Page 52 of Chained

“We need to access the dome, cut off the Bogarok communications, make sure they can get to the ground without the Bogarok being warned.”

Maxym grumbles under his breath.

“Yes, gladiator, that’s why we need you,” Retah says, clearly not needing the thoughtbond. “Your knowledge of the dome.”

“I was bound to the dome. Now I am free, and you want me to go back,” Maxym says, pulling himself up to his full height, which, even seated, is impressive. And wide. And muscular.

“You will never be their prisoner again, not when I present the information I have to the Galactic Council,” Retah says.

“What?” I fire at him.

“Did you not think I’d want to help your mate?” Retah says, smiling at me. “I meant it when I said you were like a daughter to me, Cleo. I want you to be happy, and I never believed what was said about any of the Gryn in the dome.”

“But how? When my master could not…” Maxym asks as I curl my hand around his.

He looks down at where our fingers entwine, and I use the strange thoughtbond to tell him I’m here for him.

“Your master was murdered before he could pass on the evidence he had, but he wasn’t an idiot, and he made sure it was protected,” Retah says. “He didn’t anticipate you would be the accused, which is an oversight, but one which has, in the end, led us to come together.”

“You mean you want to help me?” Maxym asks.

“The Galactic Council has long had its own way, but when there is rot within, that rot has to be cut out, and you are the evidence those who seek to cleanse the Council need,” Retah says.

I stare at him. “You talk as if you’re some sort of politician, not an arms dealer,” I blurt out. “But you’re just a…”

He’s shaking his huge horned head. “I am sorry, little one,” Retah says. “It is true, I am an arms dealer as my cover, but my name isn’t Retah, and this isn’t my role.”

I give Maxym a worried glance, not liking this turn of events. He growls low and resonant.

“Now, now!” Retah holds up his hands. “I am not the threat. I am Baronn, a crown prince of the Remek, such as our species survives. I have been in hiding since the Liderc destroyed our planet. Since they too were disposed of, my role has been to ensure all others involved are brought to account.”

My jaw is slack as he looks between me and Maxym. Not quite comprehending what he is saying. My sweet pastry loving arms dealing boss isroyalty?

“And it is about time there was a reckoning.”

CLEO

“I still remember the morning they woke me with pulsar rifles shoved in my face,” Maxym says, running his hand through his short hair as he stares into the fire.

Tibi is rattling in her makeshift kitchen and Retah, or Prince Baronn as he is apparently called, is digging through some of the crates on the other side of the basement and eating an iced cake, covering himself and the crate in icing.

“He’d given me the night off after we’d come back from some extensive negotiations on the other side of Banax, the planet he lived on…we lived on,” Maxym continues, heaving in a breath as if the memory is painful.

“You don’t have to tell me any of this,” I tell him. “Not if it hurts you.”

“I have to. I have to make it real. I have to tell someone else in case I forget it again.” He sighs. “And you have to know,” he adds urgently.

“I don’t believe you’re a murderer. I never did,” I reassure him.

“I went out. There were some places the other security detail suggested we go to.” Maxym’s wing feathers tremble. “We drank. A lot. We attracted…company.” He briefly glances at me,embarrassed and in pain. “Everything is blurred, until I went to bed. I remember going to bed. I was alone,” he insists. “Then the next day…they woke me.”

His broad shoulders square.

“They marched me past his body. He’d been ripped apart. I could never do that. I didn’t do it.” Maxym chokes, and I put my hand into his feathers to touch the place he likes the most.

“You didn’t do it, remember? Retah—I mean Prince Baronn—says you didn’t. You’ve always known you didn’t do it.”

“Sometimes, when I sleep…I don’t…” Maxym clutches at his head. “Since I got hurt, things got scrambled,” he says. “Until you.”

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