands wrapped around each of their wrists, and everything went black, a crushing feeling pressing into Bridger’s whole being.

Bridger couldn’t hear or see anything, but his senses were all on overdrive, ready to fight his way to the surface of this suffocating blackout. He was sure he was seconds from imploding, gravity squeezing him so tightly his breathing stopped completely.

He didn’t implode, but when his feet touched the ground and the world was delivered back to him, Bridger bent over, dry heaving through the waves in his stomach. He stumbled, inhaling all the air he could get into his lungs as the world settled fully around him.

Panic seared his body. Bridger forced himself to assess his location, fighting through the sickness threatening to escape from the pit of his stomach.

They were in the deep forest of Vates, settled among a crumpled village—not just any village. This is Arlet’s village.

At the end of this row of comfortable cottages, Arlet’s former home sat deteriorated, vines engulfing the entire structure. Vates had been abandoned longer than any of the other territories.

The portal’s new location was intended to be a mind game, another way for Marlena to slowly cripple Arlet if she made it back to Tolevarre alive.

Meyer was on his hands and knees, gasping for air. “What the fuck!” he screamed while jumping to his feet, charging for Halo. Fire danced above his hands.

Halo disappeared and then reappeared behind Meyer as a ball of fire blazed through where he’d been standing, burning a small shrub to a crisp. The boy was too quick, staying ahead of Meyer’s every move.

“You get used to it,” the boy said, smiling at Tolevarre’s most notoriously vicious warriors trying to recover from a jump that took less than ten seconds.

“Never again,” Meyer rasped, his fire simmering in his palms, but a hot ember still flickered behind his golden eyes.

Bridger’s gaze landed on the trees, a shimmer between the two largest catching his eye. The portal appeared with Vega’s curse, and only those who were tied to her could see it. To the rest of the world, it was just an out of place set of mangled tree branches. Halo and Meyer stared at Bridger as he marveled at the portal they couldn’t see like it was his first time laying eyes on it.

“You brought us straight to the portal,” Bridger commented, knowing how hard that was for a single traveler, let alone bringing two others in tow. “Some power you’ve got,” Bridger gawked. Halo, a boy no more than nineteen years old, was able to do what no one before him could do. And so efficiently.

He was a force to be reckoned with.

“Thanks, Commander.” Halo smiled, his shoulders pushing back with pride. “I’ll leave you to it. Marlena told me to wait here for when you return.” Halo traveled to the low-hanging tree above them, making himself comfortable on a branch. “I’ll keep watch.”

Bridger looked to Meyer, the color in his cheeks finally coming back. “Let’s get this over with.”

Meyer bowed his head in a nod, trusting Bridger fully, and cracked his fingers out in front of him with a quick snap. “Ready or not.”

Here we come.

13

The redwoods towered over them, their car feeling smaller than an ant next to the enormous trees. “Do you think the curse brought me this close to the portal earlier in life as a joke?” Vega asked Arlet, choking back on the hatred bubbling inside.

“Probably.” Arlet shrugged. “There have been a lot of weird things I don’t understand about this life. I’m still mulling over the fact that this time you’re remembering things before we can get your memories back to you.” She pointed to a secluded area of the parking lot. “Park over there. We’re going to need to walk the rest of the way.”

Vega pulled the rental into a spot where it would eventually get towed for parking too long, abandoned like Vega’s life on Earth. Her anxiety shot through the roof when she shifted the car into park. “How do I usually get my memories back?” she asked, talking to fill the silence and the roaring of her nerves.

The sun was beginning to set, the sky above the giant trees turning pink and orange. After the phone call with Chase, Arlet made Vega pull over for a couple hours to sleep, reminding her that their journey didn’t end when they got to Tolevarre.

“We have to meet with a witch usually. We call them benders because their power isn’t something that can be seen outwardly. It flows through their blood, and they’re able to manipulate it into other things. Potions, curses. Marlena is the only one who can truly break your curse, but the memory block piece of it can be shifted.” Arlet waited by the front of the car, watching Vega. “It took us about twenty years to figure out the best way to get them back to you. Trial and error, baby.”

Vega went quiet as she stretched her stiff limbs. She reached into the back seat, sliding her backpack over her shoulder. Inside was a small pocketknife she’d kept hidden throughout the journey, waiting for the moment she needed to use it to fight for her life.

Do I even want to fight? What am I fighting for at this point?

Her thoughts lingered in her head, her eyes going vacuous as she stacked up all of the terrible possibilities that could happen while alone in the woods with Arlet—who, even though Vega felt a connection with her, was still a stranger.

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