by Hope Hart
I’ve never told anyone, but the reason I got knocked out was that I was creeping closer to the fighting, desperate to see if the handsome Arcav with the violet eyes was still alive. I was army crawling toward the door when a Grivath got close and everyone panicked, trampling my dumb ass in the process.
It may seem like Methi and I missed our chance. Like all we had was potential. But when we kissed, that potential was so deep, so vast, that I knew I wouldn’t give it up.
So he did instead.
I won’t pretend I’m not bitter about it. Some wounds, like my father leaving, are wounds that never heal. And they bleed fresh blood when someone else leaves you hurting.
But that day on the ship, Methi refused to leave us, losing his arm in the process.
I would never abandon him either.
I sigh and sit back in my seat, my muscles aching from constant tension. From here, it’s simply a case of keeping the ship moving toward our destination. Thankfully, this one is equipped with the Fecax shielding, making it almost invisible to most other ships. I should hopefully be able to get to Durin without being boarded by pirates.
The ship is stocked with food, and I eat, leaving the SSA Hope on autopilot.
“Ship,” I say at one point, “what are the chances of landing on Durin without anyone seeing me?”
Calculating. Approximately three point seven percent.
I don’t talk to it much after that.
At one point, I nap, instructing the ship to wake me if anything changes, but when I wake, we’re still on our new flight path, heading straight for this galaxy’s asshole.
I’m aware that I will need to refuel this ship in Durin. Otherwise, we won’t be able to get back to Arcavia. But hopefully by then I’ll have Methi with me, and he’ll be able to help me plan.
Unless he’s already dead.
I always wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. I guess you can’t get much better than staging a rescue on an alien planet.
I push that thought out of my head. I’m not a natural optimist, but even I know that sometimes you’ve just gotta be positive.
Methi
They come for Leara long before we have a plan. She smiles sadly at me, and walks toward the open door of our cell, even as I leap forward to stop her.
One of the guards jolts me with his weapon and I crash to the stone floor, even as I am reaching for the Queen.
“I have not seen the sky for one hundred and seventy-three days,” she tells me as I growl. “If you see your King again, tell him thank you for looking for me, but he can stop now. Good luck, Methi.”
I meet her eyes and nod. When life is really bad, survivors will take any chance for a change, even if that change may be worse. I hope she gets to see her sky. And I hope that it is beautiful.
She is taken away, and I lie on the floor, recovering from the shock. Thankfully, it does not seem to have reopened the wound on my leg, which although tender, is functional.
Talis has probably made it back to Arcavia by now. He will have told his story, spreading lies about me. Those lies will likely be believed by everyone except my parents and my half-brother Vazta, who will likely try to kill Talis in retribution. No matter my behavior or the actions I take, or the friends I make, I will always be a bastard.
The Arcav fertility rate is very low. Even before Korva’s insanity, our scientists were scratching their horns as they tried to understand why even fewer younglings were being born than usual.
For this reason, unmated Arcav do not usually need to worry about taking precautions. It is extremely unlikely that an Arcav female will fall pregnant while unmated. Extremely unlikely but not impossible, as my mother learned.
Thanks to my illegitimacy, working my way up to a position as guard was ten times more difficult for me than it was for any other Arcav. But I did it, and now, even if I get back to Arcavia, I will still lose everything that I worked so hard for.
Chapter Six
Methi
“Methi?”
I groan. I have shifted from dreams to hallucinations.
Meghan stares through my bars, tears in her eyes as she takes in my leg.
I sit up suddenly, scraping my horn on the wall, and it is that pain that convinces me she is real. My hands begin to shake. If they find her here, she will be sold or killed.
“How did you get here?” My voice is harsh, but the thought that Varian or Jaret allowed her into this prison alone makes me want to kill them. Slowly.
She shoots me a grin, and she looks so beautiful, and tired, and scared, that all I want to do is take her in my arms and never let her go.
“Stole a ship. Landed it at precisely the right time. Everyone is looking for a prisoner who escaped. So yeah, we kinda need to get going.”
“You should not have come.”
Her eyes flash and I instantly regret my words as her smile disappears.
“Where you go, I go, remember? Yell at me later. For now, I’m getting you out of here.”
She holds up a hand, and I can see one of the guard’s hands, cut off at the wrist.
“You killed one of them?” If they find her, she is dead.
She shrugs. “He attacked me and we needed his hand. I got the idea from Amanda. That was her plan when she was on the Grivath ship.”
Meghan pushes the hand against the palm plate, gagging the entire time. A green light flashes and I meet her eyes as my cell door swings open.
She drops the hand and I reach out and pull her into my arms. I wish I could have bathed before touching her, but she is grinning up at me again, and I wonder how I could ever have left this female.
“We need to get out of here,” she says. “This place is locked down so tight, I thought I’d never get in here. I’ve been here for hours, trying to find a way to sneak in.”
“How did you get in?”
