by Zara Starr
Was it possible that it had also been a lie? Had it not been as genuine as he had thought?
Gage was upset. Upset that she saw him as the enemy, upset that she had managed to trick him again. Upset that she clearly didn’t care about him the way he cared about her.
An array of emotions crashed through him. Betrayal, anger, frustration, sorrow.
How was it possible? Did she not understand what he wanted from her? That he wanted to take care of her. That he wanted her as his own? Not as a slave, but as a woman he cared for.
He had thought that he had communicated it very well. Her bio-enhancer had allowed her to understand the words he spoke. How had this miscommunication happened? Maybe he had not explained it as well as he had thought, maybe he hadn’t explained that her life was going to be a good one if she was with him.
Gage let out a sigh and studied the monitors again. He looked at Amelia one more time, taking in her position, and then he moved the cameras around, studying the cliff all around her.
She wouldn’t have many ways to get out of her hiding spot again. The outcroppings on the cliffside, the crevasses that she could use to hang onto – that she must have abused until now – were few and far between. It was going to be dangerous to get out of there. She must have known that.
If she tried to move again, she was going to have to do it slowly. Which meant that Gage had time.
He walked out of his security room and headed to the main bedroom. There, he dressed into black clothing again, shrugging out of the white linen clothes that signified peace and tranquility.
He wasn’t peaceful anymore. In fact, he was very worked up and extremely unhappy. The black clothing, clothing he used to train and fight him, was a lot more appropriate.
Slowly, Gage got dressed. He took his time, carefully putting everything in place, strapping himself in with buckles and belts. While he changed, he thought of how he was going to handle the situation.
Surely, Amelia wouldn’t stay in a spot for too long. When he went to fetch her, she might have already moved. He had more than enough time though, she wouldn’t be able to move fast and she still had a long way to go.
While he thought about it, he also wondered how he was going to stop her from wanting to escape again. He wanted to talk to her, find out how it had happened that she didn’t want to be with him anymore. He wanted to know if she had put on an act all this time.
How was it possible that they were back here again? Back to where he confronted her about being two-faced, about lying to him?
At first, when he had met her, he had been drawn to her, fascinated by the fact that his gift of prediction didn’t apply to her. That he didn’t know what she thought and felt.
It didn’t take long before he felt that he didn’t need to know, because she was showing him. She had shown him that she wanted to spend time with him, that she was eager about him choosing her as his grand prize.
Only for him to find out that it wasn’t what she had wanted at all, she had only been using him.
After they had cleared that up though, he had truly thought that she wanted to be with him. How had he missed it?
Again, he wished that he had been able to predict her actions. If he had, he wouldn’t have had to worry about what she thought, what she felt, and what her next move might be. He would have known that she would try to escape, that being excited about being with him was all an act. It wouldn’t have hurt him so much because he would have been able to prepare, mentally and emotionally.
Now, again, he had been put in a situation where he felt betrayed. Why did that keep happening with Amelia? How was it possible that someone who wasn’t anything more than a slave could make him feel so many things, could take him on a rollercoaster ride of emotions?
He’d never felt these stormy emotions about anything in his life. It proved that Amelia had truly gotten under his skin. That he cared.
Finally, when he was dressed, he walked to the hangar where he had parked the transport pod. He climbed in behind the wheel, flicked the machine to life with a switch, and watched as the dark dashboard lit up and waited for Gage’s input about where to go.
But Gage wasn’t going to enter a location and allow the pod to take him on autopilot. Instead, he was going to control the thing himself.
Gage hadn’t flown a transport pod on manual in a long time – not since he had been an engineer for the military. But he was comfortable with the transport pod, having bought one of the best with his winnings, and when he switched it to manual and moved the controls, the machine immediately obeyed. It felt good.
A rush of adrenaline washed through his body, but Gage had to focus on Amelia right now. Later, he vowed, he would take the transport pod out for a spin.
Slowly, Gage raised the transport pod out of the hangar and flew toward the cliffside.
He lowered the vehicle into the canyon and started moving across the cliffside, looking for Amelia’s small form.
Slowly, he flew along the edge of the cliff, hovering in front of the area where she had sat.
But she was already gone.
Gage frowned. She hadn’t taken as much time as he had thought she would. She had already moved on. A lot faster than he had expected.
Again, for a moment, he wondered if she had fallen to her death, and his stomach rolled. He didn’t want to look down, didn’t want to find her crushed body.
He couldn’t assume that was what happened. Not only would she be able to get away, but it wasn’t on par with her character. Amelia was smart, she wouldn’t do anything stupid.
So, he slowly moved the transport pod, flying along the cliffside, looking for her.
He was going to find her. He just had to take his time and slowly comb the cliffside until he found her. He needed to take her back home so that they could take care of this nasty business and she could belong to him.
