“Everything alright in there?” he asked through the window—another Krelaxian, younger than the commander who’d taken us.
“Yes,” I whispered, adding a small sob. “Please, I just want to go home.”
He moved on, and I settled on the bench to wait.
Home was wherever Zarek was. And he was coming. My magnificent monster was going to tear this place apart lookingfor me, and I was going to make sure he had all the lovely chaos he needed to work with.
I tapped out a rhythm against my thigh—not the Gravewing pattern, just a nervous beat. The kind of thing a broken, frightened woman might do to comfort herself.
The kind of sound that would make them underestimate me right until the moment everything went wrong.
ZAREK
Consciousness returned slowly, dragging me up from darkness that felt like drowning. The sun had moved significantly—no longer overhead but angling toward the western horizon. Late afternoon. I’d been out for hours.
The stun grenades had done their job. My head still rang, my vision swimming slightly as I pushed myself to my knees, then to my feet. The compound sat twenty kilometers away, squatting against the horizon. They’d taken her there. Behind those walls, into Slade’s domain.
Blood made the polymer slippery, harder to grip, but I kept working.
It took an hour. By the time the restraints finally parted, my wrists were raw meat, already trying to heal around the damage. I flexed my fingers, getting blood flow back to my hands.
The sun had dropped lower. Maybe two hours until full dark.
Twenty kilometers. I started running.
An hour later, I had to stop. My body, pushed beyond even Vinduthi limits after everything we’d been through, simply refused to continue. I dropped behind a cluster of rocks, chest heaving, fury at my own weakness burning hotter than the physical exhaustion.
Voices carried on the wind. Laughter. The clink of metal.
I moved silently toward the sound, finding a makeshift camp in a shallow depression. Escaped prisoners—eight of them, mixed species. They’d set up a crude shelter, had a fire going despite the risk. Idiots.
A Krelaxian sat on watch, but he was focused on picking at the remnants of a meal. The others lounged around, passing a bottle, their weapons scattered carelessly nearby.
They had supplies. Water. Food.
I stepped into their firelight. My hand closed around the leader’s throat, lifting him off the ground before his men could react. His eyes bulged as I squeezed, not enough to kill immediately, just enough to demonstrate.
“Information,” I said to the others, who stood frozen. “Or you all die here.”
The leader clawed at my hand, feet kicking uselessly. I held him until his face turned purple, then dropped him. He collapsed, gasping.
“There was excitement earlier,” one of the others said quickly—a Merrith whose pale skin showed his fear. “Patrols everywhere. They brought in prisoners. The whole place is on alert.”
“Then it went dark about an hour ago,” another added. “Power failure or malfunction. Emergency lights came on, but things got chaotic.”
The leader tried to reach for a knife. I stepped on his hand, feeling bones crack under my boot. His scream echoed off the rocks.
I turned to their supplies, grabbing a water container and draining half of it in long gulps. The liquid felt like salvation on my parched throat. I found their rations—stale protein bars and dried meat—and ate quickly, mechanically, just enough to restore some strength.
“You want the compound?” I asked the others while chewing. “It’s in chaos. Guards are distracted. Ideal time to raid for supplies.”
They looked at each other, greed warring with fear.
I turned and continued toward the compound, leaving them to their decision. Behind me, I heard arguing, then the leader’s wet gurgling as someone took advantage of his weakness.
I didn’t care. They were nothing. Just more chaos to add to what was coming.
The ridge above the compound gave me a clear view as full darkness settled over the valley. The Regalia sat cold in their possession now, but it was just metal and circuits. She was flesh and blood, and she was mine.