“They’re all looking for someone. Some woman has gone missing, right as they were going to sell her, and people are losing their minds over it. They’ve put out a reward and everyone is hunting her.” She shivers. “I wouldn’t want to be her right now.”
I clench my jaw. I have a feeling I know just who that female is. I shake it off. I need to get Meghan off this planet before she is locked away in a cell of her own.
“Where is the ship?”
“In the dock. I had no choice. I’m not experienced enough to land it anywhere else, but the guy who was checking the ships got distracted when a woman was spotted loitering nearby.” She bites her lips, tears filling her eyes. “It wasn’t her, but they tore off her clothes and beat her anyway.”
I stroke a hand down Meghan’s hair as she sniffs. I would never have wanted her to see this place.
“We will go now. Do you remember how to get back?”
She taps her head. “Yup,” she says, and I almost smile. Meghan has never been shy about her unique brain.
She reaches down and pulls out a blaster from the small of her back.
“You’re probably better with this than I am.”
I take a moment to gape at her. One day, when we are both safe, I will take time to marvel at how this tiny human managed to steal a ship, sneak into Durin, and hand me a blaster.
“So,” she says, “let’s go.”
Meghan
It’s so good to see Methi, and most importantly, to see him alive, that I’m almost bouncing with excitement, even as I quake in fear at the thought of being discovered. Methi stashed me behind a building close to the dock so he could go and check it out and make sure we can get back to our ship.
He’s alive! He’s alive, and I’m alive, and we’re going to get back to Arcavia and it’ll be like he never left. We’ll be best friends again, and he’ll never take off and leave me without warning ever again.
I jolt as a hand brushes my shoulder and spin, teeth bared, but it’s just Methi. That’s what I get for getting lost in a daydream.
“We have a problem,” he says, face grim.
He’s wearing a la
rge hat, which he must’ve pilfered so he could hide his horns. With the thick layer of dirt and dust covering his body, his horns covered, and the scowl on his face, he fits right in around here.
“What is it?”
“The ship is gone.”
“What? It can’t be. I engaged full security. Did you go to the right spot?”
He nods, teeth clenched, and a muscle twitches in his cheek.
“Someone took it. And I believe I know just who that someone was.”
“What? Who?”
“The Fecax Queen.”
My mouth drops open. “Holy shit, the Fecax Queen was here?”
He frowns. “She shared a cell with me. She is the reason I can walk. That does not change the fact that we are stranded without a ship.”
I nod, already mentally moving on. She healed him and then she stole our ship to save her ass. I would’ve done the same thing. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
“Are there any other ships we can steal?”
“We have two to choose from. But we must go quickly before they realize the Queen has disappeared. I’ve got this for you.”
He holds up a hand and I scowl at him.
“Oh come on.”
He simply wraps the collar around my throat, holding the leash in his hand. I want to bark at him, but that would likely draw attention. I get it. This is a slave planet, and walking toward the dock without a slave will likely draw more attention than walking toward it with a slave.
That doesn’t mean I like it.
“Why can’t you be the slave?” I mutter, and feel his big body shake with laughter in front of me.
I follow him to the dock, hanging my head and shuffling my feet in an attempt to look inconspicuous. As we get close, a guard scans me, obviously checking to see if I look anything like the Fecax Queen.
Methi bares his teeth at him, displaying lethal fangs, and I let my bottom lip quiver as if I’m terrified.
The guard nods, waving us through, and I let out a long, slow breath. The dock is busier than it was when I arrived, and it seems like everyone is slowly getting back to business, even as the search for the Princess continues. We stop in front of a couple of ships and my mouth drops open.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” I say through clenched teeth.
These ships are the equivalent of a rust bucket on Earth. They would be considered unroadworthy if they were cars the United States, and my teeth begin to chatter as I eye them. I’ve only just gotten used to hurtling through space in Arcav ships, which are some of the safest in this galaxy.
Methi is obviously taking a moment to choose between them, but we don’t have long. We can’t exactly look like we’re shopping for a ship.
He makes his choice and pulls me forward by the leash, ignoring my snarl at the unexpected movement. We need to blend in, and the moment we look suspicious is the moment we lose everything.
But I still vow to retaliate.
I follow him toward the ship, trembling in fear. If the owners of this ship arrive now, we’re in big trouble. I’m almost gasping for breath as I fight down my panic, and my fear pleases another guard who walks by and nods respectfully to Methi.
This planet needs to be destroyed.
I take a moment to lose myself in fantasies of somehow arranging for an asteroid to collide with Durin. This planet shouldn’t exist, and the fact that it does is a blight on every being who has ever visited.
I focus on my rage, feeling it grow from an ember to a wildfire inside of me. I prefer it to the cold fear I’ve felt since I stepped onto Durin. It takes a special kind of evil to steal someone’s freedom.
Methi heads up the steps and I freeze as a voice calls out from behind me.
“Oi, you.”
