by Anna Hackett
She was dimly aware of the other gladiators moving away to finish preparations for the battle. She pressed her hands to the new leather trousers and vest she wore. Saff had brought them for her, along with beautiful leather gauntlets. They felt stiff, but she knew over time they would mold to her shape.
“Ready?” he asked.
She took in a deep breath. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
He stopped close by, heat pouring off him. “You’ll do fine, Harper. I’ve seen your steely will and your skill.”
She didn’t want to think of the fight, not yet. “Raiden, I want to know what happened to Ram and Pax, the aliens I was with when I first arrived.”
His face went blank. “Focus on the fight.”
Dammit, her instincts were screaming at her. Raiden was hiding something. She didn’t want to believe he was bad, but she’d heard whispers among the recruits of the weak and poor fighters who disappeared from the House of Galen.
“Are they dead?” she asked baldly.
He leaned in close. “You think I’m a killer?”
His tone was a lethal whisper. “Yes. I think you’re capable of killing, but I don’t have you worked out yet.” She wanted to believe he was good, but she worried she was blinded by his rockstar status.
“Ask me a question, then,” he suggested. “Not about your friends. Something to help you learn more about me.”
“Were you really a prince?”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “That was a lifetime ago.”
So now he was just a prince of the arena. “You told me you couldn’t go home, like me.”
“That’s right.”
“It hurts,” she murmured. “Knowing I’ll never step foot on Earth again.”
“Is there someone waiting for you at home?” His voice darkened.
She shook her head and thought of her sister. “No one. But home is home.”
Raiden reached out, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Home is where you make it, Harper. My home was completely destroyed.”
She gasped. “Your entire planet.”
“Yes.” A hard word.
“Raiden, I’m so sorry.”
That muscle ticked again. “It happened a long time ago. I’ve made a place for myself here.”
“Risking yourself in the arena every night.”
“I’ve found a purpose.”
“Fighting for entertainment isn’t a purpose, Raiden.”
“Remember the first rule of the arena.”
Nothing was as it seemed. She frowned. “What—?”
Thorin, Saff, Kace and another gladiator named Lore appeared. All of them were dressed for the arena in leather. Thorin had simple leather straps with a circle of metal over his chest. His axe was on his back, peeking over his shoulders. Kace wore an exquisite leather guard over his right shoulder and arm. Lore wore a black cloak, his tawny hair skimming his broad shoulders. Saff wore leathers like Harper. All the gladiators were hefting their weapons. Saff gave Harper a nod.
“Time to go,” Raiden said.
Together, they all moved out of the living area. Galen was waiting for them.
“Do well tonight. Good fighting.” His gaze landed on Harper. “You follow what the others tell you, and remember your training. Tonight, Raiden is your fight partner. Thorin will fight with Lore.”
She nodded.
“Stay close to me,” Raiden ordered.
They moved through a series of tunnels leading up to the main arena. Thorin was trying to lighten the mood with jokes, but Harper was far too nervous to laugh. She felt like she had a rock sitting on her chest.
When they stepped out into the early-evening light, she felt the brush of the breeze on her skin. Then the roar of the crowd hit her.
Two steps ahead of her, Raiden was flanked by Thorin and Kace. Thorin was shaking his enormous axe in the air, while Kace gave a dignified wave. Raiden did nothing, just stood with his arms relaxed by his side. He didn’t pander to the crowds, but they loved him anyway, chanting his name.
Saff slapped Harper on the shoulder. “Good fighting.”
“You too.”
Harper gripped the hilts of the swords at her hips, turning her attention to the arena proper. Her mouth dropped open. It was completely transformed from what she’d seen the night before. There were rock formations, and even large trees set in place. It was almost like they’d been transported to some forested planet.
“Most of it’s holographic.” Raiden’s voice came from beside her. “They can turn the arena into just about any landscape.”
She touched a large rock, feeling the rough surface beneath her palm. “It’s incredible.”
