by Stacy Jones
She couldn’t do it. It would break some part of her to leave him.
A final searching look at her men told her they hadn’t changed their minds about escaping with Skaa. She hadn’t really expected them to.
You better have some answers, dragon man.
Straightening her spine, she nodded.
“Let’s do this.”
Chapter 14
Waving them back, Aria motioned for all of them to stand against the side walls so they’d be out of the line of fire when the doors opened. Lowering herself into a fighting stance, she raised her gun and nodded to Kix to input the code, then braced herself for whatever may be waiting on the other side.
Adrenaline surged through her, sending her heart pounding and heightening her senses, but a wave of calm came on its heels, steadying her. As dangerous as this was, she felt comforted by the familiarity. This world had thrown her a hell of a lot of curveballs, but this she knew how to handle. This was what she was good at.
The door hissed open smoothly, revealing an ever-widening chasm of pitch blackness. The impenetrable shadows from the room beyond and the cold, white light spilling out of the elevator met about two feet past the door, creating a wall.
Aria tensed, waiting for the sonic booms of the alien guns, shouts of alarm, guards rushing in, something, but it was still and silent, as if the darkness had substance and smothered any noise.
Leaning forward quickly, she peered out but couldn’t pierce the gloom.
Guess the turtle-faced bastard didn’t bother upgrading my night vision. Prick.
Glancing at her men, she pointed two fingers at her eyes, then at the opening, and made a questioning face, wordlessly asking if either of them could see.
Kix shook his head then motioned to his chest quizzically, sending her a mental projection that was half feeling, half thought, asking if she wanted him to illuminate. She immediately rejected that idea. If he lit up like a glow stick, that would only tell anyone waiting outside exactly where he was hiding and where to aim.
Tirox, standing on her side, closest to the door, leaned forward just long enough to scan the room then nodded down at her and mouthed, “Clear.”
She gave him a quick smile, pleased that he’d picked up on her terminology, and returned his nod.
Side-stepping in front of him, she dropped down into a crouch and pressed her shoulder to the opening, gun up and sweeping the space in front of her, ignoring his soft growl of protest. When nothing jumped out of the darkness, she stood and stepped out on silent feet, her men following on either side.
The sound of soft taps came from behind as soon as they passed the doorway. Turning back for just a moment, she reached out, handing Skaa her sword and one of her throwing stars. The woman took them with a stoic nod and pressed the last key to activate the elevator.
The bubble of light they stood in narrowed as the doors slid closed on the woman’s scowling, worried face. Within seconds they were thrown into total darkness.
Some of the tension left her shoulders, now that her friend was on her way to safety, even as new worry replaced it.
She didn’t know what time of day it was on this planet, but even if it was the middle of the night, she didn’t think it should be pitch black down here, and there damn sure shouldn’t be a suspicious lack of guards.
Aria kept her gun up as she and her men began cautiously moving forward, sweeping it back and forth even though she couldn’t see farther than a foot in front of her.
“Tell me what you see,” she prompted on a breath of sound.
“Passageway leading into an open space. I cannot see beyond, but it smells like… home. Like earth and stone,” Tirox replied just as quietly.
Aria frowned. That was unexpected. She assumed this level would have the same slightly metallic scent as the labs above. Maybe they hadn’t bothered to develop it, seeing as it served as a prison, and left it somewhat natural.
“Your beads saying anything?”
“They are wary but silent.”
She could feel the moment they left the hall a few minutes later. Even without her sight, she could sense the openness of the room around them.
Tirox began without prompting, “It is a cave. This section is like the labs above. Smooth walls and floor. Doors. Ahead, it is a vast cavern. Thirty rhiski from side to side. ‘Body length, roughly equal to six feet.’ I believe I can see tunnel openings nearby, but I cannot see an end to the cave.”
So, at least two hundred feet across and who the hell knows how deep.
“Do you see anything that could be cells? Small rooms holding prisoners?”
“No. But, I smell beings ahead. Faint, far away. Not guards.”
That news took her aback. She’d expected Zhrovni to keep his most dangerous gladiators locked up in neatly organized, very secure cells close to the elevator for his convenience. Were they free to roam the cavern Tirox saw ahead?
Before she could speculate on what that might mean and figure out how the hell she was going to find the dragon in such an immense maze, she heard Tirox’s beads rattle softly a split second before her own sent her a zing of warning.
Like a well-oiled machine, she and her men immediately spun to press their backs to one another.
Tirox didn’t get a chance to tell them where to aim. Light flooded the space, blinding her and sending her heart into her throat.
Blinking hard, she squinted past the spots dancing in her eyes and saw Godzilla guards streaming out of a door set in the wall they’d passed.
Goddamnit. I knew this was a fucking trap.
They split both ways, marching in lockstep to the left and right until they formed a line at least fifty feet long. Silent and rigid, they stood shoulder to shoulder. Aria held her fire, hoping, waiting…
At some unheard command, the two in front of the door stepped forward and out, making room for a smug Zhrovni to walk between them.
Anger at herself for selfishly putting her men in danger warred with satisfaction that the Overlord was as predictable as she’d hoped, in this at least.