That was what Gage wanted.
Not only did he want her to belong to him – he had never felt so strongly about any of the prizes he had won at the tournament – but he wanted her to want to belong to him.
Seemed like a tall order, he understood that. It was a difficult thing for her, the concept of slavery. He had found that out the first time he had taken her out to dinner and they had conversations – when they had talked as if they could be companions.
She didn’t seem to feel the same way though. And that hurt. But it also made him determined. She was far from her planet, and Gage knew it would be an adjustment for her to stay with him. It would take a bit of time, but he was sure – no, rather, he hoped… He hoped that he could convince her that life with him would be worth her while.
Thinking of anything else was unacceptable.
He wanted her to want to be with him. He wanted Amelia around. He enjoyed speaking to her. He enjoyed her company, even if they weren’t saying anything at all.
He enjoyed her lust for life, the way she was open to new things, the way she looked at the world around her. He wanted to experience that without slavery and misery coming in the way.
If she saw it as a bad thing – if she didn’t want him as he wanted her – she would be miserable. Gage had experience with misery – if you allowed it take over, it ruined everything. He couldn’t allow her to be miserable.
The moment he had met Amelia, everything had changed.
Gage was going to make sure that life with him was good for her.
And if she didn’t want it… If she didn’t want him… He would let her go.
The thought pierced his heart, but he knew that was how it had to be.
He could not allow her to have a miserable life. He wanted her to shine. He wanted her to live. To be free as she deserved.
But first, he needed to find her. Then they could talk about it and find a way to make it work, one way or another. Gage hadn’t fought as hard as he had, he hadn’t done everything in his power to win the tournament for nothing. He had done it all for Amelia because it was what she had wanted and i
t was what he had wanted too.
He wasn’t going to throw it all away without at least trying to make it work.
He had been lost in thought, but Gage snapped himself out of it and focused on the cliffside again. Then, just like that, he spotted her. She was still climbing down the side and she hadn’t noticed the transport pod. She was still determined to get away. He could see the way her jaw was set, her lips pursed, her eyes searching for the next foothold, but she was serious about getting away.
Her determination was to be commended.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Amelia
Amelia clung onto the cliffside, her fingers aching yet again, her legs trembling as if she hadn’t rested at all.
She had sat on the small ledge, trying to gain as much energy, to recover as much as possible before moving on. When she had felt like it wasn’t unsafe to do so anymore, she had lowered herself from the ledge onto the precarious foothold, and continued her climb down.
Slowly, achingly, terrifyingly.
But she was making headway, she was going to manage to get to the bottom. The further she moved without slipping again, the happier she became.
It was working.
She was getting tired again though, and she didn’t know if she would be able to rest another time. She looked around, but there were no more places for her to rest, no way she could just catch her breath.
When she looked up, she knew she was too far away from the overhang to go back. Besides, going back was only going to take more energy for her to end up in the same place. She couldn’t stay there forever. She needed to keep moving, she needed to actively find her freedom.
It was the only thing she kept focusing on. If she thought about Gage, a part of her felt guilty. And that frustrated her. Why did she feel guilty about trying to escape? Why did she feel wrong for wanting her freedom back? It seemed ridiculous. After all, she deserved to be free.
She had wanted to go home with Gage from the start so that she could do exactly what she was doing now – so that she could escape. It was because she had wanted to get out of the gladiator dome that she had chosen Gage. Because he was a good fighter. Because he was likely to win. It had made sense at the time.
The fact that she had started falling for him had been unexpected. Even a little inconvenient. She had just been pretending, and then her traitorous heart had gone and decided that it was real. Just because he had shown a little bit of affection for her, it had made her think that he actually cared.
He didn’t.
After he had locked her up, she had known that he never wanted to treat her as an equal. She had known that he didn’t care about her the way she cared about him.
She needed to get away from him.
Her freedom was more important than anything.
The guilt was wrong. She couldn’t feel guilty about what this was doing to him. It didn’t matter – what about what it was doing to her? He could always find another slave, win another tournament. It had been easy enough for him. She could easily be replaced. Amelia was sure that it would work that way, though the thought pinched her heart.
She was a fool. She had been a fool to believe he could care about her.
Although, when she thought back to the night they had spent together, she wasn’t so sure. The way he had touched her, looked at her, the way he had wanted to make sure that she was safe… It was very different from someone who didn’t care about what happened to her, who thought that she could just be replaced.
Oh! Why was this so difficult? She was escaping, which was the right thing to do – she was looking out for herself. But she couldn’t help feeling sorry for what she was doing to Gage in the process. She hated that her heart was that invested.
As she climbed, Amelia became aware of something watching her. Or someone. She frowned and looked around, and suddenly, she spotted the transport pod coming toward her.
Oh, no. He had found her. How?
