Page 41 of Hooded

“What if we don’t get out of here?”

I pull her soft, tiny body against mine.

“We will be getting off this ship today, little fury, no matter what,” I growl. “You have my word as a Gryn warrior.”

I’d like to pick her up, carry her away, but I sense she won’t be impressed, so instead, having resisted kissing her, mostly because I don’t want to be around when the armory goes up, I link my hand in hers and we head out into the ship.

The lights dim again, and this time they don’t come back on straight away. Ahead in the passage, I hear a shout of alarm and see a set of boots rising slowly into the air, attached to a pair of legs, I pull Fern back into an alcove as the rest of the Tormelek appears, hollering for assistance as he flails his arms at the walls for purchase.

“Vrex!” I growl. “The nebula is affecting the gravity systems.”

“It must have inconsistent electrical fields,” Fern muses. “But why go into it at all?”

“Presumably to avoid another route which either takes them into danger or into contact with someone they don’t want to meet.”

She nods curtly, as if I have given her the perfect answer. My heart starts its strange drumming in my chest yet again. The illness which will kill me. But not before we get away from this place because I gave Fern my word.

“My ship, if they still have it, should be small enough not to be affected,” Fern murmurs.

“They’ll still have it.” We take the opposite direction to the one with the Tormelek. “They’ll want to sell it, and we haven’t stopped anywhere long enough for them to discharge their loot.”

Fern gives me a smile which lights up my chest as if someone has placed an overheated pulsar there. It makes my feathers prick and want to rouse.

“Then we have a way off this shithole,” she says with glee. “But first we need to get to Narlix.”

We need a guide on this ship, both of us having only seen a small amount of it. Which is the only reason I’m going along with Fern’s desire to find this other.

Quietly, we make our way back past the dark cell and follow the passage until the end, turning left, then right, and down another, wider route, until we reach a set of doors identical to all the others. Fern looks at me, then she raises her hand, taps on the metal, and pushes me to one side as she flattens herself against the wall.

After a short time, the doors slide open, and a large beak sticks through.

“Slowly,” Fern hisses. “We’re armed, and you don’t want to attract attention.”

Thoughtbond or no, I will die for this beautiful, dangerous female holding the pulsar.

FERN

Klynn holds his pulsar pistol in both hands up next to his handsome face, his dark eyes fixed on the door, every inch of his magnificent body, still somewhat streaked with dirt and blood, poised for action.

The door opens.

“Slowly.” I say quietly to Narlix as her beak appears. “We’re armed and you don’t want to attract attention.”

She hesitates briefly, then steps out of the lab, the doors closing behind her before she carefully looks, first at Klynn, whose jaw has gone slightly slack, then at me.

“He agreed?” Narlix says.

“We don’t have many other options, do we?” I respond. “It’s not like we’re staying here while I’m sold off and he’s made to fight to the death.”

Narlix gives Klynn a brief up and down glance. “He’s a gladiator,” she says. “It is his stock in trade.”

“I fight,” Klynn snarls. “I don’t die.”

“Then you have a use other than filling a female’s belly,” Narlix retorts.

It seems there is little love lost between these two, and I don’t have time to unpack it.

“Does Lord Halfen still have my ship?” I ask urgently as the lights flicker back on, then dim.

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