by Frost Kay
The adrenaline burned away, and fatigue settled over her like a warm blanket. She lay back into the sand, the last vestiges of its heat sinking into her back. Her fingers ghosted over the sand as stars appeared in the sky, one by one.
Her lips pursed, and she lifted her head as her hand brushed over something nestled into the sand. Allie picked up the rounded shell and held it up. Roughly the size of her hand, the coral shell was shiny on top with spiky ridges around the edge a cream spot. She turned over the clam-like shell and smiled as she ran her thumb along the bottom. Pale mint green algae clung to the bottom in velvety patches.
She lay back and rotated the shell between her fingers, enjoying the salty breeze.
The temptation to cry was strong, but she held herself back.
Look on the bright side, baby girl. Her grandmother’s voice floated through her mind.
Today hadn’t gone as she planned, but she’d also done things she’d never imagined herself being able to.
You rendered two Kitterrans unconscious, stole two wrist comms, impersonated one of Sloven’s goons, snuck through an entire hangar full of people, stowed away on an airship, survived a fall, and outswam a sea monster.
Sure, things sucked, but she was alive and free for the moment. And she’d found a treasure.
Allie held the shell to her heart and gazed at the stars.
And your friends are out there somewhere looking for you. It will all be okay.
The stars blacked out, and sand blew everywhere as a ship darted over her.
She covered her eyes with her arm and stood, slipping the shell into her bra. The ship pivoted and landed just down the beach. Allie brushed the damp sand from her pants and began walking toward the small silver airship.
There was no way she was going to give the king the satisfaction of dragging her onto the airship. She’d come of her own volition. Allie tipped her chin up as light flooded the beach and six guards jogged down the ramp. Sloven stood at the top of the ramp, his arms crossed.
Allie faltered for a second but kept her pace as she passed the guards and moved up the ramp to stand before the king. His expression was blank as he stepped aside to let her inside the ship. She brushed past him, making sure to get sand on his suit. It might have been petty, but she was too upset to care. Two couches sat on each side of the ship and that was it. Everything looked expensive, but it was simple.
She moved to the opposite side of the small ship and stood in front of the couch. Sloven didn’t turn around as the doors slid closed, leaving the guards on the beach. She swallowed, but kept her mouth shut.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” he asked so quietly she had to strain to hear his words. “Do you?” He turned slowly and pinned her to the spot with his furious gaze. “You could have the galaxy at your feet and still you refuse me. Still you fight me. Why?”
Allie opened her mouth to answer but he held up his hand, and her words dried up.
“I don’t want your placations.” He rubbed a hand across his mouth and chuckled, the sound somewhat dead. “You surprised me; I’ll give you that.” Sloven tipped his head. “I’ve enjoyed it in the past, but this time… this time I find myself angry.”
He lunged at her and wrapped a hand around her neck, squeezing just enough so it was hard to breathe. His devilish eyes scanned her face as she pried at his fingers.
“I’ve been accommodating, more than you deserve, and still you spit in the face of my hospitality.” He brushed his nose along her cheekbone. “I swear if you didn’t smell so damn good and weren’t a means to the ultimate revenge, I’d tear you apart right now.”
He meant every word.
“That’s right, dearest. Cry. Beg me for your life. Beg to be mine. Plead for my forgiveness.”
Allie held his gaze and bit her trembling lip. Never would such words come from her lips. She’d studied psychopaths in school. He intended to kill her. It might as well be on her own terms.
“I’ve told you before that I belong to no one, least of all you. You can’t buy or conquer everything, Sloven. You’re not a god.”
“You foolish, foolish girl,” he snarled into her face, his hand squeezing tighter. “I loathe everything about you, yet I still want to possess your fire.” Allie gasped for air as he leaned forward and licked the tear off her cheek. “Consider yourself lucky.”
Sloven tossed her aside and joined the pilot in front of the airship. Allie coughed and rubbed at her throat, her eyes pinned to the king’s back.
