Page 84 of Aria's Ascension

Cutting her eyes to the smartass, Aria clipped, “Hey! I get that you’re scared, but that doesn’t mean you get to be an asshole, got it?”

“Who died and made you Queen Bee?”

Smiling coldly, she said, “The Overlord who more than likely purchased you to be his new slaves when I shot him in the head a few hours ago. So unless you want to take your chances on this planet and hope some other Overlord or pleasure lounge master doesn’t find you, be fucking nice.”

Smartass gaped at her like she thought Aria was kidding then swallowed visibly and recoiled when she realized she most definitely was not. “Jesus, fine! I was only teasing anyway.”

“Mmhm. How about the rest of you with cellmates? Everyone good?”

“Mines a little… growly, but he’s been nice enough, I guess,” muttered the woman locked in with a guy that looked to be the same species as the winged guy in the dungeon, the one Rellik called A’nu.

“These two are fine. They know I’ll punch them in the throat if they get handsy,” said a pale blonde woman in the next cell, gesturing behind her to the males standing stiffly at her back.

“Good. If anything changes, whistle. Screams just get lost in the noise.”

With that, she turned and finished checking the remaining occupants of the cells.

* * *

When they’d finishedtheir rounds, Aria and Tirox rode the elevator back up to the flight deck to check in on Kix and Rellik’s progress.

“You found your people,” Tirox remarked suddenly.

“I did, unfortunately.” Sighing, she rubbed her forehead. “I’d really hoped Braxton and I were the only humans here. Finding those women in the hold means the fish people upstairs thought they’d be able to sell them, which means they’re in demand. That’s a problem.” When he didn’t respond, she looked up at him. Something about his expression had her stomach clenching. “Tell me you didn’t find your people here, too.”

He gazed back down at her, the corners of his lips turned down and his golden eyes swirling rapidly. “I did.”

“Oh, hell. Are they okay?”

“Two live. The last… his wounds were too severe. The magic could not save him.”

“Oh god, baby, I’m so sorry,” she breathed.

Turning, she wrapped her arms around him in a hug, lying her head against his upper stomach. He returned her embrace before lifting her off her feet and clutching her to his chest.

He set her back down when the door slid open, but took the hand she offered, holding it tightly.

“Any progress? And have you figured out how to open the cells down there? There weren’t any latches, and I didn’t find a console anyw—”

“Aria. We know what caused the crash,” Kix interrupted.

“Okay. What was it?” she asked warily.

He and Rellik exchanged a glance before looking back at her. “They were attacked by pirates en route.”

“Wait. Space pirates?” That such a thing existed didn’t really surprise her. It was just saying it aloud that had her fighting off a chuckle.

“Ah, yes. That is not the point of interest, my treasure.”

“Sorry. Continue.”

“It is what they were doing while they were attacked that you will want to know.”

“Babe, just lay it out, will you?”

“We were able to find the encrypted voyage logs they kept hidden in case they were stopped for an inspection scan. Just prior to the attack, they were… discarding beings on an undeveloped world, something they had done many times before. The logs also contain the beings’ files.Aessa, two were females of your people. The other two were males of a species I do not recognize.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? Why the hell would they discard people after going through the effort of abducting them to begin with?”

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