Page 42 of Chained

“Please, I want to go. I owe him that much, as well as Tibi. I need to know they’re both okay.”

I’m pulled onto a warm lap before I can get far. “I’m sure your employer can look after himself,” Maxym says.

“But what if he can’t?” I push at his chest. “You’ve fought the Bogarok. You saw what they did to the others in the dome, to the clients as well. Tibi is a Cirmos. She doesn’t stand a chance against those things.”

“Wily creatures, Cirmos,” Maxym rasps, one eye on Pryax. “It’s risky,” he growls. “I’m not sure it’s a risk we should take.”

“Retah was good to me, and so was Tibi. Neither of them had to be. Retah gave me a chance, and if he hadn’t, we might never have met.”

I feel like Maxym wants to say fate would have found a way, but he thinks better of it. It’s a weird feeling, as if I’m reading his mind.

“Fine.” He sighs. “I’ll go look for them, bring them here.”

“The Bogarok are looking for you,” I say, worrying my bottom lip with my teeth. “And you know how tight the security is at Retah’s dwelling. If you want to get in, I’ll need to come with you.”

A growl rumbles in Maxym’s chest. Again, I can tell he’s weighing up the options and he doesn’t like any of them.

“Have you been eating my lekvar?” Pryax shouts across the room.

Unable to help myself, I smile.

“Have we?” I raise my eyebrows at Maxym.

“Yes, and I have no regrets,” he says. “But I know I’m going to regret letting you come with me.”

MAXYM

Cleo is filled with worry about her employer and her Cirmos friend. I keep getting blasts of it, and then they cut off as if they were never there.

The thoughtbond is a strange phenomenon which I seem to know innately, and yet it is more of a surprise than I expected. It’s also strangely comforting, not that I get some of her odd thoughts, but the connection we have.

However, I want to nest for my mate so badly it’s physically painful not to be able to do it. By the fire, I was able to half pretend I’d made something for her with a few pieces of fabric and a small snack, but it hasn’t alleviated my desire to nest. All of these things mean my feathers are permanently pricked and my body right on the very edge.

I want to snarl at everything and anything. I want to pick up so many bright and colored items we see because they would be perfect for my nest.

But I can’t and it makes me rage from within.

We make our way through the back streets of Tatatunga. Pryax has provided us with a map cube, and I’ve worked out a route where we will mostly be hidden from any sky drones,which means on the ground, we are only at risk of the Bogarok and their patrols.

And they have plenty of patrols. Groups of ten or more march down the deserted main streets. I see the occasional window in a dwelling swing shut, so there has not been an evacuation. Tatatunga is hunkering down, waiting for this invasion to be over so they can go back to business as usual.

Nothing can destroy this city, not even the Bogarok.

Cleo grabs a wing, and I’m pulled into a disused courtyard. She’s shaking her head at the cube.

“There’s supposed to be an exit here.” She looks at the blank wall ahead.

“We can go over.” I look up.

“And risk exposing you. Not a chance,” she grumbles.

I like the way she thinks tactically.

“That’s not all you like,” Cleo says absently as she taps the wall.

And falls straight through.

“Vrex!” I race to where she was standing and shove my hand against the…in an instant, I’m tumbling forward into a void.

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