She saw the others begin to move through their warmup exercises. Harper pulled her short swords from their scabbards. She sliced the blades through the air and glanced around, taking in the cheering crowds, then the House of Galen seats. Galen was standing, arms crossed over his chest, watching them. She swiveled to look at the other side of the arena and her gaze fell on the seats held by the House of Thrax.
Just seeing the aliens—their rough skin with those glowing veins, those horns—made her stomach turn over. Memories hit her like bullets, and she tasted bile in her throat.
She took a deep breath, pushing the feeling of helplessness away. She was free of them. She wasn’t caged in that tiny, featureless cell. And for the last two days, she’d been treated like a person again, and not an animal.
She easily picked out the Thraxian in charge. He looked older, with deep slashes of scars on his face and across his broad chest. He wore an orange sash across his chest.
Then she realized he was looking her way. She held his gaze for a moment, before she turned back to her team. At that moment, the fight siren wailed across the arena, and the crowd went wild.
Harper scanned the rocks and trees, watching for any movement.
Then she saw the first of the beasts lope out of the trees.
She thought it looked like a giant panther. It had dark-black fur, and a huge head, with teeth protruding out of its closed jaws. It moved with a lethal grace, its gaze fixed on them.
Thorin laughed. “Time to play.”
Raiden glanced at her for a second, nodded. Then he turned and strode forward with Thorin.
The two of them worked as a team. They barely needed to talk, and it was obvious they’d fought together for a long time. Harper watched the cat leap forward, snapping its powerful jaws. Thorin waved and yelled, snagging its attention, while Raiden came in from the side.
But then Harper saw more huge animals racing over the rocks toward them, with slavering jaws and ferocious, hungry gazes.
Saff stepped up beside Harper. “The Thraxians keep them hungry and tormented. Their imperator is a bastard.”
Harper didn’t reply because the next second, a gallu came lumbering from behind some rocks. It roared, a deafening sound that echoed across the arena.
“Remember the knees,” Saff yelled, then charged forward.
Harper followed, swinging her swords around. She kept her muscles relaxed and joined the fight. She went for the gallu’s knees, and the troll-like creature toppled.
She leaped onto its chest, bringing her swords down to take the killing blow. As the gallu slumped beneath her, she looked up and saw another wave of animals heading toward them.
She blocked out the cheers of the crowd and the roars of the beasts, and focused on surviving the fight.
Harper worked with the other gladiators, taking down several creatures. Raiden fought with a cool, efficient style that she found almost mesmerizing. Harper spotted a raksha bounding up onto a pile of rocks. The creature was damned graceful, but there was no doubting the raw strength of its powerful body.
She followed it, running up the rocks. Just as she crept up behind it, she saw the cat looking down over the edge. Harper did the same…and spotted Raiden fighting some monstrous creature below. She froze.
The raksha’s muscles bunched, rea
dying to leap and ambush.
“Oh, no you don’t.” Harper leaped off the rocks at the same time the creature did.
She hit it midair, jamming her swords in between its ribs. It let out a primal screech and hot blood sprayed across her chest.
Then they were crashing to the ground in a tangle of limbs and claws.
The raksha hit the dirt first, and Harper slammed into its body, the air rushing out of her. Ouch. Stunned for a second, she dragged in a few breaths. It would have been worse if she’d hit the sand.
Suddenly Raiden was there, pulling her to her feet.
“Thanks.”
“Owe you. That raksha would have taken me down.” He lifted his sword, the inscriptions on it glowing green. “We’re not done yet.” He pointed his sword.
Coming from between two piles of rocks was a dog-like creature with a ridge of spikes along its back. She wracked her brain for the name of it. A yeth. More appeared behind it. A pack of yeth.
Together, she and Raiden raced forward. Harper slid on her feet, like a baseball player sliding into base, and cut down two animals.
She turned her head and saw Raiden slash through one yeth before he grabbed a second, leaping at him, with his bare hands. With a quick, powerful twist, he snapped the creature’s neck and dropped the body.
