I started with a quick rabbit-punch to her nose, just to stun her and slow her down. Then I plunged an elbow deep into her center mass, aiming for her solar plexus but missing by a few inches. She doubled over, but only for the briefest of moments – her fingernails raked my left cheek, deep enough to draw blood.
I delivered a kick to her chest, but I must have telegraphed that move somehow. She didn't have enough time to dodge it fully, but she was still able to absorb the blow enough to keep her sternum from cracking. She rocked backward but didn't fall.
Then we were circling each other warily, both poised to strike. Glancing down, I realized her nails hadn't just connected with my face – there were ragged claw marks on my forearms, and I could feel blood trickling down the side of my neck as well.
“I don't know what your problem is,” I said, “but if you're smart, you'll back off now so we can talk it out, instead of pushing your luck with me and forcing me to really hurt you.”
“'Really hurt me?'” she screamed incredulously. “You already did, you stupid twat! Over and over, at the N-7 colony! Or don't you remember that? No, I guess I was just one more slave for you to kick around so you could earn a pat on the back from your Pax friends, huh?”
“I'm sorry I hurt you, and I'm sorry I don't remember doing it,” I told Carissa evenly. “I saw a lot of slaves come and go. I tried not to get close enough to most of them to remember them, since it only would have made my job harder.”
“No, just close enough to break my arm and knock out three of my molars! You really seemed to love your 'job', didn't you? You were even more cruel than the Mosets and the Vence who worked in the camp! Made you feel real big to smack the rest of us around, right? Real important?”
“I was just trying to survive my captivity, same as you.” I was trying to scan her for weak points as I distracted her with my words, but I wasn't finding any. Every inch of her seemed coiled, dangerous—a sack of lethal snakes, ready to burst open and fill me with their poison. “I didn't have a choice.”
“Of course you did! You could have shown some mercy, some compassion for another human who was snatched into slavery just like you were! Instead, you decided you'd be better off hopping into bed with the Pax to save your own skin. And now look whose bed you're in! Guess you traded up, huh? And why not? After all, going from a Pax-loving slave driver to a whore for the Hielsrane is a real step up in the world!”
“Seems to me like we're keeping the same company these days, you and I.” My eyes flickered toward Tarion, who had an apprehensive look on his face – clearly, he was uncertain of whether to intervene. I couldn't quite blame him. I wouldn't have wanted Carissa's rage aimed at me either, if I'd had a choice.
Too bad I didn't.
“We are nothing alike,” Carissa spat. “After I healed from the beating you gave me – for having the audacity to accidentally fall on a mining cart and dent it while working a shaft, by the way, since you probably don't remember that either – I was transferred to N-2. A real shithole. But instead of collaborating with the Pax there, I led a rebellion against them. They caught me and spent three months torturing me. I screamed until I couldn't recognize the sound of my own voice anymore.”
Something clicked into place in my head. “You led the N-2 rebellion?”
“You're goddamn right I did.”
I felt pure rage burning in me, until my head felt like it would explode into flames. “Your little stunt made the Pax in the other colonies so angry they decided to take it out on the rest of us—including my husband Daniel. He was fed to a Nk'athen because of you.”
“Yeah?” she sneered. “Good. I hope it fucking hurt.”
Now it was my turn to lose control – to abandon all the tenets of self-defense I'd honed over the years and fully embrace my pure, murderous hatred. I threw myself at Carissa like a human missile, loathing myself for what I'd done to her, loathing her for what she'd done to Daniel, loathing Daniel for leaving me alone until I was forced to become as hard and cruel and ruthless as my captors, as the dragons, as the indifferent stars who'd blankly stared down through the mine shafts at all of us while we suffered and screamed and bled and died, for nothing, for nothing...
My limbs were tangled up with hers, and we hit the floor in a ball of hissing, shrieking, clawing insanity. Her nails scraped skin from my forehead and eyelids in a stray swipe, and the next thing I knew, blood was filling my eyes and my entire world was drenched in gore.
This was the reality of my world, its true form finally exposed. Everywhere I turned, everything I did, nothing but red horror.
I felt her teeth sink into my upper arm just as my knee connected with her jaw, snapping it cleanly. I heard a couple of sharp, tiny, jagged objects clatter to the floor next to my head.
Sounds like I just cost you a couple more teeth, you fucking cow, I thought with grim satisfaction.
“This is barbaric!” I heard Lehar protest. “Shouldn't someone put a
