Page 67 of Aria's Ascension

Rolling her eyes, she bit back a smile. She really shouldn’t find their homicidal tendencies endearing, but she did. She really did.

Chapter 36

Looking back at Braxton, Aria raised her brows expectantly. “Alright. Explain.”

He sighed heavily but nodded. “So, fuckface up there did some shit to me. Spliced my DNA. It was fine, at first. Everything still felt like a dream, but I remember getting some superhero powers. I had claws, could climb like a damn monkey, grew this—” He motioned to a slit under his jaw. “It’s where all this webbing comes from. Anyway, I started to… wake up and that’s when shit got weird.”

“Weirder than waking up to find yourself no longer on Earth, fighting aliens in intergalactic gladiator games?” she interjected with a wry smile.

Braxton didn’t return her smile. “Yeah. A lot weirder. I found out I wasn’t the only one livin’ in this body.”

“Oh. Oh, shit,” she faltered.

He nodded. “Whatever Zhrovni did, it had… side effects. When I woke up, so did Ti’vek.”

Kix made an understanding noise and cut in, “When his genetic material got added to yours, so didhe—his consciousness.”

Braxton nodded again. “Exactly.”

“Fascinating.”

Elbowing Kix in the side, she sent him a reproachful look.

“Hm? Itisfascinating,” he protested.

Shaking her head, she waved for Braxton to continue.

“The changes from before? They didn’t stop at claws and webs. I can speak his language. I remember his life, his world, hell, even his parents like they’re my own. His instincts have mixed with mine until I can’t tell them apart. And now I can feel my bones, muscles, even my skin… changing.”

“Well. Fuck,” she muttered.

Braxton chuckled low in his throat. “Yeah. Fuck.”

They fell into a moment of silence as Aria absorbed everything he’d just said. Apparently, Zhrovni could be a hell of a lot heavier handed when it came to enhancements than she thought. What he’d done to this guy and her dragon was more like science experiments than just tweaking their clone bodies so they were faster, stronger, harder to hurt, could breathe the air, and live without much food and water.

How many other people was she going to find that had been changed almost beyond recognition? Was there any way to reverse what was done to them?

Who fucking knows, but I’m damn sure going to try.

Deciding now was as good a time as any to commence with the recruitment, she clapped her hands and smiled. “So. Want to join our army?”

His eyes widened at the abrupt subject change. “Uhh… ”

“We’ve got an ally on the outside and a secondary plan if she takes too long. Also, I may have already killed Zhrovni. Can’t know for sure, but I definitely blew him up at least a little.”

She didn’t think his expression could grow any more shocked, but it did.

“That was you? When the little, flying, tentacle thing sang to us to come kill?”

“Sang?”

“Yeah. Ti’vek can understand it. Thinks of it as singing.”

“Huh. Yeah, that was us. Anyway, the plan is to free all the slaves who aren’t too dangerous, try to fix the ones that are, then take over the world. I can’t make any promises, but we could try to fix you, too. Zhrovni keeps the original bodies. We may be able to find Ti’vek’s and put him back, then maybe even grow him a clone so he isn’t trapped in the old, emaciated one. But, again, no promises.”

For the first time, she could see hope bloom on his face before suspicion overtook it.

“What’s the catch?”

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