“Tell her she doesn’t need to worry about a job, honey.” Tamira glances back at Fen, who sits up and joins her at the comm screen.
“My queen is right. We will make sure you have everything you need,” he assures me. “If you want to travel, I’ll supply the credits and Lothan will assign a guard or two to keep you safe. They don’t have to wear their uniforms,” he quickly adds when I make a face.
That’s not why I was objecting...that was about being assigned a babysitter. But it was sweet of him to reassure me about the uniforms. The Emperor’s guards wear orange sashes that are similar in color to the belts worn by our Frathik abductors. After we were rescued from their ship, I had an anxiety attack every time I saw one of the Irran guards in uniform. Fen witnessed some of my bad reactions when we were looking for Lena in the Olethian pleasure houses.
The orange-belt trigger has faded a lot now that I know more about the Frathik people and their painful history. They lost their planet in a war instigated by the last emperor, Chanísh, and have been living on their spaceships ever since. Their species is slowly dying as their equipment fails. They’re desperate enough to try anything to save their species, and that’s why we were abducted: To sell.
Part of me, the part that has lost my own planet, is sympathetic to their people. But the other part of me, the part that was about to besold at auction to buy spaceship parts, doesn’t forgive them at all. I have a zero-tolerance policy for slaving.
That’s another reason to leave the Alioth system, since the Frathiks are going to resettle here permanently now that Emperor Lothan has renegotiated the terms of their peace. The Frathiks have pledged to seek out and rescue trafficked individuals as part of their restitution for abducting us from Earth, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
“Alcor could be good for you,” Fen says thoughtfully. “The habitable planet is very lush, forested. No slavery. Honorable people. You saw their warriors at Nazir’s Quarter, remember?”
How could I forget? The purple, scaley, tailed warriors who worked at that pleasure house were famed for their stamina at fighting and fucking, and they put on lengthy shows demonstrating their prowess in both categories. I may have visited Nazir’s Quarter an extra time or two more than was necessary for the missing-Lena search.
“You’re smiling,” Tamira says, laughing at my thirsty ass.
“Do they have a monarchy?” I ask Fen.
“Sort of. I think so. It’s complicated, and I didn’t pay close attention to the scholars when I learned about it as a greenling.” He gives a guilty grin. “Nik could explain more. He was always a good student.”
Of course he was. “Thanks, I’ll ask him.”
I’m not going to ask him. I’ll ask literally anyone else.
“Did you deliver my letter?” Fen asks, tone casual. He’s not very good at hiding his pigment, though, and some dark purple fear blotches his bare chest.
“I did. I don’t think he’s read it yet. I’ll let you know—” I break off when a noise vibrates through me. At first I think it’sAqen knocking on my door. But then it happens again. Deep. Muted. Through my feet.
“What’s that?” Tamira asks, leaning toward the screen.
The vibration comes again, this time so strong it jars me, and I almost lose my footing. A shower of dust and tiny rocks dusts over my headscarf, and adrenaline floods my system.
I spent enough summers in Sacramento that I know exactly what this is. “It’s an earthquake.”
Tamira goes pale and exchanges a look with her husband, who nods at her. “Delphie, you have to—”
But before she can finish her sentence, hugeboomsounds, so strong that it knocks me on my ass, knocks the breath out of me. At the same moment, the electricity—or whatever is powering this place—goes out. The comm screen shuts down and the wall sconce winks off, leaving me in pitch darkness.
Rocks the size of golf balls and gravel rain from above, stinging my arms and shoulders. I feel my way to the bed and pull a couple of layers of furs over my head, curling up against the built-in bedframe. Distant crashes sound like passageways caving in. The panicked shouts that follow make the back of my neck prickle and my chest go tight.
I shouldn’t leave the room. Even with the lightson, I couldn’t find my way to the planet surface. If I got lucky and guessed my way through the maze, I couldn’t breathe there. But the flood of adrenaline through my system is pushing me out, telling me that I have to run. Not to the surface, but to help.
The shouts get louder, and I can make out my name. Something—someone—crashes against the door. It’s locked, though. They crash into it again.
“Delphie!” Nik’s voice, panicked.
“I’m fine,” I say weakly, heart pounding so loud I can barely hear myself.
“Open the door!”
“I’mfine,” I say a little louder, feeling my way to the door handle. I crack it open, and he barrels into me. The edge of the door catches me in the face, and pain slices through the bridge of my nose. “Well, Iwasfine.”
“Frix,” Nik hisses. Then he scoops me up and dumps me on the bed. Then I feel him straddle my waist, his thighs flexing tight to my sides.
“Hey! You can’t—” A hot trickle of blood floods down my upper lip, interrupting my protest. I try and block it with my knuckle so it doesn’t ruin my clothes and the bedding, but it’s hard because Nik is frantically running his hands all over me, making me squeak and squirm. “What’re you doing?!”
“Quiet,” he orders. He’s touching every part of me, pressing and squeezing and sliding his hands, and my body is responding to him. My hips push up and my nipples tighten and my clit pulses. What the fuck? I don’t even like this guy.
