by Lily Graison
“I am Lathian,” the one on the right said, “and this is Zakcu. We oversee this sector of Prison Moon One.” They moved to the table and pointed to a chair on the opposite side. “Please sit and we’ll discuss your grievance.”
Grievance. Sara snorted. Is that what they were calling this? She looked over at Toren. He was on the floor, crumpled as if he were nothing more than trash to be disposed of. The fact they’d brought him in here was reassuring, though. Why had they not fired those weapons at him until they were sure he was dead?
The burns on his chest from the wyvern fire and the weapons they’d shot him with left his skin black in places, the skin charred. The scrape of chair legs on the floor and someone asking her to sit again finally made her look away.
Sara pulled out one of the chairs and sat. When the others, except for the wyvern still standing over Toren did the same, the sun gods took the chairs opposite her. Sara wasted no time getting to the point. “Why can we not leave?”
Lathian folded his hands together on the table in front of him. “Did you find the dragon or did he find you?”
“He found me.”
“And where exactly did he find you?”
“Why?”
Zakcu shifted and looked toward Lathian. They exchanged a look before Lathian said, “We weren’t aware the Draegon race still existed here. Your dragon is the first of his kind we’ve seen in several hundred years.”
“That’s because you slaughtered them. Toren told me the history of this world. How you invaded and destroyed it, then destroyed his people.”
Lathian shrugged a shoulder. “Versions of the events that took place before the war vary depending on who tells them. I’m sure his version is much different from our own. Regardless of what may or may not have happened all those centuries ago, we were led to believe the species known as Draegon were no more. Imagine our surprise at seeing him soaring over the mountains.”
“What does this have to do with us leaving? Toren won his fight. Why are we still here?”
The sun gods exchanged another of those odd looks. If she didn’t know better, she’d say they were communicating, and maybe they were. Who knew what these aliens were capable of. Telepathy may be something their species was able to achieve.
Lathian said, “Although your dragon has kept to himself since we first spotted him, that does not mean he will always do so. For that reason alone, he is too dangerous to remain here.”
Something in the way he said the word, “remain,” made Sara’s pulse leap. “What does that mean, exactly?”
He said nothing. No one did. Neither did they move or avert their eyes. They stared at her, silently.
Her stomach cramped the instant later. Blood rushed through her veins as her heart started to race, a wave of dizziness making the entire room tilt. When her hands started shaking she knew she was three-seconds away from a total meltdown. “You’re going to kill him, aren’t you? That’s why you brought us down here, isn’t it? So the others wouldn’t see.” She cleared her throat when her voice cracked. “Why? Why let him live this long if all you were going to do is kill him?” When no one spoke, every single day she’d spent here since the Big Heads dropped them off played inside her head in fast forward and every single image had one single thing in common. Those prism-shaped orbs. They’d been watching. That’s why they hadn’t killed him the moment they saw him. Just like her, Toren was entertainment.
The wyvern who’d spoken to her on the platform shifted where he stood. She glanced at him, their earlier conversation whispering through her head, one specific piece of information screaming the loudest. She jerked her head back to Lathian. “Take his fire.” The two sun-gods looked at each other again. Sara sat up straighter in her seat. “I know you can do it. The wyvern, they don’t all have fire. You took it from them, didn’t you? Take it from Toren. If that’s the only reason you have to not let him live, then take it.” He may hate her for it later but if it saved his life, she’d deal with his anger.
“That can be done but his capability of producing fire is only one aspect of the threat he causes.”
“Like what?”
“His size.”
The dragon. They were talking about his dragon. Sara looked behind her to where he still lay. Several black char-marks from the wyvern’s fire blistered his side, the two marks the weapon they’d shot him with still visible on his chest—the collar still around his neck.
She turned back around and leaned forward. “He’s collared. Just leave it on him. If he can’t shift or produce fire, then he’s no more dangerous than any of the other criminals you have running around this place.”
That silent conversation between the two sun-gods was lasting too long. Sara began to fidget, anxiety and fear they’d kill Toren causing the back of her eyes to burn. “Your viewers will still watch us.” They turned to look at her. She remembered snatches of conversation she’d had with Kalethra when they’d been captured. Their viewers spied on them relentlessly, even while they’d had sex. If she had to whore herself out for cameras to keep Toren alive, then she’d do it.
She blinked back tears and swallowed the knot forming in her throat. “Have one of your orbs follow us. What’s more exciting than a caged dragon? You know he’ll be furious and I can tame him. It’ll take nothing more than a few soft touches. Charge extra for it if you have to, I don’t care. If blood and sex are what your viewers want—“
They realized what she was saying the moment the words were out of her mouth. Their eyes widened a fraction, their pupils dilating.
“Please.” She swallowed again and blinked back tears. “Please—don’t kill him.” One of those hated tears slipped past her lashes and she wiped it away angrily. “Please. I’m begging you. Just record us as often as you’d like. Follow us everywhere we go but please, don’t take him away from me. I’ll do anything you ask.”
