Somehow, my spunky fated mate had taught these thugs a lesson they wouldn’t soon forget.
Or maybe they would forget it instantly if they were already dead…
I felt at that throbbing light in the center of my chest once more and sensed Emma was no longer on this floor.
She had escaped to another.
But where the hell had she gone?
Emma
Someone was coming down the steps.
Worse still, I felt a distinctive tug in my chest.
I knew who it was, who it had to be.
Iav.
He was coming, and he was going to catch me.
I ran back in my cell and scooped up the keys the giant had dropped when I first struck him.
Then I turned and bolted down the hall in the opposite direction to the main entrance.
Some of the other prisoners waved their arms at me through the bars in their cell doors.
They wailed for me to stop and help them.
I couldn’t understand the words they were saying but once again, I didn’t need to.
It was the emotion I understood.
Desperation.
Anger.
Fear.
Maybe the real language of the universe wasn’t math but deep emotion.
And beneath it all, one sound gave me pause more than any of the others…
I thought I heard the soft female whimper of someone speaking English…
I shook my head, certain I must be hearing things.
And even if there was another Earthling trapped in one of the cells, there was no hope I could rescue her.
Or all of them.
Not with Iav hot on my heels.
I slipped the heavy metal key in the lock and felt relieved when it clicked open.
I cast a glance over my shoulder at the blinding inner light at the other end of the single hallway.
Iav had almost arrived.
I swung the door shut behind me.
I had to brace it with both hands.
It was so heavy it took all my strength to get it moving.
I slipped the key in the lock and turned it over again.
I tossed the key into the shadows and bolted up the stairs.
I was relieved to find these stairs were the exact mirror opposite to those we’d descended just a few short hours ago.
I rounded each flight and angled my neck upward, hoping I wouldn’t come across any other Shadows.
And if I did?
If they spotted me?
I would act normal, as if I belonged there.
I’d seen many female Shadows wandering around earlier, so-called “warriors” who’d headed out into the multi-verse to find their fated mate and bring them back.
So long as they didn’t look at me too closely there was a chance I could slip past them, wasn’t there?
And where would I head?
To the launch pad.
I could creep aboard a ship while the others weren’t looking.
There was no chance the computer system would listen to my commands.
I would stowaway and figure out a way to get them to take me home.
Already, I was beginning to lose hope.
Escaping the Citadel was one thing.
Returning home was quite another.
There were too many unknowns, too many things beyond my control.
Worst still, with the bond still attached to me, I wouldn’t have long before Iav caught me.
He would see the bodies dotted about my cell and know I was gone.
He would set to drawing the net tight and alert others to my escape.
I rounded another corner and gripped the handrail, preparing to fly up the next flight of stairs when I met a thick throng of Shadows busily filtering in a dozen different directions.
This was the floor with the most foot traffic by far.
A pair of Shadows caught me staring and I hastily dropped my eyes to the floor.
I hurried past them and entered the broad room on the other side.
Yes, this was where I had entered with Iav just hours earlier.
The room was massive, with large archways and a ceiling so high it made making out the intricate artwork hard to see.
The Shadows here were loud and boisterous, cheering at something out of sight.
But not out of hearing range.
Screams interspersed the voluminous cheers.
The more someone cried and whimpered, the louder the response from the baying crowd.
The blood drained from my face.
I couldn’t help but edge toward the audience that stood at banisters peering down at the show below.
It was a small arena, I realized, penned in on each side by a line of onlookers.
At their head, the dozen Elders who’d inspected me and the other captured fated mates earlier.
They sat on thrones and watched intently as a female alien creature was drilled from behind.
The Shadow clasped his hands around her throat and speared her relentlessly.
She wasn’t enjoying it.
Tears rolled down her cheeks as the Shadow that mounted her thrust her for the final time, his buttocks tensing as he groaned loudly and spilled his seed inside her.
I was both nauseated and mesmerized at the same time.
The Shadow extracted himself from the female and stood up.
He faced the crowd and raised his arms over his head triumphantly, naked as the day he was born.
The crowd cheered him on.
The female clutched her torn dress to herself in a vain attempt to conceal her nakedness from the braying crowd.
She peered at the mob surrounding her, a lost and broken look on her face.
She might have thought the worst was over but it was anything but.
It had only just begun.
The Elder on the far end got to his feet and strode into the middle of the arena.
The crowd hushed, turning quiet.
The Shadow Elder reached for the pin at his shoulder and yanked it free.
His robes unfurled like a taut knot and spilled to the floor.
His skin was red raw and the single horn on his head stood proud, twinned with the horn between his legs.
He raised his arms, playing to the audience, who cheered once more.
He approached the violated girl.
She raised an arm to protect herself and pleaded:
“Please. Let me go.”
He yanked her aggressively up onto her feet and knocked her arms away.
He reached into her torn dress and cupped an aged hand over her exposed breast, pinching and twisting her nipple so hard I thought he would tear it
