Even in the frenzied state he was in, Jaxor knew he couldn’t very well storm Tavar’s base alone. He had planned to tell Vaxa’an everything in the Golden City, which was what he should have done from the very beginning. But would his brother listen to him? Would he help him? Or would he turn his back on him, just like Jaxor had done to Vaxa’an ten rotations ago?
But he couldn’t do this alone.
As much as his Instinct clawed at his chest to go hurtling after his female, he couldn’t take on over two hundred of theMeviraxalone. He had a single weapon on the hovercraft.
He turned his sight south, towards the Golden City. His brother would be there. If he flew through the night, he could be there by morning. He would beg if he had to, he would agree to anything, as long as Vaxa’an would help rescue Erin from theMevirax…before they had the chance to hand her over to the Jetutians.
He didn’t have time to think about it. There was such little time to be had and he didn’t know what Tavar knew or if he’d already been in contact with Po’grak.
But if he reached the Golden City, he could out the spy in the command center. They would realize Luxiria had been breached multiple times and they could ensure that no vessels entered. If only he could reach the Golden City before Erin was delivered to theMeviraxbase.
He didn’t have a choice.
He would be punished for his crimes, along with theMevirax. It might mean death, it might mean exile, but he would sacrifice whatever he needed to to keep his female safe and out of harm’s way.
Without another moment’s hesitation, he began the long journey to the Golden City.
The mark ofOxandriseemed to burn on his chest, where Laccara had pressed the blade to his flesh.
Sacrifice. Perhaps this was whatOxandrihad wanted all along.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Erin woke to darkness, which she knew wasn’t right. Jaxor always had a lantern lit in the cave as they slept because he couldn’t stand the darkness.
Then she remembered and she lay perfectly still, blinking, willing her eyes to adjust to the almost nonexistent light.
Her temple was throbbing, a headache blooming behind her right eye. Her shoulder was sore, though when she chanced to move, she saw it was in a sling. It had been popped back into place, thankfully while she’d been knocked out.
Wherever she was, it was humid. Her skin was sticky with it. She heard the distant sound of rushing water. A waterfall or a river? And she smelled wet stone—like rain on concrete after a storm. Wet stone and fragrant earth.
She couldn’t pretend to be asleep forever and as her eyes slowly adjusted, she saw a sliver of light to the left, out of the corner of her vision. Daylight. Or moonlight. It was filtering in through a crack in the stone.
When she didn’t sense any movement, slowly, she pushed up from the ground. It was dirt, she realized. Packed earth. So dark it looked black. But the walls were stone. Was she in another cave?
Blinking in the darkness, she saw she was alone. But she was caged. Trapped. Mercifully, it wasn’t like the cage at the Pit, small and cramped. Instead, she was sitting in a cave the size of the one in Jaxor’s base and black metal bars enclosed the entrance.
It was a dungeon.
Erin was thirsty, her throat parched, and she felt slightly nauseous from the intense headache. She tried to think back. Back to Jaxor’s base. The male had caught her—she’d screamed out Jaxor’s name, hadn’t she?—and then she didn’t remember anything else. He’d hit her to knock her out, she realized. Hard enough for the pain to linger.
Panic was beginning to make her heartbeat pound in her chest, but she took a long, deep inhale through her nostrils. Panic would get her nowhere. She needed to remember the calm she’d felt stitching up her mother, or putting the twins to sleep, though they’d been hungry and wailing.
It wasn’t long before she heard noise, footsteps on stairs. Stone stairs. She couldn’t tell which direction they were coming from because everything seemed to echo around her. Two sets of them?
Light came with the footsteps, a blue glow. She saw two figures emerging, shadows at first, but then they came into view. The blue light blinded her for a moment and she shielded her gaze, her eyes watering.
After her eyes adjusted, she heard a latch rising, a door opening. Slowly, she rose to her feet, reaching out a hand to help steady her on her wobbly legs.
A male was entering her prison cell. Not one she recognized, and there was something about him that put her on edge. His black hair was long, plaited in three sections, some of the strands laced with blue glass beads. He looked to be around Jaxor’s age, in his prime but old in the eyes. There was a small scar across his forehead, one that looked like a crescent moon.
“What do you want with me?” she asked, speaking first, hoping that he spoke English. Was this theMeviraxleader? What had Jaxor said his name was?
Tavar, she remembered.
He simply cocked his head to the side, studying her. She didn’t want to take her eyes off him, but she cut a quick look to the second figure. A female this time.
But what shocked her the most was that she waspregnant.
