“You’re awake.”
My gaze cuts to Zhallaix sharpening a knife across from me. I struggle to strike him with my tail, but I find I can’t move. I’m bound. Ropes have been tied around my wrists, pulling them apart and anchoring me to the tree at my back.
“Gemma,” I hiss. “Where’s Gemma?”
Zhallaix puts his weapon away, hooking it with the bones he wears on his bicep. “Don’t try and move.”
“What have you done to my female?” I struggle against my bonds, searching the forest for Gemma.
“Ssshe ran.”
I wheeze out a breath. Relief and horror hit me hard. “She’s not in your clutches,” I rasp. But she’s also not here, which means she’s alone, in the forest, completely at the mercy of the wilds and beasts that roam it.
Zhallaix hums, unconcerned.
“Let me go,” I urge, nearly shaking.
Zhallaix cocks his head. His one eye hoods as he watches me.
“I need to go after her.”
“She did not have a tail,” Zhallaix responds.
“Of course she didn’t!” I hiss. “Releassse me!”
“Where did she come from?”
I snarl. “I don’t have time for this. She’s not safe alone in the forest. She does not have claws, fangs, or venom to protect herself.” She does not have me!
“Humans are extinct, and a naga female hasn’t roamed these lands in over a hundred years. How is it possible you have one at all? What is she? A robot?”
I stop fighting my bonds when it occurs to me that Zhallaix does not know about the humans at the facility or the ship that descended from the sky.
How humans came out of it took over the old ruins—that there were females amongst those who landed.
He has no idea about Zaku’s deal to trade technology for their females. He doesn’t know.
Zhallaix destroys all tech he comes across.
I stop struggling as an idea forms. “I’ll tell you if you let me go.”
“Or I can leave you tied up and find her myself.”
“You could… or you could have one for your own, one who isn’t already claimed and filled with spill,” I growl.
Zhallaix crosses his arms, and I know I had him. The threaded muscles of his arms bulge, stretching white and red scars. Some of those are scars I’ve given him. There’s a gouge on his side, half-strung up with plant fibers to keep it closed. Blood gushes from it. I did that.
I have a few open wounds too, but Zhallaix didn’t string mine up.
Why would he? He’d prefer me dead.
So why am I not?
“Where did she come from?” he asks again.
“She may be the only one,” I lie. “Or not.”
Zhallaix glares at me and reaches behind him. He brings my spear forward.
I release venom at the sight of it. Zhallaix is not only putting Gemma’s life in danger but also has my spear? Anger floods me seeing his hand wrapped around the shaft.
I hiss as he nears, bracing for whatever is to come. He stabs down on my tail.
I shout in pain as it pierces deep into my muscle. He digs it in before sliding the sharp tip out. I thrash to free my arms but make no progress. I slump with a grimace when my bonds hold. My blood pools around me as he lifts my spear to stab my tail again.
“Tell me,” he rumbles.
“Release me.”
Zhallaix stabs and twists.
I grit my teeth, holding in an agonized groan when the tip hits my tail’s spine. Sweat pools down my face, agony radiates up my tail and runs straight through my whole body.
He yanks the spear back out. “Should we keep going?”
I scowl, spit.
“I don’t want to hurt you anymore, Vruksha,” he says, calm as ever, as if he isn’t torturing me for information. “But what you did was unforgivable…”
“What I did? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I sneer.
Zhallaix lowers until he’s level with me. Hatred burns for him and the situation he’s put my female in. Hatred that he still roams these lands despite the numerous attempts to take his life.
But it’s the same situation I put my female in for taking her out at night. For falling asleep…
Zhallaix continues, “Mating a female kills them. They do not survive gestation. Only a wretch would satisfy his cravings knowing the outcome. Tell me where you found her.”
“Humans are not nagas.”
“Have you mated a human female before?”
My nostrils flare. “Of course not. None of us have.”
“Then how could you know?”
“And you do? I know what you’ve done, what you are. I know what your father did, raping female nagasss for his pleasure. I’m nothing like him. None of us are—only you.”
His hand goes white where it’s clutching my weapon.
“He taught you everything he knew,” I continue, “didn’t he? He brought you along as he single-handedly—”
“Enough!”
“—bred unwilling females across the region, even those not Death Adders, killing them—”
“Enough!” Zhallaix raises my spear and surges forward, aiming the tip at my groin. “I am not my father!” He slashes down.
I twist to the side, narrowly missing the spear’s edge. Zhallaix jerks from the impact, and I’m finally given my opportunity. I spit venom into his eye.
He roars, rearing backward, dropping my weapon. He clutches his eye. He slithers away, shrieking as he hits a tree, sending branches flailing. I shimmy the wound on my tail toward my bound hands, drenching them with blood.
With the ties wet, I fight my way out of them.
One of the ties snaps, releasing my arm. I claw through the rest of the binds, tearing them off. When I free my limbs, I grab my spear and use it to help me rise.
Zhallaix thrusts his tail out to keep me back, unable to see me.
“I ssshould kill you,” I growl, leaning over him.
One black and red eye peers wetly at me through strained fingers. “Do it!” he says.
I lift my spear over him.
“Do it!” he screams.
I stab him in the gut and twist. Blood gushes, as I yank it out.
Zhallaix drops his hand from his eye, hisses, and slumps. He
