by Stacy Jones
That was the only warning they got before all hell broke loose.
A deafening crash, the scream of tearing metal, and a thunderous roar had her slapping her hands over her ears. She choked on a cry as she felt her eardrums rupture and blood slick her hands.
The entire cave shuddered just as something hit her hard enough to send her flying backwards. The impact when she hit the ground froze her diaphragm, making it impossible to draw in a breath for an excruciatingly long, painful, handful of seconds.
Forcing her eyes open, she caught a heart-stopping glimpse of the ceiling collapsing. Massive slabs of rock plummeted toward them, some as big as cars.
“Kix!” she yelled, half in warning, half in denial.
A brief flash of something huge and metallic crashing through the cave ceiling was the last thing she saw before something struck the side of her head and everything went black.
Chapter 40
Aria blinked open her eyes to find Skaa’s dirty, scowling face looming above her.
“Wake up! Now is no time for rest!” the woman barked, but she sounded as though she was underwater. Her voice was muffled and barely discernible over the ringing in Aria’s ears.
Groaning, she tried to glare at her friend but gave up when it intensified the pounding in her head.
“Missed you, too,” she rasped, then added under her breath, “rude ass alien.”
Aria rolled to hands and knees then paused, coming very close to throwing up all over Skaa’s feet. Swallowing convulsively, she sat back on her heels and hissed sharply when the movement made it feel like someone had stuffed her skull with knives.
She reached up and gingerly touched the side of her head to find her hair caked with blood and dust. There was a nice-sized gash splitting her scalp, but she could feel the itchy tingle telling her it was already healing.
“What the fuck happened? Where’s—” She cut off with a gasp.
Tirox!
“How long was I out?” she demanded.
“Not long. Or long. How am I to know? I have only just arrived.”
Coughing, she squinted through the dark, murky haze of dust and began calling out. Kix answered first.
“Aessa. You are unharmed?” following his voice, she spotted him and Rellik about ten feet away, just getting to their feet.
“Sarasha?” Rellik demanded when she didn’t answer immediately.
Deciding the head wound was better kept to herself, she called back, “I’m okay. Are you?”
“We are as well as can be expected.”
“Where’s Thrasin?”
A deep rumble vibrated her chest, drawing her eyes upward to find big, white dragon eyes staring down at her from above. A quick scan around her told her he’d blocked them from the falling boulders, but that meant he’d taken the brunt of it.
As she watched, he got his feet under him and stood with a pained growl. Carefully shielding her with an outstretched wing, he gave a hard shake, sending the rocks covering his back tumbling to the ground.
Pushing to her feet, she stumbled as dizziness hit her, but steadied herself on Skaa’s arm, then picked her way across the rocks to Kix and Rellik. She quickly checked them both over then turned to gaze up at Thrasin.
When he didn’t lower his head of his own accord, she reached up, hooked her fingers in his scaled bottom lip, and pulled until he dropped down far enough for her to examine his head, neck, and, after going up on tiptoe, part of his back and wings. She couldn’t see anything serious, but it was dark as hell, and the air was cloudy with dust.
Meeting his surprised gaze, she frowned concernedly and demanded, “Are you okay? Don’t lie. If you’re hurt, I need to know.”
She decided to ignore the hypocrisy of demanding he tell her the truth while she hid her own wounds from her mate.
In answer, he lowered his head farther and gently rubbed his muzzle over her bare breasts and stomach.
Taking that as a ‘yes,’ she sighed in relief and leaned forward to rest her forehead against him.
“Good. That’s good,” she breathed.
Turning, she lightly brushed her lips over him then stood. Craning her head back, she peered up, trying to see what the hell had caused the collapse. What she saw had her jaw dropping.
“Holy. Fucking. Shit. That’s a spaceship.”
It was a massive, disk shaped, honest-to-god spaceship made of seamless, shiny metal and currently looming over them. It was slanted down at an angle, taking up most of the ceiling and part of the wall, and seemed to be wedged pretty tightly, but she could see shafts of purplish golden light shining around its perimeter.
“Is that how you got in?” she asked, speaking to Skaa standing behind her.
“Yes. It flew into the outer wall around the fighting lands. I climbed down it and into here to find you. I see you injured yourself while I was not here to watch over you,” she tsked, making Aria yelp when she tapped a finger on her still-bleeding scalp.
Shaking off the awe she felt at seeing her first spaceship, she swatted Skaa’s hand away with a glare, then called out for the other men down there. She waited, cocking her head to listen, but there was no answer.
Gritting her teeth, she hesitated. Urgency was clawing at her. She didn’t know how long she’d been unconscious, and every second that ticked by was another that her barbarian was at Zhrovni’s non-existent mercy. She needed to get to him… but she couldn’t just leave those men down there, not knowing if they were alive, dead, or grievously injured and in need of help.
“What is wrong, Aria?” Skaa asked, a thread of worry bleeding into her voice.
Glancing at her friend, she grimaced. “I have to find Tirox. Now. With this crash, I have to imagine someone is going to show up. First responders, cops. People Zhrovni doesn’t want finding out what he’s been up to. I’ve got to get to him before he decides he’s better off just killing Red rather than getting caught.”
