Page 13 of Aria's Ascension

Good. She needed help because she was feeling pretty fucking hopeless right then.

Aria nodded. “What if the entire fucking planet is nothing but this and worse? What if there’s no safe place to go, even if we succeed? How the fuck are we supposed to help anyone? What, we’re going to wake them up to this nightmare, tell them the past however-many years of their lives were fake? That they’re slaves? Only to tell them they’re also trapped here with no way to go home or even anywhere somewhat safe? I can’t imagine they’d thank us for that.”

Kix stepped forward and cupped her cheeks, tipping her face up so she was looking at him. “We do not know what this planet holds, my song. There could be remote regions we could go to hide, where we would be safe,” he offered, trying to console her.

Aria swallowed hard, giving him tortured eyes. “And if there is, we’d just leave all those other people in the other arenas? Abandon them? What if their situation is worse than this?”

To her utter confusion, she saw Tirox’s expression relax from the corner of her eye. Turning to look at him, she saw a small smile curl his red lips. Before she could demand to know why he was suddenly so damn cheerful, he spoke.

“So we take over the planet, my heart.”

Chapter 8

Aria blinked up at Tirox, stunned, before an incredulous laugh bubbled out. “Just like that, huh? We’ll just take over the entire planet?”

He smirked. “I do not say it will be easy, or fast. But, it is not unattainable.”

Aria looked at Kix for help, thinking he’d be the rational one, but he was staring at Tirox with a contemplative look on his face.

“You can’t be serious,” she sputtered.

Kix gave her that shrug, hand wave thing he did and offered, “With this being a planet full of slaves, there would be planetary defenses to protect against pirates trying to steal them, as well as hostile species like theGaulikthat attacked my world in the past. The arenas themselves might have such defenses as well to guard against other Overlords trying to take their gladiators. There would also be either a land-based port or a spaceport for ships. Once we take over, we send the overlords, and any unsavory elements, off-world then activate the defenses. If they fend off pirates, they will fend off slavers just as well.”

“But… we’d need help. Lots of help! The three of us can’t take over a planet.” She scoffed and shook her head. “We’re good, but we’re notthatfucking good.”

Tirox waved to the warehouse around them. “You have an army here, my heart. Find the ones with honor, and send the rest off with the filth.”

Aria wanted to wave away what they were saying as impossible, but she made herself stop and really consider the possibilities. Pulling in a deep breath, she thought about it, her hand dropping to stroke the knife hilt at her side.

If they could keep their coup of this arena secret and out of any news this planet may have, they could employ guerilla tactics, sneaking from one place to the next, waking up the slaves and adding to their army. Hell, if she could find people to act as generals, she and her men wouldn’t have to do it all themselves. Those people could take a portion of the slaves willing to fight and attack multiple arenas at the same time.

An image of the dragon flashed before her eyes.

They needed to find him.Sheneeded to find him.

Part of it was the advantage of having someone with such an ability as an ally, but most of it was selfish. Even during standoffs with Zhrovni, dreams of home, and creeping around she couldn’t stop thinking about him. Even with Kix standing so closely and Tirox staring at her with love in his beautiful, golden eyes, the dragon was in the back of her mind. Even knowing she loved these two men, a part of her was held captive by the image of white eyes and the feeling of recognition she’d had staring into them.

“Okay. Let’s do it. We need to go back to the labs and see if we can find files on the slaves to pick which ones to wake up first.”

And a file onhim. There has to be a reason I feel this way.

Turning, she took a step toward the door but Kix’s voice stopped her.

“Aessa,” He waved to the wall near the door they’d come through. “I believe that is a data console.”

Aria didn’t see anything, just a blank space of wall, but she followed him as he headed that way. Closer now, she could see a seam, about a foot wide and maybe nine inches tall, set at chest height.

It popped out when he touched it, moving to hover in front of him. After a couple of minutes of tapping, he stopped and seemed to be reading something. Stepping closer to his side, she pressed a hand to his hip to steady herself and went up on tiptoe to see the scrolling text on the display.

Without pausing his rapid perusal, he slid an arm around her waist and pulled her closer, then pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head.

After a bit of swiping he tilted the screen toward her. “Found it. Data on the slaves.”

It took a second of staring before her mind translated the garbled chicken scratch into anything comprehensible. When it did, she saw a seemingly endless list of gladiators, but they weren’t labeled by their names, only species and whether they were male, female, or something else.

“Bastard didn’t even bother to learn the names of the people he stole.”

Kix clicked on one of them at random, and a picture of a gladiator appeared on the tablet. She knew that one, or one of his species anyway. Spikey arms and a face like a beetle.

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