Page 15 of Caged

I sit next to Maxym and take the platter, digging in with gusto to the protein.

“You still stink of ziggurag,” Rych says, leaping off the table and dumping himself unceremoniously opposite.

“One emptied its bowels over me. Punishment for standing up to the overlords,” I growl at him.

“We could have done with you in the games, not vrexing about with a space worm,” he says, stabbing a piece of meat onto the end of a long claw and shoving it in his mouth.

“Ziggurags are not space worms. You really don’t want any of those in the dome,” Blayn says.

We all stare at him. Blayn isn’t one for talking much, or at all. He was here in the dome when Maxym and I arrived, followed quickly by Rych and Klynn, neither of whom had seen another Gryn before us. It took nova-weeks for Blayn to trust any of us enough to even be in the same room, let alone prepared to spar with us, and it drove the captain to distraction.

“What do you know about space worms?” Rych chuckles. “You’ve never been off world.”

Blayn shrugs and goes back to eating.

“What’s the plan, Sylas?” he asks.

“Kill them all and leave nothing but bone,” I growl.

Maxym and Rych grin like idiots. Even Klynn briefly looks my way.

“The procurator wants a show. The dome wants to be entertained, so we entertain them.” I make a brief check of the room, and there are no clerks present. “I have found a mate, and I intend claiming her, no matter what,” I add. “So, we do this thing, and you’re either with me or you’re dead.”

Rych leans back and scratches his abdomen insolently. “I’m down for anything which involves destruction. Blayn’ll kill anything that moves, Maxym knows how to make things explode, and Klynn will create chaos out of nothing once he gets the scent of blood in his nostrils,” he says.

“So, what you mean is every Gryn for himself?” Maxym queries, face shining with interest given someone mentioned explosions.

“As always,” Rych rasps. “And if Sylas gets his mate, then there’s all the more left for the rest of us.” He bares his teeth. “If there is a mate.”

“There is,” I growl. “And if any single one of you even look in her direction, you will lose your wings.”

Rych leans forward. “Say that to me again in the training arena,Sylas.” He stands, sending his seat skittering across the room. None of us have much in the way of an off switch, after all. “And we can decide who is tearing wings off whom today.”

We are not a team, we are a disaster, but it doesn’t stop me from following him in quick order because it’s about time I had a sword in my hand.

And the feeling of violence in my veins.

ALEX

I’m in the shadow of the dome, and I’m sweating. It’s mid-afternoon, and the heat is at its peak in Tatatunga. A dry wind whips up the red dust which settles everywhere and sticks to my skin.

Somewhere, Ixor is watching me, so I have to get back into the dome or he’ll make sure I regret defying him.

One beating is enough to confirm to anyone who is the slave and who is the master. As much as I’ve plotted Ixor’s demise often enough, it hasn’t come and he owns me.

I flick up the hood on my jacket and sidle around the vast exterior until I reach the sewer cover. Looks like I’m never going to be rid of eau de alien excrement from my clothing.

With a swift movement, I have the cover up, and I’m inside again like before.

As I pick my way through the unmentionables, following the map, I consider if I could simply tell Ixor I couldn’t find Sylas.

Only I know he’ll send me in again and again until I do. Which leaves me with only one option. Tell the seven foot plus alien killer what Ixor wants and accept the consequences.

If he rips me limb from limb, so be it. I don’t want to see any more dead things, I’ve seen enough. As I climb the ladder out of the sewer into the dome my fate is very clear.

One way or the other, I’m done with this life. When what I am impacts a complete innocent…or at least another sentient being, given I saw what Sylas did to that worm thing he’s hardly innocent but I have to do something.

Being passive isn’t enough.

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