Page 24 of Aria's Ascension

She pulled away with a sigh before either of them lost themselves in the kiss and turned to check on her friend.

“You okay, Skaa? He didn’t scramble your brain, did he? ‘No translation.’”

The woman’s velvety, white face screwed up. “Sskrrambel?” She shook her head. “You have strange words, little female. I am fine and I see the route out of here clearly. I will free myself and wait three sun risings. If you do not find me by then, I shall watch closely for a way back in and save you.”

As she often did when it came to Skaa, Aria was torn between amusement and mild offense at her wording, but her suspicion that Skaa was a mother went a long way in helping her understand the alien woman, so she just smiled softly and nodded.

“Thank you, Skaa. I know the circumstances are shit, but I’m damn glad I met you. You’re a hell of a friend.”

With that, she did something that was normally out of character for her: she closed the distance between them and hugged the tall, naked, four-armed woman, trying to ignore the small breasts pressed against her neck.

Married life is making me soft.

Skaa snorted but returned the hug and agreed, “That is truth. I am an impressive tribe mate.”

Shaking her head, Aria chuckled and pulled back to ask Kix, “How much longer until we reach the dungeon? We’ve been on this thing for a while.”

He nodded. “It took longer than I anticipated to reach this level. We arrived only a moment ago.”

“We’re here? Why hasn’t the door dinged or opened or something?” she wondered, eyeing him in disbelief.

“The door will not open on this level without a code. It will also not leave without a different one, I imagine to prevent escape attempts. That will present a problem as only Zhrovni knows the code to make it leave.”

“Of course, he does. Fucking prick. Do you know it?”

He closed his eyes for a moment then nodded but added, “It changes after each use. We will not be able to leave without the new code.”

“Fuck.” Frowning, her gaze went unfocused as she considered their options. “Okay. How close do you need to be to read his mind and get that code?”

“Currently, fairly close. Within thirty to fortyrajas. ‘Distance measurement, roughly equal to one and a half feet.’If my gifts continue to grow, that distance may well increase.”

“Alright. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” Before any of them could point out the unlikelihood of coming across any bridges, she turned to Skaa. “You know the current code to leave?”

At her nod, Aria sucked in a deep breath and drew her gun. Tirox and Kix followed her lead and palmed their own weapons.

They were all watching her, waiting for her cue. Gazing back at them, she hesitated. That was her last chance to change her mind. They could all leave, right then, get out, and come up with a new plan once they were free.

Her men would follow her, whatever she decided, she knew that. She also knew what the safer option was, and, yet, she could not leave him behind any more than she would’ve been able to leave Kix or Tirox.

With a mental sigh, she accepted that she’d made her mind up the moment she looked into his eye and felt the connection between them.

He was so full of rage and despair, but she’d seen the faint, tattered thread of honor he was holding onto so desperately, despite the horrors he’d endured. She knew that thread was unraveling, slipping further and further away with every new pain he endured, with each new atrocity he was forced to commit.

Would he still have any honor, any humanity, left if she abandoned him? Would there be anything left to save when she came back? She didn’t think so.

She couldn’t do it. It would break some part of her to leave him.

A final searching look at her men told her they hadn’t changed their minds about escaping with Skaa. She hadn’t really expected them to.

You better have some answers, dragon man.

Straightening her spine, she nodded.

“Let’s do this.”

Chapter 14

Waving them back, Aria motioned for all of them to stand against the side walls so they’d be out of the line of fire when the doors opened. Lowering herself into a fighting stance, she raised her gun and nodded to Kix to input the code, then braced herself for whatever may be waiting on the other side.

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