Page 97 of Revenge of the Forgotten

“I…” She couldn’t find the words. “I owed it to your father to make sure you followed in his legacy. In your bloodline’s legacy.” Her words were the script she’d created, the one she’d been repeating for decades.

“I don’t believe you.” He’d come all this way to hear his mom say what he knew to be true, what she had never admitted to anyone before—he had to hear her say it.

“What do you want me to say, Bridger?” Katrin’s voice was rising. He’d gotten under her skin.

“Tell me how afraid you were to die. Tell me that you were so afraid of dying like your husband that you would rather your only son be tied up, beaten for years, years, Mother… and tortured until he was no longer himself. Say it.”

“No, that’s not—” she stuttered.

“Liar,” Bridger growled, the room rumbling with his growing anger.

The guards pounded on the door the instant they felt Bridger’s powers spike.

“Fine!” She stomped her foot down and traveled across the room, disappearing to only reappear directly in front of Bridger. “I was afraid to die, yes, and I knew that I could save myself by turning you in. All I needed to survive was to bring you home where you belonged!”

Bridger chuckled, no humor detected. “There it is.” He backed up, having come there to hear those words. “You knew that all you had to do was allow your son’s life to be ruined to save yourself.”

Her face was red. “Your life was never ruined. You just fell off track for a bit.”

“I loved her!” he howled. “I have done unspeakable things to a person who has wanted nothing more than to keep her people safe!”

The same thing he’d been trying to do with the men and women in his army—keeping them safe from the world outside of his control. If they didn’t answer to him, they’d answer to Marlena.

And he might blur the lines between good and evil, but he’d never be Marlena. Never be Marlena. Never be Marlena.

“You were destined to rule. Lucius and I knew the power you’d possess… and then you gained more, becoming stronger than we ever could have hoped.” She kept trying to reel him back in. “I wasn’t going to let you give that up for a girl who was destined to die.”

Bridger gaped at her. “I became stronger because Vega was able to summon Remus. I didn’t become who I am because of you or my piece of shit father… I am this way because of her, because of her tenacity and determination to kill her sister.”

“Oh, please?—”

He cut her off. “You’ve never loved me.”

“Bridger, you’re my son.” A tear fell finally, but Bridger saw right through the act.

“I was nothing but a pawn to keep you in a life of luxury. You sold my soul to the devil for power. Power I didn’t want—you wanted it.”

“I did what I had to do because I love you.”

“You’ve never loved anyone more than you love yourself. Fraus-born, through and through.”

The knocking on the door got louder, but his shield was still up, and the men outside the room couldn’t hear what was happening inside—only silence and the rumble of the house around them. They’d never be able to break through the hold Bridger held on the door, trapping himself and Katrin inside until he was ready to let go.

His mother took a step toward him. “You wouldn’t understand why I’ve?—”

On instinct, he took his dagger out and pressed it against his mother’s neck—for the second time in his life, he held a blade to her throat. “If you tell a soul about our conversation, I’ll make sure you’re the next one destined to die.”

That was a promise he planned to keep this time.

Bridger was done here. He let down the shield, and the guards came in with their weapons drawn. Bridger unsheathed his own bonded sword and decapitated them both with one fell swoop.

“Bridger!”

His mother kept calling his name as he stormed through her home, but he wouldn’t look back.

He couldn’t look back.

37

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