There were still five more coming, and Harper and Raiden pressed their backs together, swinging their swords in unison.
Harper was covered in blood and gore, but she hadn’t felt this alive in such a long time. She turned and saw the rest of the House of Galen gladiators on the other side of the arena, fighting a pack of rakshas.
Then she heard gasps from the crowd. She spun, her gaze catching the Thraxian imperator’s eyes for a second. He was smiling.
She heard Raiden curse and turned again.
Oh, God. It was like something out of a monster movie. The huge, reptilian creature stood on two legs, towering over them. It had a long, armor-plated tail. Hell, its entre body was armor-plated. It had an elongated jaw, filled with wicked-looking teeth.
“Damn Thraxian scum.” Raiden shook his head. “Gorgo are banned from the arena. Once they get a taste for blood, they enter a blood-fueled hunting frenzy. It’ll slaughter us all and then turn on the crowd.”
Jesus. Harper curled her hands around her swords. “Won’t someone stop the fight? The authorities?”
Raiden made a scoffing sound. “There are no authorities, Harper. The houses police the fights and this will just make for extra good entertainment. The House of Thrax will get a meaningless warning and pay a token fine.”
She blew out a breath. “Okay. So, how do we take it down?”
Raiden shook his head. “See its armor plating? It covers all its weak spots. It’s notoriously hard to bring down.”
She studied it. It looked like a humanoid killer crocodile. Only, this thing was gigantic.
She and Raiden backed up a few steps, and the creature lumbered forward.
“We aren’t supposed to survive this,” Raiden said grimly.
Chapter Nine
Raiden was mad.
Damn the Thraxians to the bowels of a black hole. The imperator had to have greased a lot of dirty hands to get the gorgo into the arena.
“It breathes fire,” he warned Harper.
“Of course it does,” she grumbled.
He glanced down at her. There was concern on her face, but no fear. She was fully focused on the creature ahead of them.
“We have a creature that’s sort of similar on Earth. Its only weak point is its eyes.”
Raiden nodded, spinning his sword. “Same for the gorgo. But it’s eyes are far above us. They’re hard to reach, and it protects them.”
“Then we need to bring it down to our level,” Harper said. “Can you tangle your net around its legs?”
Raiden considered. “Yes. But I’ll have to get close and risk getting set on fire.”
She sent him a small smile. “I thought you were a fearless gladiator. Champion of the arena.”
“I’m champion because I don’t get close enough to be set alight.”
She nodded. “Well, let me take care of that. See the rocks?” She pointed. “I’m going to climb up there and jump across. I’ll drop another net on top of its head. While it’s busy dealing with that, that’s when you need to get in and take out its legs.”
Raiden had already seen her jump and knew she could leap higher than any person he’d seen before. Still, he didn’t like the idea of her throwing herself out above the gorgo.
But the beast was advancing, and they were running out of options. He nodded.
“Keep it busy until I get up there.” She set off in a powerful sprint, her arms powering as she ran toward the rocks. She leaped up onto the outcrop like a Neezan gazelle.
Raiden turned back to the approaching gorgo. It made a low growling noise, completely ignoring Harper, considering Raiden the biggest threat.
“I fear that’ll be a bad mistake,” Raiden murmured. He pulled out his net launcher, cradling the device in his palm.
He swung his sword with his other hand. The gorgo watched the movement, tensed and cautious. The creature swung one giant claw in Raiden’s direction.
Jumping back, Raiden saw Harper reach the top of the rock pile. She was holding her net device, readying to jump.
Come on, my little gladiator. He saw her leap out above the gorgo.
Her body was so incredibly graceful yet strong. She took his breath away. She flew directly over the gorgo and dropped her net.
A few inches above the gorgo’s head, the net deployed. The strong, metal ropes wrapped around the creature’s head. It roared, reaching up to bat at the net, which just caught its claws in the wires.