He’d almost killed her.
He craned his neck and smirked at her. “Prepare yourself, Human. Your freedom has ended.”
29
Always Resort to the Fetal Position
Allie pulled herself from the airship floor and curled up on the couch. She gingerly ran her fingers over the swelling on her neck and winced. No doubt it would be an ugly bruise in no time. Pain flared along her throat as she swallowed delicately. Stars, did it hurt. What she wouldn’t give for a glass of water.
Her gaze moved to Sloven and then back to her dirty bare toes.
You’ve gotten yourself into quite the pickle.
Her mind spun a thousand miles a minute. There was no possible way to explain herself out of this.
The airship shot into the air, startling a gasp from her. Allie’s throat tightened painfully. Sloven hadn’t been violent with her like that since she’d met him the first time. Even though she knew he was dangerous, somehow she’d forgotten just how dangerous.
You need to get out.
But there wasn’t any way out that she could see. Her failed little escape attempt was the last nail in her proverbial coffin. Angry tears burned at the back of her eyes, but she fought them back. What was done, was done, and there wasn’t any use in crying over spilled milk as her mama used to say. Wallowing in self-pity wouldn’t be any use to her.
Allie clenched her fingers against her damp pants as the airship approached what looked to be the side of the mountain. The shield wavered and revealed the door leading to the hangar and her lab. Her pulse jackknifed as the they neared the hangar. Once they entered the fortress, that was the end of her explorations. Allie’s gaze darted to the airship door.
“Don’t even think about it.”
She stilled and peeked at Sloven from the corner of her eye. He still had his back to her. How did he know what she was thinking?
“Stop that,” she barked.
“Stop what?” he asked.
“Reading my mind.”
“Allie, it’s not your mind that’s betraying you, but your body.”
Her lips thinned, and her eyes narrowed. Stupid alien noses. She’d never get used to that.
The airship slipped into the hangar and touched down without so much as jostling Allie. She gazed out the windows at the staff scurrying around in the lab. Sloven’s goons approached the airship, and guilt pricked her as Whiz glared at the side of the ship.
No doubt he wouldn’t be nice to her anymore.
Sloven ignored her as he walked past her. The door to the ship opened automatically, and he stepped onto the ramp without a backward glance. Allie was rooted to the spot. Things could have been worse when he’d picked her up, but she had a feeling that once she was in the apartment, everything would turn truly hellish.
The king paused at the bottom of the ramp and snapped his fingers.
He freaking snapped them. Like she was an animal.
Her teeth ground together as Allie stood and woodenly exited the ship. As much as she wanted to fight his highhandedness, it wasn’t the time. It was time to play meek and quiet. When she reached the bottom of the ramp, Sloven strolled forward as his guards fell in place around her.
Great.
The jaunt back to the lab seemed to stretch on forever. Maybe it was because of the creepy silence, or because of all the pairs of eyes that outright watched the spectacle. Allie tipped her chin up and kept walking without acknowledging their existence. A thread of panic pulled tig
ht in her chest as the group neared the staircase that led to the glass elevator.
A tremble of fear worked through her.
Don’t fall apart. Don’t fall apart. Don’t—
She caught the emerald eyes of the dragon looking woman.
The alien held her gaze and mouthed, Get down.
Get down? What in the worlds?
Allie frowned at her and kept walking, although just a touch slower. What did the woman—
A forced slammed into her back. Allie flew ass over teakettle and crashed into the floor. Pain ricocheted up her side as she slid into a worktable. Screams and explosions erupted around her. She slapped a hand against the floor and sat up, just as the dragon woman dropped to her knees and slid to her side, firing two laser guns. Allie tucked herself into a ball and wrapped her arms around her head.
“Get up,” the dragon woman snapped. “We have to go!”
Allie didn’t have to be told twice. The enemy of her enemy was her friend. She didn’t care who the dragon woman was as long as she got her out and away from Sloven.