Lathian’s eyes seemed to brighten at that. “Anything?”
“Yes. Name it and it’s yours.”
Chapter Nineteen
Every inch of his body hurt. Toren swallowed to try and moisten his throat, then blinked his eyes open. Dim lights overhead splashed pale yellow across the ceiling. There wasn’t a sound to be heard and the scent of something that burned his nose lingered in the air.
He tried to move his arm and sit up but failed. Lifting his head he saw the restraints. He was strapped to a table, unable to move his arms or legs.
A door to his right opened and a female he’d never seen before walked inside. She walked to where he lay and unhooked the restraints and said, “Sit up slowly.”
When she moved away from the table, Toren sat up and threw his legs over the side. He was naked and a twist of his head told him the collar was still on. He narrowed his eyes at the female. “Where am I? Where is Sarra?”
“You are in the medical facility. Your mate is outside.”
He jumped from the table, his knees buckling when his feet touched the floor.
“Slowly,” the woman said. “It will take a while to get your strength back.”
Toren ignored her and started across the room.
“Wait! I have clothes for you.”
Opening the door, Toren ignored her and stepped out into a narrow hallway. He looked left, then right, stilling when he saw his mate curled into an overstuffed chair. “Sarra.” Her name was all it took for her to open her eyes and lift her head.
“Toren!” When she saw him, she jumped to her feet and ran to him, throwing her arms around his neck. “Oh my god, I didn’t think you were ever going to wake up. You’ve been unconscious for two days.”
His relief at seeing her turned into delighted laughter as she kissed his face, repeatedly.
“Please don’t hate me when you find out what I did.” More kisses peppered across his face. “I just love you so much I couldn’t let them kill you, so I did—“
His laughter grew as he wrapped his arms around her and squeezed so hard, she gasped for air and said his n
ame, the word coming out as a wheezing whisper.
“What is wrong with you,” she said when he loosened his hold on her. She pulled back enough to look at him. “Did they fry your brain?”
He kissed her, held her to him and kissed her so hard and long, her body went slack in his arms, her knees going weak. He pulled back enough to whisper, “My mind is completely intact, my sweet Sarra,” against her lips.
“Then why are you laughing like a loon?” The moment the words were out of her mouth, her eyes widened. “Oh my god, you can understand me, can’t you?”
“Every single word.” He brushed her hair from her face and placed a soft kiss on her mouth. “And whatever you did I’ll learn to live with. As long as I have you, and I can hear your words, then nothing else matters.”
She grinned and said, “You may change your mind about that in the near future.”
The wyvern that had been holding Sarra on the platform in the arena stepped out of a room down the hall and walked their way. The moment Toren saw him, his body tensed and a growl crawled up his throat. Sarra stiffened in his arms and he let go of her, pushing her behind him.
Wyvern looked pretty much alike to him. Their coloring was nearly identical and if it weren’t for the small variations in the pattern of their scales he wasn’t sure he’d be able to tell one from the other. This one, however he’d never forget.
He stopped a few feet away from them and looked at the female who had loosened the restraints on the table. She walked forward, a pair of pants in one hand. “Dress and follow me. I’ll see you to the arena door.” He didn’t wait for a reply, just turned on his booted feet and started down the hall.
Toren took the pants and said, “Stay close to me. I’ll not put any sort of surprise past them.”
“They’ll let us go. They gave me their word.”
He scoffed as he slipped on the pants. “Do not believe the lies they tell you. They are never to be trusted.”
Toren grabbed Sarra’s hand and followed the wyvern through winding tunnels. Noise slowly started to reach him as they walked. They were going back to the arena. He stiffened as the chanting and yells from the others above grew louder, Sarra’s hand tightening on his arm as she squeezed it.
The doors they exited were not the same ones they used to lead him into the arena for his fight. These opened on the opposite end of the platform, near the double doors that led outside. When the gates opened, Toren stared out into the small village beyond the arena in shock.
The wyvern turned and said, “Hold out your arms.”
“Will you be removing the collar as well?”
The wyvern shook his head while grabbing the cuffs on his arms. “The collar remains. It’s one of the conditions of your release.”
Toren watched him cautiously as he held out his arms. A small disk like the one they’d used to unlock his collar unlocked the cuffs as well. When the metal snicked open, the wyvern grabbed the cuffs and pulled them down over his hands. Before they slipped off completely, something cold hit his palm. The wyvern pulled the cuff off and reached up, curling Toren’s fingers over whatever it was he placed in his hand, met his gaze briefly, then stepped away.
“You have been instructed to stay away from the arena or you risk recapture. If that happens, no other bargains will be made. Nothing is being provided for you. Provisions may be procured by any means possible.” The wyvern turned and walked away.
Sara watched him until he disappeared back inside the doors leading to the tunnels under the arena. Many of the girls in the cages were watching them, the dark-haired girl with the pixie cut among them.
Toren tugged on her hand. “Let us leave this place, Sarra.”
She let him lead her out the double doors. Once outside, someone called her name. She looked, scanning the cages, but so many of the girls were looking at her she had no idea who had yelled.
