Page 46 of Igid's Bounty
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“Wait,” I push against Brox, but his hold on me tightens as we hurry through the maze of hidden tunnels. “We need to at least come up with a plan to rescue the humans.”
“Igid, you’re hurt. You need to—”
I cut Brox off by stabbing two of my claw-tipped fingers into the center of his chest. “I’m perfectly capable of deciding what Ineedto do.”
Volethos sniggers, and I turn narrowed eyes on him. “Andyou. You don’t get any say when it concerns a female. Not after what you’ve done. What you’ve become.”
I expect his retaliation, but instead Volethos slows, dropping back a few paces. “I know,” he says, nodding once.
“What has happened to you?” I ask, twisting in Brox’s arms. I’ve been dying to ask him this ever since he double-crossed me in order to get Anna, and then when he went after Treto. “You are no longer the male I knew.”
“Ifucking know!” his angry growl echoes through the empty passage. “I’m not proud of what I’ve done, but I’m trying to make up for it, or at least some of it, right now by helpingyou.”
I scoff, but he keeps going before I can say more.
“It was change or die, Igid. The universe is a vile place. You and I, we know that better than most. I thought I could outsmart it, because I knew how bad it could be. That it couldn’t touch me,” he shakes his head angrily, “but it’s so much worse. What we saw? That doesn’t even scratch the surface of what I’ve done. It sucks you in and doesn’t let you go. It uses you up, then laughs at your tears.”
Brox’s arms tighten around me, and I lean into him, letting him comfort me.
“Igid, I have done so many things. Things you’d never forgive me for. Things I can’t forgive myself for. But, for whatever reason, the universe has given me a second chance. I should have died on that station. I would have, if you hadn’t dropped Brox off.”
I suck in a sharp breath. “What? How?”
Volethos looks down, watching his long strides as he considers what to tell me, before looking up at me again. Then he fills me in on everything that happened after we left him on Tenir’s cruiser, which ended with him being dumped on the deserted station with a rotting gut wound.
“I’m not saying I didn’t deserve it,” Volethos says, lifting his shoulders in a shrug. “But I’m glad Brox showed up when he did. So now it’s my turn. I have a lifetime of redemption to atone for, and it starts now. Here.”
“Vittu, Volethos.” Shaking my head, I consider what he’s told me. “How are we supposed to believe you? Even if you mean every word you're saying, what’s stopping you from falling back on old habits?”
His shoulders slump. “ Igid, you know me. The real me, not this…” he waves at his ill-fitting jumpsuit and rough features, “…this monster I’ve had to become.”
I let my head rest heavily on Brox’s shoulder as I think. Do I believe him? He hasn’t exactly given any of us much reason to. Besides that, I’m hurt. Far more hurt that I want to admit to either of them, but the reality is that I’m not fit to go after the females, and I know Brox won’t leave me to do it himself.
“I swear to the Gods,” I grit through my teeth, “if you make me regret ever knowing you—again—I’ll finish what Tenir set out to do myself.”
Some of the tension leaves his shoulders. “Let your male take you to safety. Let him heal you,” Volethos says, stabbing his hand through his short hair before going to the melted tip of his ear, the ear I shot in order to save Bela.
It was a lucky shot, although my stomach sours a little at just how close I really came to killing him. I’d been aiming for the ceiling.
“Iwill go after the females,” Volethos announces.
“Don’t be ridiculous; we’re already here. We can work together and rescue them now,” Brox speaks up before I can.
“No,” Volethos says, shaking his head. “I overheard Kurrahstka when I was trying to follow after you. He’s going to send the females off the station to keep them from being stolen. They might already be gone.”
Wriggling out of his arms, I force Brox to set me down. Even though my legs are weak and wobbly, I step away from his soothing touch. “This is my fault. I fucked everything up by storming in here halfcocked and not thinking straight.”
“Actually,” Volethos stops me with a hand on my shoulder, “you may have saved them. Kurrahstka can’t put them to work if they aren’t here.”
The band that has been slowly tightening around my chest loosens some, and I feel like I’m able to take my first full breath since being caught.
“With my…reputation,” he says with a wince, “I have the best chance at getting to them. But only if I have no association with you.”
Damnit, now he’s making sense.
“Let me do this,” Volethos begs, turning so he’s facing me and bracing his hands on my shoulders. “Let me earn back some of the trust I’ve lost.”