“Follow close,” the female growled. “And keep to the ground. Those idiots are making a mess out of everything.”
The dragon woman crouched low and began sprinting away, leaving Allie scrambling after her. Her jaw dropped as she got a good look at what was going on. An airship had blown its way into the hangar and was firing on everything. Smoke burned her eyes and her throat. The airship swung their way and Allie dove behind a metal table as the ship fired. Heat scalded her skin, and debris and ash rained down on her.
The dragon lady popped her head around the table. “The next part is trickier. On my mark, we move.”
“Who are you?”
The female smiled, showing off her terrifyingly sharp teeth. “You can call me the dragoness.”
“No,” Allie breathed. It couldn’t be. “How?” Was this some trick? It couldn’t be Virgil’s wife.
“Doesn’t matter.”
The dragoness was right. Questions could wait for another time. They needed to get out. Her gaze moved to the two blasters the alien held. “Let me have one. I’m an excellent shot.”
“I’m sure you are, kit, but not a chance. Move!”
Allie’s heart pounded as she bolted after the dragoness, her bare feet slapping against the floor. She’d feel a lot more comfortable with a weapon. “Shoot,” she yelled as she stepped on a piece of glass and stumbled.
The dragoness skidded to a stop and spun around. Her reptile-like gaze narrowed and she began firing. Right past Allie.
Allie rolled to the ground and screamed as she got a good eyeful of what had hunted her. Sloven, grinning like a maniac, tossed a table at the dragoness and fired on the female. His attention swung to Allie as she crawled away from him, rocks and metal stabbing her palms. A hand curled around her ankle and tugged her backward. Thinking fast, she grabbed onto a chunk of rock and twisted to face the king. His smile widened.
“Where do you think you’re going, dearest?”
She kicked out with her left leg, knowing he would block the blow, but that wasn’t the purpose. It served only as a distraction. Allie tightened her grip on her makeshift weapon and lobbed the rock. Right into Sloven’s face.
Take that, dirtbag.
He grunted and stumbled back several steps, but didn’t drop her ankle. Slowly, he turned to face her and bared his bloody teeth at Allie.
“You wanna play it that way? Let’s play.”
He dropped her ankle, and, before she could even get to her feet, he pounced on her, his fingers knotting in her hair. Pain and stars exploded across her vision as he slammed her head into the floor.
“That should make you a little more biddable.”
Ringing filled her ears, and bile flooded her mouth as the room turned into a spinning kaleidoscope of anarchy. Allie clutched at the king’s arm as he yanked her upward by her hair. She couldn’t tell where they were going as wave after wave of pain and nausea assaulted her. As her vision started to clear, Allie raked her nails down his arm in an attempt to get away as he dragged her through the rubbish. Hope bloomed in her chest as she spotted the dragonesses plowing her way through the guards. Even though the world was tospy-turvy, Allie somehow managed to focus on Sloven. She grinned evilly when she spotted a deep wound on this thigh.
Without second guessing herself, she jammed her fingers into the wound. Sloven dropped her with a yell and kicked her in the ribs. All the air from her lungs rushed out and she curled in on herself, crippled by the pain.
That didn’t go as planned.
But it had given the dragoness time to catch up. The woman sprinted toward them while firing her blaster. A bloody hand grabbed Allie’s bicep and pulled her roughly into the glass elevator. Sloven dropped her like a ragdoll and took aim.
“NO!” Allie screamed as the king shot the dragoness right in the middle of her chest. Her reptilian eyes closed, and she dropped like a sack of potatoes. Clutching her side, Allie tried to lunge out of the elevator only to receive another kick to the ribs.
Something cracked.
Her stomach lurched, and she puked all over the floor as the elevator doors shut silently. She leaned back and stared hopelessly as the lift began to rise above the destruction. Her breath caught as the airship fired on the elevator.
I’m going to die here.
