by Zara Starr
“How does it all work?” she asked. “The gladiator thing?”
It was a strange topic to start with, in Gage’s mind, but he guessed it was natural for her. The gladiator ring was probably all that Amelia knew about the planet.
He told her a bit more about how the gladiator tournaments worked, the parts that she didn’t know about. He explained how most of the fighters were slaves, but he wasn’t. And he told her how he had won the two last tournaments.
“Why would you choose a life like this?” Amelia asked. “Especially if you know what it all stands for? Doesn’t it bother you?”
Gage pulled up his shoulders. “I was a weapons engineer before. I needed a change of pace. I’m not allowed to be a soldier for Saitha, so I wanted to make money elsewhere.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Fighting and owning slaves?”
Gage was fascinated by how she spoke her mind when she came across as such a timid creature. It intrigued him. He’d been right to think that there was more to her than her first impression let on.
“Slavery is the norm,” he said, though he didn’t elaborate that he didn’t own any slaves. “One man’s actions can hardly end it. And I happen to enjoy the thrill of a good fight.”
Amelia shook her head. “I don’t understand it.”
“Why?” Gage asked. “What is life on your planet like?”
Amelia glanced at Gage and he could tell that she was hesitant. Maybe she was right to be – what he was doing wasn’t normal. Most didn’t consider that slaves had anything intelligent to say. The slaves didn’t have feelings, their dreams and hopes didn’t matter. They were nothing more than possessions.
Gage knew that wasn’t true. Usually, he enjoyed his conversations with the slaves. Their situation wasn’t their doing. They were just stripped of everything that made them unique and sold off. While there wasn’t much he could do about it, he could at least acknowledge them as people.
And conversing with Amelia intrigued him the most.
“Well, I am a scientist back on my planet,” Amelia said. “I study… other lifeforms.”
She blushed a little. Why? Whatever it was that made her blush, Gage couldn’t take his eyes off her. He was learning that her expressions showed everything about her, that she had micro-expressions that he could pick up on if he paid attention.
She carried on about what she called her job – studying lifeforms, as she’d said. Gage was fascinated by her passion for her job. He enjoyed the gladiator fights too. He was good at it, and he enjoyed the thrill of the fight. But he couldn’t claim the same kind of passion for fighting as she did for her profession. The arena was a means to earn currency and possessions, that was all.
“It sounds to me like you are one of the most intelligent creatures of your race,” Gage said after a while. “I am impressed.”
Amelia burst out laughing and Gage was taken by surprise. Not only at the outburst, at the sound that was so colorful and bright, but at the fact that it seemed completely genuine. She was displaying happiness. After everything she had been taken away from, and with her being a slave, he hadn’t expected it.
Gage couldn’t help himself. He knew he was getting himself even more in trouble by getting to know her, getting to like her, but he couldn’t stop it. He wanted to know everything about her.
A strand of hair had fallen into her face and Gage leaned forward, reaching over to brush it out of her eyes.
Immediately, the Saithin guard that had accompanied them stepped forward, pointing a weapon at him.
He pulled his hands back, holding them up in defense. The whole restaurant was suddenly looking at them, all eyes on the strange couple who had a guard with them.
He shouldn’t have done that. He knew he’d overstepped. If he touched her again, the guard wouldn’t hesitate to shoot.
Even though Gage couldn’t predict anything that happened with Amelia, his predictions were still perfectly accurate when it came to the guard. And he knew that the guard wouldn’t have shot him after the first touch.
It was worth it. He had run the strand of her hair between his fingers and he couldn’t believe how soft it was. He regretted that he had to let go of it.
The guard would only hesitate for so long before he took action. And Gage didn’t want to draw more attention than was already on them. With the attention that had been drawn, some of the diners had noticed that he was a famous gladiator and more and more glances were sent in their direction.
Gage managed to tune them out and focused on Amelia instead.
As the meal progressed, she opened up more and more. Her expressions became more animated and she talked more easily, not hesitating so much before she shared information about her world and the life she had had there.
Gage could sense that she missed it. Not because he had managed to get back his gift of prediction, but because her expressions and the tone of her voice suggested that it was so. She wanted to go back home.
And why not? It sounded like she’d had a wonderful life.
But the lives they had grown up with weren’t always to last, Gage knew that. It was what had happened to him too. Even though his story had nothing to do with slavery, he’d had to leave his home behind just like many other people who had ended up on Saitha.
The Saithin controlled the universe, and Saitha was the heart of the universe. His career had led him here, leaving his old life on his homeworld behind.
The meal came to an end. He had offered Amelia one drink after the other, and dessert, trying to stretch it out as far as possible. But it was time for her to be taken back to the gladiator dome now, and for him to go home.
Although he had taken her out to find his focus again, to be able to put her out of his mind, the opposite had happened. He knew that his mind would be full of her.
He had been an idiot, trying to convince himself that it would work when he had known all along that it would not.
