Page 84 of Heritage of Fire

She’s being dangled as bait in front of two organizations because another one wants something. This has been her life, and it will continue to be as long as she’s part of this world.

I was worried she wouldn’t stay, but now I’m worried about what might happen if shedoes.

When I get her back, I know I should let her go.

Chapter 32

Luna

Alapping sound trickles in through the haze surrounding my mind, and my eyes flutter open slowly. Feeling weighed down by whatever they injected me with, I try swallowing several times, but a dry knot sits in my throat. When I finally do swallow, bile comes up.

Pushing up onto my forearms, I try to look around, but the gray walls spin. After a moment, I attempt to stand, but I slip and fall back to the floor. Teeth clenched together, I expect to hit concrete, but my fingertips meet wood. My eyes follow the lines on the floor until I reach a wall.

Corrugated metal skirts the walls. I frown at the narrow space, illuminated by a sliver of daylight filtering in from?—

Wait.

Eyes chasing after the light, I turn until I find the source. A door with large metal handles is propped open. It’s a container. I’m in acontainer.

I scramble to my feet again. My body sways in a hypnotic rhythm as I lunge for the door, but my steps falter when the splash of water sounds against the metal box.

Water.

I’m on water.

When I reach the door and poke my head out, an unobstructed view of the horizon stretches indefinitely. The air is infused with the tang of salt. What would normally be a welcome inhale of briny freshness—instead brings crashing panic.

I fall out of the container with the next big swell and hit the deck on all fours. My stomach empties itself, and I roll to my side. The filet I had for dinner with Nik at the restaurant tickles the back of my throat, and my body trembles as I try to gather myself.

Get up, Luna.

My feet struggle for purchase against the slippery deck, and I use the last of my weakened strength to stand. Turning around in a circle, I let out a strangled whimper. Towering stacks of containers cut through the soft natural sea. It’s a maze of rectangular metal boxes, like a real-life Tetris game, and I’m somewhere in the middle.

The ship groans as it rises and dips with each wave. A breeze skirts across my face as tears fall down my cheeks, and I smack them away.

Not the time, Luna.

Walking feels foreign. But I manage to drag my feet through the labyrinth of container stacks. I don’t know where I’m going, but I’ll be damned if I sit in a container huddling in fear.

Nothing but the crashing of waves keeps me company as I roam—until a flash of movement to my right sends my heart pounding. A man in all black, carrying a long gun, paces on the upper deck. I try to follow the railing, but it wraps around to the front of the ship and out of sight. I need a better vantage point.

“I see you found your way out.”

I stop in my tracks and whirl around to find a burly man in a suit and three armed guards standing behind me. The man smiles, hands in his pockets. He looks middle-aged, with thickshoulder-length black hair. A long scar runs from his eye to his mouth.

“Come on. Mr. Rose will be landing soon,” he says.

I slowly back away, but my escape is blocked by a stack of containers. Metal digs into my back as I press against it.

He laughs. “Where you gonna go, huh? You’re in the middle of the ocean.” He tilts his head, eyes slowly scanning down my body. “Take her.”

Three guards step up to grab me. One spins me around and rips my arms behind my back before slamming me into the steel wall. The cold metal burns against my cheek as a plastic binding is placed over my wrists, and I kick out behind me, nailing a guard in the knee. A hand fists my hair and yanks until I scream, then smashes my head into the container. Spots creep into my vision and a warm trickle slides down my temple. The metallic taste hits my lips and seeps into my mouth.

I gag and struggle to stay upright, but my legs buckle. Dropping to the deck, my shoulders slump. The fight is leaving me. I’m so dizzy.

Come on, Luna. Come on, stay with it.

A headache blooms at the base of my skull from all the ringing in my ears. I barely register the hands that lift me to my feet. My vision blurs, and the spinning makes me nauseous enough to dry heave several times.

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