30
Is This a Dream?
She was totally hyperventilating.
Allie shook uncontrollably in the corner of Sloven’s bedroom, every part of her body in agony. Blackness played at the edges of her consciousness, but Allie refused to pass out, clinging onto the pain like a starfish on a rock, all the while observing the king as he prowled around his room with brutal efficiency, collecting items that were stowed in the walls. The freaking walls.
“Dearest, can you walk?” he asked softly.
She blinked slowly at his gentle tone. Her face pinched in confusion. Why was he talking so sweetly?
He literally dragged you through the glass by your hair and kicked you in the ribs repeatedly, and now he speaks to you like you’re important?
“What do you want?” she rasped, placing her hands on the white walls behind her and pushing herself to her abused feet.
Sloven tossed another small bag onto his bed. “Don’t be dreary. We don’t have time for it. Can you walk?”
Doubtful. There was still glass in her right foot for sure. “No.”
“Then I’ll carry you.” He plucked a backpack from the bed and stalked toward her.
In her haze, she didn’t even have the good sense to cower back into her corner, but, instead of a blow, he carefully helped her put on the backpack and buckled it across the front, and then went back to packing.
“Do you have a way out?” she asked.
“I always have a way out.”
“Leave me,” she whispered.
Sloven paused and arched a red brow. “After everything I went through to get you here? Be reasonable.”
Reasonable… because he was the sanest person in the room. Allie released a rusty laugh that hurt, so she bit off the hysteria. A blessed numbness settled over her, and she found herself pulling open the curtains to her right just a touch. Blankly, she stared out into the darkness, kind of wishing it would swallow her whole. She smiled faintly as a face appeared in the darkness. Blade. Allie pressed her bloody palm to the window and closed her eyes. She must have hit her head harder than she thought.
She opened her eyes and smiled at the figment of her imagination. At least she wasn’t alone in what she considered to be the worst day of her life. Leaning her cheek against the window, Allie drew a heart on the glass. Blade’s serious face moved closer to the window, and he blew against the glass. Her delight melted into confusion as he began to write in the condensation.
Get away from the window.
She didn’t move but stood frozen. Imagining a face was one thing, but this was something else.
He blew on the
glass again.
Now. Cover ears.
Oh, good lord. He was real. Allie released the curtain and pushed back into her corner, turning her back to the room.
One breath.
“Allie, what are you doing?”
Two breaths.
Footsteps padding her way.
Three breaths.
“Allie, we need—"
A high-pitched whine screeched, and she slapped her hands over her ears right as the whine hit a fevered pitch and the windows blew inward. Allie screamed and pressed herself farther into the corner. Blasters discharged, and then there was silence. Chills wracked her body as the cool night air blew into the room.
Her trembling increased when glass crunched underneath a booted footstep.
Don’t just stand here. Fight.
Allie dug deep and opened her eyes, staring down at the floor. A huge shard of glass rested by her left foot. She allowed herself to crumple to her knees like she just couldn’t stand and brushed her fingers along the cool piece of glass. With care, she curled her hand around the shard and waited as the footsteps approached.
You’ve got one shot. Don’t let that psychopath take you to one more place. You won’t survive it.
Her heartbeat pounded in her ears, nearly drowning out Sloven. Allie reacted and swung wildly, slashing at him. Her battle cry died in her sore throat as the male caught her wrist before she could strike the blow. Emotions overwhelmed her as she stared into dark blue eyes that were almost black.
“Blade?” she cried.
“You’re all right, love. You can let go of the glass.”
Allie stiffened. Why would he want her to get rid of the glass? Was Sloven now wearing his son’s face? She snapped her teeth at him and tried to wriggle free. “Don’t touch me!”
“Allie, calm down. We’ve got you.”
“We?”
He stepped back, revealing Coal and Lev standing perfectly still. Coal’s attention was pinned on the far wall while Lev peered at her with concern.
“Coal?” she croaked.