Except, instead of the dark armor she’d come to know, she saw only silver.
The start of a scream tore from her, but the Xaal moved faster, pulling her by her feet to the end of the bed. She attempted to kick him, and she was certain she was yelling for him to let go, but the struggle was short-lived.
He lifted her up by a fistful of her nightgown. She thought to alert Henry and Clara, but then reconsidered. If they weren’t already aware, she didn’t want to put them in harm’s way.
Before she could think of anything else to do, something cold and sharp was at her throat.
A searing pinch. A consuming darkness. Then she knew no more.
Chapter 31
Ved
The Blood Vultures’ ship was on the other side of Cinder. Ved had wasted an entire setting in their cell.
With the heavy thermocylinders in hand, he was forced to run the distance back to his ship. He was so close to being on his way, to avenging Kravis and protecting his territory. He could practically smell his home, feel the solidness of it beneath his feet.
Would it be the same when he arrived? Could it be, without Kravis? Had his enemies already taken advantage of his absence?
He was working through several scenarios in his mind, coming up with strategies for each, when something stopped him cold in his tracks.
It was an unmistakable scent. A familiar one.
Battleheat rushed through his veins. He sprinted, his senses leading him to the lavender fields. A ship had touched down there, destroying the ends of several rows. The purple-flowered plants that Isobel adored so much were wilted or shredded. As scattered and trampled as they were, they looked like scars and bruises of the earth.
Isobel was gone.
They had scared her. Stolen her.Hurther.
Ved knew it even before he scanned her dwelling to ensure it.
He stared unseeing for a long moment. Something raw and aching split him asunder, and his vision went black. The roar of his blood in his ears drowned out his surroundings. His hands went numb, and the thermocylinders fell from his grasp.
A chasm opened in his chest
He was suddenly lying in that icy field, the deep cold piercing through his bones. Overhead, the black buzzards were omens in the sky, anticipating a meal.
The laughter of his three attackers echoed in the night. All around him.
He could pick out each of the taunts and jeers.
Each of his brothers’ voices.
Ved had looked up to his birth brothers, revered them, evenlovedthem. He’d taken their criticism and beatings as fuel to make him stronger, pushed himself harder in training to make them proud.
He’d even hoped that Ezig, the brother closest to him in age, would one day be his bruvya. That Ved would earn the right of such an honor. Ezig was the only one of the three who gave him part of his rations, and sometimes even showed him advanced fighting techniques.
But it was also Ezig who loomed over him now and said, “Gut him like a murog.”
Raig held him down, his knee digging into his shoulder, while Gav, the eldest, waved his crudely made plasma dirk in front of his face.
“The qon should have taken you to the Red Cliffs and tossed you over the moment you entered the world,” Gav sneered. “You bring dishonor to our clan, and we can no longer allow that.”
Ved flicked his gaze between his brothers. All shared similar expressions of disgust, but it was the pure hatred in Gav’s eyes that wasmost memorable. It didn’t burn like fire; instead, it was as cold as the winter that consumed him.
They’d already broken bones, and Ved had lost too much energy trying to escape their hold. They could do whatever they wanted to him and he wouldn’t be able to stop them.
He was puny and weak.
