Page 82 of Venomous Lust
Knut was now prey, his eyes brimming with panic, his limbs shaking.
“Stay back!” Knut shouted repeatedly, shooting again and again into the Muharee who were now advancing on him, the roots like a crowd made of phantom limbs, pale, white and deadly.
“This is for my mate.” Yalko stood, his body blood from an ionic detonation, his chest wide open, but somehow still living. Still living because of his connection to the Medina. As soon as it ended, Yalko would die. The Muharee warriors would all die.
Their Mother was also the Great Devourer, eating her children as well as feeding them.
A white root shot from the ground just below Knut’s white robe. The Avonie howled as it wrapped around his leg, fumes and blood immediately gushing from its deadly embrace.
“This is for my offspring,” Yalko continued as another white root wrapped around Knut’s hand, the one holding the ionic gun. The Allurium metal melted as Knut’s hand fell to the ground, cut clean off.
Knut’s howls inflated as abject terror radiated from his body, from his eyes. He knew death was coming for him.
“We need to leave.” A voice sounded behind Khal and he turned to meet another set of purple eyes. Zaxis was crouching beside him, cradling a mortally still Celaith against his chest. “This is a frenzy. We’re not safe as long as we’re on Muharee soil.”
Khal glanced back at Knut, who was slowly being wrapped in the melting embrace of the Medina. As their eyes locked, Knut mouthed the words.
Kill me.
Khal felt his eyes harden.
No, he mouthed back. Khal wanted Knut to feel every burn of his flesh melting from his bones, to feel the terror of prey as it was eaten alive.
Knut deserved nothing less.
He turned his back on Knut, his back on the Muharee and their terrible revenge.
“Run,” Zaxis urged him as a white root turned toward them. His friend was right. They had to get away from Muhar.
Khal ran, with Zaxis on his heels. They made their way up into the Mother, easily finding the control room. As the powerful ship lifted into the air, Khal got his last glimpse of Knut—or what was left of him.
The once all-powerful Trade Minister lay in a pool of melted flesh and blood as white roots curled around him, disintegrating until nothing was left.
Not even the memory of him.
“I’m setting a course for Garana right now.” Zaxis spoke curtly, his hands on the controls, his eyes laser-focused. “Then I’ll send a distress signal to Eokim.”
“No.” Khal shook his head.
“But Knut is dead and we have the bomb.” Zaxis looked dumbfounded. “We’ve completed our mission.”
Khal turned, looking back over his shoulder. Hazel sat in her seat, cradling Celaith in her lap as best as she could. Those beautiful, big green eyes looked back at him with a lucidity he did not expect.
She was so strong despite all they had been through. And he was going to ask her to be even stronger.
“We’re not bringing back the bomb,” Hazel finished for him. “We’re making sure no one will ever have that kind of power in their hands. Not Knut, not the Eoks, and not Prime Councilor Aav. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Prime Councilor Aav already has enough of it.”
Zaxis’s eyes grew wide, but he did not oppose her. “She won’t be happy if we disobey her.”
“This was always a secret mission. She won’t have any choice once we tell her the bomb has been destroyed.”
Zaxis fell silent for a few moments. “But how? It’s impossible to destroy without setting it off. We have to bring it back. The Ring’s headquarters is the safest place to keep it.”
“No, it’s not.” Hazel spoke again, like she knew what Khal was thinking. “We’ll tell her the bomb was sent into deep space. That it’s lost forever. But it won’t be. The bomb won’t be lost in space where it can be found and brought back.”
Zaxis inhaled, then looked at Khal. “You’re going to the surface again.”
“We will leave the bomb where no one will ever find it.” Khal nodded as the ship stabilized in the higher levels of Muhar’s atmosphere. “I will ask the Muharee to hide it deep in the core of their beloved home planet. No one will ever get their hands on this bomb ever again.”