Raiden rushed forward, and flung his net device at the beast’s knees.
It let out another ear-splitting roar, and started to fall.
Yes. Smiling, Raiden looked up. His gut cramped. Harper was scrabbling for purchase against the rocks, trying to pull herself up.
Drak. She wasn’t going to make it. As he watched, she lost her grip and fell backward.
No. Raiden sprinted forward. He got beneath her and held his arms up. She crashed into his arms and together they fell back and smacked into the dirt, skidding a few feet.
“Okay?”
She nodded. “Thanks.”
But another roar suddenly echoed around them, followed by the gasps of the crowd. Raiden and Harper quickly both rolled to their feet.
The gorgo was now on its knees, roaring, and fighting the nets holding it down. It blew out a long stream of red-gold fire.
“Damn.” Harper looked at Raiden and lifted her swords. “Let’s do this.”
“Even on its knees, it’s still too high for us to reach its eyes,” he said.
“Lift me up on your shoulders.”
He gripped her, one arm around her waist and the other under her delectable ass and boosted her up. She swung her body, and her legs settled around his head, and for a second, her sweet essence threatened to derail his concentration. That bright, strong feel of her washed over him.
Then she waved her sword. “Go!”
Raiden moved, bringing them closer to the beast. It saw them coming but was still caught in the nets. With a single, strong thrust, Harper jammed one of her swords into the creature’s round eye.
She followed with her second sword, stabbing through a hole in the net, aiming for its other eye. The gorgo roared, throwing its head back, and Raiden lunged to the side to avoid the splatter of poisonous green blood.
As the beast’s blood sizzled on the sand, he pulled Harper around and into his arms. He stood, holding her to his chest, as they watched the gorgo’s death throes.
A second later, it pitched forward and landed facefirst in the sand. It didn’t move.
“We did it.” Harper looked up, a wide grin on her face. All around them, the crowd went wild. The applause thundered through the arena, louder than Raiden had e
ver heard before.
“We did.” And then he gave into the craving that had been clawing at him. A need that seemed to keep growing. He tipped her back and pressed his mouth to hers.
She went still, but then her lips opened. He swept his tongue inside, kissing her deeply. She tasted better than the rarest Aurelian ambrosia. He deepened the kiss, hungry for more of her.
“Now the man decides to put on a show for the crowd.”
Raiden ignored Thorin’s teasing comment and kept kissing Harper. This was for the crowd, he told himself. Just another show for the spectators.
But deep down, he knew that was a lie.
***
Raiden accepted another drink, his gaze glued to Harper on the other side of the corporate box.
After the huge win against the beasts, Galen had bullied them into heading up to the corporate sponsor’s area to mingle and celebrate. Raiden took a sip of his ale. More like show them off like prize livestock.
They were all still covered in blood and gore, but that only seemed to make the bigwigs happier. The corporate sponsors—from some inner-galaxy finance world—liked Harper. A man in a shiny suit passed her another ale, and she smiled and took a sip of it.
Was that the kind of man she preferred? One with soft hands and a smooth face?
A body nuzzled into Raiden’s side. He glanced down at the woman he couldn’t seem to shake. She was dressed in nothing more than a few wisps of fabric, her face heavily painted, and she wasn’t being subtle about the fact that she liked hard sex with gladiators. From the moment they’d stepped into the room, she’d attached herself to him.
But Raiden couldn’t seem to keep his gaze off Harper.
She’d fought so well in the arena. They’d fought together like they’d been doing it for years. He’d been amazed by her courage and her tenacity.
Moments later, he saw Harper slip out through the doors onto the balcony overlooking the arena. Raiden finally extricated himself from the woman, shoving her over in Thorin’s direction, and followed Harper.
She was leaning against the railing, watching the arena below. There was a new match on between two different houses. The House of Thrax had some more new recruits in the arena now. Even from this distance, he could tell they were all petrified and horribly inept.
