Page 43 of Venomous Lust
Already, the ship had shot through the clouds and out of the atmosphere, leaving behind the red planet drenched in the blood of more innocents. Hazel stared, nausea twisting her innards, as its bloody trace faded to an angry circle in the endless void of space.
She had no idea how much time had passed, only that her entire body ached and hurt as she still sat on the edge of her seat. On her lap, Celaith’s head rolled to the side and Hazel pulled her closer.
“Are they in pursuit?” Zaxis spoke, breaking the silence. His voice was tight as his fingers ran over the controls.
“No. They can’t spare the troops to track and pursue us,” Khal answered, his demeanor controlled, collected. As though he wasn’t affected in the slightest by the violence, the death they had just escaped. “I doubt Gerkin survived the uprising, but even if he did, his first priority will be to regain control of Garana. Many Eok warriors will meet the Midnight God before this day is over.”
Dread followed Khal’s words and Hazel felt the pangs of guilt bite at her heart. It was her fault the Eoks stationed on Garana would die, but still, she regretted nothing.
“Many more prisoners will die.” Her voice was small, high pitched. She knew she sounded every bit as weak and powerless as she felt. “And a great many more died before we even got there. Gods know how many souls perished in that jail over the years.”
Tension hovered in the air following Hazel’s words and she locked gazes with Khal, ignoring Zaxis. His hard set of lips flattened in anger and too-blue eyes gleamed as Khal glared at her.
“How many do you think escaped?” Hazel couldn’t help the hopeful tone in her voice. “Can they even get off the planet?”
“Even if all the prisoners got out of their cells, there’s very little chance they managed to take a ship and leave.” Khal’s tone was cold and the look he gave her was even colder. “They’re too undisciplined, too savage. All this uprising did was to provide us with enough distraction to escape.”
Undisciplined. Savages.
Hazel felt the slight all the way to her cheeks. A burn spread over her face as anger twisted her innards. How easy it was for him to judge the prisoners as unworthy of freedom. As untrustworthy, as savages. Just as humans had been deemed too weak to survive by themselves.
She wanted to answer back, wanted to spew out something snarky and sassy, something that would make Khal grit his teeth and brew a thunderstorm in those deep blue eyes. But for once, she was voiceless.
All that misery had killed something inside her.
Zaxis exhaled forcefully and leaned back in his chair, finally looking up from his controls.
“We’re out of range of their scanners. Unless they immediately sent a tracker, we made a clean escape.”
Silence descended over the small group of people, soon broken by Celaith’s painful whine.
“She’s awake.” Hazel brushed a strand of amazingly silky brown hair from the Arvak’s brow. Her gaze went to the sickeningly misshapen arm wrapped across Celaith’s slender chest. “Her arm is broken. She’s going to need medical attention.”
Zaxis got up and walked to Celaith, then squatted in front of her. Concern and something else—something akin to tenderness—crossed the normally impassive features of the Avonie male and he reached for Celaith’s brow, running his fingers over the pale purple skin.
“I won’t be able to fix her bones completely with the medical equipment we have on board.” There was sadness in Zaxis’s voice as he spoke, and he stared at Celaith’s face with fascination. Her dark pink eyes fluttered open, then shut again as she fought to regain consciousness. “She won’t suffer much after I’ve immobilized the break, but it will take time to heal. There is no telling what other injuries she sustained under Gerkin’s care.”
Zaxis spit out the wordcarelike a curse, then cradled Celaith against his chest. The Arvak cried out in pain as her arm was moved, but didn’t completely wake up. Hazel watched Zaxis leave with Celaith, then turned around to face the Prussian blue warrior whose deep eyes of the same shade gleamed with an expression that made her belly quiver and her throat close up with fear at the same time. Blood still marred his features, dried and dark against the blue of his skin.
Hazel bit down on the inside of her cheek, hard. She couldn’t show weakness now. Not when she was at his mercy.
“What you did was irresponsible, dangerous and downright insane.” Khal’s voice was heavy with anger, but he kept it low and controlled. No emotion showed on his hard features, only the remote sternness of a military commander who had been disobeyed and who wasn’t accustomed to it. Somehow, it made him even more frightening. “Moreover, you directly disobeyed me.”
Hazel’s skin crawled with a current of fear and adrenaline as Khal’s mouth pursed into a stern, thin line. She was suddenly very much aware that they were alone for the first time since that mind-bending sexual encounter just a few hours before, but which now felt like it had happened in another lifetime.
“I did what I had to do to get us out of that hellhole. You know I did the right thing.”
“What you did was a thousand leagues away from the right thing. Because of your recklessness, good warriors will have lost their lives, and hundreds of the most dangerous rogues in the Ring are running loose again.”
Guilt bit into Hazel at the memory of the young Eok warrior who had no doubt saved their lives. Yes, her actions had cost some Eok warriors their lives in the battle that had shrouded their escape from Garana, but the reason for it remained.
“Those creatures you call rogues were imprisoned for refusing the rule of a tyrant, nothing more.” As she spoke, her voice grew steadier, stronger. “They didn’t deserve to be locked up in some sordid jail; tortured, terrorized. Their only fault was refusing the rule of the Ring.”
Khal’s features twisted and became cruel, the planes of his face sharpening as his entire focus weighed on her like a mountain.
“The Ring is our safeguard against chaos. Against lawlessness. Of all people, humans should understand the importance of its protection.”
“Of all species, humans have suffered the most under the ruling of a heartless regime.” She had no idea how she was still withstanding Khal’s glare, but she did. Even her voice was steady and strong, like she was confident of her ability to confront him. “For hundreds of years, we’ve been enslaved, sold off and kept captive, all for our own good, according to laws we had no way of protesting against. The Ring can be a beacon of civilization, but it can also be a jailer.”
