The room wavered around me.
“Shut up,” I told the screeching medtech. He pulled his mangled tongue back into his mouth and covered it with his long, wet, padded fingers. He crouched down, and for a moment I believed he was cowering from me—until he launched himself into the air, his long legs trailing out behind him as he sailed over my head toward the exit.
I spun to follow him, but the world kept spinning around me. I took two stumbling steps behind him, hoping to catch up.
But he was already at the door, sliding a panel to open it.
Ten seconds, Blue said.
Right. Morpheus.
For a moment there, I had totally forgotten why I needed to distract this guy.
“Yo, frog-face!” I tried to shout—but it came out as a croaking sound, not unlike the one these aliens made. “Look at me, motherfucker.”
I don’t know how what I said translated to him, but it definitely caught his attention. He turned toward me, blood drooling out of his wide, flat mouth, and tried to say something.
Five seconds, Blue said.
I took another wobbling step in his direction. “You try to leave this room and I promise you will die a bloody, painful death.”
The medtech spat a mouthful of blood in my direction, and I cringed away from it, afraid it contained more of the venom he’d used on my arm.
With a disdainful noise, he crouched down to make another leap, this time out the door.
Just as the medtech jumped, Morpheus burst through the hallway floor, an odd, viscous fluid streaming down his body as soft tiles flew in all directions.
With a single, assessing glance, he took in the situation. Those metal wings of his spread out behind him and he met the frogman mid-jump, using the edge of a wing to slice through the other alien’s throat.
“Told you so,” I said to the alien, but my voice barely made a sound.
Arterial blood spewed out of the medtech, who dropped like a ship in a gravity well, landing beside the hole Morpheus had created in the floor. I glanced between the tiny scalpel I held and the sharp, bloody edge of Morpheus’s wing.
“Yours is bigger,” I managed to whisper.
“Come on.” Morpheus scowled and held out one hand toward me. “We need to get the hell out of here before that bitch empress comes looking for us.”
“Definitely,” I agreed, trying to move toward him and failing miserably.
I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but Morpheus’s scowl deepened. “What’s wrong with you?”
“He hit me with his tongue.” I tried to lift up my arm to show him, but it wouldn’t obey my commands, so I simply nodded toward it.
Morpheus let out a string of curses so low and swift that my translator wasn’t able to give me more than a general sense of them. Something about flying death from above while mating. Whatever that meant.
Dark sparkles clouded my vision and I wavered on my feet.
“Also,” I added, glancing down at myself, “I think I might be naked.”
With a growl, Morpheus moved into the room and scooped me into his arms.
“Where are you taking me now?” I murmured, reaching up to wrap my arms around his neck.
“Back to your ship.” His voice was gruffer than I remembered it. “Are you in touch with your AI?”
I listened for a moment as my ship spoke to me, then repeated what she said. “She says we have a clear path. Take the next left.”
Whatever questions Morpheus might have had about how Blue knew that, he didn’t bother to stop and ask them before following her directions.
“Your hair is all full of goop,” I observed, running my hands up the back of his neck and threading my fingers into said goopy hair.
“We need to get you into the medical bay. Soon.” Morpheus picked up the pace, practically running.
“I feel good,” I announced, leaning my head back over his cradling arm. “It hurt at first, but now it’s nice.”
“Fuck. Blue, if you can hear me, open the medbay. We’re coming in hot.” Morpheus’s voice faded in and out.
Or is that me? I wondered.
The last thing I heard was Morpheus whispering what sounded like a prayer.
10
Alder
Alarms were sounding, shrilly and continuously, throughout the slave pens. Auction storage units, I corrected myself. Slavery was barbaric and had been outlawed by my great-grandparents, well before my grandparents and my parents ruled. I’d been birthed into a world where all fae, regardless of clan and creed, were treated with respect.
Down to the smallest of us, who lived on the tips of flora stamen and stigma, right up to the largest of us who towered even over the castle my family occupied.
It would not take much for the largeus fae to overthrow our monarchy. But they chose not to, for my family had ruled with kind, firm magicks over generations now. And the smallus fae were content to keep our world bright, cheerful, and fragrant.
So being in these ‘slave pens’, seeing all these men on the auction chopping block, rankled my nerves. Though I loathed the idea of marrying into the Duprasi Kingdom, at least they ran their planet with an even hand. If only the second-born daughter wasn’t so… difficult to look at. And forget breeding, though the Duprasi and my parents had ensured we could, in fact, breed if our planets joined.
What are you thinking, my egg sac and chitin sharing warrior as one? Evik clicked and emitted a light spray of pheromones as he watched me closely.
I laughed lightly, following my train of thought so I could give him a complete answer. “I was thinking that if I had a way to contact the Duprasi, they’d probably bust us out of here no problem. If only I’d say yes to marrying the second-born Norisa-ma.” I moved a few steps back and leaned against the rounded cavernous wall. I kicked at the ground, creating a cloud of airborne dirt that obscured my feet.
“Hey, Evik?”
Yes?
“Think you can kick up a ton of