“So, go.”
“There are other prisoners down here, Skaa! I can’t leave them.”
Skaa snorted and shook her head. Giving her a reproachful look, she huffed, “You act as if you stand alone. I will find them. Go save your Chosen.”
Aria hesitated. “Are you sure?”
Skaa didn’t even bother responding, just gave her a look. “How many?”
Relief had her throat tightening. “Three. Sauran, Braxton, and, uh… ” Turning, she called out, “Rellik, what’s Grumpy’s name?”
“A’nu,” he answered back, thankfully understanding to whom she was referring.
Nodding, she turned back to her friend and reached out to grip her lower hands. “Thank you, Skaa. Be safe. And find me above when you’ve got them.”
She grunted wordlessly and left, but not before Aria heard her mutter, “Awfully dominant for one so puny.”
She smiled, but it faded almost instantly when she looked up at Thrasin. He had that feral haze in his eyes and that worried her. Thankfully, unlike in the cave, she could still see him gazing back at her so she knew he was fighting to control it, but that it was there at all was concerning. She could deal with a scratch, but if he got possessive while this size? Someone would die.
“Can you fly me—”
“Aessa.”
She sighed. She’d known that wasn’t going to work, but it was worth a try.
“—us up there?” she corrected, watching him closely for a reaction.
His gaze cut to Kix and Rellik. A brief snarl curled his upper lip, but to her immense relief, that was his only show of aggression. Pivoting his head back to her, he hesitated for a tense second, then lowered himself with a gentle, thrumming purr so he was propped up on a forearm.
The tightness in her shoulders relaxed, and she hesitated, only for a moment, before climbing up his arm to his back. She settled herself at the base of his neck and grabbed two of the long, spiky frills growing from his head and upper neck to use as both handholds and reins.
“Nothing to see here, folks,”
she muttered nervously. “Just gonna ride this dragon. Naked. Regular fucking Tuesday around here.”
Oh shit, I’m about to ride a fucking dragon.
A thrill shot through her, mixing with the urgency and fear twisting her stomach into knots. She felt absolutely tiny sitting astride him and nowhere near as secure as she wanted to be without some kind of saddle or harness to strap herself into.
I wonder if he’d wear a saddle?
The ridiculousness of that thought had her shaking her head.
Aria Taylor, special agent for the FBI, gladiator, freedom fighter, and dragon rider. Yep. That’s me. Jesus Christ, my life is a movie.
Thrasin tensed beneath her when Kix climbed up next and settled behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist, but he didn’t try to eat her firefly, so she was definitely counting that as a win.
Rellik was next. To her surprise, he walked upright along Thrasin’s back and immediately moved to sit at the base of his wings. He looked perfectly comfortable riding a dragon, as though he’d done it many times, even sent her a wink and a cocky smile when he glanced up to find her staring at him wide-eyed.
Without so much as a warning growl, Thrasin leapt into the air, scaring the hell out of her, and gave a hard flap, sending up a cloud of dust around them.
With each beat of his wings, he steadily rose higher and higher, then hovered mid-air when he reached the spaceship. Using the claws on his forehands, he carefully pulled huge chunks of rock free, checked to make sure he wouldn’t crush anyone below, then dropped them to the ground until he’d created a gap big enough for him to squeeze through.
Aria bent forward to lie against his neck when he began crawling along the back of the ship with Kix using his body to shield her from the jagged rock above.
As they went, she leaned over so she could look below them, searching for any windows or portholes she could peer into, but the surface was smooth and unbroken.
Unless it was something like an unmanned drone, somebody was in there and very likely in need of help after a crash like that.
“As soon as we’ve rescued Red and killed Zhrovni, we need to come back and check this out. There could be people trapped inside,” she announced.
There was no doubt in her mind there would be a later. She was going to get her mate back, and that turtle-faced bastard was absolutely going to die.
There was no other option.
Chapter 41
Aria blinked hard when Thrasin crawled off of the spaceship and stepped onto the sands of the arena, trying to adjust to the bright sunlight after living in a dim cave for days with only glowing mushrooms and Kix’s light by which to see.
When the spots faded, she quickly scanned the space around them. The treeshrooms and purple moss covered ground that filled the arena for the Grand Tournament was gone. It was in what she assumed was its natural state: barren desert. Pale grey sand and rolling dunes stretched out before them with the white mountains rising up a least a mile off in the distance.
Behind them, maybe eighty to one hundred feet away, was the retaining wall, once an unbroken and insurmountable barrier towering at least four hundred feet into the air. Now, there was a massive breach where the ship had crashed through, giving her her first glimpse of the world beyond.
She didn’t know what she’d expected the planet to look like, but what she saw was squalid and dismal. It matched the people who chose to live there, like Zhrovni. A barren, desert landscape to match the arena stretched out beyond the wall with dirty, ramshackle buildings and desperate, haggard looking aliens crowded around the break, peering in at them.
But, what caught her eye were the skyscrapers interspersed among the crowded slums on the ground, standing like shiny, high-tech wardens over the dirty masses below, and the towering walls of other arenas in the distance.