“We cannot linger.” Toren cupped her chin in his hand and turned her head so she’d look at him. “There is nothing we can do for them. With this collar on—“
“—I know,” she interrupted. “I just hate leaving them.” She knew Toren was right but leaving all those girls behind felt like she was betraying them but, they couldn’t help them. Not now. She’d bartered the ability to help the humans here away for Toren’s life and regardless of how bad she felt because of it, she would do it all over again.
Reluctantly, she followed him and looked back once when she heard her name again before the gates closed behind them, then put the girls out of her mind. Dwelling on what would happen to them would only drive her crazy and she had enough problems now.
The small village outside the arena was mostly deserted. Toren grabbed her hand and led her past the small slanted shanties at a fast clip, ducking between two of them near the end of the row. He led her a few yards away and stopped behind a line of tall shrubs.
“Why are we stopping?”
“Because our luck has changed.” Toren lifted his arm and uncurled his fingers to reveal a small metal disk sitting on his palm.
“What is that?”
“This,” he said, picking it up, “I believe is the key to unlock the collar.”
Sara’s eyes widened as he reached up and ran his fingers around the collar.
“Can you see where it might be latched?”
She searched the collar, running her fingers along the edge as he had been doing and smiled when she felt a small indention cut into the bottom edge. “Here. There’s a small groove here.”
Toren handed her the disk. “See if this will unlock it.”
Sara raised the disk to the indention and hadn’t even touched the two pieces of metal together when she heard a loud click. The collar parted a moment later. “It worked! Where did you find the key?”
Toren removed the collar and smiled. “I didn’t. The wyvern gave it to me when he took off my cuffs.”
Sara raised an eyebrow. “He did?” When he nodded, Sara remembered the information he’d given her during Toren’s fight with the others. That information had ultimately saved his life. Now, that same wyvern had given them the key to Toren’s chains. “He told me the wyvern can’t produce fire. Not all of them, anyway. Only the highest ranking among them do now.” And now he couldn’t. Guilt made her queasy as she looked at him. “I did something you’re probably going to hate me for, Toren.”
His brows lowered as he took a step toward her. “It would not be possible.” He cupped the side of her face. “Nothing you could do would ever—”
“—They took your fire.” Sara held her breath after she blurted the words and waited for Toren to react. He did nothing for long moments but stand there and stare at her, then he inhaled, his chest puffing up a bit and she knew the moment he realized it. His eyes lost a bit of their luster. He glanced away, took several long breaths and turned back to face her.
“That is why they let us go.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t—” She sighed. “They were going to kill you, Toren.”
He stared at her so long she wasn’t sure he was ever going to speak again. When he leaned in and kissed her, the knot in her throat eased.
“They took my fire and kept me collared. That is the only reason they let us go, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” He sighed and her heart ached at the look on his face. “I’m so sorry. I just—“ she swallowed and blinked to ease her burning eyes. “I love you. I would have promised them anything to keep you.”
One corner of his mouth turned up. It wasn’t a smile but she figured it was as close to one as he could give her in that moment. “As long as we are together and I can protect you, I will learn to live without the fire.” When he smiled this time, it reached his eyes. “To be able to hear your words, I would have given it myself.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
The relief was profound and made every muscle weak. She’d been so scared of his reaction, she’d nearly worried herself sick as they performed the procedure on him. “
You don’t hate me, then?”
“No, Sarra. My heart is full. You are all I need.”
They kept the collar and the lock and headed off into the trees. Sara still hadn’t told him about the orbs that would track them but if he looked up, he’d see them but didn’t think he’d say much. Those things followed them most of the time anyway and even though she knew they were waiting for them to put on a show, she wasn’t worried. Now that she had her dragon back, those orbs wouldn’t last long around them. “So, where now?”
“Now,” Toren said, stopping and turning back to face her, then leaning in to whisper in her ear. “Now, we go to Dra’lera.” He kissed the side of her neck.
Sara stiffened. “Dra’lera?” she whispered back.
“Yes. It’s deep within the mountains—“
Sara slapped her hand across his mouth and looked up. Two orbs floated above the trees. Leaning in toward him, she whispered in his ear. “There was another condition to them releasing you.”
Toren pulled her hand from his mouth. “Which was?”
“They wanted the location of Dra’lera but they never said why.”
“I see.” He glanced up. “My people have lived for thousands of years. Dra’lera is a paradise unlike anything you’ve ever seen. Rich soil and abundant crops, palaces filled with our history. Its location has been coveted for centuries.” He pulled away and took her hand, placing a kiss on her knuckles. “I have wanted to take you there since I found you and I will.” He glanced up at the orbs again. “We will have to be extra careful not to be seen. The entrance is hidden and I intend for it to remain so.”
“Are you mad at me?”
He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Never.”
“Then we go to Dra’lera?”
Toren kissed her, a soft brush of his mouth against her lips. “We go to Dra’lera, my mate. We go to paradise.”
