Page 33 of Triplets for the Barbarians

“It didn’t take long to figure the two of you out, though,” he adds, narrowing his eyes at the Kreek brothers. “Something about you irked me, and once I woke up in the infirmary, I knew I had to follow my instinct.”

“Forgive me if I’m not impressed,” Yossul mutters, a muscle twitching furiously in his jaw. “You were dumb enough to think you could defile Jewel like a mindless beast.”

“And truth be told, you went down so easily. Like, all it took was a conk on the head to debilitate you,” I say with a sneer.

It’s enough to piss him off, especially as we hear some of the soldiers snickering behind his back. “Keep your weapons up!” he barks at them, then looks at us and grins coldly. “Yossul and Fadai Kreek. In the flesh. Had I known who you were from the very beginning, I would’ve held a feast in your honor. You’ve been formidable foes up to this point, but you got greedy and stupid. I suppose that’s what happens when you let your feelings get in the way of your mission.”

“If only you’d died,” Yossul hisses, “the world would’ve been a better place.”

“Alas, the universe still thinks I’m useful,” Blaze retorts. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here on this most auspicious night. I presume you were trying to get in and blow up my starship.”

“You are right, Fadai. He’s super smart,” I say, prompting another round of chuckles from Blaze’s own people. It’s obvious he doesn’t have their respect. All he has is the authority bestowed upon him by his association and camaraderie with Shaytan Hull, but the Sky Tribe grunts have grown increasingly dissatisfied and disillusioned with the brass over the past few years. “Somebody give this boy a prize already.”

“You won’t be laughing by the time I’m done with you,” Blaze says.

He moves even closer, prompting Yossul and Fadai to move, but the clicking and clacking of loaded weapons stop them both in their tracks. They can’t do anything as Blaze reaches me and grabs me by the back of the head, his fingers clutching a hefty clump of my hair, his grip so tight it makes my scalp hurt.

“Come on, honey, it’s time to go back home where you belong,” he says, mercilessly dragging me away from the Kreek brothers.

“Don’t tell me you gave up on this whole nonsense, and you’re finally letting me go back to Earth,” I manage as I struggle to walk on my own while also being pulled by the hair in a different direction than what I’d hoped for.

I glance back at Yossul and Fadai, my heart hammering in my chest as I recognize their silent fury, their emotions flaring fiercely in the red pools of their eyes. Blaze laughs hard as he tosses me in the back of another buggy. One of his personal guards slaps a pair of cuffs on my wrists, making sure to keep me secured in my seat. They know me well enough by now to understand that I will take any opportunity to try and escape, no matter how risky.

“The only home you’re going to is the one you’re going to build with Shaytan and me,” Blaze says. “I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it.”

“Oh, I reckon I’ll get to keep my promise first,” I reply.

I will kill this fucker. It’s an oath, and I will fulfill it. Until then, however, I’m his captive once more, forced to sit in the back seat of his buggy as he drives us away from the hangar.

I helplessly watch as his guards put cuffs on Yossul and Fadai before I lose sight of them. At least they’re being arrested, not executed on the spot.

It doesn’t do anything to quell the fire in my chest, to soothe the terror that is turning my very skin into cracked ice.

I don’t know what happened to Rupi and the others. I don’t know if our last messages reached the others in Sapphire City. There’s a lot I don’t know, and it scares the shit out of me.

“Sit tight, sweetie. Shaytan will be thrilled to see you,” Blaze says.

I have a mind to curse him out, but I’m in deep enough trouble as it is. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my friends, it’s that captivity entails a completely different mindset. I can’t fight these fuckers on my own. I just need to figure a way out.

Ideally, before more of my worst nightmares come true.

13

Jewel

I’m taken to a different building. It’s a lavish palazzo-style structure with a white, shimmering façade and sculptural windows. It’s beautiful and opulent, likely the former residence of some kind of royalty. It’s also heavily guarded.

I count at least fifty soldiers at the front gate and all the way up to the front steps, each of them armed to their teeth and looking extra tense. The Sky Tribe flag hangs proudly from the principal balcony. It’s clearly the general’s residence now.

And the closer I get to it, the more nervous I get.

“Shaytan is waiting for us inside,” Blaze says as he pulls the buggy over at the base of the front steps. He pauses and presses his fingers against his temples, likely wrestling with one hell of a migraine after yesterday’s events. I‘m glad he’s hurting. I feel a small dose of satisfaction. “Get her out,” he tells the approaching guards.

“You look like shit.” I chuckle maliciously as I’m taken out of the buggy and practically carried through the wide double doors of the palazzo.

As soon as we’re inside, however, my ill-timed humor fades altogether. Blaze catches up, constantly cursing under his breath as he struggles to retain his composure. His injury must be a lot worse than he showed back in the hangar.

“What’s wrong? Have a Headache?” I grumble.

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