But Sway had seen a lot of supposedly powerful people broken and killed in this room. Death came for them all. It really wasn’t a surprise that the Master had fallen as well. It was bound to happen to all of them eventually.
How long until others found out and tried their hand at breaking in here? Sway would have a lot of work to do reminding would-be looters that the Master wasn’t the only dangerous individual in this lab.
And it appeared this Tanin person was first.
“Now you’re here to kill me, I suppose?” Sway asked, quickly gathering himself, claws tensed. The Master had controlled him for so long, but he always knew it was just a matter of time before someone came after them. No one lived to old age on Rik-Vane. He had to focus on what came next. S’skree were smaller, on average, than others, but they were also stronger. He’d need to be careful of underestimating this male once he attacked.
“Not really,” Tanin said easily, coming to a halt on the other side of the table. Hands resting casually in his pockets. A dark shadow that set Sway’s nerves on edge as it smiled at him just beyond the reach of the surgery light. “Actually, I came to recruit you.”
“What?” For the second time, Sway was surprised. A bit less so this time, however. The Master was famous for being demented and dangerous, but Sway had earned his own notoriety. He couldn’t be that shocked someone else would attempt to control him.
But this wasn’t the same as when the Master first obtained Sway. He wasn’t weak and helpless any longer. If the Master was gone, then Sway wasn’t going to be puppet to another. He would rather-
“How would you like to get out of here? Out of Rik-Vane, I mean.”
Sway blinked. For the third time in such a short period, he was stunned.
Out… of Rik-Vane…?
Sway threw his head back, laughing loudly. He couldn’t help it. That was probably the most ridiculous thing this shadowy male could have said. “Oh, yes. I’d love a potion of immortality as well if you’re just handing out miracles.”
“I’ll see what I can do, but let’s focus on one miracle at a time.” Tanin smirked, unbothered by his mockery. “I mean it. I got a plan. I can get us a ship and a way out of here. But I need someone who can fly the void damned thing.”
Sway held out his hands, gesturing to the lab around him. “Do I look like a pilot to you?”
“No, but you’re smart. You can learn the math needed to do subspace navigation. This plan will take a while to complete. You have time to figure it out.”
Sway scoffed, tapping his claws against his thigh. “So, you have a half-baked plan and step one is getting a pilot that can’t navigate? Brilliant. Where do I sign up?”
“Yeah, Alred thought my choice was odd too. He had a whole list of candidates that could be my navigator, pretty much all of whom already knew at least the basics of subspace navigation.Your name was pretty far down that list. And even then, you were only there because he’s a completionist and you do knowsomesubspace math.”
Sway’s eyes narrowed. He did know subspace math. But only because of the very experiment that had created a dead male that laid cooling between them.
Death. Terrible and awful death. That was the only subspace math he knew. But-
“How do you know that?”
Tanin chuckled. “Alred knows a lot. Including the experiments your Master ran exposing living flesh to the subspace. And the fact that you were the one who had to do those calculations. Still, he argued against me when I picked you. Said that you knowing how to access subspace isn’t nearly enough to actually navigate through it.”
Sway fought against himself. The urge to dismiss this fool battling with his curiosity about someone who had clearly just proven strong and clever enough to get into the Master’s well-fortified lab and had the resources to know about the experiments they ran. Eventually, curiosity won out and he found himself asking, “Why choose me then?”
“Because I don’t care if you know it now. You can learn it at all later. You’ve already proven you can. You learned how to access subspace using little more than scrap and half-remembered equations given to you by people your Master tortured for information. You can learn under pressure, and, more importantly, you can figure out what you don’t know without being told directly. That’s a rarer skill than you think.”
“I don’t delude myself into thinking I’m the smartest male on this station,” Sway sneered. “You still had better options than me.”
Tanin’s grin widened, small fangs glinting in the light. “You’re right. What I really need are males I know I can trust and depend on. Males I can put at my back who I know won’t stab me in it.”
Sway laughed harder this time, grabbing his belly, nearly choking from the force of it. “Youareinsane! Trust? Really?! Oh, I believe you killed the Master now. It all makes sense. I suppose you’re here to take over for him? To do your own experiments? What crazy idea do you have next? You’re going to sew wings on my back and see if I can fly us out of Rik-Vane? Maybe you’ll try toswimthrough the vacuum of space. Get out, you madmale. I want nothing to do with someone else who’s lost their mind. I’ve had enough of that with the Master.”
“I vow on my blood and the beat of my heart that I will never ask you to kill or hurt anyone. From this moment on, if you step from the room with me, you will never cause harm to another person by my command. Unless it’s somethingyouwant to do, of course. I certainly won’t stop you, but it will only ever be your choice.”
Sway stilled. The seriousness of the words striking like a hammer against his heart. It choked him with the pain of it.
This madmale sounded so serious. And what he offered…
No. That was foolish. Sway was being foolish.
But this shadowy male wasn’t grinning anymore. His quills weren’t down. They had risen like a crown of power and danger around his head. Bright red eyes gleamed with determination and the sincerity of the vow he’d just made.
