by Zara Starr
Which one was the real Gage? Which one was the man that she would end up with if he was the victor of the season?
No, she wasn’t going to confuse herself by thinking about those things anymore. No matter how much she ran through it, she wasn’t going to be able to find an answer. Not now. What she had to do was rest, get into bed, and sleep.
Tomorrow morning, when it was light and she was well-rested, the night would have become more of a distant memory and she would be able to think more clearly about it. Right now, her head swam and it just became more and more confusing the more she thought about it.
One thing was for certain – she had exceeded in her plan to make Gage want to own her when he won the season. That was what she had wanted to do. Gage had told her he was going to choose her, and now all he had to do was win. And Amelia didn’t doubt that he would give it his all. He really was a good fighter.
She tried not to think too much about what it would mean to be owned by him. It would only make her feel more confused, and she had taken enough in for one night.
Even though they had only flown over the city briefly, she had taken in the layout as much as she could. She couldn’t exactly find her way around if she was dropped in the middle of the city now, but it was better than not knowing anything at all.
Amelia allowed her thoughts to drift in this opposite direction. Thinking about those things, focusing on her plan – escape – made her relax a little. The uncertainty and anxiety that came with it started to fade away, and she focused on recalling every detail she had taken in. The same way she had done it when she had been abducted.
Although, none of the information she had taken in when she had been abducted had been of use yet. Amelia worried that this would be the same, that she wouldn’t be able to use this information she had gained either.
She wouldn’t accept that. Amelia needed to believe that her plan was going to succeed. She was going to become the possession of Gage when he won the championship of the season. And then she would make her escape. She wasn’t cut out to be a slave, she didn’t believe that the rest of her life would be to serve a man and his whims.
That was what she had to focus on. Not how he had made her feel, not the electricity that jumped from his skin to hers whenever they touched. Not the way his eyes bore into her soul whenever they made eye contact, his eyes that were so incredibly bright, so light, that it looked like they were made of ice.
Cold eyes, that could become warm so easily.
Amelia shook off the thoughts. What was she doing? Gage was the enemy. She had to see him as such. She shouldn’t think about him as anything else.
It was because of her act, she told herself. Because she had pretended to like him. It was rubbing off a little.
Yes, that was all it was. Because she couldn’t admit that perhaps, there was something about Gage that she found attractive. Something about him that seemed more than the arrogance and confidence he tried to convey all the time.
Amelia told herself that she didn’t care. After all, he was just a part of the bigger picture, another component that led to her enslavement. She had lost her freedom, and Gage was the person who was making it all possible for her to remain a slave.
That was what she should focus on whenever her thoughts drifted to him. So that she wouldn’t come to think anything of him but negative thoughts.
It would be better for everyone that way. She couldn’t allow her feelings to compromise her escape.
Finally, with these thoughts in her mind, determined to put Gage completely out of her mind as someone more than a Master that would own her, sleep finally overcame her.
Her eyelids drooped, and when she closed them, she traveled back home. In her mind, she visited her apartment in LA. She focused on her desk at the lab, where she had made countless discoveries. On the trip that she had been so excited to take, where she would have been studying insects.
She started dreaming, of green trees and the swells of the ocean, the feeling of the sea breeze on her skin, and the taste of salt on her tongue.
She was back home. Free. Allowed to do as she pleased. She wasn’t trapped on an alien planet, with a life that didn’t belong to herself anymore.
Chapter Twelve
Gage
A tall, hulking creature with black skin and even darker eyes faced him at the arena. He was big and brutish, and towered over even Gage, which was something. Gage hadn’t seen this kind of creature before, but he had read up on them, and even though he didn’t have firsthand experience, he knew what to expect.
He had forgotten the name of the species. He knew they were rare in the universe, but that was the extent of his knowledge. They’d announced his name as the fight had begun, but his opponent was called something he couldn’t even pronounce.
But it was fine. Gage didn’t need to know what it was, all he needed to know was how it would act so that he could win.
It was the semi-finals, he was creeping closer and closer to the finals, and owning Amelia.
Right now though, he discarded any thoughts of her that flashed in his mind. He wasn’t going to allow the thoughts of her to distract him. Not while he was fighting. He didn’t want to lose – he was going to keep up his streak and he was set on making it happen, no matter what.
It wasn’t only about winning Amelia either. It was about so much more than that. About his abilities as a fighter, about his gift as a man that could make predictions.
About his success in the new life he had chosen. He had to make it. Otherwise, the change from engineer to gladiator would have been for nothing.
The creature in front of him spun around and landed a punch, trying to get a hold of Gage. Gage predicted it and dodged the punch with ease.
His opponent was surprisingly light on his feet, with a handheld canon as his weapon.