Methi turns, nostrils flared, and I watch as his hand reaches for his blaster, even as he deliberates whether we can still get off Durin if he begins shooting.
“What?”
“You don’t have a shock collar for your slave. Buy one now, I’ll throw in another one for free.”
Methi scans him up and down and I tense. Maybe this will be where he loses it. Where the rage he’s trying so hard to contain will come out and tear everything around us to pieces.
I clear my throat.
“Please master, not a shock collar. I’ll be good, I promise.”
Methi’s eyes meet mine and lighten almost imperceptibly. I blow out a breath as he simply shakes his head at the guy behind us and leads me into the ship.
“Master hmmm?” he murmurs as the door closes behind us and he hands me the end of the leash.
“Don’t get used to it. Can you get this thing off the ground?”
We head for the control center and his jaw clenches.
“You should pray to whichever deity you believe in.”
That doesn’t sound hopeful.
Methi
I am not like Jaret or Roax, who can fly almost any type of ship in any type of conditions. I can fly most ships, but prefer to be almost anywhere else than the control center.
This ship is old and rundown, and I mentally curse whoever has avoided updating and maintaining it. I glance at Meghan, who looks exhausted as she studies the controls. I have to get us off this planet before the owner of this ship comes back and before my escape is noticed.
I take my seat.
“Computer,” I say.
Nothing.
Meghan tilts her head. “Ship?”
No response.
Is it possible that this ship is so old that it does not have an AI system?
I press a series of buttons, hoping that this will achieve a manual lift off. The doors close, and the ship begins to hum beneath us.
“Something’s happening,” Meghan says excitedly, bouncing up on her toes.
I smile before I even realize it.
“This will be fast,” I warn. “Sit down and buckle in.”
She complies, and we both freeze as beings begin to gather underneath the wide window in front of us.
“Shit,” Meghan says as they point up at us. “I bet one of them is the actual owner of this ship.”
I grind my teeth, willing the ship into motion, and we begin to slowly lift off. It is not fast enough.
“Duck,” I order Meghan as weapons are aimed our way.
She ducks her head, but I see her scanning the controls, that lightening-fast brain of hers calculating risk and debating our options.
“How long until we’re out of their airspace?”
“Two minutes.”
“We don’t have that long!”
Weapons begin firing, and I hope the ship has at least been reinforced sometime within the past decade.
We rise higher, and the guards follow us with their weapons, still firing.
“Fuck it,” Meghan says, as the ship shudders and strains beneath us.
She presses a series of buttons and covers her head, and I wrestle for control of the ship as we fire a missile straight at the dock.
“A little warning next time,” I grit out as I wrestle with the ship.
I feel her glare. “You’re welcome.”
The smoke begins to clear, and guards appear, running toward the fallen males. An entire section of the dock has collapsed and I sigh. It would be preferable if the owners of this ship had put some of the money they obviously invested in its missile capabilities into its engine instead.
Meghan makes a choked noise as we lift higher and get a view of a group of guards lying amongst the burning dock.
“I’m not sorry,” she says, and for a moment sounds so young and innocent that my heart clenches. Her lip trembles before she firms it, pulling her eyes away from the guards.
“Look!”
We both freeze. Four ships, all armed to the teeth, all about to surround us.
My bowels turn to water in fear. Not for me, but for Meghan. There’s a reason why Durin is the most successful slave planet in our galaxy. No one would dare to cause damage here out o
f fear of what the Duraz would do in retaliation.
Meghan falls silent, and I reach for her hand.
“If this is our death,” I tell her. “I swear I will find you again in the next life. This is not the end of our story.”
She lets out a shuddering sigh, and water rolls down her face. Tears, I remember Harlow telling me, are signs that humans cannot contain their sadness.
“Do you promise?”
“I promise.”
We turn and face our fate.
Chapter Seven
Meghan
I never really thought about death.
I knew it would happen, one day. And I hoped it would be epic, like something out of a movie. But when you’re seventeen, you don’t consider that you may never get to that stage you’ve been anticipating for so long.
Adulthood.
I look at Methi, so brave, and strong, and furious as he glares at the ships in front of us. If his rage could be weaponized, those ships would explode.
A booming sound comes from one of the ships, and I narrow my eyes.
“Land,” the voice says, “or die.”
I sigh. It’s no choice at all. When it comes down to it, I’d rather die quick, in an explosion, than be slowly tortured by the sadists on Durin.
Our ship continues to rise, and I wonder if we should get lower so we can take more of the Durin dock with us when we explode.
And then it happens.
The explosion lights up the sky, but surprisingly, I feel no pain. I clutch Methi’s hand tighter and it takes me a moment to understand
It wasn’t our ship that exploded.
It was one of theirs.
“Oh my God! Is that—”
“Our ship.” Methi finishes, voice grim. “Yes it is.”
The SSA Hope has returned, and it fires on the remaining three ships, even as smaller ships begin to appear in the distance.