Cocky bastard. You shouldn’t have come down here.
Chapter 15
The moment Aria realized this was more than likely a setup, she’d come up with a plan B. Zhrovni was arrogant enough to want to confront her face to face to demonstrate his superiority, if the opportunity presented itself. He was also too egotistical to share power, which meant if she could kill him, his guards and lackies would be leaderless.
If she was right, the Godzilla guards were hired muscle, and the ants were just as much slaves as the gladiators. They wouldn’t have any reason to keep fighting if the guy who wrote their checks was dead.
She’d just needed him to take the bait and face her when she wasn’t locked in a tube.
He stared at her silently, a self-satisfied smile wrinkling the skin on either side of his beaked mouth, and leaned forward, anticipation tightening his loathsome features. He was waiting for her to react, so she gave him nothing. Smoothing her expression, she projected calmness, as though unbothered by this turn of events.
Without bothering to lower her voice, she asked, her tone deliberately blasé, “Surrounded?”
“Cannot tell. This side is still in darkness, but I do not believe so,” Tirox responded offhandedly.
Aria had to bite back a proud smile. He caught on to her game quickly, likely from his experience negotiating with other clans back on his homeworld.
“Mm. Interesting.”
Scanning from left to right, she quickly counted the guards. Eighteen. So, six for each of them. Difficult, but not impossible.
Was that his entire security team? He would want a show of force to intimidate her and ensure his safety, so he’d bring as many guards as possible. Fifty would be more impressive, and would’ve actually given her pause, so if he only brought eighteen, maybe that was all he had.
He had to know she and her men had faced worse odds. The idiots didn’t even have their guns drawn. She
and Tirox did and, judging the distance between them, she knew Kix could get to them before they could draw, aim, and fire and cut them down with his scythe.
If Zhrovni thought he was safe, that his guards would protect him, he was wrong.
Apparently tired of waiting for her to react, his smugness shifted to impatience.
“Disarm yourselves,” he hissed.
“Ha. Come and get them, zlagek,” she fired back, using one of his own insults against him.
She needed him to get angry, but just angry enough to act rashly and make a mistake without tipping him into off-with-their-heads territory.
His eyes widened, and he hissed at her, his scaly green skin darkening with rage, but instead of commanding his guards to descend on them and take their weapons by force, as she’d wanted, he whipped out what looked like a datapad from a pocket in his crotchless pants.
Distracting him before he could activate some kind of security measure she hadn’t counted on, Aria put just enough curiosity and uncertainty in her tone to make him want to revel in her ignorance and asked, “Tell me, how did I do it? How did I wake up in the arena? Your fancy tech failing you?”
He did as she’d hoped and paused mid-tap, but instead of appearing arrogant and disdainful, he looked pissed.
“My technology is not the problem! You are! You and your jeleking males! Why is it no matter how many times I wipe you, you find them? It is maddening! This time, only two, since I locked the beast away, but time last, you four almost ruined my arena!”
Tirox grunted softly as if the breath had been knocked out of him, and a feeling of sharp-edged validation washed over her from Kix.
Only two? Locked the beast away…
Aria felt lightheaded. The dragon. She’d known. She’d fucking known.
He’d wiped them?
Oh god…
How many times? How many times had she fallen in love with these men? How many times had she lost them?
For a long, breathless moment, she was too stunned, too furious, to speak.
Obviously taking her silence as a provocation, Zhrovni took a step forward and hissed angrily. Snapping his beak, he straightened and narrowed all four of his eyes at her.
“I grow weary of this game, Vhraress. This is your final opportunity. I present you a bargain: submit and I will only kill these two males. I shall leave the beast caged, but alive, for I have use of him. Refuse, and I shall kill all of you.”
In a mutter he likely thought she couldn’t hear, he added, “I cannot have the Federation discover my slaves are Aware.”
Aria kept her reaction to a minimum, but that last statement, and the way he said it, got her undivided attention.
Zeroing in on him, she searched his face, trying to read his expression. His shoulders were hunched slightly, his forward eyes narrowed and cut to the side, and the folds of flesh bracketing his beak were downturned.
He didn’t appear as though he was worried about getting in trouble or feared that he’d come to harm. She’d seen what that kind of self-protective worry looked like when she riled up the gladiators in the lab. His expression, now, struck her as that of a petulant, greedy child who knew he might lose his toys.
As soon as that clicked, it was all she could do to not smile triumphantly.
So, if we’re awake, our status changes. He loses us. Maybe we’re no longer even considered slaves. That… changes everything.
Aria had been desperately trying to work out how they’d stay free once they took this place over. If what Zhrovni was doing here was legal, then her freeing the gladiators could very easily be illegal. Add in that she’d likely destroy some property and kill a few bad guys in the process, and the chances that she’d end up freeing herself, only to become a felon in the eyes of the law here, were better than good.
She’d take living on the run over slavery every day, but if there was a way for her, her men, and all the people trapped here to be truly free, then she had to take it. Her revenge wasn’t worth condemning hundreds of people to whatever passed for prison on this planet or life as fugitives.
