Page 84 of Caged

“You need answers and I understand why. The resistance is waiting, but they can wait a bit longer. How about we go get what you need?” she says softly.

“Sylas is the one taking orders now.” Rych chuckles.

“Sylas has a mate,” Blayn says.

He’s been unable to take his eyes off Alex, but I don’t feel a sudden rush of violence towards him. The big tattooed Gryn is trembling, his arms limp.

“I have a mate, Blayn” I tell him gently, “and I’m leaving with her. You can come too if you like.”

I check on my Alex, and she nods.

“Can’t,” Blayn says, shaking his head from side to side as if he’s trying to rid himself of a parasite. He takes several steps and I think he’s about to run.

“Not yet, gladiator,” Maxym says in a deep rumble. “But maybe one nova-day.”

For a brief second, Blayn’s face brightens, as if he can see past the next fight or the next meal. Then it is gone again.

“Fight,” he says simply.

“Yes, fight,” Rych echoes. “Whatever you need, Sylas, you have it.” He gives me a low, sweeping bow, his wing tips lifting high in the air.

ALEX

The four other Gryn gladiators are something else. Rych is dripping in gold and jewels, the other two, Blayn and Klynn, are covered in tattoos, and all of them, including Maxym, look completely unhinged.

Each one sports an arsenal of swords and daggers. No wonder they have been used as gladiators, fighting for entertainment. Not a single one of them has any sense of self-preservation, that much is clear from the way their feathers bristle and the fact two of them look like they’re about to explode at the earliest opportunity, especially the dark one, Blayn. More tattooed than any of the others, he shakes with repressed violence, his feathers shivering as we move through the tunnels.

Sylas seems to have recovered since I first saw him. He’s steadier on his feet, sword in hand and focussed on his task. Except when he trips over something which isn’t there and glares at it with extreme prejudice.

“I love you,” I tell him with a smile.

He hiccups slightly, his gaze a little unfocussed. “Myeregri.” He leans closer. “When this is all over, I’m going to mate you until neither of us can see straight, fill you with seed, and devour it from you.”

We’re in the most incredible danger, at the heart of a place which is built for killing, and I’m surrounded by killers, and yet…

My lady bits pulse with desire.

“And I love you with the force of a dark star falling into a sun,” he adds with the brightest smile.

My stomach flips and my heart pounds, my skin heating as he inhales deeply before straightening.

“Let’s get this vrexing over with. I have a mate who needs me, and I want to bury myself in her within the next nova-minute.” He strides through the gladiators leading us and I’m pulled along in his wake.

“Is this a good idea?” I ask Maxym as I pass him.

“Not at all.” He laughs. “It’s a brilliant one.”

And somehow, I don’t know how, I feel the safest I’ve ever been in my entire life. Five unhinged killers in the heart of a killing machine and I know I will survive, Sylas will survive, and when this is all over, we will be together.

We reach the end of the passage where it opens out into a larger space, lit from above by something which if not sunlight, is something close.

Sylas shifts his wings.

“What the vrex have you got on you?” Maxym asks with a look of disgust.

“Dunno,” Sylas replies. “It’s sticky.”

“Let me look.” I gently pull out the affected wing, and my big gladiator puts out a hand onto the nearby wall to steady himself.

---