I’ll be coming for you next.
Turning back around, Aria tapped Thrasin’s neck, prompting him to take to the air again. He rose until they were soaring high above the ground, giving her a bird, er, dragon’s-eye view of the arena.
Shielding her eyes with a hand, she followed the wall with her gaze, searching for the section with the spectator seating. There had to be an entrance there they could use to get in.
Spotting it, she pointed and called out, “There!”
Despite having been at least a mile away, Thrasin got there in under a minute. He landed with a surprisingly gentle thud, touching down on a section of seats that wasn’t covered by a canopy to offer the spectators shade.
After climbing down, she directed Kix and Rellik to find an entrance while she spoke to Thrasin.
When he lowered his head, she laid a hand on his snout, absent-mindedly stroking her thumb over his smooth, warm scales. She kept her voice gentle but firm, knowing he wouldn’t like what she was about to say.
“I need you to stay here.”
When he started to jerk his head back, she hooked a hand in his nostril to keep him there and met his eye.
“Please. I don’t want you going through that transformation again. Not so soon, anyway. Besides, we need someone to watch our backs and make sure no one comes in behind us.”
She saw something pass through his eye, something that had her narrowing her own, but he finally gave a single nod.
“Thank you.” Leaning forward, she pressed a kiss to his nose then spun around and ran to where Kix was waiting for her.
The door Kix found led to a level of the arena obviously meant for the public. It looked like a mix between the concourse of an airport, the lobby of a hotel, and the concession area of a stadium. Restaurants and shops, most selling odd, inexplicable things she didn’t recognize, lined the outer wall.
In the center was an atrium, showing what had to be at least eight or ten floors above. It was deserted, thankfully, all the patrons she imagined usually filled it gone to get their sadistic kicks elsewhere. The shop owners and whatever employees Zhrovni had were gone, as well.
Also missing was a door conveniently labeled ‘This Way to the Labs.’
“Kix, can you feel him?”
Cocking his head, he frowned for a moment before his eyes cut to the left. “Yes, very faint. This way.”
He led them to an unmarked door with a familiar control panel next to it and closed his eyes. Aria tried to suppress the anxiety she was sure he could feel pouring off of her, not wanting to distract him, but she knew she wasn’t successful. Her heart was pounding, and her mind kept supplying her with horrific images of finding Tirox bloodied and mangled, because she’d taken too long to get to him.
She startled slightly when a hand slid into hers and jerked her head back to gaze up at Rellik a little wide-eyed.
He didn’t say anything, just held her stare with his fiery, orange eyes. The look on his beautiful face was one of certainty and absolute confidence. Not in himself, but in her.
She didn’t know when she’d earned that kind of trust from him but, oddly, it was exactly what she needed to see. Some of the pressure squeezing her chest relaxed, and her heart slowed its frantic hammering.
Leaning down until they were almost nose to nose, he flicked his tongue over her bottom lip, startling a gasp out of her, and groaned softly, “I will enjoy watching you kill him, my sarasha.”
Her stomach clenched and her nipples tightened, but the door hissed open on an elevator cubicle before she had a chance to respond… or mentally lament her apparent weakness for bloodthirsty men.
They sprinted down empty hallways, taking turn after turn until Kix finally skidded to a stop in front of a door.
While he focused on finding the code, she addressed Rellik.
“Are you sure you want to do this with us?” she demanded on a breath of sound, not wanting to alert whomever waited on the other side of the door that they were there. “I don’t know what we’re about to face, and we don’t have any weapons. There’s a very good possibility we won’t make it through this.”
Rellik shook his head and reach
ed up to cup her cheeks. “I am with you, my little Queen. Perhaps, among your people, kindness is commonly given. It is not so among my own and an even more rare commodity in this city. It is a blessing I cherish, moreso because you give it without expectation of anything in return. That you are fierce, brave, and deliciously lethal, in addition? My fall is complete. I am yours, even if you never invite me into your circle.”
“You… you can’t seriously be telling me you’re willing to die, because I was kind to you,” she whispered, shocked.
He smiled softly and gently swept his thumb over her lips. “Ah, but I am. And you will accept my devotion, because it may make the difference between saving your beloved mate and not.”
Aria swallowed hard. He was right. That made her an absolutely shit person, but she was willing to accept his help, even if it meant he died. There was zero chance she could convince Kix to stay behind where it was safe, but she’d had her chance to leave Rellik in the cave. She hadn’t stopped him from joining them, even though she knew what they were getting into.
“I have it,” Kix whispered.
Blinking, she glanced at him and nodded.
Moving to stand beside him, she murmured, “Kix, go left. Rellik, right. I’ll go down the middle. Move fast, and don’t leave an enemy at your back.”
Chapter 42
The second the door hissed open, Tirox’s enraged, pain-filled roars reverberated into the hallway.
Forcing herself not to look at him, she scanned the room as they ran inside. There were six Godzilla guards, two ants… and Zhrovni, all spread throughout the large room.
They all whipped around at the door opening, the ants immediately darting to huddle against the back wall, the guards reaching for their weapons, and Zhrovni freezing with shock, the blood-soaked blade in his hand clattering to the floor.
