Page 46 of Caged

“Free.” Haxrix nods. “You are not alone in the galaxy, Gryn.”

Sylas quirks up the corner of his mouth, shaking out his feathers and straightening his back.

“Free,” he says, partly to himself.

“There’s a settlement farther down this track,” Haxrix says, pointing down through the vegetation. “I wish you both well. And if you need anything, you don’t know me, right?” she says, mounting the steps into her ship with a wink.

Sylas looks very confused.

“No, andyou didn’t see us,” I reply, elbowing my big gladiator in his hard abdomen.

The confusion clears, and Sylas actually smiles at her. “No, we don’t know you, Cirmos. Vrex off,” he says genially.

“Possibly overdid it a bit there,” I say to him as the ship lifts up and over the canopy of the trees.

Sylas shrugs, his wings heaving with his shoulders. Mirth dances in his dark eyes.

“I want to be sure she’ll come back if we need her,” he says.

I can’t fault his logic.

“Where do we go from here?” I ask.

“I know just the place,” Sylas says with a deep rasp. “And I’ll fight for it if I have to.”

SYLAS

Itold my sweet mate I knew Chohan. In fact I only know this area, given I was brought here for a brief time to recover from my injuries before being sent to the procurator and the amphitheater for training, then on to the dome.

I was lucky enough the old captain was prepared to indulge me, to a degree.

I never want to wear a control collar again. But if it meant I got to fly, to breathe in fresh air, eat as much as I wanted…

But now I know what contentment is, all I was doing was preparing for the inevitable, the day when I’d have to fight for someone else.

But my little feather, myeregri, does not need to know these things. She needs to know she is safe and no one will take her from me.

The settlement, a speck in the huge forest called Ryle, is the one adjacent to where I was kept. It is a mixture of mostly the native population, the Tref, and a few other species including Cirmos and Lepke, both of whom thrive in the darkness of the forests.

Alex takes my hand as we make our way through the forest into the center of the settlement where there are a few marketstalls and the hub. We get a few glances, but mostly those milling around take little notice of us.

Probably because I will kill any male who looks at my mate.

I tamp down the aggression as we enter the hub.

“Sylas?” The Lepke gets up from where he was seated, scrolling through a screen. “Sylas!” He pulls me in for an embrace and releases me. “We did not think you would be allowed to return.”

“I’m here now,” I respond.

“And you have a mate!” He chitters, his feathery antenna swiveling like leaves in a breeze.

I step in front of Alex. “Stay back, Boran.”

He flutters his soft wings with excitement.

“A mate for the Gryn!”

“I need a nest,” I growl.

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