Page 64 of Caged

It feels like I’m rising up out of a deep bath, shaking my feathers as I surface, to find Alex’s sweet face gazing at me, and I’m refreshed.

Also, I’m drooling.

I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand and notice Sontok’s presence.

“Is my mate okay? Is our young okay?” I fire at her.

“I’m fine, Sylas,” Alex says, and I kiss her to be sure, her soft lips parting perfectly in response.

“I’ll be the judge of that,” I rumble at her.

“Sontok has something to tell you about your past,” Alex says.

I’m relaxed enough with my mate in my arms and the feel of her fingers in my feathers fresh enough I don’t react much to thoughts of my past.

“You were brought here, Sylas, because they wanted to be sure your memory implants took,” she says. “You were the leader of a Gryn cohort, battling against the Bognarok, when you were captured by the Zavaro.”

Alex tightens her grip on my arm.

“I knew other Gryn? Not on Trefa?” My head is filling with a fine mist I dislike very much.

I shake myself, trying to concentrate on what she is saying. Pains shoot behind my eyes, worse than anything I’ve ever encountered. I grip at my nose.

“Sylas, you okay?” Alex asks, her hand in my feathers once more.

“Head. Hurts.” The only words I can get out.

“Gak it, the memory implants,” I hear Sontok say from what seems like a long way away. “I should have dealt with them first.”

I pull Alex against me, inhaling her scent, my hand over her stomach, trying to think about her, about the young growing inside her, not the pain searing through me, nor the memories I don’t think are mine. Until there is a hiss and something cool flows through my body. Something pleasant. I can open my eyes once again.

“What do you know about the memory implants?” Alex is demanding of Sontok. “Did you put them there? Did you do this to him?”

I can feel her bristling with anger, and I don’t want her angry. I want her in my nest, under me, making the best noises a mate can make.

“I did not,” Sontok retorts. “What sort of healer do you think I am? I offer assistance to any who need it, and both Sylas and Maxym, the other Gryn brought here, before they were taken to the dome, needed it.”

“In what way?” Alex’s voice is softer now.

“They fought hard against the implants. It caused the pain you saw just now. What I gave him is something to ease his mind’s desire to break free, but the only ones who can remove them are those who put them in place.”

“You mean he’s stuck like this?” Alex growls.

“Unless you can persuade the Zavaro to remove them.”

“Zavaro.” I say the name of what I’m sure is an enemy out loud. The sharpness of the pain is dulled, and the fog has cleared. “The Zavaro wouldn’t sully their appendages by coming to Trefa or allowing anything on Trefa to get traced back to them. They pretend to be above all other species when they are the reason everything vile happens in this galaxy.” I say the words not knowing what I’m saying.

“Sylas is correct.” Sontok nods and presses the hypo-needle against my arm again.

I shake my head. She takes it away slowly.

“I remember you.” I take in a deep breath as the throbbing ceases and my head clears. Her three dark eyes are so familiar to me now.

“You fought so hard, Sylas. There was so much pain. I’m sorry,” Sontok says, her middle eye closing with pain. “I didn’t want to help them, but I wanted to help you.”

“You were there,” I breathe, as although the memory aches, it isn’t as bad as it was.

“Who? Who didn’t you want to help?” Alex asks. My sweet mate has her arms around me and is holding me tightly. “And why didn’t they want Sylas to remember?”

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