Now that he had taken Amelia out and had spent time with her, he didn’t regret it. In fact, he was excited to win her and spend even more time with her.
It was a first. He’d never felt that way about any of the other females he’d won.
He hadn’t been excited to have them.
But Amelia… Amelia was different.
“Thank you for the meal,” she said politely and fluttered her eyebrows, staring deeply into Gage’s eyes. He was completely taken by her, the way she looked at him and leaned toward him made him believe that she wanted him as much as he wanted her.
She would belong to him and they would both benefit from it. He wasn’t used to keeping his slaves. Had never kept them. But Amelia he would keep.
“It’s my pleasure,” Gage answered. “Soon, we can do this every night.”
Amelia blinked slowly. Confusion, Gage was sure. He was learning to understand her expressions.
“There is only the semi-finals and the finals between you and me. Soon, I will be the victor and you will be mine.”
For a moment, the shortest moment, an expression of darkness flickered across her features. Her eyes changed, her lips pursed into a thin line, and she looked… He wasn’t sure. Not terrified, not saddened, but something.
It was so fast that he had almost not seen it. But it had been there. And it had caught him by surprise. The rest of the evening had gone so well and she had looked so happy. Genuinely happy.
“I can’t wait,” Amelia said, offering him a sweet smile. If he hadn’t seen that small expression a moment before, he would have believed that it was what she wanted. That she wanted to be with him.
Now, he doubted it. Why was she pretending to be happy when it was clear that something was wrong? Why did she act like she wanted to be with him when the thought of being with him permanently brought darkness to her features?
Gage suddenly wondered if it was all an act. If she had allowed him to believe what he wanted to believe by acting accordingly.
But for what reason? What was her reason
for acting as she did?
Gage wanted to ask her, but he knew she wouldn’t answer him, not in front of the guard and not out among all the people that surrounded them. He didn’t need his gift of prediction to know that.
It bothered him that he couldn’t predict what she felt or how she would react. If he had been able to, he would have known what she was feeling at least. He would have known what he was seeing and he would have been able to interpret it.
“Come,” Gage finally said, standing. The bill had been settled by his prize and it was time to leave.
They walked toward the elevator in silence. He glanced at Amelia, keeping an eye on her, but her smile was unwavering, her act almost flawless. If it hadn’t been for that short-lived expression, if he had missed it, he would never have known.
But he did know now. And Gage had no idea what to make of it.
They climbed into the spacecraft again. This time, Gage didn’t touch her to help her. The guard was too anxious.
“This is my stop,” Gage said when the craft dropped him off in front of his mansion. “The guard will take you back to your quarters.”
Amelia nodded without saying anything. After the doors closed, Gage turned and walked to the house. Something about her seemed off. He couldn’t put his finger on what it was though, and it bugged him. He didn’t understand her.
Did she really want to be chosen by him?
Chapter Eleven
Amelia
Amelia was surprised when the transport dropped Gage off at a large house, a place that was apparently his own. For some reason, she had thought that he lived full-time at the gladiator quarters like most of the other fighters. She had assumed that he spent his nights at the gladiator dome, especially when there were fights, and it was strange to think that he had a life outside the dome.
That was the difference between the two of them, wasn’t it?
She was a slave, without freedom. It had been taken from her and she couldn’t get it back. Not without planning.
He was a free man. And it seemed incredibly unfair.
Even more so now that she knew that he looked forward to owning her.
She had spent most of the evening pretending that she was interesting, that she was excited about being owned by him. Anything to make him choose her and not someone else so that she could escape those awful prize quarters. As comfortable as they were, she still knew that she was trapped, a prisoner. Even if she lived in the lap of luxury, it was just a gilded cage.
But if he was victorious and she belonged to him, she would just be moving from one cage to another.
Whether he won was a different story, but she knew that he would probably win. He was a good fighter and he knew it. If it wasn’t his skills that allowed him to dominate in the fights, it could very well have been his arrogance.
God, his ego was enormous. It didn’t show all the time – in fact, he had been quite pleasant company for most of the dinner – but it was apparent every now and then. It frustrated Amelia. She had never liked men who were so full of themselves that they couldn’t see anything else around them. In many ways, Gage was like that.
Of course, many things about him weren’t like that. And these things had made her sit up and notice. The way he had been with her, for instance. Interested in the life she had lived.
Although maybe it wasn’t because he was interested in her, only because it was fascinating to hear about another life on another planet. After all, if he really cared, he wouldn’t have been okay with her being pulled out of her life and dropped into a cage here.
God, she was annoyed with him.
Sure, he was a gentleman, speaking to her with respect, helping her into the spacecraft, and seeming to care about what she had to say. But there were times when he had looked at her like possessively. Like he wanted to own her.
It made her incredibly angry. She wasn’t a possession, an object that could just be owned like that. She was a person with feelings and rights.