When he had first walked into the arena, Gage had perked up with interest at the weapon. It was something he hadn’t yet owned in his lifetime. Had only seen it once or twice across his desk and he had worked as a weapons engineer. He would have loved to get his hands on one of those. But first, he had to survive it.
When his opponent fired the weapon, Gage had expected it and moved out of the way long before he would be in any kind of danger.
While he waited for the blast to miss him, he took a mental note of some alterations he could make to his own canon, since he had been redesigning his.
The brute moved to the left. Most of the time Gage didn’t even need to use his powers of prediction. He could see the movement in the creature’s muscles. He knew when he needed to duck without thinking about it too much.
The brute was a tough opponent, and perspiration shone on Gage’s skin. He hadn’t expected the semi-finals to be easy, but as he avoided the cannon blasts, he realized that this season would be harder than ever.
Still, he could see right through the creature. He could predict his movements, and that had never let Gage lose before.
Still, Gage didn’t finish the fight right away. There was something in dragging it out, giving the crowd something to hope for, a bit of suspense, a reason to hold their breath.
The closer it got to the finals, the more theatrics were involved if Gage could help it. After all, the people weren’t there to watch someone die. They were there to watch the process, to see the battle of wills, the test of strength.
And Gage was set on giving them a hell of a show.
It would distract him from Amelia. He knew she stood on the stage watching him.
God, he couldn’t keep his mind off that woman. Since he had met her, she had been on his mind. After taking her out, it had become more and more of a problem.
Gage had stopped meditating altogether because he couldn’t stop thinking about her.
Sometimes, it was with appreciation and affection that he recalled the things she had done at dinner, how she had spoken, what she had said. Sometimes, it was with frustration, because she was so difficult to read.
&
nbsp; And because she was so out of reach, right at that moment.
Not to mention the fact that Gage still wasn’t able to predict anything about her. Reading her expressions had been a fun test of his abilities. It had been interesting to get to know her without words, listening to what she said between the lines.
But he felt like there were still things that he had missed, and it bothered him that his abilities didn’t work on her.
He shook himself, returning to the present. How could he allow himself to become so distracted in a fight? If it hadn’t been for the fact that his opponent was so slow, he might have lost already.
Quickly, Gage dodged a kick and swung his leg around, crouching low to the ground. He swept his opponent’s feet out from underneath him. When the brute tumbled to the ground, landing with a heavy thud, the canon bounced away and out of reach.
It was downhill from there. He had been a good opponent until now, but that slip of the cannon had lost him his fight. Gage didn’t even have to try to defeat him, the match had already been won.
His opponent had been a good fighter, and his big and scary appearance was no doubt what had easily led him to the semi-finals. His other opponents must have been intimidated. He was also strong and fast, but strength wasn’t the only thing that won fights. Very often, it was being cunning that did it.
After his opponent had accepted his loss, Gage turned around and looked at the stage, looking for Amelia. He spotted her, not quite at the front, sitting down on one of the seats rather than standing close to the railing and looking at him. As she had done during all the other fights.
She didn’t look too thrilled. But when she noticed him watching, she smiled at him. She made a big show of being excited that he had won.
Gage smiled at her and turned away, a strange bitterness rising in his chest.
She was faking it, he realized. At the restaurant, he hadn’t been sure. She had covered up her emotions too quickly. But now, when she hadn’t expected him to turn around and face her – perhaps she hadn’t even paid attention to the fight – she hadn’t been able to hide it from him.
What was her reason? Clearly, she just wanted him to choose her over the other females. But why? What was her design?
It didn’t take long for Gage to figure it out. He didn’t need his powers of prediction for it either. He was smart. He knew that it was so that she could escape the prize quarters. All of her flirting, opening up to him during the meal, had meant nothing.
Something inside him cracked. He was immediately furious. He had been used. How was that possible? And what did she have to complain about anyway? He knew that the quarters were comfortable, even luxurious. The prizes were treated with the utmost care. She had no reason to want to escape.
Except Gage knew why she wanted to escape… She’d had a good life on her planet.
Still, that was nothing more than a split-second thought as his anger controlled him.
He had been used. Him.
Gage didn’t understand why he was the one that she had chosen. Probably because he was the best fighter. He knew that he was.
It just didn’t change the fact that she had faked it all.
He felt bitter about the whole thing. Still, Gage did as he always did when he won a fight – he got the crowd to celebrate with him, cheer and whistle and make a bigger fuss than they would have without him encouraging them. But this time, it was almost so that he would know he had done good enough. He needed that recognition, that acknowledgment.
He was pissed off that she had done this to him, and he wanted the crowd to remind him who he was.
Finally, when the other fighter had already been removed, it was time for Gage to leave the arena.
Instead of going back to his mansion, he stormed to the showers and stripped off his clothes. He climbed underneath one of the showerheads, turning the spray on hot. He didn’t bother opening the cold water, allowing the droplets to sting him every time they hit his skin. Steam filled the shower room in no time and the water was so hot that Gage gritted his teeth against the pain.