Was it after she had left the overhang, exposing herself again? She should have known that it wouldn’t be very long before he realized what she had done. Maybe he had gone to her room to look for her and seen the open window.
She should have closed it! But Amelia hadn’t known how, and after she had managed to balance herself on the ledge, she hadn’t even thought about it. She had only thought about staying alive.
Below, the purring sound of the transport pod got louder and louder as Gage came closer, and she could see him through the large front window.
He sat behind the controls, his hands stable, sure. And his eyes were resting on her.
For some reason, he didn’t look furious, the way she imagined he would.
She clung to the edge of the cliff, the wind tugging at her clothes again and she was scared she would fall. She pressed herself against the rock, but it was so that she could keep her balance, not to try to make herself unseen. There was nowhere to hide.
Maybe, if she had stayed underneath the overhang, it would have been easier to hide. But it was too late now. He was looking right at her.
Amelia didn’t know what to expect. Gage had been kind toward her before, he had treated her with a form of respect, even though she was a slave. There had been many times when he had made her feel special.
Now though, she was sure that it would be over. He wouldn’t be kind toward her now, he would hate her for trying to escape. Especially after how hard he had fought to win her in the first place.
Gage hovered next to her for a while, just watching her, probably deliberating how he was going to punish her for this. Or something. She didn’t know why he wasn’t doing anything. Maybe he was waiting for her to get tired, watching until she couldn’t keep her grip anymore and fell to her death. Maybe that would be her punishment.
But no, that wasn’t the type of person she had known Gage to be.
Had she known him at all though? That wasn’t a question she knew how to answer.
A moment later, Gage turned the pod and opened the passenger door so that she could hear him. She glanced over her shoulder at him. He was looking at her again.
“You know,” he said in a calm, conversational voice, as if she wasn’t clinging onto the cliffside and he was in the transport pod. He was talking to her as if they were at the restaurant, or sitting on couches together, having a conversation. “You’re the only person I’ve never been able to predict.”
Amelia frowned. What was he talking about?
“I don’t know if you know that about my race, but we have powers of prediction. We can tell when things are going to happen, we have an idea about what people are feeling, and we use it to our advantage.”
Amelia hadn’t known that and she shook her head. But now, thinking back, she was starting to realize what she had seen whenever Gage had won his fights. He had always looked like he was expecting whatever had come his way, and now that he explained it to her, Amelia knew why.
But he hadn’t been able to predict her? How was that possible?
“Why are you telling me this?” Amelia asked. After all, they weren’t exactly in a position where sharing their lives made sense. Not with her hanging on for dear life.
“I’m trying to tell you that I didn’t see this coming,” he said and grinned.
Amelia still has no idea what he was trying to say to her.
“I don’t know if it’s just you, or if it’s the entire human race. The truth is… until I have to fight a human, I don’t really care. You’re the only human I am interested in.”
He was being nice. Amelia didn’t know what to think of it.
“You must understand that I will never know your next move,” Gage continued.
Amelia still didn’t know quite where he was going with the conversation. The topic seemed absurd, given what was happening. She didn’t know if she should be scared about what would come, or if she should be angry that he was forcing her to stay against the cliff, having a conversation with her like it was nothing. What was his speech sup
posed to be?
Amelia’s fingers started cramping, her forearms trembled. Why didn’t he just take her back to the mansion? Relieve her of her pain at least, if he was insisting that she couldn’t get away. As soon as she was back in the house, he could set up the security so she could never escape, and then he would have exactly what he wanted.
Why was he dragging this out?
The idea of punishment flashed before her again, and she was almost sure that it was what he was doing.
But he seemed so calm, so relaxed, almost pensive. He was talking to her as if he had come to some kind of conclusion, and a revelation of sorts.
“I must admit, the first time I realized I couldn’t predict you at all, it took me by surprise,” Gage said. “It was scary. When you’re used to being able to predict everyone and everything, not being able to do it feels crippling. I had no idea what to expect from you, and for a warrior who uses it to win fights, it’s a complicated feeling.”
Amelia didn’t answer. She didn’t know what to say. She had already asked him why he was telling her these things, and his answer hadn’t been satisfying. Obviously, he was trying to make some kind of a point. She still didn’t know what it was though.
“Amelia,” Gage suddenly said. “Why are you trying to escape?”
Amelia shook her head and narrowed her eyes. “What kind of question is that?” she cried. “How am I supposed to answer that? Can’t you figure it out for yourself?”
Gage shook his head. “No, I can’t. I don’t understand why you’re trying to escape. Don’t you know that you never need to escape from me?”
Amelia had no idea what to say. This conversation was already bizarre.
“You could have just asked for your freedom,” he added.
Amelia hung against the cliffside, shocked. She would have stared at him with her mouth open, blinking, if she was facing him, but it was a little difficult to keep looking at him over her shoulder.