Page 70 of Baited

“I need you to make credits. You’ll do what you did back in Tatatunga, put on a show.” He huffs. “Get him cleaned up.” He points at me. “And do better next time.”

I shake my wings and Rych gives me a warning glance.

I’m too far gone to care about myself. I need the violence.

“Blayn, don’t…” Rych hisses. “You have a mate who wants you back in one piece. They won’t kill you, they need you, but they will maim you if they think it suits their purposes.”

I growl, the sound filling the area, causing some of the guards to shift position.

“Back. It. Down,” Rych murmurs. “There’s a time for this, but it isn’t now.”

I glare at the procurator, then I shove my way past him, shouldering the guards out of the way as I leave the arena and make my way through the ante-chamber, the clerks scattering ahead of me.

“Where’s the baths?” I snarl, grabbing one as he scurries past.

“Second floor,” he squeaks.

“Have food sent in.”

I release him with a push which causes him to slam against a nearby wall and head for the ramp leading up into the gladiator areas. Here and there, clerks of varying species scuttle awayfrom me as I climb to the second floor, where I follow my nose until I reach the baths.

I tamp down the feeling in my breast when I think of the bath I shared with my Izzy. Instead I walk in without bothering to remove my clothing. The hot water stings my skin as I go deeper until I’m completely submerged. I hold my breath, letting the water flow over me, attempting to clear my head and concentrate.

When I rise, Rych is in the pool next to me, arms propped on the edge. He takes a sweetmeat from a platter and shoves it in his mouth.

“I told them you weren’t drowning yourself,” he says while chewing. “I also told them the food was for me.”

I snarl at him, pulling the platter in my direction before getting out of my pool which is a decidedly unpleasant color, stripping off my soaked apparel, and dropping into another clean bath opposite him. The excess water flows into his bath and causes a wave which swamps him.

“Vrexer.” He grins at me. “I presume there’s a plan?”

“Plan? I don’t plan. I’m getting out of here and going back to Tatatunga for my mate. Are you in?” I gobble down some of the food items, paying little attention to how they taste.

“You’re going to escape?”

“I’m not staying in this vrexing place with the…” I hold back from naming the Cynos as my mortal enemy, “procurator in charge. He can’t run a dome and he will kill us one way or another.”

“True.” Rych lifts a goblet of wine which I didn’t spot. “And Sartak is boring.” He yawns and I feel any energy I’ve taken from the food sapping away. “But getting out of here isn’t going to be easy. Even if everything else is a mess, their security is top-notch,” he grumbles. “And we’re not getting passes any time soon.”

“You think I always stayed in the dome when I didn’t have a pass?” I quirk the corner of my mouth up in the way I often did when I had myeregriin my arms.

“Explains a lot,” Rych says, swallowing the contents of his goblet and wiping the back of his hand over his mouth. “So, what’s the not-plan?”

“We need more gladiators.”

IZZY

I’m following in the considerable wake of Madame Birrix as she makes her way out of the pleasure house and into the house ground transport. She enters, then turns and fixes her gaze on Riklinn who hovers outside nervously.

“You’ll do an excellent job,” the Madame says to her. “I have every confidence in you.”

From the color Riklinn has turned, it doesn’t seem she has the same confidence in herself. I pull her in for a hug.

“You’ll be fine. If the madame can do it, you can do it,” I whisper in her ear before releasing her.

“I heard that,” Madame says.

“You were supposed to,” I reply.

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