He needed this. He needed something to snap him back to reality, out of the ridiculous dream that Amelia had dragged him into.
When he was clean and dressed again, his skin still boiling even though the water had been shut off for a while, a guard came into the shower room.
“It’s time to go to the prize quarters,” he announced.
Gage blinked at the guard, suddenly remembering. He had been so distracted that he had forgotten that he had just won his semi-final match. This was the night where he had to officially choose the female he wanted as his prize.
Oh, how frustrating this was! Until only a few moments before, he had believed that Amelia wanted him, that she liked him, that she really did want him to choose her. He had believed that she was the prize he would choose because the feeling was mutual.
Now? He had no idea what to believe. It was clear that she wasn’t interested in him. It was an act.
But how did he feel?
The guard remained until he followed him to the prize quarters. He couldn’t be alone anymore, he couldn’t take the time to sift through his thoughts and emotions.
As he followed the guard, following the path that circled the arena, he tried to figure out what to do. It hadn’t mattered to him before whether or not his female prize liked him. It was about the win, not about the prize.
Then again, he hadn’t particularly liked any of the females he had chosen in the past. Not that it had mattered to him, it never did. It was about gaining the victory and then moving on.
Except, this time, everything was different. He felt something for Amelia, something very different from what he had experienced before. And since he had found out that she was faking it, he felt betrayed. It was a sensation he had never experienced at the gladiator dome, a feeling he hadn’t thought he would run into in a situation like this.
What was he supposed to do? Choose her anyway? Despite her not liking him? It would be a good punishment for her, to teach her that no matter what, she wasn’t going to have her way. But choosing her would give her her way, wouldn’t it? That was what she wanted, for him to choose her. Although he didn’t understand why.
Was he supposed to choose another female then, one he could predict? One that would at least be honest with him, whether or not she hated him or liked him?
It was so difficult to decide, so difficult to know.
Gage followed the guard and hoped that by the time he reached the prize quarters, by the time he was posed in front of the line of women he had to choose from, he would have an answer.
Chapter Thirteen
Amelia
Everyone was going on about the battle, about how handsome Gage was, about how he would probably win. They were abuzz with the two gladiators who had made it to the finals. Gage, the gladiator who fought for himself, and Mal, a gladiator who was a slave.
She had seen Mal fight, and he was good. But she didn’t see how he could win against Gage. Gage hadn’t lost a single fight in the arena yet. His fighting skill was incredible. Even though Amelia knew nothing about fighting skills, she had compared him to all his opponents, to all the other matches she had seen, and he stood out above the rest.
She was sure that he was going to be the winner.
Still, despite being sure of what was going to happen, Amelia didn’t join in the conversation. She sat quietly at the pools where they were gathered, her feet in the water, listening.
She hadn’t seen Tanya for some time. She wondered where she was and how she was doing. She hoped that she hadn’t gotten into trouble for trying to escape. They were still the only humans here, at least as far as she knew, and she hoped Tanya was safe.
Still, she couldn’t lose her end goal worrying about the other woman. The finals were here.
It had gone so quickly, although it had been quite a while too. She had been focused on her plan that she hadn’t thought of anything else.
; Now, she didn’t know what it was that she felt. On the one hand, she was excited about the finals.
If Gage won, which she was almost sure he would, then he would own her and her plan would have worked. She would manage to get out of the gladiator dome and then she could plan the rest of her escape.
On the other hand, she dreaded it. She might get out of there, but maybe that wasn’t the best plan to begin with. What if she couldn’t get away from Gage? What if he locked her up like an animal? What if she was used again and again?
She knew that it wasn’t right for her to allow her thoughts to spiral like that. But it was difficult to keep them under control, especially with the rest of the women jumping back and forth between what it was like to be chosen. None of them knew, of course.
Some of them were guessing terrible things and it affected Amelia. Especially with her not being in the best mood.
Was it better not to be chosen, not ever, and just live in the gilded cage she was in, surrounded by guards? It was a kind of safety.
As long as she was at the gladiator dome, the worst thing that happened to her was to be dressed up in skimpy clothes and paraded before thousands of spectators. It was all about looking, but she was unharmed and would remain so. Maybe that would be better. Maybe being a slave in that sense wasn’t the worst thing that could happen.
The guards appeared and told all the females that it was time to get ready. They were ushered to the rooms, and even though Amelia asked over and over again what they had to be ready for, she didn’t get an answer. Not until they emerged from the rooms again, dressed in their outfits, and one of the other females explained to her that they were to line up for inspection.
“It’s the night before the finals,” the female told her. She was much smaller than Amelia, having to look up at her, but she didn’t seem intimidated in the slightest. “The contestants get to officially choose the grand prize that they are fighting for.”