But that wasn’t quite true, was it? She didn’t have any rights. Not here on Saitha. She was just a slave, a prize. And she was to be transferred from one prison to the next, according to who won the tournament. None of it was up to her.
At least, most of it. She would still be able to decide if she went to Gage or not, whether she encouraged him or not. He did seem interested in having her, and going with him was probably better than going to someone who didn’t even have the manners he did.
But how could he accept slavery like that? Amelia didn’t understand it. He knew exactly what was going on, how things worked. Even though he was a free man, he still didn’t mind the slavery that happened around him. How was that possible? How could someone who seemed so interested and sensitive one minute be coldhearted and empty the next?
As a free man, it didn’t make sense to Amelia that he fought alongside gladiators who were slaves. Did he not have any kind of friendship with them? Or did he keep himself completely separate?
He had explained to her that he had chosen to become a gladiator. To him, it was about fighting, skill, winning. The way he spoke about it made it seemed almost noble. There was nothing noble about it. Fighting to beat others who didn’t have a choice? Owning people as a result? Encouraging slavery by helping it along? The more Amelia thought about it, the more enraged she became.
Why would someone like Gage choose to become a gladiator anyway? Did he have such a giant ego that he felt the needed to show off in front of the whole galaxy?
By the time the spacecraft arrived at the gladiator dome, Amelia was fuming, the anger uncontainable.
Under all that anger, she remembered how pompous she had found him. But she also remembered the way he had touched her. She was still blushing from the way he had fixed her hair. So confidently, like they had known each other for years.
It had felt that way too. That electricity had traveled through her again, and it was what had thrown her off.
Luckily, a guard had been around to stop him from doing anything more. Although he had taken a chance, already reaching out and touching her despite the guard giving him his warning.
What would the guard have done if he hadn’t listened? He had a weapon, but Amelia had seen how Gage had disarmed many monsters in the ring. When it had seemed like there was no way he would have been able to. Would he have been able to take on the guard? Would he have done it?
Amelia was escorted back to her room. She didn’t come across any of the other females and she was glad. She didn’t want to answer any questions. What would she have said?
She had never been a very good liar, needing to think far too long to come up with a story that seemed coherent. She couldn’t tell them the truth. It would only spark jealousy among them. All of the women wanted to be chosen as the grand prize, to escape the prison here.
Even if it meant being moved to a different prison, taken to a life that still didn’t belong to them.
Amelia sighed. When she collapsed on her bed, she closed her eyes. She was still in the skimpy clothing, but she would take a moment before getting dressed. She was just trying to pull herself together.
Gage flashed before her again, the way he had looked at her, the way he had touched her. It had been filled with passion and heat. She had felt it too.
But he had also looked at her like he wanted to possess her. And she had hated that part.
For now, Amelia was protected by the Saithin guards. They would stop him from touching her too many times if they spent time together, stop him from doing anything more.
But once he won the season and she was alone with him, there would be no one to stop him from having his way.
Amelia shivered at the thought. But not all of it was because the thought of being with Gage was unpleasant. In fact, the thought of being with him, feeling his strong arms around her, his muscular body pressed against hers…
She shook the image from her mind. She couldn’t think about that.
Her mind drifted to the
things he had told her. About being a gladiator, about fighting. About winning.
She suddenly realized that he had won two seasons before, which meant he had won at least two other females. Did that mean that he had two other women at home? Did it mean that she would join a party of more women, just like it was at the prize quarters?
The thought made her sick. Because it wouldn’t be the same, not really. At the moment, no one was being used, but once you were won… What if he kept all his slaves to have his fun?
Amelia shook her head. Her thoughts were taking a dark turn. Surely, Gage would never do that. He was arrogant and full of himself, but he was also sensitive, sometimes.
He had almost seemed nice during dinner. He had asked questions about her and he had listened. He had talked to her as if she was a person. Which was more than anyone else at the gladiator dome had done.
And the fact that he had invited her to dinner, that Gage had intentionally made a plan to spend time with her, meant that he really did want to get somewhere with her. Even if he knew that he wouldn’t be able to do anything but speak to her. He wasn’t even able to touch her, technically.
But any other females could still be in the picture if he was interested in her. They were all just slaves, after all, and he didn’t seem to have a problem condoning that.
Amelia felt like her head was spinning. She pushed herself up from the bed and stripped of the skimpy clothing that she still wore.
God, she had been out in public looking like that. Not that anyone had seemed to mind. In fact, no one had paid specific attention to her – like it was normal. Did people parade their slaves around like that often? Even in a fancy restaurant, she had been dressed terribly and no one had seemed to notice.
While she dressed into something a little more comfortable, covering up more, Amelia ran over what had happened at the restaurant.
She didn’t know what to think about Gage, about how he had treated her, asking her to dinner, making things difficult. One minute he had looked like he really cared about her and wanted to treat her with respect. And the next he had looked like he wanted to own her.