Zhrovni must have seen something on her face, because he took a nervous step backward before he caught himself. Raising the datapad again, he tapped on it rapidly, his fat, clawed fingers a blur. Finished, he sent her a cruel smile, his tongue flicking excitedly.
Fuck.
“Get ready,” she breathed.
Shifting slightly, so her left hand was hidden by Kix’s body, she slowly reached down and withdrew a throwing star, tucking it in the palm of her hand. Without looking, she pressed the indentation in the middle to activate the explosives.
Before she could throw it, a soft hissing sound from behind her had her tensing. It was the same sound the doors made.
“What do you see?”
“A shimmer from above. Out of reach,” Kix answered.
“Octofly.”
Aria frowned, thinking quickly. Zhrovni should know by now he couldn’t make them kill each other, so why…
“He’s going to lead the prisoners to us!”
Almost before she finished speaking, the low rumble of the octoflies rage-inducing warble vibrated her eardrums and reverberated into the cavern behind. Aggression surged through her, mirrored by the men standing at her back.
A roar from deep within the cave echoed into the cavern, followed by another and another.
Gritting her teeth against the need to lash out, to let go of her rage and charge forward to rip Zhrovni limb from limb, Aria ruthlessly locked it down and whispered, “Now.”
Chapter 16
In one movement, Aria drew her left arm back, double-clicked the indentation, and hurled the throwing star at Zhrovni while firing at the guards. She shot four before the star exploded. The Godzilla standing to Zhrovni’s right tried to step in front of him and deflect the star but only succeeded in taking the brunt of the detonation.
He, Zhrovni, and the guards to either side were thrown back into the door behind them so hard they dented the metal. Guttural screams of pain and the scent of burning flesh filled the air. Shrapnel peppered the line of Godzillas still standing. Their screams joined the cacophony as the remaining guards opened fire.
Tirox returned fire on her right while Kix launched himself into a run, his powerfully built legs propelling him forward at speeds she could never hope to match. Tirox shot off next, splitting right.
From the corner of her eye, she saw his earrings glowing brightly, his hair whipping behind him almost as if of its own accord, and the spikes on his arms, legs, and back were fully extended. He dodged the sonic blasts being aimed at him as though he knew where they were going to be a second before the guards fired.
Switching her gaze and her gun back to the left, Aria provided cover fire for Kix since he didn’t have magic bug rocks to warn him.
Thirty seconds that felt like thirty minutes later, a quarter of the guards were dead and half were badly wounded, but the remainder were successfully holding off Tirox and Kix from reaching the door from which they’d emerged and the, hopefully, dead body of Zhrovni.
They were well trained, but even from twenty feet away she could see the panic beginning to spread among them as their team members began falling one after another.
They were beginning to consider the merits of fleeing.
Hoping to push them over that edge, Aria yelled out, “Surrender now, and you won’t be harmed. You’ll be free to leave! We only want Zhrovni!”
She’d barely finished when one of the biggest guards snarled and fired at her. Aria was mid-dive to avoid having her head blasted off when movement in the middle of the line caught her eye. Rolling back to her feet, she zeroed in on the pile of bodies. One of them shifted oddly, almost bonelessly, before a green hand shot upward.
Fuck! He’s alive.
“Help me… ”
The weak croak reached her ears and caught the attention of the nearest guards. Four of them broke off from fighting with her men and whipped around, runni
ng to where Zhrovni was buried under the mound of bodies.
Launching herself forward, Aria kept up her steady firing to either side to aid her men, using her peripheral vision to aim, but the majority of her attention was locked on that reaching hand. She had to get to him before they could dig him out and retreat back the way they’d come.
Unfortunately, she was too focused and didn’t see the big guard taking aim at her until it was almost too late.
Her little passenger sent a zing through her head, so sharp she staggered and the hairs on her arms stood on end. Her stumble saved her from being shot square in the chest, but she didn’t miss it entirely. The outer ripple of the sound wave caught her on the arm and sent her spinning.
She hit the ground with a grunt and cracked her head hard enough to make her ears ring and split the skin of her brow. The gun went flying out of her hand as blood immediately streamed into her left eye, blinding her.
“Aria!”
“I’m fine! Stop them!”
She tried to shove off the ground before she’d even finished yelling, but her right arm collapsed under her. It was numb and tingling from shoulder to fingertips from the blast.
Snarling, she pushed up with her left and lunged for the gun laying a few feet away. She had shit for aim with her left hand, but it would have to do. She only needed to not hit her men and aim for the converging pack of guards in the middle.
Squeezing her left eye shut, she fired as she ran. She clipped one in the neck and took down a second with a clean headshot, but it wasn’t enough. The remaining two dragged a bleeding, maimed Zhrovni out and lunged for the door, one holding their overlord so he could type in the code while the other returned her fire. Glancing at her guys, she saw they weren’t going to break away from their fights in time.
Aria fired twice more then dropped the gun and reached down for a throwing star. The doors opened, revealing another elevator. The guards carrying Zhrovni darted inside. Ten feet away, now. The doors began sliding closed. Double-clicking the indentation, she threw the star. Heart in her throat, she held her breath.
